One Night

by Allie Everhart

"Yeah, well, I guess Dylan brings out my wild side because I wasn't even thinking about that."

  "Did you like it?"

  "Loved it. Last night was great. The sex. Falling asleep with Dylan. He even made us eggs at three in the morning."

  "So you could refuel for more sex."

  "Exactly."

  She laughs. "I'm proud of you. You finally faced the fears you had about Dylan. Now you guys can act like a regular couple."

  "We were a regular couple before," I insist.

  "Not with your goofy rules. And all that talk about preserving the memory of your one-night stand."

  "I'm still worried about that. I mean, right now that night still seems perfect, but if we break up, that might change."

  "It won't change. And you guys won't break up. Why would you? You get along great and it sounds like you have amazing sex."

  "True. Okay, fine. I'll try to stop worrying about the past and just focus on the future."

  "Wow. I go away for a day and you're a whole new woman."

  "Not exactly, but I do feel different. Meeting Dylan's family helped me get to know him even better. I really like him, for more than just his bedroom skills, although that alone would be a reason to keep him around."

  She laughs. "I gotta go. My mom's here. With no shopping bags. I guess she gave up on waiting in line."

  "Tell her I said hi. I'll talk to you later."

  Dylan walks in, toweling off from his shower. "Talking to Kira?"

  "Yeah," I say, admiring his naked body as he tosses his towel aside and comes up to me on the bed.

  "Did you tell her about last night?"

  "Not in detail, but yeah, she knows you stayed over."

  "I thought you girls shared details." He lifts up my t-shirt and takes it off, causing my pulse to spike, already anticipating what he's about to do to me.

  "Sometimes we share details." I lie back on the bed. "Not always."

  "Let's keep the details between you and me."

  I agree, but I can't get the words out because he's kissing me. He lowers himself over me and we do it again.

  This has never happened to me before. I've never wanted it this much, with any guy, even when the relationship was new and fresh.

  It must be Dylan. We have an attraction to each other that can't be matched by anyone else. It's another reason I was reluctant to date him. I knew if I did and we broke up, I'd always be comparing him to other guys and would never feel what I felt with him.

  Later that day, we go to a movie and actually watch it this time now that we're not limited to making out only in public places. Then Dylan takes me to one of his favorite Mexican restaurants.

  "This is the first time in years I've done nothing all day but relax," I say to Dylan as we're eating dinner.

  "And you've still got two more days."

  "I don't know if I can do it."

  "I'm going to make sure you do. I'll lock you in the bedroom with me if I have to."

  I smile. "That wouldn't be so bad."

  "Let's hurry up and finish eating so we can go home."

  "Dylan," I hear a girl say from behind me.

  Dylan sighs. "Hey, Allison."

  Allison. His ex.

  "What are you doing here?" she asks. "Why didn't you go home for Thanksgiving?"

  "I'm from here, remember? My family lives in the suburbs."

  "Huh." She tips her head to the side. "I don't think you ever told me that."

  "I did." He sounds annoyed. "You must've forgot."

  "So what are you doing tonight?" She walks up to him, her back to me, pretending I'm not even there. "My girlfriends and I are going to a club. Why don't you come with us? It'll be like old times."

  "You and I never went to a club."

  She touches his arm. "I meant afterward. We'll go back to your place."

  "I have a girlfriend, which you already know." He motions to me across the table. "This is Amber. Amber, this is Allison."

  She stares at me, her eyes narrowing. "You really think you can steal him from me?"

  "She didn't steal me," Dylan says to Allison. "I broke up with you."

  "Yeah, because of her." She points her bony finger at me.

  "It wasn't just because of her. It was because you and I didn't have a real relationship and I was tired of it."

  Her hands go to her hips. "And yet you had no problem fucking me."

  The people at the next table look over at us.

  Dylan notices and lowers his voice. "Allison, get out of here. You're making a scene."

