Page 3 of Dear One Night Stand
“I don’t know what he looks like,” a shrill voice says behind Annie. “I told you it’s a blind date.”
Annie’s eyes widen, but neither one of us moves, instead, listening to the one-sided conversation of my blind date.
“I don’t know what he looks like, but that doesn’t really matter. As long as the rumors are true about the size of his trust fund, he can have a second head for all I care."
I tense. There is no way that Dela tried to set me up with this woman by selling me to her on the fact that I have a trust fund. She knows I haven’t touched the thing since I turned of age and the substantial amount of money was available to me.
I’ve always been fiercely independent and not one to state through life using my family’s name to get what I want without putting in the effort. I want to make it on my own, even if that means taking the long, hard road.
Annie lets go of my hand and turns around on her stool to face my date. When I realize what she’s about to do, I turn back to the bar but watch from the corner of my eye.
“Are you Gabby?” she asks innocently.
The side-eyed look that Gabby gives Annie makes the protective side of me want to put myself between the two of them.
“Hang on, Tori,” Gabby says and lowers the phone from her ear. “How do you know my name?”
“I got your name from a guy named Chris. He was in here a while ago, at the time you were supposed to meet him, but he got a call a few minutes ago and had to leave.”
“And who are you?” Gabby asks.
Annie shrugs. “Just a helpful patron that offered to pass on the information of what happened if you showed up.”
Gabby lifts her phone back up to her ear and turns to walk away. “The jerk stood me up.”
Annie turns back to me with a sheepish smile on her face. “I hope that was okay.” She points over her shoulder towards Gabby’s retreating form. “What I just did.”
“Are you kidding?” I laugh. “You just saved me big time.”
“I thought as much." She smiles. "You got this weird look on your face, and I thought I’d spare you.”
“I owe you one.”
She waves my offer away like it was no big deal.
“Annie?” A male voice asks behind us.
Without turning to look and see who called her name, the color in Annie’s face drains, and I realize that this must be the ex.
3
ANNIE
For a moment between meeting Chris and saving him from his gold-digging blind date from hell, I nearly forgot what I was doing here tonight.
I turn around slowly and see Baker standing behind me with his arm draped over the shoulder of a woman that eerily like me—dark hair, pale complexion, and a curvy figure.
I can’t help but stare at her. My brain is slow to react until Baker speaks again.
“I wasn’t sure if you were going to come tonight,” he says.
It takes everything in me to try to find the words to respond. There is a slight buzzing in my head. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m seeing Baker for the first time since he dumped me or if it’s because he’s standing here with a woman that could be my doppelganger.
I slide off my stool. “I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.”
Baker smiles, and it almost looks triumphant, like he enjoys that he's still got some kind of power over me.
“Babe, if you aren’t going to introduce me,” Chris stands and holds out his hand to Baker. “I’m Chris, Annie’s boyfriend.”
