Page 13 of One Night

"No. We kind of skipped the talking stage and moved right to...you know."

"Sex?" She says it so loud that Ian looks over.

"You change your mind about tonight?" he yells, then snickers to himself.

She doesn't look at him as she gives him the finger. "So let me get this straight," she says. "You had sex with a guy without even knowing his name."

"He told me his name when we got upstairs." I lower my voice. "Before we did it."

Just talking about this, my heart is racing, heat rising inside me. That was the hottest experience of my life. Not just the sex, but the moments leading up to it. I've never been so turned on.

"Oh my God, that is SO unlike you." Her voice rises in pitch. "I can't believe you did that!"

"I can't either. I still can't. But the odd thing is, I don't feel bad about it. Or regret it. At the time, it felt like the right thing to do. Like I said, there was something familiar about him."

She grabs my wrist. "Maybe he's your soulmate! Like you know how they say souls who are a match can recognize each other right away? Maybe that's what happened."

Like me, Holly is a hopeless romantic, which is why I told her this. I knew she'd understand, but I also know she'll tell me to go find Dylan, which I can't do. My hopeless romantic side ends whenever it hits reality. And the reality is, what happened that night with Dylan is not something that could be sustained. The passion. The connection we felt. The communication without words. In the real world, none of that exists. Whatever we experienced that night wouldn't last more than a day, if that.

"We're not soulmates," I tell her. "It was just one of those strange things that can't be explained."

"So what happened? You guys went out and it didn't work? Did he have a girlfriend? Or are you still dating him? Wait—have you been dating him this whole time and you didn't tell me?"

"No. I haven't seen him since that night. That's all it was. One night. Nothing more."

"He didn't call you?" She huffs and slumps back in her chair. "What an ass. Why are there so many assholes in the world?" She glances at the bar. "And why do we keep falling for them?"

"I didn't give him my number," I say. "The next morning I left without saying goodbye."

Her eyes shoot back to me. "Why? Was the sex that bad?"

"No, it was great. Best I've ever had. I just didn't want to get involved with him."

"Why not?"

"Because that night was perfect and I want to remember it that way. If I'd dated him, we'd probably be broken up by now and I'd be left hurt and alone and that night would be ruined. I'd rather just keep it a memory. What happened that night was something that will never happen again and I don't want to ruin it."

"Hmm." She drums her fingers on the table. "I kind of get what you're saying."

"You do?" I ask, surprised, because I thought for sure she'd say I'm crazy. Even I think my reasoning is a little crazy and yet I haven't changed my mind about Dylan. If I ever find him, I'm still not going to date him.

"Last year I dated this guy and we had the absolute best first date. Like the kind you see in movies. I mean, seriously, it was so perfect that part of me was convinced he was my future husband."

"And then what happened?"

"Found out he had a girlfriend. Apparently they were on a break." She puts air quotes around the word 'break'. "After I found out, that first date didn't seem so great after all. I started dissecting it, picking it apart, and by the time I was done, I'd decided it was the worst date ever."

"Yes! Exactly!" I say, elated that someone actually gets my somewhat-crazy reasoning. "If I had dated Dylan, the same thing could've happened to me. Things wouldn't have worked out and the memory of my perfect night would be ruined."

"But still...aren't you curious if things might've worked out? I mean, I didn't have a soulmate connection with The Cheating Dumbass. That's what I call him. He's not worthy of a name. Just like The Asshole." Her eyes flit to the bar, then back to me. "If I'd had that kind of connection, I'd have to know more about the guy. I'd have to at least see him once more, or call him, to see if I still felt that connection."

I've thought about that. About meeting with Dylan just once to see if I still felt that way about him. But I don't have his number or last name so it'll never happen, which is probably for the best.

"I'd rather have it just be a memory," I tell her. I check my phone and see that our break is over. "We have to go, but remember, you can't tell anyone about this. It goes in the vault."

"Got it. It's in the vault." She stands up. "Looks like someone just got seated at your table."

"Seriously?" I get up and see two men in suits sitting at table eight. "It's two-thirty. Who eats lunch at two-thirty?"

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