Brief Encounters_The Encounters Series

by Scarlett Hopper

  “Oh, just Ellie’s boyfriend turned hookup buddy, turned friend, turned hookup buddy again, turned—well, um, I don’t actually know what they are anymore.” Viv giggles nervously, probably knowing she’s said too much.

  My face instantly floods with heat as I look down at my hands. I hate the idea of Jess knowing this about me. I don’t know why, considering the amount of “relationships” the guy has been in himself.

  “Hookup buddy, huh?” Jess says with a smug smile and raised eyebrows. “I wouldn’t have pegged you for the hookup type.”

  “Well, there’s a lot you wouldn’t think to peg me for. I guess I’m just mysterious that way,” I try to say casually.

  Jess stifles a laugh but Viv gives me a look, and I know it’s time for me to be quiet. The alcohol is in my system, and the last thing I need is to be spewing my secrets.

  Knowing it’s probably time for me to get home, I grab my purse and rise. I guess I don’t realize how drunk I am, because as soon as I stand, I lose my balance. The next thing I know, I’m holding on to Jess for support.

  “Sorry,” I mumble as I pull my hands away and turn to Viv. “I think I’m gonna head out. You know, before I puke or end up in bed with someone like Dylan.” The last part was a joke, but I don’t think Jess caught on. I feel his hand momentarily tighten around my arm, only to loosen when I gaze up at him. His casual smile is still in place, and I reassure myself it’s just the alcohol making me think things.

  “I can come with you,” Viv says, but I can tell she wants to go to Will’s place tonight, and the last thing I’m gonna be is a cock block.

  “Don’t worry, I’ve got her,” Jess says, to my astonishment.

  I bury my usual protests and turn to Jess. “Okay,” is all I say.

  Jess holds out his hand for me, and for the first time, I take it without asking any questions.

  I can’t tell who’s more surprised by my actions, Jess or me.

  As we walk to get a cab, I can’t help but notice how close I am to Jess. It feels different, so intimate and foreign, but considering I can barely walk, I chalk it all up to the alcohol.

  As he leads me into the cab, I notice how warm his rough hands are and find myself feeling a sense of emptiness when he lets go. Sliding into the cab, I can’t help but stare at the perfection that is Jess Parker. Even after a night of drinking, this guy still manages to look phenomenal. Oh god, I need to get ahold of myself. This is just the alcohol talking.

  “Are you all good?” The noise of his husky voice knocks me out of my daydream, and I turn to look at him. I’ve never noticed him up close before. I never noticed how his hazel eyes seem to have so much wear in them. As if he’s been everywhere and done everything, his eyes managing to capture every moment.

  Realizing I probably sound crazy, I pull myself out of my own head and attempt to form a coherent thought.

  “Yeah, I’m all good, in the hood, Jessie boy.”

  Did you really just say that, Eleanor Ivy? Oh god, you are gonna regret that one in the morning.

  A small smile appears across Jess’s face, and he lifts his arm up and places it over my shoulders, then pulls me close.

  I think it’s the alcohol, but I don’t hesitate. Instead, I nestle in close and rest my head on his chest.

  He begins to stroke my hair, and then I say what I never thought I would be saying to Jess Parker in a million years.

  “I think you and I should be friends, Mr. Parker. I bet you would be good for me.”

  He doesn’t hesitate before answering. “I would like that very much, Els. Now go to sleep. We’ll be home before you know it.”

  And at that, I close my eyes and let my mind get the best of me.

  I wake up to the sun shining through my blinds and a very severe headache. It feels as if a marching band is playing against my skull while a hundred-pound elephant sits on top of me.

  I get up to move, yet find myself being held down by an arm.

  Who the hell is in my bed?

  My heart instantly drops. Holy shit. Did I bring home Dylan last night? This could not be worse.

  I slowly maneuver my body so my head is directly aligned with who is in bed with me. Fear creeps up in my throat as I realize what I’ve done.

  Correction, there is something far worse than waking up with Dylan Scott and not remembering. It’s waking up next to Jess Parker and having no idea how he got here. I rack my brain, trying to remember how we came to be in this position, but fall short.

