Love to Hate You

by Liliana Rhodes

  Flipping his card over, I saw he wrote his cell on the back. Without thinking, I added his number into my contacts list.

  Maybe I should call him, I thought. How else will I know for sure what he meant?

  My phone buzzed as Brent’s number lit up my screen. Oh no. Did I accidentally call him? What do I do? Should I answer? I have to answer.

  “Brent?” I said as I answered.

  “About my proposition earlier,” Brent said. “Forget you hate me for just one night. That’s all I’m asking for.”

  I stared at the phone for a moment, wondering if I was imagining this. Did the man I hate just ask me to spend the night with him? And if I hate him so much, why do I want to so badly?

  “Are you serious?” I asked.

  “Dead serious. One night, you and me. All night. I can’t promise you’ll get much sleep, but maybe you’ll change your mind about me.”

  There was that confidence again. I couldn’t deny that no matter how much I wanted to keep disliking him, it was damn near impossible.

  “I’ll think about it,” I said, glad he wasn’t there to see the smile on my face.

  * * *

  I spent the next few days finding that everything reminded me of Brent. I wanted to call or text him and just say yes, but then I started wondering what kind of girl did that make me?

  Did I just want to have one night with Brent? Definitely not. That wasn’t who I was, but it wasn’t who I thought he was either. Samantha was too much of his cheerleader for him to be some kind of manwhore. I couldn’t help but think that his proposition meant something else, but I had been wrong before. Thinking about my track record, I wasn’t the best in picking men.

  He didn’t call when he said he would and now he wants a one-night-stand. Sounds perfect! I thought.

  No wonder I was so attracted to Brent. He fit my wrong guy bill perfectly.

  Already dressed in my black slacks, white button-down shirt, and black tie, I was ready for work but had a few minutes before I had to leave. Dennis was sitting on the couch in his usual spot, watching a football game.

  As much as we clashed, I had to admit I liked having Dennis around. I didn’t like living by myself.

  During a commercial, Dennis muted the television, then got up to go to the kitchen.

  “Do you want anything?” he asked.

  “No, thanks,” I said. “I’ll be leaving soon. Do you have any plans for tonight?”

  “Yeah, watching the rest of this game. I have some money on it.” He opened a can of Coke and took a long sip as he looked at me. “You do something different?”

  I looked down at myself, then smoothed my ponytail, expecting him to criticize me. As far as I could tell, everything was fine.

  “No, what’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Nothing’s wrong. You look good, happy.” He shrugged. “I don’t know.” He sat back on the couch, but closer to me than usual. “I miss you,” he said softly.

  Huh?

  “How can you miss me? You see me every day.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” he said as he moved closer to me.

  He had that look in his eye that I recognized as his come hither, sexy time look. I hadn’t seen it since we last dated over a year ago. I moved a couple inches away from him, hoping he’d get the hint, but instead he tilted his head towards me with his lips pursed and his eyes closed like a sick guppy.

  “What are you doing?” I pushed him away and stood up.

  “What? You gave me that look,” he said.

  “I gave you no such look! Get that out of your head right now. We are completely and totally platonic. You know that.”

  “I’m sorry, okay? It’ll never happen again.”

  “It better not,” I said as I grabbed my bag. “Have you heard anything about your apartment?”

  “I spoke to the landlord yesterday. He said just another couple of days, so don’t worry, I know when I’m not wanted. I’ll be out of your hair soon.”

  Grrrrr! I don’t have time for this bullshit.

  I left without saying another word. It was the perfect reminder of how bad I was with picking boyfriends. I pushed all thoughts of Brent into the back of my mind. At least at work I’d be too busy to think about him.

  Chapter Seven

  Jackie

  That night I was working a big event at the Arc Hotel, one of the largest hotels in Canyon Cove. Usually I knew everything about the events I worked at, especially since I started working for Samantha, but this one was different.

  Tonight was extra important for Samantha since it was a new client, a big advertising agency she had been trying to get some catering work from for a long time. Since she was home with the baby, I told her I would manage the cooking and wait staff to make sure everything turned out perfectly.

  I had just finished going over everything on my clipboard when the guests started to arrive. Standing next to the bar was a tall man with short dark hair and beard. He was model handsome and in his perfectly tailored suit, he could have stepped out of GQ magazine. I knew right away he was the client.

  “Mr. Craven, right?” I asked.

  He turned to look at me, gave me a once over and smiled.

  “Definitely,” he said. “But please call me Gunnar.”

  “I’m Jackie Stone--”

  “Ahh, yes, now I get it. You’ve got that sweet, sexy thing going on.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Don’t play coy with me,” he said. “You’re one of those who on the outside is proper and sweet, but I bet you’re a wild one in the sack.”

  In the restaurant and food service world, I was used to my fair share of sexual harassment, but this was a little overboard.

  “That’s really inappropriate,” I said.

  “See, that’s exactly what I’m talking about.” He laughed as he rubbed his chin, looking satisfied. “It’s no wonder he can’t stop thinking about you.”