  "You're seriously staying with HER? You've known her for what—a week? We have a history, Dylan. You owe it to me to get back together."

  "I don't owe you anything. Now leave. I'm serious."

  She glares at him, then turns to me, leaning over and getting in my face. "He said I was the best he ever had. You'll never be able to take my place." And then she storms off.

  "Sorry," Dylan says, shaking his head. "She's freaking crazy."

  "Then why'd you date her?"

  "Because she—" He stops suddenly. "Never mind."

  "She what? Just tell me."

  He hesitates, then says, "Because she reminded me of you. Not in personality. In that respect you two are nothing alike. But when I first saw her, we were at a party and she had her back to me, and with her body and the blond hair, for a moment I thought it was you. I'd been searching for you all summer, and even though you told me you were in New York, I kept hoping that maybe you'd come back here to visit friends, or I don't know...just come back. So I raced up to her, thinking maybe it was possible, but then she turned around and I saw it wasn't you. But I wanted it to be so badly."

  I reach over and hold his hand. I still feel guilty about what I put him through.

  He continues. "Allison saw the excitement on my face when I thought it was you and she interpreted it to mean I wanted her. She knew me from the band and wanted to go out without knowing anything else about me. I was so disappointed it wasn't you that I decided it was time to give up looking. You were gone and weren't coming back. So I went out with her, and for some stupid reason, kept going out with her until you left me that letter."

  He's never told me the story of Allison and him and how they met. Kira would've told me if I'd asked but I never did. Even before Dylan and I started dating, I didn't want to think about him with someone else. It was too hard. I still had feelings for him from the night we shared.

  He rubs my hand. "Say something. You're too quiet. I feel like you're mad at me."

  "I'm not mad. I have no reason to be. We weren't together when you were with her. Like you said, you thought I was gone."

  "I know, but I still had feelings for you, so being with Allison always felt wrong. That's why I don't know why I kept going out with her."

  "Because she was, uh...good at certain things?"

  "Shit, I totally forgot she said that. Don't listen to her. I never said that. It's a total lie."

  "Then why'd you keep dating her?"

  "Because I was lonely. And because my relationship with her was shallow. Meaningless. I knew it would never be anything more than it was, and I was okay with that. I wasn't ready to open my heart to anyone else."

  "I felt the same way."

  "What do you mean?"

  "With Matt, my ex. I dated him because I didn't feel much for him. Our relationship was more of a friendship than anything else. He wanted more but I couldn't give it to him. My heart just wasn't in it. He was just someone to do stuff with. I feel bad about it now, but at the time I didn't even know I was using him like that."

  "You and Matt are still friends, right?" Dylan asks.

  "Yeah, but I don't see him much anymore. He has a new girlfriend and it's going really well and I don't want to get in the way of that."

  "I only met him that time at the suit store, but he seems like a nice guy."

  "He is. He's really nice. He's just not for me."

  He smiles. "But I am?"

 
; "You are." I smile back. "Let's get out of here."

  He drops some money on the table and we get up to leave. Allison sees us as we go, but I don't look at her and neither does Dylan.

  On Saturday, Dylan and I go Christmas shopping together. I won't have time to do it later and Dylan wanted to get it over with because he doesn't like shopping. The mall is crowded so we find what we want and get out of there, then head back to my apartment and Dylan makes us dinner. It's just pasta and sauce with a salad but it's sweet that he offered to make it. Most guys I've dated wouldn't even attempt to cook for me.

  Sunday, we savor our last few hours of having the apartment to ourselves. When Kira gets back, Dylan will head home and I'll tackle at least one item on my growing to-do list.

  "This weekend went too fast," Dylan says as we lie in bed after another great round of sex. I'm going to miss the sex. With my crazy schedule starting up again tomorrow, there won't be as much time to be alone with him. Who knows when we'll do it again?

  "It did go fast. I was just getting used to relaxing and now tomorrow it's back to school and work."

