Page 6 of For One Night Only

Calling her on her bullshit isn’t my job anymore, but based on the very non-Valerie Toyota Corolla parked on the curb, she came straight from the airport rental lot. She’s obviously here to talk, andI don’t think I’m going to like whatever made her travel a thousand miles to get here.

“How’d you even find me?” I ask.

Valerie clears her throat. “I’m sorry if this is a bad time…”

“No, it’s fine.” I sigh, running a hand through my wet hair. As much as I want to tell her to get back in the car and leave forever, I don’t have the heart to do it, even after all the horrible things we said to each other that last night. Now that she’s here, I know there’s no getting rid of her until she tells me what she came for. “We’ll go inside.”

Sebastian Bark chooses that moment to bound over to Valerie, flopping his wet torso against her legs and begging for scratches with the kind of puppy-dog sweetness that can’t be denied. Valerie crouches down and gets flat pit bull kisses all over her hands for the effort, and I can’t help but soften a little at the sight.

In a different life, he might’ve been hers too.

“Oh my god,” she says, staring up at me with heart eyes. “What a sweetheart.” Valerie beams, like it’s love at first sight. It’s hard not to make the comparison—the last girl I dated, Morgan, was terrified of any dog bigger than a Pomeranian. Our relationship was brief and casual, but if I had to choose, I would have chosen the dog.

With Valerie, that wouldn’t be an issue. She’s always adored dogs.

I clear my throat. “Yeah, Sebastian Bark loves everyone.”

Her smile brightens, and damn it if it doesn’t make the ice in my heart thaw a bit. I’ve never been good at resisting this girl. “Gilmore Girlsor Skid Row?” she asks.

I bite back a chuckle. “Both.”

When we were touring, it was hard to sleep on the bus, so we picked TV shows to binge until we fell asleep.Gilmore Girlswas aparticular Glitter Bats favorite because of the band, especially once SebastianBachshowed up. I’m pretty proud of the terrible pun.

“Great name,” Valerie says. I call for Sebastian Bark again, and he bounds through my front door without further delay.

My jaw tightens as we head inside. The condo is small and bare, and all of my furniture is secondhand or straight from IKEA, obviously cheap. I live on a strict budget, and I can’t help but wonder what Valerie thinks as she takes in the space. It’s a stark contrast to the kind of places she’s used to staying.

At least the place is clean. My bare feet take comfort in the fresh vacuum tracks I laid down before our morning outing. Still, the carpet of my rental is as cheap as the rest of the place.

Most of my Glitter Bats money is long gone. After the first big paycheck, we bought designer clothes and paid for fancy hotel rooms and found the best instruments money could buy. Since I was still used to having a certain amount of (what I thought was) disposable income when I left the industry at twenty-two and went to college, I didn’t know how to manage my money. I blew through my remaining cash and couldn’t cover basic living expenses, which meant crashing on Cameron and Leah’s couch while I finished my degree.

If I could do anything over, it would have been putting all my Glitter Bats money in the bank. Maybe then our younger sister, Carrie, would have a college fund—because Mom sure as hell didn’t plan for her to be a piano prodigy. But there’s not much I can do to help on my teacher salary. Between the cost of rent and my staggering student loan payments, I live paycheck to paycheck, and it shows.

“Like what you’ve done with the place,” Valerie says, and I can’t tell what bothers me more—the fact that she can still read my mind, or the fact that she’s using it to get in a jab.

“It’s what I can afford.” Despite the tension coursing through my veins, I try not to sound super defensive. I don’t want her to know she can still hurt me. Desperate to dosomething, I walk over to the slider and let Sebastian Bark into the backyard to air-dry, keeping an eye on him through the windows. Then I realize I’m still shirtless. Neck heating, I scramble to tug on a T-shirt from the laundry basket I forgot at the base of the stairs last night.

Seemingly oblivious to my discomfort, Valerie wanders around my sparse living room, scrutinizing every inch. She pauses at the one personal item I have out—a photo of me and my sisters at Cameron and Leah’s wedding a few years ago. At the wistful look in her blue eyes, I can’t help but wonder if she wishes she’d been there.

Cameron was like her big sister too.

“You look happy here,” she says.

“I was.” It was a small wedding on the lake, but it was perfect for those two. Mom was actually mentally present for once, Carrie was happy-crying all day, and Strawberry was a very enthusiastic flower girl. It’s the best day I’ve had since I left the Glitter Bats behind.

Suddenly, I’m desperate to figure out what the hell Valerie wants and get her out of here, before I do something stupid like tell her how often I still think of her, or press her up against these godforsaken beige walls and kiss her into oblivion just to see if she still tastes the same. Instead of hovering around the living room like I’m doing, she drops her purse on the floor and sinks into my armchair, draping a knee over one side like she owns the place.

And in that moment, I know why she’s here: she wants something.

Perching on the edge of the couch against the other wall—as far away from her as I can get without being rude—I clear my throat. “So, Valerie…”

“I want to put together a Glitter Bats reunion,” she blurts.

My head swims as I try to register the words, but I feel like I’m hallucinating. She’s out of her mind. “You’re joking.”

“Please, just hear me out.”

Crossing my arms, I scramble to think of the fastest way to get her to leave. I can’t believe she would come here after all this time and ask me forthis. “Nothing has changed. I said I was done.”

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