Filed to story: Once Upon a One Night Mistake Book PDF Free by Simone Shirazi
Vanessa took a hesitant step forward, edging around a pile of t-shirts. “When did you last have it?”
Taliana wracked her brain for an answer. “Um, at the party,” she said, trying to think back. “I had it when we got there, and I’m pretty sure I had it when I left with that guy, so it must be-“
“Wait, wait, wait,” Marissa interrupted, shaking her head as she shot Taliana a confused look. “What guy?”
Taliana grimaced and ran a sweaty palm over her pajama pants. “I went back to some guy’s hotel room last night,” she confessed, knowing there was no way she would find the ring if she didn’t fill them in completely. “I woke up this morning and got out of there as fast as I could.”
Marissa gasped and slapped a hand over her mouth while Vanessa simply raised an eyebrow.
“Did you sleep with him?” Vanessa questioned.
“Yeah,” Taliana admitted, heat creeping into her cheeks as vague memories from last night finally came flooding back. “But that’s not important!” she exclaimed as she continued to fight the blush. “What’s important is that I’m pretty sure I left my ring in his hotel room.”
“I guess that’s not so bad,” Vanessa said with a shrug. “I mean, if you know his name, you could call the hotel and ask what room he’s in. Hopefully he’ll still be there.”
“That’s the problem,” Taliana said, blowing out the breath she’d been holding. “I can’t remember his name.”
Marissa bit her lip as she shifted her weight from foot to foot. “That could be a problem.”
“You think?” Taliana shot her an exasperated look. “I don’t remember his name, I don’t remember the room number, and I don’t remember what the hell possessed me to even sleep with him!” She plopped onto the floor when her legs decided they didn’t want to support her anymore. “This is a disaster.”
After sending a pained glance at her twin, Vanessa moved to where Taliana was sitting and knelt beside her. “I don’t want to make you feel any worse, Talia,” she began softly, reaching out to put a hand on Taliana’s knee, “but I don’t think you’re going to get that ring back.”
As much as Taliana hated to admit it, Vanessa was probably right.
With a heavy sigh, she surrendered to her obvious fate. The ring was gone and it would take a miracle for her to ever find it again.
“I am so? fucked .”
* * *
“I am so? fucked .”
Sebastian dragged a hand down his face, marking the end of what had been an unbearably lengthy and disappointingly fruitless search for his former bedmate.
“I have to agree with you there,” Jacob sighed. “All those girls on the list and not one of them was her. Are you sure it was a girl you had in your room last night?”
Marcus, who’d been quietly sipping a cup of coffee in the corner of the hotel room, let out a loud laugh. Michael, however, looked as though he wasn’t willing to risk getting on his best friend’s bad side today.
“We should just give up for the time being,” Michael announced, rising from his seat at the table. “We’re obviously not getting anywhere, and I’m ready to get the fuck out of here.”
“Agreed,” Marcus said as he got up as well. “I say we all go home and try again later.”
Sebastian exhaled and dragged a hand through his hair. While he didn’t exactly want to give up the search, they’d accomplished absolutely nothing in the two hours it had taken them to go over the female half of the guest list.
It didn’t help that they were all running on a few hours of sleep, causing them to act like dumbasses with short tempers. Sebastian especially, since his temper hadn’t been all that great to begin with. Even Marcus, who had the patience of a saint, was suffering. He’d tried to ease his nerves by smoking nearly half a pack of cigarettes, but it wasn’t looking like they’d helped much. So instead of demanding they all stay and continue to look, Sebastian waved a hand in dismissal.
“Six o’clock, my house,” he said as a means of goodbye. “We’ve got to find this girl.”
“You’ve got to find this girl,” Michael corrected, patting him twice on the shoulder before strolling toward the door with Marcus and Jacob in tow. “But we’ll try our best to help.”
Sebastian rolled his eyes and watched as they left the room, not taking his eyes off the door until it had been closed for a good minute and a half. With a defeated sigh, he finally hauled himself out of the chair and snatched the guest list off the table, deciding to give it one more go over before checking out and heading home.
But another twenty minutes of pacing and reading only gave him the same results as the previous time. Not even one of the people on the list remotely reminded him of the girl he’d been with last night.
She hadn’t been particularly unique with her long, dark hair and porcelain skin, but she’d still stood out from the crowd. Her height was part of the reason, and had he been any shorter, he would have found the fact that she was over six feet tall in heels a little intimidating, but at six foot three there’d still been a comfortable difference between them. She had been thin, too, like the models on the covers of the fashion magazines that Jude always carried around. Her hipbones had honestly been borderline dangerous.
But it was her sharp smile that he couldn’t seem to get out of his head. That sinful mouth of hers had been contorted into a half-smile the whole time. Never in his life had he seen a smile that he hated more than hers, but he couldn’t seem to figure out why.
It was all beside the point now that she was gone, but there was part of him that wanted to see it again. To see? her again.
Sebastian finally stopped his pacing and glanced at the diamond ring sitting on the table. He was almost glad this thing was giving him a reason to find her, because, frankly, he wanted to know what was really behind that teasing half-smile of hers.
Whatever it took, he was going to find her. He wanted answers.
Old Habits Die Hard
It had been five days since Sebastian Phillips’ party, and Taliana still hadn’t found the ring.
She’d gone back to both the hotel and the club where the party had been held, hoping someone from the management had found it and was keeping it safe, but no one had seen or heard anything.
By then she was beating herself up for having been so careless that night, wanting nothing more than to turn back time and make it so she’d never gone to the party. The calls from her mother weren’t helping much either, since all Andrea had to say was how upset she was with Taliana for losing such a priceless item. Luckily, she hadn’t disowned Taliana yet, but if that thing didn’t turn up in the next week or so, Taliana was pretty sure her name was going to be erased from the Colton family tree.
“I hate my life.”
The boy stretched out on the chaise to Taliana’s left turned his head to shoot her a pitiless look. “Would you quit it with the dramatics?” Jude sighed, obviously tired of her bitching. “Really, Talia, it’s not very becoming.”
The only good thing that had come out of the entire situation was Jude, who was helping her out every step of the way. While the twins only lent a hand whenever it was convenient for them, Jude was determined to help-and pull her back from the edge when she was on the verge of completely freaking out. She’d expected him to ditch her by now for someone more interesting, but he didn’t leave even when Sebastian texted him with his own emergency. Jude had turned off his phone before his cousin could explain his dilemma. Out of everything he’d done for Taliana in the past few days, the fact that he was choosing her over Sebastian was enough to cheer her up a little.
Currently, they were outside enjoying the summer sun in Taliana’s backyard, their chairs placed a couple feet from the glittering pool, soaking up the last bit of the strong August rays. She was trying her hardest not to stare at his bare chest and glistening abs, but it was practically a lost cause. Jude was too gorgeous for his own good, and Taliana was sure anyone would have agreed. The boys he was interested in had no idea how lucky they really were.
Jude’s deep voice drew Taliana out of her admiration, and she looked back up at him in surprise, not having heard a word he’d said. “Huh?”
He rolled his eyes, looking playfully annoyed. “I? asked if you had any more ideas of where your ring could possibly be.”
“None at all,” she grumbled, sliding lower in her seat. “I still think that guy I went back to the hotel with has it. I just wish I knew who he was.”