  "We could sneak off to the cleaning closet again." He kisses my neck, then up to my lips.

  "We can't. We'll get caught."

  "We won't get caught."

  "We might, and then we'll both be fired."

  "Then we'll find another internship."

  "But I like this one. And I like that I get to work with you." I lay my head on his chest.

  He kisses my head. "Then we'll just have to be more careful when we sneak around."

  "We shouldn't do that anymore. Now that we can do it here, we don't need to be fooling around at work. It's too risky."

  "So you're saying you'll let me come over during the week?"

  "Yeah. Why?"

  "Because you're never here. Are you planning to cut back on some of your activities?"

  "Maybe. I don't know yet."

  "You gonna let me stay over? I'm sure Kira wouldn't mind, given that Austin practically lives here."

  "Actually, they've been staying over at his place a lot. The past few weeks I've had the apartment to myself."

  "Then I need to come over more."

  "What about your place?"

  "We can go there but it's not that clean and it kind of stinks thanks to Van leaving food everywhere. You want to go there tonight?"

  "I guess we could. But I have to be back here by seven tomorrow."

  "I'll set the alarm. I have class at eight."

  Normally, I wouldn't spend this much time with a guy but with Dylan it's different. I want more time with him. These past few days have proved to me that Dylan is more than just a one-night stand. I knew that back in May. I felt it, but I didn't know what to do about those feelings because I never in a million years believed something like that would lead to a serious relationship. But it did. We haven't dated long but it already feels serious. Dylan is already talking about a future with me. I'm not quite at that point but I definitely want to keep dating him.

  A door shuts and we hear voices.

  "Sounds like they're home," Dylan says. He checks the clock. "It's only four. Why are they back so early?"

  "It's not early." I sit up and find my t-shirt on the bed and slip it on. "Kira said she'd be back at three so this is late."

  There's a knock on my bedroom door and I hear Kira. "You guys decent in there?"

  "Yeah," Dylan calls back. "Come in."

  "Dylan!" I whisper, scolding him, because we are not decent. He's naked under the covers and I'm wearing a t-shirt and nothing else.

  Kira opens the door and walks in with Austin at her side.

  Austin grins at us. "Couldn't get out of bed this morning? Late night?" He chuckles.

  "Very late night," Dylan says, grinning back. "Barely got any sleep."

  I hit his shoulder. "No details, remember?"

  "I didn't give any details. I was just commenting about how much we slept."

  I roll my eyes. Even though Kira and Austin know what we were doing, I'm still embarrassed talking about it.

  "Maybe we should go," Kira says, sensing my embarrassment. "We just came in to ask if you guys wanted to go get some food. We didn't know you were um...still in bed."

  "I could go for some food." Dylan looks at me. "What do you think?"

  "Might as well. I doubt I'll get any work done today."

  "It's still the weekend. No work allowed."

  "He banned me from working," I tell Kira. "I went four whole days without doing anything."

  "Oh, no, how did you survive?" she asks, being overly dramatic.

  "Stop teasing me. You know how I get when I'm not busy."

  "Sounds to me like you two were pretty busy," Austin jokes.

  "I'd have to agree with that," Dylan says, smiling as he sits up in bed, his bare chest exposed. I notice Kira checking him out, but then she glances away. I do the same thing to Austin. He's a little too muscular for me but he's still really hot. And when he's shirtless, no girl could look away.

  "Check out this shirt Austin gave me," Kira says, pointing to her gray t-shirt that has a drawing of a guitar on it. "Isn't it cool?"

  "Yeah, I like it," Amber says. "Was it for an anniversary or something?"

  "No, he just gave it to me." She kisses him. "He's sweet that way." She turns back to us. "We'll let you guys get ready. We're ready to go whenever you are."

  "Hurry up. We're starving," Austin says.

  Kira drags him out of the room. "You're always starving."

  When the door is closed, Dylan hauls me into him and kisses me. "You sure you want to go to dinner with them? We could just stay here and do this."