  I’m wearing my oversized Arctic Monkeys T-shirt, which I have no recollection of putting on, but luckily, from what I can tell, Jess has pants on. I take a deep breath, slowly pull his arm off of me, and then begin unhooking our tangled legs. Jess stirs, and I freeze. He mumbles something into the pillow, and I just stare at him in shock.

  He speaks again, and this time I can hear him clear as day.

  “We didn’t have sex, Eleanor. Calm down.”

  I let out a breath of relief but still don’t say anything.

  Jess pushes up from the bed and turns to lean his back against the headboard and look at me. I do my best to keep my eyes from roaming his shirtless chest. I think I'm failing miserably.

  “You asked me to stay the night,” he says while weaving a hand through his tousled hair.

  Finally, I find the words to ask the questions I’ve been wondering.

  “So if you slept over, why didn’t you sleep on the couch? And how did I get into my pajamas?” I ask, attempting to hide my suspicion. Although I like to think Jess would never try anything on me, I don’t know him well enough to be certain.

  I think he realizes where I’m going with this, because he instantly tenses and turns to look me in the eye.

  “Okay, I’m going to tell you everything that happened last night so there is absolutely no confusion. I didn’t touch you. Well, not in the way you’re thinking, anyway. What’s the last thing you remember?”

  “Leaving the club,” I say with certainty.

  “Okay, well, you fell asleep on me during the cab ride, and when we got home, I carried you upstairs because you refused to wake up.”

  I look down at my bedspread and trace the floral pattern with my finger. If I’m about to hear how I was a drunken mess, the last thing I want to do is look Jess in the eye.

  “Then,” he continues, “I told you it was time for bed, and you changed into your pajamas while I was still in the room.” My eyes grow wide as I register what he’s saying. I sit silently and pray I didn’t do anything else I’ll regret.

  “I was the perfect gentleman and didn’t look. Well, not intentionally,” he says with a laugh.

  “Okay, well, that still doesn’t answer why you’re in my bed.” I huff as I pull a thread loose from my duvet.

  “Well, if you would have some patience, my dear Eleanor, I would tell you. Okay, so I told you it was time to go to sleep, and you refused to sleep alone, mumbling about how you wanted company or something. I don’t exactly remember. So, I told you I would lie with you in bed until you fell asleep, and you told me you wanted me to stay.”

  He says this in a way that carries no judgment or criticism. Most people would run from a clingy drunk, guy or girl, but Jess staying makes me think twice about all the preconceived notions I had about him. Maybe I’m the asshole in this situation.

  “Okay,” is all I manage to say. I thought I had seen them all, but Jess keeps defying the mold I had preset for him.

  “I would never touch you against your will, Els. I hope you know that,” he says in a grave tone that makes me look up at him. As soon as our eyes meet, I feel my skin react with goose bumps.

  “I know you wouldn’t, and I really appreciate you staying. I know you didn’t have to.”

  “Good,” Jess says. He jumps off the bed and pulls a shirt over his head. “Now, I have an idea how you can repay me. I’m starving.” He pauses to look at me and raises an eyebrow. “You any good at cooking?”

  “Holy shit, that was goo
d,” Jess says as he leans back in his chair.

  He’s polished off the chocolate-chip pancakes I made him, with the help of Viv’s recipe. I felt way too hungover to even touch mine, so I just watched him as he scoffed them all down.

  “Well, I’m glad you liked them,” I say as I begin cleaning up. “Consider us even,” I say with a devious smile.

  Jess gets up from the counter and walks toward the sink. He stands directly behind me, and I can feel his breath on my shoulder. My pulse quickens and my breath grows shorter.

  “In my house, the cook never does the dishes,” he whispers into my ear. I automatically step away to relieve the tension I’m pretty sure only I’m feeling at this point. Jess has a playful smile on his face as he starts the dishes.

  “You all good?” he asks in a mocking tone.

  I attempt to hide my frustrations. “Yeah, just feeling a bit sick.”

  “So, what do we have planned for the day, Els?” Jess asks as he tackles the mixing bowl with dish soap.

