The Big One (Second Chance Romantic Comedy)

by Katherine Hastings

  This time his profile opened with the privacy setting removed, and when I scrolled down, a photo of Liam greeted my eager eyes.

  “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Louie breathed.

  There he was. The youthful boy I loved stared back at me with the face of a devastatingly handsome man. His hair was shorter, and a slight shadow wrapped around the chiseled jaw that was once smooth. The dimples carved into his cheeks had deepened, and from the size of his shoulders he’d filled out even more than he was when he was eighteen, which was impressive even back then. The lean, muscular body now looked even more powerful and strong. But those eyes... those hadn’t changed one bit. The same blue eyes I used to swim in while we snuggled under the stars stared out of the screen and burned straight through me.

  “Stupid hot.” Nita shook her head. “I told you. Stupid hot.”

  “My boyfriends made the most beautiful baby in the world.” Louie reached out and touched the screen, dragging his finger down the filled-out face of my Liam. “I take back everything I said about him being a troll. That is no troll. That is a fucking beautiful man.”

  Beautiful. He was truly beautiful, and I realized only now I hadn’t let out a breath since seeing the face that had haunted me for so many years. That haunted me still. Finally letting it free, I continued scrolling to see photos of him out with friends, drinking beer, standing on a mountain and other assorted photos of the life I missed.

  “Notice, no women,” Nita stated, noticing the same thing I had. There weren’t many photos, and unlike me, it didn’t seem like he was very active on Facebook. But there wasn’t a woman to be seen in a single photo.

  “Maybe he’s on my team!” Louie announced excitedly.

  Bloop. The message popped up.

  You’re more beautiful than ever.

  “Son of a... he’s on your team.” Louie sighed. “Well, I’m going home because some of us still have to work on Saturdays. I need a shower, a gallon of coffee, a bottle of aspirin, and to have a little play time thinking about that face.” He jutted a chin at Liam.

  “TMI, Louie. TMI,” Nita said, cringing.

  “Whatevs. Love you, girls.” He pecked us both on the cheek and climbed out of bed. “I’m excited for you, Ellie. Keep me posted. And send me his picture. Just so I can stare at it while I...”

  “Eeew!” I laughed and tossed a pillow at him.

  “I need to get home, too. I’ll leave you and Liam to catch up. Good luck, sis.” She kissed my forehead and stumbled out after Louie.

  Pushing my head back into the pillow I smiled and started typing.

  You’re not so bad yourself... ;)

  With a giggle I settled into my bed and spent the morning messaging back and forth with him... my heart swelling with each sweet word he typed, remembering just how romantic he could be and just how much I missed him.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Ellie

  “Hurry up, Ellie!” Louie called from the rope the bouncer held open at the club door. The line of people locked out behind him groaned and whined, each trying to convince the sizeable man in their way they were worthy of entering.

  “Coming!” I called back, shoving my phone in my purse after sending the last message off to Liam. The click-clack of my heels matched the rhythm of the music thumping from inside while I jogged the last few steps to join Louie and Nita.

  “Sorry,” I apologized to them and the bouncer who looked less than amused to be waiting to close the rope behind me. “I was just sending Liam a message he could get when he wakes up. It’s kind of our thing.”

  “Liam,” Louie said, mimicking a kissy face before tossing an arm around my shoulder and ushering me inside. “No more boys tonight! It’s our night, and I have been waiting to get my dance on and see this club.”

  “Deal.” I wrapped my arm around his waist. The three of us stepped down the hallway side by side until we spilled out onto the second level of the newest club in Chicago. Lights flashed in every color imaginable, and looking down over the railing, the dance floor below pulsed with bodies grinding to the beats of DJ Eli.

  “Now we’re talking,” Nita said.

  “My kind of party!” Louie pushed us to the stairs and down into the party that had started raging long before we arrived.

  We reached the bar and pushed our way in, leaning forward while Louie eyed up the bartenders.

  “Straight,” he noted, gesturing to the bartender working our section. “It’s up to you ladies to flag him down.”

