7. Stella
STELLA
Regret was a bitch.
Living the way I lived, regret was something I strived never to feel. Yet, slipping out of my tall, dark, and handsome stranger’s bed, I felt it. Unequivocally, down to my toes, I regretted it. It felt wrong in every sense of the word.
“I should have left him a note,” I mumbled into my cell phone.
“Wait, you just… left? Just… like that?” she asked. I nodded even though I knew she couldn’t see me.
“We had rules,” I reminded her after telling her most of the story.
“You break the rules all the time!” Rainy said, and I laughed because I’d known that was what she was going to say.
“It doesn’t matter.” I sighed. I was full of shit. “He was…”
“What?” Rainy asked. I sighed.
“Too good to be true.” The words slipped past my lips way too easily, but I couldn’t get myself to take them back. Not when they felt so real. So honest.
“Too good to be… Wait, who are you, and what did you do to my no-strings=attached little sister? Because this sounds like maybe you want a lot more than just another spin around the Ferris wheel, if you know what I mean.”
“I’m still me. I just…” I chewed on my bottom lip, looking out the city as my Uber drove to the restaurant where I was supposed to meet Sam’s friend. “I just… I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I mean, I do. He was great and sweet and funny, and I just…” I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I was smitten. No, I was more than smitten. Shit, am I in love?
“Why don’t you go back?”
“What?” I asked, because the L-word was stuck in my head.
“Go back to his place, tell him you want to exchange info and maybe see him again?”
“I can’t do that!” I gaped. “He will think I am some weirdo, stalker girl.”
“Hey, he might like that,” she teased, but I didn’t make a sound. “Okay, kidding. But, babe, you’ve never cared what anyone thought about you. Why are you going to start now?”
“I mean…” She had a point. “But I have to meet Sam’s friend.”
“Ugh, Sam! I love our big bro, but he’s a little much sometimes.” I smirked because I knew exactly where this was going.
“Let me guess. He’s trying to hook you up?”
“No,” she said with a tinge of ick in her voice. I frowned. I was wrong? “He’s trying to talk me out of going to San Diego next month.”
“But isn’t that for work?” My sister worked for the school district.
She used to teach but headed onto the administrative side of things a couple of years back and had become a badass thanks to her big brain and workaholic tendencies.
Where I believed in the universe speaking to me in different ways, my sister was very much black and white with very little gray in between, not to mention a huge stickler for rules.
“Exactly! He’s too overbearing for words. Joke’s on him because my flight’s booked for that and for a little trip to Vegas for the weekend after.” Rainy might like rules and regulations and getting through red tape, but she loved letting her hair down in a place where no one would know her.
“Vegas, huh?” That warm prickling feeling flushed through me, the same one I had felt before walking into the bar. The same one that always alerted me that something big was going to happen. “You should gamble,” I blurted.
“Let me guess… this your psychic abilities again?”
“Hey, don’t knock it! Last time I felt this, I told Mom to take a chance, and she won,” I reminded her.
“A thousand dollars from a scratcher, I know,” Rainy groaned. I smiled.
“Maybe take a risk. Gamble some.”
“Maybe.” I could picture her shoulder lifting and falling. “I’ll set some money aside and play. Honestly, all I want is to sit poolside with a huge frosty drink and a thick smutty book.”
“Scandalous.” I giggled.
“You could cancel on Sam’s friend, you know?” Rainy brought up. “Go see your guy, tell him you changed your mind and—“
“I can’t,” I whispered, knowing just how big a coward it made me.
“You said he’s different.” I chewed on my bottom lip. Maybe it’s time for me to gamble on something? “Take a chance,” my sister pressed on.
“No matter the risk?” She tsked.
“This isn’t like you. You’re the bravest person I know.”
“If that’s the case, you need to meet new people.”
“Psh,” she giggled. “You just moved to a different state after moving to another one.”
“So? People move all the time.”
“Yeah, for work!”
“And?”
“Babe, you work from home. You could literally work from anywhere. Literally from a kayak in the middle of a lake as long as you had a hotspot with you.”
“I know but…”
“No buts!” she argued, and I was about to crack and give in. “You’re brave and strong and bold. In a lot of ways… I wish I were a little more like you.”
“You do?” This was new.
“I do.” That made me smile. I glanced at the clock. Would it be terribly rude to cancel last minute? For all I knew, depending on where this guy lived, he might already be on the way to the spot we were supposed to meet. I couldn’t do that.
“Rainy, if the universe wants us to meet again, I’m sure our paths will cross again,” I said like I always did.
But for the first time, I hated the words. I wasn’t sure if I believed it.
“Why wait for life to start happening? Why not go after it?”
“I did go after life,” I tried to argue with myself.
I’d come to Houston, moved my entire life here to go after my dreams. Now what if my heart suddenly had one she wanted to come true?
