“What are you doing here?” I barked out, shooting her a scorching look. “Don’t you ever knock?”

She turned to me, her back to my bedroom door, and shook her keychain with the house key on it.

“Ain’t nothing you can do about it because Mama Landon loves me, bitch,” she replied with a wink. “And what’re you looking all ghostly white for? You’re just in a towel. Bet you’re naked under there too, huh? Slut.”

“You need to go! I’m really busy –”

“No,” she interrupted, taking a step closer to me. It was then I realized she was still in the same clothes as last night, and her blonde hair and make-up were botched to hell.

She looked like a crucified Barbie doll.

“What the hell happened to you?” I asked, momentarily forgetting the situation. I snickered and added, “You look like a blowfish. You’re not having a good hair day, babe.”

Her blue eyes glared into mine. “What happened,” she said slowly, “is that hot guy from the train a year ago just popped up out of nowhere last night and asked about you! I was bloody drunk, so I was all, huh? But now I realize that’s what you were talking about right before we left, right? About how something interesting might happen.

“So now you got some explaining to do! You’re a lying bitch, and that automatically means you’re sentenced to another Dare Card. But first, you gotta tell me if something interesting did happen. Because I’m hoping it did.” She grabbed my arm desperately. “Did you get laid? Of course you got laid. Was he huge? Please tell me he was huge so I can live vicariously through you and forget about my horrible experience last night with some limp dick asshole that didn’t even get me there. He was tiny. Like throwing a sausage down a hallway kind of tiny, Claire! Do you know what that was like for me? Do you know horny I am still –”

When Ben abruptly appeared at the doorway of my bedroom, I stilled and my eyes widened. He’d put his pants on, but his damp chest was still bare.

Emily stopped talking and followed my line of sight. She froze, her mouth dropping as she trailed her eyes up and down his body.

Motioning to him, I said, “This is –”

“I’m the drunk girl from last night,” she interrupted speedily. “Emily.”

Ben shot her a small smile. “Yes, you certainly are. Hi.”

Insert a moment of silence.

Well, this was awkward.

“This is Ben,” I then told her. “Um… yeah.”

“Cool,” she said, nodding heartily while she looked between the two of us. “Looks like you guys had a fun night.”

Oh, I wanted to punch her.

She grinned stupidly. “Really fun.”

Ben smirked. “Yes, it was. Anyways, do you mind if I excuse myself for a few minutes? I need to make a phone call.”

“Of course,” I replied. “Take your time. We’ll be downstairs.”

I grabbed Emily’s arm and forcefully dragged her down the stairs, otherwise she’d have stood there all day, staring at him looking like a Satan possessed doll. The girl was in desperate need of a clean-up.

The second we reached the bottom level, she stirred out of her daze and mouthed, “OH.MY.GOD!” while jumping up and down incredulously.

Clutching the towel tightly against me, I reddened. “I know, right?”

“You lucky bitch. How could you keep something like this from me?”

“I didn’t mean to.”

“How long have you been seeing him?”

I shook my head. “I haven’t. Last night was the first time since the train.”

Her eyes widened. “What? You’re Miss Cautious. How the hell did you let him get to you that fast?”

Worry emerged in me. “I shouldn’t have?”

“No, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just… it’s been so long since you’ve let go. I didn’t think you had it in you anymore.”

I looked up the stairwell to make sure he wasn’t hanging about, and then I steered her further down the hall until we were nearing the kitchen.

“There’s something about him,” I confessed in a whisper. “I don’t know what. He held me all throughout the night, Em. Held me. Can you believe that?”

She was too lost for words to respond.

“It felt good,” I continued quietly. “Really good. And you wanna know the best bit?”

She nodded eagerly. “Yes!”

“He looked me in the eyes while we did it.”

“Are you for real?”

“Yeah.”

She made a weird face. “So the books… they didn’t lie about that sort of thing?”

“Nope. It was amazing. Like the kind of connection you can’t imagine.”

She stewed on that for a few seconds. “Are you going to see him again?”

I shrugged, trying to make light of the situation. “I don’t know. I might.” Depended on whether he wanted to.

When we heard footsteps coming down the stairs, she quickly said, “Look, I’m going to sneak into the bathroom down here and give you some alone time. Do you mind if I showered too? I smell like a bucketful of burnt assholes.”

“Go for it,” I told her.

She shot off down the hall and disappeared into the bathroom just as Ben appeared. He’d finished dressing, to my disappointment. While it was sad his beautiful body was locked away again, the bigger part of me was anticipating this to be his moment of departure.

Alas, all good things come to an end. If only good memories in dark times were enough to shed some light back in. Because that’s what he was going to be.

A damn good memory.

He smiled warmly at me as he approached me. He tucked his phone into his pocket, and the sight of it made me a little confused. It was one of those black, generic thirty something dollar phones. Far, far from fancy, or even of passable quality. He didn’t strike me as the kind of guy that had cheap taste.

“Your friend still around?” he asked, pulling me away from my confusion.

“No, she shot off to shower,” I answered.

“Very interesting character, that one.”

I chuckled. “Emily’s… a colourful girl.”

Now what? I stood stiff and uncertain, knowing any second he was going.

His hand shot up to my face, and he lightly brushed my cheek. It was so affectionate and endearing, I could do nothing but shut my eyes and savour it.

“I looked through your room,” he told me quietly with a hint of a smile in his voice. “I came across your sketchbook. It was already wide open on your dresser. On a picture of me.”

I kept my eyes shut. Someone kill me now. Like… NOW.

“Yeah,” I simply mumbled. “I… drew you.”