  “On it.” Nita pushed her exposed cleavage up and laid her breasts on the bar. A few bats of her lashes and he arrived promptly in front us, causing groans from the men lined up at the bar with money waving who’d been there long before we arrived.

  “What can I get you guys?” he asked, his eyes fixated on her breasts before moving up to her coy smile.

  Louie leaned in. “No whiskey tonight, Ellie!”

  “Three dirty martinis,” Nita said to him, giving him another flash of her signature smile.

  “For you? Anything,” he responded with a wink before turning to make our drinks.

  “I’m taking him home tonight,” she said with confidence and turned her attentions back to us.

  “It’s too early to pick! There are literally hundreds of options.” Louie shook his head in disapproval.

  “If there is another man in here with a better ass than that, drinks are on me.”

  We all turned and looked at the impressive round package on display while he bent over scooping ice into the shaker.

  Louie arched an eyebrow. “I’m not taking that bet.”

  “That’s what I thought,” she responded with pride.

  While they ogled the sexy bartender, my thoughts drifted back to the same place they’d remained all week. Liam. He took up so much space in my head it was all I could do to remember to brush my teeth every morning. One week ago tonight we’d reconnected, and since then it had been a non-stop flood of messages between us, learning about each other’s new lives and reminiscing about that one summer we fell in love. Our time difference didn’t slow us down, and every morning when I woke, I would reach for my phone with the same excitement Nita and I had every Christmas morning as kids. His message would be waiting, and even though it was the same every day, it still sent my heart fluttering.

  Good morning, beautiful.

  Those three words were almost as exciting as the ones he said to me the night before he left that summer... I love you.

  “Earth to Ellie!” Louie snapped his fingers and I jumped, turning my attention back to the party raging around me.

  “Let me guess... Liam?” he said with an eye roll.

  “Shut up, Louie! I can’t help it!”

  “I’m teasing, I’m teasing. I’m excited for you. He seems to make you really happy.”

  “What’s Liam up to tonight?” Nita asked knowing I was late to the party because I was messaging with him.

  “Sleep. It’s five in the morning in Naples.”

  “I can’t believe he lives in Naples, Italy,” Louie said with a sigh. “I would kill to go to Italy.”

  “Me, too,” I agreed. Visiting Italy was at the top of my bucket list, but I’d never even left the country. It turned out Liam was no longer in Amsterdam. Life had taken him to Italy, and he lived in Naples and worked construction. His soccer career ended with an injury and he wound up in Italy working for his grandfather’s company, though I wasn’t clear on the other details. Catching up with someone after ten years a few sentences at a time didn’t leave much room for specifics.

  “Here you go,” the bartender said, returning with our drinks.

  “Start us a tab.” Nita handed him her credit card. He took it and smiled before turning his attentions to the exasperated men on our side. She tipped her head and took one last appreciative look at him before turning back to us with a happy sigh. “I just won the Herman case today. Drinks are on me... even though I’d have won the ass bet anyway,” she said, smiling.
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br />   “Yay! Sugar momma!” Louie kissed her cheek and we all grabbed a drink.

  “Go big or go home!” I lifted my glass and shouted my new motto. We each took a healthy sip of our martinis, needing a buzz to catch up to the energy pulsing through club.

  Clutching the stem of my martini glass, I spun around and surveyed the club. Normally I would be scouring the dance floor and searching for boys with Nita and Louie. Tonight, I had no desire to find someone to dance with. The only someone I wanted to dance with was five thousand miles away.

  “No. Way. Don’t look right!” Nita pulled me back around.

  Saying ‘Don’t look right’ made me look right. There he was. Allen. And there she was... the whore I caught him in bed with last week when I made an impromptu visit to his apartment.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I groaned just before he made eye contact. Eyes filled with pity met mine and I quickly looked away. I didn’t need his pity.

  “What is he doing here?” Louie growled. “Are they just letting any old riff-raff in this club? I thought tonight was VIP. That is no VIP!”

  “He’s a VIP all right,” Nita said, shooting a glance at him over her shoulder. “A very important pig.”