  “Wait, what did you just say?” I asked.

  A loud crash echoed through the room.

  Shoot! What was that?

  “Hold that thought,” I said. “I’ll be back.”

  I rushed over and found one of the waitresses trying to clean up the mess from an overturned cart. The floor was covered with plates, some which had shattered from the impact.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “I’m sorry, Miss Stone,” she said. “The wheel caught and I gave the cart a good push to unstick it, but it fell over.”

  I waved another member of the wait staff over and told them to hurry and clean up the mess, thankful it wasn't the food. As I surveyed the room, everything else looked fine.

  Glancing back at the bar to keep an eye on where Gunnar was, I noticed he wasn’t alone anymore. Standing beside him was another perfectly tailored suit with broad shoulders, but this man had blond hair. I didn't need to see his face to recognize Brent.

  Seriously, how is he everywhere now?

  Maybe Samantha was right, maybe fate was throwing us together, but I refused to believe that. This was Samantha’s job and it wouldn’t surprise me if she told Brent I would be here. But why was he talking to Gunnar? Could Brent be the guy Gunnar was talking about?

  As I started making my way over to the bar, Brent met me halfway.

  “I heard you met Gunnar,” he said.

  “I did. And he said some interesting things,” I said.

  “He has a way with words.” Brent’s hand touched my back softly. “Can I talk to you privately?”

  “Sure, I need to make sure everything has left the kitchen anyway.”

  As we entered the empty kitchen, Brent pushed me against the wall and kissed me. I dropped the clipboard and pulled him closer to me. I didn’t care that he didn’t call or about my bad decisions, I just wanted him.

  Chapter Eight

  Jackie

  Brent picked me up as we kissed and I wrapped my legs around him. I tilted my head back as his lips brushed against my neck.

&nbs
p; “When do you get off work?” he asked, his voice husky.

  “When the night is over,” I said.

  “Then I’ll tell everyone to leave now.”

  “Samantha would kill you.”

  “How do you think she got this job? Gunnar’s a good friend.”

  He pressed his body against me as he bit my earlobe.

  “Is it true you can’t stop thinking about me?” I asked.

  “I told you he talks too much,” Brent said. “But I did tell you that the other day.”

  “No, you said you had been thinking about me. You didn’t say you couldn’t stop.”

  “I can’t stop. I don’t want to stop,” he said, then kissed me again. “Come home with me tonight.”

  Yes!

  “No,” I said, wondering what was wrong with me. “I don’t...I mean...you and I...”

  I didn’t know what I was trying to say. Everything in my head screamed, “Yes, yes, go home with him!” But my mouth said something different.

  Brent set me down and his eyes darkened, making them almost black. He clenched his jaw tightly as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

  “Forget you hate me for just one night,” he said.

  I wanted to tell him I didn’t hate him. That I was a stupid person dealing with baggage I couldn’t get over and that he’d be better off running in the other direction, but none of that came out of my mouth.

  “Just one night?” I asked.

  “Just one,” he said as he turned away from me. “It won’t mean anything. It’ll just be two adults having fun. And when morning comes you can go back to hating me and pretend none of this happened.”

  He sounded so cold, so unemotional. It wasn’t like him.

  “Is that what you really want?” I asked.

  He looked over his shoulder at me and our eyes met.

  “What do you want? What do you really want?” he asked.

  What did I want? I wished I knew the answer. Right there and then all I wanted was to be with him. And I didn’t care if it was only one night.

  “Meet me here at midnight,” I said.

  * * *

  I was in the middle of wiping down the kitchen when I heard the echo of Brent’s shoes on the floor. I had rushed to finish everything up as soon as all the guests left, hoping to be done before midnight. The result was that my hair had fallen out of my ponytail. I was a mess.

  I pulled the elastic from my hair and shook my hair loose. As I gathered my hair back, Brent came up behind me, took the elastic from my hands, and wrapped his arms around my waist.

  “I’m sorry about before,” he whispered. “It’s no wonder you hate me.”

  He kissed my neck and even though I didn’t want him to stop, I couldn’t help how gross I felt.

  “No,” I said. “I don’t think this is going to work out tonight. I was being impulsive before when I said yes.”

  Brent’s head bobbed slowly.

  “I can understand that,” he said. “I can be impulsive too. I don’t want you to regret anything.”

  “It’s not that,” I said. “I don’t think I’d regret it at all, it’s just...I’m a mess. The kitchen is hot back here. I’m sweaty and really need a shower.”

  “Today’s your lucky day. I just so happen to have a shower at my house. I’d be happy to let you use mine.”

  I thought about his offer and as much as part of me wanted to say no and keep hating him, a bigger part of me wanted him.

  “You sure?” I asked.

  “You know how long I’ve wanted you?”

  I shook my head.

  “I’m going to make you come so much, you’ll forget everyone else you were with,” he said with a lopsided grin.

  “Oh? You’re going to make me a virgin again?”