My handsome stranger’s face popped into my head just as my Uber slowed.
I looked out at the two-story teal-blue building that felt almost out of place compared to the other ones around the way.
“Thank you,” I said, handing my Uber driver a cash tip before stepping out of the car. “You should see this place.”
“Nice?”
“Incredible, actually. I’ll send a picture.”
“Okay, well, have fun, and if this guy’s boring, cut brunch early and go back to your guy!”
“He’s not my guy.” I laughed, but not without blushing. “Talk to you later. Love you.”
“Love you, too, Stells,” Rainy said before ending the call. I straightened the yellow and white polka dot halter sundress I had put on after my shower, then headed inside the place and waited for the hostess to see me, when I felt someone tap my shoulder.
“Excuse me, are you Stella Miranda?” a deep, masculine, almost familiar voice asked, and when I turned, the world slowly came to a halt.
“You!” the two of us exclaimed with sheer and utter surprise.
He was there.
Right there.
In front of me.
We stared at one another for a long moment.
Butterflies of excitement floated low in my belly.
My Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome Stranger stood just inches away from me, his hand still cupping my bare shoulder as we stared at one another.
I couldn’t tell you what was happening around us, if it was full or empty or what it smelled like.
Not when all I could seem to focus on was him.
“Hey.” I smiled softly, almost shyly. In flats today, standing so close made me realize just how much shorter I was than him.
“Trouble.” The nickname sounded familiar, almost intimate, as he grinned and shook his head, his brows bunching together. “What are you doing here?”
“Brunch,” I answered and tried not to wince. Would he think I was on a date with someone else?
“Brunch?” he repeated, but I couldn’t get a read on him.
“Yup.” I nodded. “You?”
“Brunch, too.” His lips started to twitch almost like he thought something was funny. Almost hilarious by the way his dark eyes shimmered.
“I’ve heard it’s a good spot for… brunch.” I almost winced at the terrible small talk I was making. What the hell is wrong with me!? I was the queen of small talk!
“I’ve heard that, too.” His smile grew broader, almost like there was some kind of secret he was onto and I wasn’t.
“What is it?” I asked, feeling slightly self-conscious. I glanced down at my dress just to make sure the halter part hadn’t somehow come undone and my boobs were on full display. Nope. All safe there. I wiped at my face. Had my lip gloss smeared? Mascara run?
“What’s so funny?” I finally broke down and asked.
“Stella, baby, you’re really not putting it together here, are you?” he asked softly. His hand dropped from my shoulder but immediately found mine.
Our fingers seamlessly tangled together like they had been looking for one another for a lifetime and had finally found each other.
I glanced down and blinked at the sight of his hand in mine.
It was something so easy, so simple. Innocent.
But the heat that swirled inside of me was anything but innocent.
It reminded me of tangled bed sheets and limbs and sweaty bodies writhing against one another all night long because they couldn’t get enough.
The hostess called out a name, but I was simultaneously too focused and too flustered by my one-night stand showing up where I was, that I didn’t really pay attention until my handsome stranger started to walk, his free hand on the small of my back while I tried to figure out what he’d just asked as I followed him to a booth in the back.
“Thank you. I got it from here,” he said politely to the hostess, who was seriously obvious as she checked him out.
I wanted to stomp my foot or say something to her, but he wasn’t mine.
Shit, I didn’t even know his name! For all I knew, he was married with two kids and a Golden Retriever.
He said he didn’t, but between my sisters and me, we’d heard and seen it all. He could have easily lied.
“Sounds good. Your server will be right with you,” the hostess said, and he pointed at the booth seat. Still weirdly on auto-pilot, I slipped in, and he slid right next to me.
“What are you—“
“What sounds good to you?” he asked, opening the menu.
“What?” I gawked at him.
“Food? Brunch? I know I worked up an appetite.” His grin turned lethal, like he was determined to get my panties to go up in smoke.
“Look, I don’t know what you think you’re doing but— Wait a second, how did you know my name?” My sinfully sexy stranger was at least enough of a gentleman to not flat out laugh at me.
“I was wondering how long it was going to take you to notice that.”
“No, seriously.” I frowned
“Stella—“
“And how did you know I was going to be here? Are you following me?” I scooted deeper into the booth.
“First off, breathe. The universe seems to like me today.”
“The universe?” I repeated, hating how much I liked that he said that.
“Stella, who are you here to meet?”
“My brother’s old high school friend, umm… Chance something.” He coughed and then laughed, gently setting down the menu on the tabletop.
Turning his large body to the side, he extended his hand towards me. “Stella, it’s nice to officially meet you. I’m Scott Chance.”
“Scott. Chance.” I swallowed slowly as it hit me all at once.
My guy, my beautiful perfect stranger, had a name. The perfect name!
And shit! He was one of my brother’s best friends!