  I chuckled and took a swig of my martini.

  “He’s coming over!” she whispered.

  I glanced in his direction and sure enough, he was pushing his way through the crowd toward me.

  “Shit.” I slammed the rest of my martini. “Another please!” I called to the bartender who was still flashing eyes at Nita.

  “Ellie.” His voice sent a shiver down my spine... and not the good kind.

  With a deep breath I turned and faced him. “Hello, Allen.”

  “I didn’t know you’d be here. I wouldn’t have come with her. I’m sorry, Ellie. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” His big brown eyes pleaded and my own narrowed in response.

  “Perhaps you should have thought of that before you cheated on me.”

  “I know, Ellie. I’m such an ass. I’m so sorry.”

  “I’ll say you’re an ass,” Louie quipped and stepped closer to me.

  “Just leave us alone, Allen. You’ve done enough,” Nita said, her protective sisterly nature kicking in while she positioned herself between us.

  “I know. I’m so sorry. I just need you to forgive me, Ellie. You did nothing to deserve that and I can’t stop beating myself up about it. I’m just so sorry.”

  “Whatever, Allen. It’s fine. And I want my shit back. Just put it in a box and I’ll send someone to pick it up. Make sure my favorite sweater is in there. I don’t want the whore wearing it.”

  “It’s not fine, Ellie. I hurt you,” he continued, craning his neck to see over Nita in her four-inch stilettos. At five foot ten, she was five inches taller than me, and in those heels, she towered over most men... just how she liked it.

  “I’m fine, Allen. In fact, I’m better than fine.” I crossed my arms and lifted my chin. “I already moved on. I’ve got a new guy. Liam. And he’s way hotter than you.” The childish comment coming out of my mouth caused me to slip and lose a bit of the confidence I was trying to project.

  “Oh,” he said, and his eyes dropped to the floor. “I’m glad.”

  “So hot,” Louie added. “So, so fucking hot.”

  “Well, I’m happy you found someone already.”

  “I did and I’m already over you. Now if you’ll excuse us. And don’t forget to box up my stuff.”

  “I will, Ellie. Again, I’m so sorry. It was good to see you,” he said, backing out from under Nita’s lethal stare.

  When he turned and walked away, I let out a deep breath and my confident posture dissolved into a slump. “Oh my God, I can’t believe that just happened.”

  “You okay?” Nita asked and joined me when I leaned my elbows onto the sticky bar. My martini was waiting for me and I grabbed it and let the vodka slide down my throat.

  “Now I’m okay,” I said, stopping just short of finishing it off.

  “I can’t believe he’s here!” Louie said, joining the huddle. “Are you freaking out? I’d be freaking out!”

  “‘He’s way hotter than you?’ Who says that? I sounded like an idiot. He is going to totally know I’m lying!”

  “Well, you’re not totally lying. I mean you are reconnected with Liam. And he is way hotter. Way... way hotter,” Louie said and then fanned his face.

  “But I’m not actually with Liam.” I flagged down the bartender again and pointed to my glass. His nod confirmed he understood, and he went back to the shaker.

  “Well, what are you two?” Nita asked.

  “I don’t even know. I mean, we’re flirting. He says he misses me and wants to see me. I miss him and want to see him. But he lives in Italy, you guys. I live in Chicago. The chances of us seeing each other again are like slim to none. Then Allen is going to see the absence of this smoking-hot guy I’m supposedly with on my Instagram and know I’m a liar.”

  “Then go see him!” Louie said, excitement raising his voice.

  “What?” I spun to meet his dancing eyes that lit up when he got a crazy idea.

  “Seriously! Why not? You’re an adult. He’s an adult. You’ve always wanted to go to Italy. Go, Ellie! Go to Italy and see him!”

  “Oh my God, no way.” My head shook violently while my eyes bulged at the thought. “No way!”

  “Actually, Ellie,” Nita said, “Louie’s right. Why not?”

  “You said I was right!” Louie smiled. “I’m marking the date.”

  “Seriously, Ellie. Why not?” She ignored him.