  "We've done a lot of this the past few days. I think it's time we get up."

  He sighs. "If we must."

  I sit up. "Come on. This will be our first double date. It'll be fun."

  "Staying here is also fun."

  "True, but I want to go out with our friends so let's get dressed." I get out of bed before he pulls me back down and tempts me again.

  A half hour later, we're having burgers at a pub down the street, Kira and Austin on one side of the booth, Dylan and me on the other.

  "So what'd you guys do all weekend?" Austin asks with a grin.

  "Austin." Kira nudges his side.

  "What?" He laughs. "I just wanted to know if they did anything fun?"

  Dylan puts his arm around me. "We went to a couple movies," he says, not playing along with Austin's reference to our sex life. "Went out to eat."

  "And tomorrow it's back to work," I say.

  The conversation turns to work and school and then our food arrives. This is strange, being on a double date with Dylan as my date. Strange but good. For months, Kira and Austin went out with Matt and me and it never felt right. No matter how much I fought it, my mind kept thinking about Dylan, and it didn't help that Austin was his friend and talked about him all the time. Austin didn't know about Dylan and me back then so it's not like he knew that his comments about Dylan were affecting me, but they were. They only made me miss him more and wonder if I'd made the wrong decision that night.

  Now Dylan and I are together and I couldn't be happier. I wish I'd done this sooner. All those months, I was so afraid to be with Dylan, thinking my feelings for him would never live up to that night. Afraid to be disappointed and wanting to just keep that night a memory. Thinking that if we ever dated, it'd only be about sex. But now, even after doing it, my concerns about our relationship only being physical are gone. I feel like we're about so much more than that. We have a lot in common. We have a similar sense of humor. And we complement each other well. He's laid back. I'm a workaholic. He has a wild side and I tend to be overly cautious. I could go on and on, but the bottom line is, I feel like that night was meant to be because it led us to each other.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Amber

  The next day, I go to Emily's school for our weekly reading session.

  "You ha
ve a boyfriend," she sings, moving side to side in her seat.

  As usual, she's distracted. I set the book down. "How do you know I have a boyfriend?"

  She points to my face. "Because you have a big smile."

  "Maybe I'm just happy."

  "Because you have booooyfriend." She giggles and covers her mouth.

  "Okay, you're right. I have a boyfriend. Now let's read the story." I pick up the book.

  "What's he look like?"

  There's no way she's going to concentrate on reading now. Our time's almost up so I decide to just talk to her.

  "He's tall. Got dark hair. Dark eyes."

  Her face lights up. "Like Prince Charming?"

  I laugh. "Yeah, I guess. He also plays in a band. He plays guitar and he sings. He's really good. He even wrote a song about me."

  "Wow," she says in a dreamy tone.

  "Yeah, and he writes me letters."

  She scrunches her face up. "All of them?"

  I have no idea what she's talking about. "What do you mean?"

  "My teacher makes us write the letters and I don't like it. I get to the D and want to be done."

  It takes me a moment to figure out she's talking about the alphabet and learning to write letters. I forgot that kids her age probably don't even know what letters are since they've been replaced by texts and email.

  "I didn't mean those kind of letters," I say. "Letters are a note you write someone to tell them something. Instead of talking to them or calling them on the phone or texting or emailing, you get a sheet of paper and a pen and you write them a note."

  "What does it say?"

  "Anything you want. It can say what you did today or how you feel about them or it could tell them to have a good day."

  "Do only boys write them?"

  "No. I write them too. We take turns writing to each other." As I say it, I realize I haven't written Dylan a letter in days. I'll have to write one. Even though we're officially dating, I'm still going to keep writing the letters and I hope he does too.

  "What do you tell him? That he's cute and you loooove him?" She sings the words and then giggles.

  "No, I haven't told him those things, although he IS cute."

  "Do you love him?"

  Do I? No. Of course not. We just started dating. So then why do I feel like I do?