Filed to story: Once Upon a One Night Mistake Book PDF Free by Simone Shirazi
“I’m sorry.”
This was the third time in under a minute he’d uttered that regretful three-syllable phrase. Two weeks ago, his apology might’ve meant something. Two weeks ago, it would’ve made her listen to whatever excuse he’d come up with as to why they hadn’t talked in days. Two weeks ago, she wouldn’t have been minutes away from ending things.
Taliana took a deep breath to calm herself, but the humid air did nothing to soothe her nerves. “Just…come inside. My parents and the twins are away.”
Not sparing another glance in his direction, Taliana turned and stalked inside the dark house, going directly to the living room. She didn’t stop to see if he was following-she almost hoped he wasn’t-but the sound of the front door swinging shut was enough of an answer.
She had already taken a corner on the couch when he entered, and she glanced up as he paused in front of her, thought it over, and took a few steps back to lower himself into the armchair on her right. At least he was smart enough to keep his distance.
Light from the streetlamps outside filtered in through the bay window, casting long shadows across the room. Sebastian’s face was perfectly illuminated, but Taliana’s gaze never lingered on it for long. Instead, she stared at the magazines dotting the coffee table and concentrated on sucking in one breath after another.
“Why did you even bother to show up?” she mumbled after a few moments.
She heard him shift in his seat, the rustle of cotton brushing against the leather chair. “I promised you I would. We need to talk.”
“I wanted to talk at some reasonable hour of the night, not two in the morning,” she snapped. “You should’ve just stayed with your girlfriend.”
“Talia…”
The way he said her name, like it was a warning to a child about to do something ill-advised, felt like a slap.
“I still don’t understand why you’re doing this.” Taliana squeezed her eyes shut, a weak attempt to keep from seeing the truth in front of her, but the answer to her question was already clear. “You could have helped her some other way.”
“Come on, Talia,” he said with a sigh, causing her eyes to flutter open once more. “I’ve told you thousands of times, it had to be like this.”
She couldn’t bite back a bitter snort. “Yeah, and for some reason I feel like you’ve lied to me every single time.” As she shook her head, she finally realized something that had been fairly clear from the start. It was amazing she’d missed it up until now. “You still have feelings for her.”
“What? No,” he blurted, clearly taken aback. “Talia,? no . There’s nothing between us.”
“You wouldn’t be doing this if there wasn’t.”
His shoulders tensed. “I’m doing this because no woman deserves to be forced into a marriage she doesn’t want. And, okay, yeah, I’m doing this because she was my best friend for ten years.”
“Then she was your girlfriend who cheated on you,” Taliana pointed out. “It’s almost like you’ve forgotten about that minor detail. Or maybe you haven’t. Maybe you’ve just forgiven her for what she did.”
“I will never forgive her for what she did to me or to you.”
Taliana cocked her head to the side. “So why did you have to do it like this?”
“Because I had to do something,” he sighed. “I need you to understand that.”
“I don’t have to understand anything,” she said, surging to her feet. She stopped short of lunging for him and instead settled for turning away and seething into the darkness. “Maybe you should go back to her then. There’s no point in doing this if you’re just going to lie to me and fall for her all over again.”
His disbelieving scoff felt like yet another slap. “Fall for her again? Are you out of your mind, Taliana? I have absolutely no feelings for Blair!”
She glanced over her shoulder but couldn’t bring herself to look any further than the coffee table. “For some reason, I really doubt that, Sebastian.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Why would I ever do that? I’m with you for a reason.”
“Don’t give me that,” she said, finally lifting her gaze to him. “When I agreed, I never expected to be treated like this. Do you realize that you barely give me the time of day anymore? You barely answer my calls, you avoid all my questions, and you act as if I mean nothing to you.”
Sebastian climbed to his feet, shoulders hunched in defense. “You mean more to me than you’ll ever know.”
“You certainly have a way of showing it.”
He rolled his neck, an attempt to quell his temper, and shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants. “This is crazy, Taliana,” he said quietly, clearly struggling with keeping calm. “I don’t understand why we’re even having this conversation.”
“We’re having this conversation because I’m sick of staying quiet about everything,” she snapped, finally turning to face him fully. “I’m tired of backing off whenever you say you don’t want to talk about it. I’m tired of being lied to. This is my business as much as it is yours.”
“I still don’t see why you’re so worked up about it!” He shook his head. “Look, why don’t we both get some rest, and we’ll discuss this in the morning when we’re both in better moods. This isn’t the right time to talk because we’re just going in circles.”
“There won’t ever be a right time to talk. Putting it off won’t help us any.”
Sebastian pulled his hands out of his pockets, as if to put them up in defeat, but the movement caused something to fall out of his pocket, something that glinted in its descent. Time seemed to slow as Taliana bent to pick up the ring, a ring that almost resembled the one on her right hand but was obviously meant to be worn on the left.
“What’s this?” she asked, though she already knew the answer.
He grabbed it back before Taliana could think to close her hand around it. “It’s nothing.”
“That’s your mother’s engagement ring.” Her mouth suddenly felt dry, and her head spun as the puzzle pieces started to come together. “You were going to give it to Blair, weren’t you?”
“It thankfully didn’t come to that,” he mumbled, hastily shoving it back into his pocket. “It was just to reassure Blair’s father that I was serious.”
“So that was your master plan? Convince her father you wanted to marry her? Put an actual ring on her finger to make it all seem real? When were you planning on telling me this?”
“Like I said, I didn’t have to do it.”
“That’s not the? point, Sebastian!” she shot back. “It’s the fact that you kept this from me in the first place! What would you have said if I saw that on her hand? How would you have explained that to me?”
“I would have told you before then.”
“Really? You sure about that?”
He still said nothing. With the way he continued to avoid answering her accusation, he was only digging himself deeper and deeper into shit.
“That’s what I thought.” Taliana laughed humorlessly as she shook her head, coming to yet another painful realization. This one hurt far worse than any of the others. “I can’t do this anymore. I just… I just can’t. I don’t want to share you with her.” A surge of defeat hit her, the fight finally flowing out. “Sebastian, either you end it with Blair, or we’re done.”