  “Ummm... like a hundred reasons! For one, plane tickets to Italy are expensive. Two, he didn’t invite me. Three... well, I can’t think of another but I’m sure there are more. I don’t have a pen for the pros and cons list handy, but I think—”

  “Oh my God, Ellie!” Nita rolled her eyes. “Enough with the pros and cons list. Don’t you think it’s time you did something just because you wanted to and not because it’s the most logical answer? You only live once.”

  “Buy a ticket. Get on a plane and just show up. He’ll be so surprised. You’ll have super-hot sex, fall in love, and have those babies you’re going to name after me. It will be so romantic!” His eyes flickered with excitement in the flashing club lights.

  “You guys are crazy.” I turned to drink the martini that just arrived. But are they crazy?

  “You can post the photos all over Instagram and Allen will die when he sees Liam! DIE! It will be the best ‘fuck you’ ever! #fuckallen,” Louie added.

  Thoughts of surprising him, of showing up at his workplace, flashed through my head. It would be romantic, wouldn’t it? Ten years later and I just showed up on his doorstep? Visions of being in his arms, of feeling those lips pressed against mine, and our bodies melding together again filled my head and started pushing away all rational thought. I took another sip of my martini. The quick consumption of martinis reared its head, and I felt the warm buzz wash over me, settling my frazzled nerves. Continuing to sip my martini, I thought of staring into those soft blue eyes in person, instead of in the photos I looked at every night until I fell asleep.

  “No. I can’t. He’ll think I’m a stalker,” I said, shaking the thoughts from my head. “It’s too much. Too desperate.”

  “If he showed up here tonight, would you think it was desperate, or would you think it was romantic?” Nita asked.

  It was a good point. “Romantic.”

  “So why can’t you be the romantic one? Just get on a plane, show up, and win his heart,” Louie added.

  “Because I’m the woman. And I’m too scared.” It was the truth. I was terrified. Not only of traveling alone, but of his reaction. “What if he thinks I’m crazy and didn’t actually want to see me? What if he’s just toying with me online having a bit of fun?”

  “Did you believe him when he said he loved you back in the day?”

  I nodded. “Yes. I do believe he loved me.” />
  “Then you owe it to yourself to find this out, Ellie,” Nita said. “Isn’t your new motto ‘Go big or go home’? Well, this is what going big looks like.”

  My mind raced with fear and possibilities. The emotions waged war, jockeying for position. “And what if I take a crazy leap of faith, get there and he tells me he thinks I’m nuts?”

  Nita pressed a hand to my shoulder. “Then you get back on a plane and finally move on. You’ve been living in limbo all these years, and because of this guy you can’t give your heart to anyone else. It’s time. You need to get your ass over there and either be with him or say goodbye and move on with your life. Don’t you think?”

  The truth to her words felt like a slap in the face. All the years I secretly pined away for Liam, each man I dated falling short of the impossible bar he had set for them. To me he was perfect. It wasn’t just his looks. It was the sweet things he said, how he made me laugh from my belly, the way he held my face in his hands when he kissed me, and the way he could look straight into my soul. Not to mention the butterflies that only he could awaken. He’d haunted me for so long, the ghost of our love chased off everyone else who dared to consider taking his place.

  “I’m too scared,” I whispered again, the defeat weighing down my voice.

  “Just think about it, Ellie. I think you should do it. Just buy a ticket and go. I know you. You’ll think about it for months, talk yourself out of it over and over again, and then your life will pass you by and you’ll have missed it. Don’t go to your grave with a colossal regret.”

  “Do it, Ellie,” Louie encouraged me.

  “I’ll think about it,” I answered, but I knew I couldn’t.

  “Let’s think about it on the dance floor?” Louie bumped me with a hip.

  “You two go. I need a little time to recollect myself. Seeing Allen and all of this has me a little off balance.”

  “Maybe it’s the martinis,” Nita said, noting the now-empty glass in front of me again.

  “Whatever.” I laughed, but she wasn’t wrong. “You two go. I’ll find you in a bit.”