“You’re extremely talented.”

I opened my eyes, timidly nodding. “Thank you.”

“Have you been drawing all your life?”

“Yes. I do it to make me feel better.”

His brows came together. “There were a lot of sketches. Are you down a lot?”

I shrugged. “I’m alright now.”

He studied me for a little bit.

“I had the best night with you,” he then said. “And an equally incredible morning. But the world’s turned back on again, and I have to leave.”

I nodded again, putting on my fake smile as I dodged looking into his eyes. “Yeah, definitely. I get that.”

Now ask for my goddamn number, Ben!

“It’s important you know I never held any expectations when I arranged to see you,” he continued solemnly. “I only wanted to talk, but you’re so beautiful I couldn’t keep my goddamn hands to myself.”

I couldn’t suppress the delicious tingles his words gave me. It was so nice to be wanted.

He ran a hand through his perfectly tousled, wet hair, looking a bit conflicted as he glanced away from me for a thoughtful beat. He took a small step forward, crowding me with his presence when he added softly, “I’d like to see you again. If you’ll have me, of course.”

YES! YES! YES!

My lips curved upwards. “I’d like that too.”

Those grey eyes roamed my face heatedly. God, he looked drunk off lust, and I knew once he walked out, I’d be spending an hour pinching myself to make sure this was truly my reality and not some desperate mind concocting the world’s hottest fantasy.

He dipped his head and softly brushed his lips against mine. “Good,” he breathed before pulling away. “I’ll keep in touch.”

“Okay.”

A few seconds passed, and he still hadn’t asked for my number. So I took the plunge instead. “Do you want to exchange numbers?”

“I already have your number,” he replied.

I blinked at him in surprise.

“It was in your wallet, remember?” he added with a smirk, like he could hear the question straight out of my head.

“Right.” Duh, Claire, you idiot. “Can I have yours then?”

He took a step back. “Like I said, I’ll keep in touch.”

Seriously? He wasn’t going to give me it?

What the fuck?

He shot me a wink and started to leave.  “See you soon, beauty.”

And just like that, he was gone.

Several moments after he left, I hurried to the front window overlooking the street. Parked in front of the house, the passenger door of a taxi shut the second I glanced out. The car took off down the street and out of view, taking with it the sexiest man I’d ever met.

When had he called a taxi? He’d been on the phone merely minutes ago. They couldn’t have gotten here so fast.

Unless the driver had been lurking about this entire time.

*****

“I can’t believe you gave him your wallet,” sighed Emily, kicking back on the couch as she flipped through the channels.

I’d just spent the last twenty minutes going over what she’d missed out on, hoping she wouldn’t pry for more details. I’d omitted a lot, particularly about Ben knowing my address. I didn’t want her to turn against him and then try and convince me to steer clear.

Besides, he’d been nothing short of caring and tender to me (if you omitted the harsh sex in the shower, of course). And he thought I was beautiful. Even with the Freddy Krueger scars, he looked at me with heat in his gaze, like he wanted to devour me.

“What if he was some murderer,” she went on, breaking me out of my thoughts. “You’re an idiot.”

“Says the girl that screwed a dude she didn’t even know last night,” I retorted, grabbing the remote harshly from out of her hands. “At least Ben and I talked. Do you even know the name of the dude you ditched me for?”

Her jaw dropped as she glared at me.  “As a matter of fact, I do. His name was Darryl. And we did talk.”

“What did you talk about?”

“A lot of shit.”

“Like?”

She didn’t respond straightaway. Then she murmured, “I didn’t know you thought I ditched you.”

I rolled my eyes and shot her a sceptical look. “You threw some pothead wanna-be musician in my face to distract me so you could bump uglies with your prince charming.”

She shuddered. “Definitely not my prince charming, and I’m sorry about the pothead. I really thought you’d be interested in him. He was cute. And I wanted you to stand on your own two feet without me holding your hand every step of the way.”

“I know.”

I settled on a mind numbing reality show and opened my text book to do some idle studying. We watched a bit before she said, “Why did he take so long to contact you?”

I shrugged. “He travelled for a long time, and he was busy with work.”

Her brows came together. I could see her brain working, but whatever was in there she didn’t vocalise.

“So what went wrong with Derek exactly?” I asked, hiding my smile.

She grunted in disgusted. “Derek’s dick went wrong, that’s what.”

“Thought his name was Darryl.”

She paused and went red.

I let out a laugh. “Caught you, skank.”

She threw a cushion in my face. “Whatever.”

We killed a day watching shit television and eating nasty generic ice cream until our bloated bellies made us look like heavily pregnant chicks. She spent the night in the guest room, and I chatted to Mom for twenty minutes before going to bed.

“Everything going alright?” I said, sounding upbeat.

“Great, and you? Did you have a nice night out?” she asked.

Downplay it, Claire! “Yes, it was pretty good, I guess.”

“I’m so glad, hon. I really like hearing that.”

“Do anything fun?”

“Um, well,” she started, hesitantly. “I’ve done some things.”

“Like what?”

I could hear her moving around like she always did when she was nervous about something. I wondered what was wrong. This wasn’t like her.

“Mom,” I said gently, “whatever it is, you can tell me.”

“To keep my options open, I started applying for jobs here,” she blurted out. “I got a call back at one of the hospitals. I have an interview on Monday. But… You know, I won’t be taking it or anything. I’m just… I just applied for the hell of it. I’d never just leave you behind or anything –”

“Slow down, Mom,” I interrupted her, feeling like my head was about to spin off. “I didn’t even know you were unhappy about your job here.”