  “Els, is it?” I say, not missing the fact he keeps making up nicknames for me. Jess looks up from the sink and catches the last glimmer of my smile, my way of telling him I don’t mind the name.

  “So, what are we going to do? We could go to the movies, go eat, go to the library, or just stay here and chill.” Jess says all this with such a casual attitude that it makes me want to stop being so tense. My usual self would hightail out of here and never speak to him again after last night, but something stops me.

  Jess Parker may not be half as bad as I thought he was, and he genuinely seems to just want to hang out. But I need to make sure that all he wants to do is be friends and nothing more. I just can’t handle the pressure of anything else.

  “Hang out,” I say with a cautious voice, testing the word on my tongue. “That’s all this will be, Jess. I’m not looking for anything else.” I search his face to see if we’re on the same page.

  “Just friends, that’s all I’m asking,” he says with a reassuring smile.

  Before my brain can catch up to me, I say what I never expected to say in a million years.

  “Okay, Jess Parker, we can be friends.”

  And that’s how Jess Parker and I, Eleanor Ivy, become friends.

  September 2014

  Wild World

  It’s been three weeks since Jess Parker and I crossed the territory of disdain and entered the world of friendship. Three very interesting weeks indeed. During those three weeks, I’ve learned that both of us love film, although I’m more Tarantino while he’s Coppola; both are good, so I can’t complain. I’ve learned an abundance about hockey, but I don’t have the heart to tell him I don’t really like the sport. Jess and I have also found our interests do differ on certain aspects of music and people. His ideas of “buddies” don’t exactly align with my own, but life isn’t perfect.

  It’s a Saturday and Viv and I are heading to the guy’s house. As we pull up to the house on Winston Street, I note the black Chevy pickup in the driveway. From what Jess has told me, his dad gave it to him for his nineteenth birthday two years ago. The house itself is very minimalist from the outside, a tan paint job with two high windows on what I’m assuming is the top floor. A plain front yard with minimal decoration and simple trimmings—we’re definitely at the right place.

  Viv hops out of the Jetta before pulling down her white denim miniskirt and smoothing her black silk tank. She puts on a black faux-fur coat, and her heeled sandals clack on the concrete as she rounds the car to me. I’ve gone for a simpler look, wearing blue skinny jeans with a long-sleeved white V-neck and tall brown boots.

  As we open the front door, we hear the guys’ laughter coming from the front room. The door opens into a long hallway filled with pictures of hockey players I don’t recognize and leads to a large open-plan TV room with a kitchen on the left. The room itself is pretty minimalist, consisting of one brown sofa and two leather recliners that all face a huge flat screen. It’s what I would call a man cave, but I have to admit it does look like my kind of place.

  As Vivian and I look around, Will spots us and engulfs Viv in a huge bear hug. Will is a pretty tall guy with short, wavy dirty-blond hair and a smile to kill for. He isn’t huge like some of his other teammates, but he has muscles and piercing blue eyes. He vaguely resembles the actor Alex Pettyfer but is better looking, in my opinion.

  As Vivian squeals with delight, I look around the room for Jess. He’s playing video games with who I can only assume is Wren, because he’s the only one I haven’t met yet. Jess has a blonde guest sitting on his lap, so I figure I’ll go say hi in a little bit. At the sight of him with her, I instinctively turn away, confused as to the unease the sight causes me.

  “I’m glad you both made it,” Will says as he leans in for a hug that I return with a smile. I like Will and he seems to really care about Viv. After I pull away from the hug, he returns to Viv’s side and puts his arm around her waist, kissing her head.

  This is when I’m reintroduced to Wolf. He’s tall with very muscular broad shoulders and looks as if he could devour an elephant. Wolf isn’t fat or anything; he’s just huge, pure muscle. He towers over me in comparison but seems very gentle, like Mike. Wolf has brown hair that goes to his shoulders; he has it tied in a bun at the back of his head and a Chinese symbol tattooed on his right bicep. I’d ask him what it means, but I don’t think I can handle it if he thinks it means hope and in reality it’s donkey or something equally ridiculous.

  As soon as Wolf spots me, he throws his arms around me and lifts me into the air. Even though I’ve only met Wolf once, I soon grow to learn he’s just a very friendly guy and this is his way of saying hello.