  His laugh echoed through the kitchen.

  “Just come home with me,” he said. “Like I said before, give me one night. If you don’t want to see me again after that, then I’ll back off, but I’m hoping after I make you come five or six times that you might hate me a little less.”

  “Five or six times? I’m going to hold you to that, you know,” I said.

  “I’ll keep count for you.”

  * * *

  We left my car at the hotel. Brent had a Maserati like the one he donated to charity, but this one was white.

  I shifted in my seat to look at him while he drove. I still thought he could substitute for Ken if Barbie ever needed a date, but there was something more to him than just being gorgeous.

  “It’s weird,” I said. “I feel like I’ve known you for so long, but I really don’t know much about you.”

  “There isn’t much to know about me,” he said as he turned off the freeway. “But I know what you mean. From the first moment I saw you I felt connected to you somehow.”

  “Maybe it’s because we’re both so close to Samantha.”

  “That could be it.”

  He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye and smiled.

  “What do you want to know?” he asked.

  I thought about his question as we drove past a golf course. I knew he grew up in Canyon Cove and I knew he was a big time attorney who worked to protect the environment and various charities. The more I thought about it the more I realized I did know a lot about him, except for one thing.

  “How come you stayed in Canyon Cove?” I asked.

  “Actually I didn’t. After I got my law degree I moved to New York City for a while. I lived there until about a year ago when I decided to move back.”

  “Is that why you’re so close to Gunnar?”

  “He and I have been friends a long time. When I got to New York, I used to join him and his other ad friends going to the bar and picking up women. I’m almost embarrassed to admit it was like a sport for us.”

  “Why did you stop?” I asked.

  “Because that wasn’t me. We had a lot of fun for a while, but eventually it didn’t matter to me. I realized I wanted more.”

  “Is that when you moved back?”

  “No, that’s when I met Bryn. Bryn and I connected right away. She was an attorney at another law firm. She was smart, beautiful, and I didn’t know it at the time, but she was taken.” Brent’s face hardened. “I guess I have a type,” he muttered.

  “What do you mean?”

  He cleared his throat.

  “Never mind,” he said. “Bryn told me she was in a loveless relationship. She said they had been together for a long time but never broke up because it was easier to keep things as they were. She said he had other women and she had me. It wasn’t what I wanted though, I wanted a relationship. By the time she told me about her relationship, I had already fallen in love.”

  I thought about my own bad relationships and how sometimes love made a person do things they wouldn’t normally do.

  “I tried to keep the relationship the way it was. Bryn made it easy to forget she was with someone else. She never spoke about him, she was free to see me whenever I wanted, every thing was great as long as I didn’t think about the truth,” he said.

  “So what happened?”

  “I was out one night with Gunnar and the guys. We were out celebrating when the man at a nearby table proposed. They were passing out champagne to celebrate and that’s when I saw the woman was Bryn. She was radiant and happy wearing the ring he just gave her. I couldn’t pretend anymore.” Brent silently steered up a small hill. “I decided New York wasn’t all it was cracked up to be so I started my own practice here in Canyon Cove.”

  “Do you ever think about her?”

  “No, not really,” he said. “Honestly I question whether I really loved her or if it was just some childish crush. I learned a lot from it though.”

  Brent stopped his car in front of a set of wide gates. A guard stepped out from the building to get a better look, then waved to Brent as he pressed the button to open the gates.

  I had heard about the Canyon Coast section before, but never knew anyone who ha
d been there. Canyon Coast was a small group of mansions on the top of a hill that overlooked the ocean.

  The houses didn’t look like anything spectacular from the street, but I had heard what made these homes special was their view.

  Brent pulled into a driveway that sloped down behind a Craftsman style home. The underground garage opened as we approached and inside Brent had a collection of exotic cars. The garage was big enough to house three of my apartments.

  As we got out of the car, Brent held his hand out to me.

  “Come, I’m sure you want that shower,” he said as we entered the house.

  Shade was waiting as we entered the house. His tail wagged with such force, his entire body wiggled. I knelt down to say hello to him and he knocked me over as he excitedly rubbed his head against me.

  “Shade, I’ve told you before, a little wine and some dinner and then you can knock them over,” Brent said.

  “I guess he’s used to you having a lot of women over?” I asked, trying to keep my jealousy in check.

  “No, not unless you count family. I told you, I’m not that guy.”

  I wanted to believe him, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking about his proposition. Why else would he want me there if he wasn’t that guy? He was the one who said it was only for one night.

  Brent led me through the house and upstairs to a large bedroom that faced the back of the house. The wall was all glass and even though it was dark, I could make out the lights of a couple of small fishing boats on the water.

  I followed Brent into the bathroom and couldn’t believe how huge it was. The shower was it’s own room. It had several shower heads on the walls and each one had a line of jets underneath it. Just outside the open doorway for the shower was a control box for steam and to control the jet spray.

  “Wow,” I said. “You weren’t kidding when you said you had a shower.”