Page 2 of Just for Tonight

"You still have months of living with him. Make it easy on yourself. You should just leave them in the sink to pile up. Then he'll have no choice but to do them."

"He knows I won't do that. I don't like seeing them in the sink, so I just wash them."

"Your brother's in for a rude awakening once you move back home."

"He'll get his girlfriends to do it."

"Multiple girlfriends?"

"Not at one time," Beau said with a shrug. "He's a good delegator, is all I'm saying. He'll probably get someone else to wash them once I move out." Beau pointed at the cup she was holding but not drinking. "Is that my mom's?" he added.

"It is. Grande latte with one pump of cane sugar."

"Do you want me to hold it?"

"Oh, that would be great, actually. You could deliver it, too, if you don't mind. I need to drop something off at the UPS kiosk, and I was going to take your mom her coffee before I went over there. I didn't want it to get cold."

"I'll take it to her," Beau said, reaching for it. "I’m headed there, anyway."

The two made the exchange, and she thanked him before turning to head in the other direction. She yelled back from over her shoulder. "I'll be over there in a few minutes, so I might run into you before you leave. If not, though, have a safe trip back to school!"

"Thank you."

"I hope you don't catch whatever your brother has."

"I hope so, too," he said. "I've already threatened him with his life, so I should be good."

She laughed as the two of them split apart. Beau continued walking across the campus alone. The dance building was straight ahead—it was brick and stone and it reminded him of a smaller version of his own campus at Notre Dame.

Beau didn't talk to anyone else on his way inside. He thought about his interaction with Lizzy, though. It wasn't the first time he had been mistaken for his brother lately, and in years past, that had been a rare occurrence.

Beau had always been physically outshined by his younger brother. That was, no doubt, why Lizzy thought AJ was the eldest. AJ was a natural at everything he tried, and seeing as how he was only sixteen months younger than Beau, and one grade below, they had grown up in constant competition with each other.

All these years, Beau had to work twice as hard at physical things and still was never quite as good as his brother. Beau had always been the skinny one. He hated that word. It made his temper flare just thinking about it. Skinny. He had lived his life being the skinny one. There were even other words he hated—words that should have been innocent, like toothpick and matchstick.

Beau had been the less athletic son, and he worked extremely hard to keep up. He wasn't a bad athlete. In fact, he was a good one. He had played sports his whole life, and he currently played Division One lacrosse at Notre Dame where he started on the varsity team. But his younger brother was the team captain, though. Beau had an outgoing, magnetic personality, but AJ was a born leader and he was a showy, dynamic player on the field.

Beau was a more focused student and he would spur AJ along in his studies while AJ spurred Beau along in sports. Beau studied architecture, and AJ was in school for business. Their roles were reversed in this area. AJ's grades were okay, but his degree was mostly just a bonus. AJ went to Notre Dame to play lacrosse.

The two brothers were alike in a lot of ways, though, and now that Beau was getting older and had filled out physically, people had begun to mistake them for one another. Beau couldn't help but feel satisfied when he thought about Lizzy's reaction to him. She had truly been surprised when he turned around. He saw it in her face. It had been a while since he had seen her, and he looked different enough that she was shocked. Beau smiled at the thought as he walked into the building and toward the stairs.

His parent's home was not far from this campus, so he had been to the school many times. Astrid's office was on the third floor, and he always took the stairs. The building was only three stories, but most people used the elevator. Beau was surprised to hear humming in the stairwell because it was normally empty. He heard murmurs of people in the downstairs hallway as well, but he definitely heard humming upstairs, and he was more certain with every step he took that he would run into the person doing it. He was inside the dance building at an art college, so humming, singing, dancing, and being a character in general were expected.

Beau walked slowly, grinning at this woman's rendition of a song that was familiar to him. It was You Got It by Roy Orbison. He knew it was that song for sure because she was humming the exact notes. He heard the first chorus and then the verse. It was so on pitch and on time that Beau figured whoever was humming was listening to the song with headphones and matching everything perfectly.

Beau could see the person responsible for the humming once he reached the last stretch of steps. It was a woman, and she was sitting in the stairwell with her back to the wall, her arms resting on her knees, and her eyes closed.

Beau walked slowly so that he could take her in. She was sitting with her legs cocked up and he could see that she was wearing some trendy, cargo-looking pants that were loose fitting. She had her hair curled and styled, and her head was leaned against the wall like she was resting on a comfortable pillow. She had a nice physique and she was wearing a fitted shirt, so Beau made himself look away.

She had a similar look to a few of his mom's previous dance students, and he figured she was a dancer. Her clothing and accessory choices told him that she was a little different, bolder than most women. That was why Beau didn't even notice how beautiful she was. He could never be in a relationship with someone like this. She had too much personality for him to handle. He could see that just from her hair and clothing choices.

Her bracelet was a leather dog collar looking thing that had been wrapped around her wrist twice. It had a nameplate on it, but he didn't stare at her long enough to read what it said.

She continued to hum the song and Beau found that he was entranced by her voice. He could hear the raspiness in her tone even though she was only humming. He walked slowly, barely making noise as he made his way up that last flight of stairs.

Chapter 2

Beau

---