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That voice.
The familiar sound has me raising my head and turning around to face the man.
“Carter?”
He snaps his head in my direction. “Dylan!”
There’s a long pause as we sit and stare at one another, and it’s the longest pause in fucking history.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he questions.
“I … I got my car fixed and decided that I needed to clear my head, so I continued driving along the highway and ended up in town. Then after some lunch I went by the lake for a stroll, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get you out of my mind. And when nothing else worked, I made my way here to the club.”
“Yeah, life’s a bitch when you realize that you’ve behaved like a complete and utter prick, isn’t it?” he snaps.
“Carter, I—”
“You what? You’re sorry? Is that what you’re going to tell me?”
Okay, so the guy is pissed off, and he has every right to be. I guess it’s going to take a lot of ass- kissing to make up for what I did.
“You have every right to be upset,” I say, as the bartender places his cocktail in front of him.
“Oh, I’m way past upset. Try searching for me somewhere between angry and mad, then do a U-turn and you might find me at pissed off!”
Yep, definitely pissed off!
“I don’t know what else you want me to say. What happened last night was just––”
“Just what? Don’t you fucking dare tell me it meant nothing, cause you and I both know that’s a load of bull.”
“No, I wasn’t going to say that, but this is exactly what I wanted to avoid.”
“What?” he questions.
“This! The confrontation. The awkwardness. Everything that comes after a one-night stand.”
“Is that all I was to you, just a one-night stand?”
“Carter, that’s not what I meant. Shit, this isn’t coming out the way I wanted it to. Can we go somewhere and talk?”
I look at him with pleading eyes. He grabs his Manhattan and moves through the crowd, and I follow closely behind him. Once we make it through the crowd, I find myself back in the bathroom I’d been in only moments earlier.
“A bathroom? Kind of an odd place for a conversation, don’t you think?”
“Talk!”
“When I woke up this morning and saw you lying there naked in that bed, I freaked out. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“So, you decided to just write a note and leave? Coward much?”
“That’s right. I am a coward. And that’s the reason why I left because I knew that if I stayed, I’d screw everything up. I’d say all the wrong things and make matters worse. But it wasn’t just about that. When I saw you lying there all I could think about was how hurt I was when I found out my ex cheated on me. I went into freak-out mode because I was scared.”
“Scared of what?” he asks.
“Scared of hurting you. We’ve both been hurt by our exes and I didn’t want to go through all that again. Not with you. I don’t, for a second, regret what happened last night and that’s why I didn’t stick around because I didn’t want to regret anything later.”
He takes a sip of his Manhattan and places it on the vanity unit before taking a step toward me. The silence that suddenly fills the room isn’t uncomfortable or awkward but peaceful, and I can feel the energy crackling between us as if someone has just walked into the room and flipped a switch.