  When Wolf puts me down, he has a huge grin on his face.

  “So good to see you again, Eleanor. Our Jess had a feeling you weren’t going to show,” he says with a chuckle.

  At the mention of Jess’s name, I look over to the couch that’s now absent of his presence. Before having time to question his whereabouts, I feel something cold against my arm. I turn around, only to find Jess with two Coronas in hand. A smile automatically appears on my face as I take the beer from him and note the absence of the blonde.

  “You know what they say?” I ask him with a grin. “A beer is the way to any woman’s heart.”

  A smile falls across Jess’s face and he leans in for a hug, which I happily return.

  “And here I was thinking it was something else,” he says with a grin while leading me over to the couch.

  I turn to make sure Viv is cool, but she’s so caught up in what Will is saying that I just leave it alone. Jess sinks back into the brown leather sofa and pats the seat next to him, which I quickly accept.

  “Eleanor, right?” a deep voice says from the other couch. I look up to meet Wren’s gaze.

  “Yeah, that’s me, and I take it you’re Wren,” I reply as I take him in.

  Wren is beautiful. I know most guys don’t appreciate that word, but holy shit, this guy looks as if he belongs on a magazine or something. He has short, straight dark-brown hair and very tan skin. From what Jess has told me, Wren is half-Hawaiian and half-Native American. He, like all his teammates, is muscular, carrying it in his arms and chest, but he isn’t large like Wolf.

  Wren and Jess exchange a look between the two of them, a look I have no interest in understanding. I turn and introduce myself to the girl snuggled up to Wren’s side.

  Her petite frame is nearly swallowed by Wren’s larger one, but she looks to be in complete and utter peace. She has shoulder-length straight black hair and creamy olive skin that’s essentially blemish free.

  Her name is Claudia, and I quickly learn she and Wren are high school sweethearts who followed each other to Breslin. I wouldn’t have pegged her for Wren’s type considering she isn’t what most would call “sexy,” but I nonetheless think she is beautiful.

  After my chat with Claudia, I look back at Jess, who is watching me with a close eye. I raise an eyebrow as i
f to ask him, What? He just smiles and puts his arm over my shoulder while playing with my hair.

  For the next hour, Jess and I get caught up in a discussion about our favorite movies and music. I don’t even realize how much time has passed until I hear someone yell, “Shots!” to which Jess and I look up.

  “Well, we can’t ignore that,” he says with a laugh as he takes my hand and pulls me up off the couch. We walk toward the kitchen, where we see a row of what looks like twenty shots of tequila. Vivian has Will’s arms around her while Claudia and Wren laugh about something to themselves. Wolf has the blonde, who was previously by Jess, in his arms while he whispers something in her ear. She’s clearly pleased by what he’s said, as a devious smile spreads across her lips.

  “Okay,” Will says to our little group, “I figured we should amp up the fun of this little soiree, so in order to get to know our new friends, we’re all going to play twenty questions, but the catch is, each time someone goes, they have to take a shot.” My heart rate speeds up, and I feel heat creeping up my body. If there’s one thing I hate in this world, it’s questions about myself, especially twenty of them.

  Will pauses and looks around. “Oh, and no lying! Liars have to take an extra shot.” He shoots a smug look at Wolf, who throws up his hands as if to say, Why are you looking at me?

  We all head over to the couch, with Jess and me sitting on the ground, leaning against the sofa, Viv and Will across from us, Wren and Claudia on our right, and Wolf and the blonde on our left.

  “Okay, Will,” Jess says with a smirk. “Since this was your brilliant idea, why don’t you decide who starts?”

  “Eleanor?” Will says. “Since we’re lucky enough to have you here, will you start?”

  After answering nineteen questions that range from What’s the dirtiest place you’ve ever done it? to What’s your favorite color? (the color one being from Vivian), I’m starting to think I need not worry about anyone asking me anything too personal.

  After realizing I would probably be in hospital if I took a shot after each question, we changed it to one shot per five questions, and everyone has to take it. Three shots in, I’m awaiting my last question.