Filed to story: Once Upon a One Night Mistake Book PDF Free by Simone Shirazi
“Taliana Colton-Avilla, where in the world have you been?”
Cringing at the sheer volume of her father’s voice, Taliana cracked open an eye and took in the sight in front of her. Charles was standing hands on hips a few feet away, his mouth set in a hard line. In an attempt to pacify the situation, Taliana tried her best to pull an innocent smile onto her lips.
“Hi, Daddy.”
If the twins could get out of trouble by batting their eyelashes and sucking up to daddy dearest, maybe she could do the same.
“Don’t you ‘hi, Daddy’ me, Taliana,” he snapped. “Where have you been? Katherine and I have been worried sick about you!”
Shit. It didn’t look like playing darling daughter was going to get her out of this one. “I’ve uh- I was- I went-” She trailed off, unable to come up with a valid excuse. With the way he was glaring and clenching his jaw, Taliana was seconds from blurting the truth, but she was saved when someone else answered for her.
“She was at Jude’s house,” Vanessa said as she popped into the room, shooting Taliana a look that clearly said? follow my lead and no one gets hurt.
“He just dropped her off.”
“Yeah,” Taliana mumbled, rubbing the back of her neck. “I, uh, spent the night at his place.”
Taliana thought her answer had been a relatively good one, but judging from the way her father’s face was turning redder by the second made her reconsider.
“You spent the night at a? boy’s? house?”
“Dad, relax,” Vanessa cut in, coming to Taliana’s rescue once again. “He’s gay.”
The anger on their father’s face turned to confusion, then to realization, then to something she couldn’t read.
“Oh.” His brow finally relaxed and his hands dropped from his hips, both good signs that Taliana wasn’t going to face a life sentence of grounding. “I guess that’s all right. But you should have called us anyway. I had to talk Katherine out of calling the police five times last night since she was so worried something had happened to you.”
“I’m perfectly fine,” Taliana lied, wincing slightly as a sharp pain shot through her head. “Really.”
Charles looked like he didn’t believe a word of it. “Go to your room, Taliana. We’ll discuss this later.”
With one last pointed look at her and Vanessa, he turned and left the foyer, leaving the two girls by themselves. Inside, Taliana was doing a victory dance that she’d escaped punishment for the time being, but she was too tired to even give herself a pat on the back.
“I’m going to bed,” she mumbled to Vanessa as she kicked off her heels and shuffled toward the staircase. “I owe you one.”
“Oh no you don’t!” Vanessa grabbed Taliana’s hand and hopped up on the first stair, putting her at the same height as Taliana. “You’ve got some major explaining to do.”
“Can’t it wait?” she whined as she tried to slip around Vanessa. “I’m not in the mood to talk about anything right now.”
Maybe it was the way Taliana said the words, or maybe it was because she looked like she was seconds away from hurling all over the floor, but Vanessa blew out a heavy sigh and stepped out of her way.
“Fine, but you better tell me everything later.”
“I will, I will,” Taliana promised, waving a hand over her shoulder as she started up the stairs.
She finally stumbled into her bedroom a few seconds later and shut the door before wriggling out of her wet dress. The relief she felt as it fell to the ground was almost enough to make her cry tears of joy, but nothing could compare to the bliss of throwing on a pair of pajamas and collapsing face-first onto her bed. She managed to get in one last yawn before her already comatose brain decided it was time for lights out.
Her phone, however, had a different idea.
Its incessant buzzing chased away every ounce of sleep in Taliana’s body, bringing on an onslaught of rather colorful curse words instead. In an attempt to get the damn thing to shut up, she slapped blindly at her bedside table, trying to locate it without having to open her eyes. Once her fingers curled around it, she toyed with the decision to either fling it across the room or simply silence it, but when she saw it was her mother calling, she had no choice but to pick up.
“Hi, Mom,” Taliana mumbled groggily as she struggled to sit up again. “How are you?”
“I’d be better if my daughter could remember to call me,” she sniffed, though Taliana knew she was just kidding. “Didn’t I tell you to give me a ring when you got there?”
Taliana groaned and ran a hand through her tangled hair, wincing when she hit a few snags. “Ah, sorry about that. I forgot.”
Her soft chuckle made Taliana smile. “You haven’t changed one bit.”
“I’ve only been gone three days.”
“It feels like it’s been three months.” She sighed. “I miss you like crazy. Hopefully you’re holding up better than I am.”
“I really haven’t had much time to think about how much I miss LA,” she said honestly, drawing her knees up to her chest. “I’ve basically been on the go since I got here.”
“Your father told me he’s barely seen you since the day you arrived. He said the twins were keeping you pretty busy.”
Taliana raised an eyebrow in amusement. “Since when do you talk to Dad? Even when you lived around here, you barely spoke two words to him whenever you dropped me off at his house on the weekends.”
“We only talk when necessary,” she clarified. “And when a certain daughter of mine forgot to call and tell me she’d gotten there safely, I had call to Charles instead. Not only did he assure me you were fine, he told me you’d gone to a party.” Taliana could feel her smirk across the line. “Didn’t you tell me your partying days were over, missy?”
Taliana groaned and dropped her forehead to her knees. “I thought they were.”
“Did you at least have a good time, though?”
“It was okay,” she said after a beat. She certainly wasn’t about to share any details about the second half of the night, but she figured her mom could know about who she’d run into. “I saw Zak there last night.”
There was a long pause on the other line, but the sound of her mother’s steady breathing alerted Taliana that she was still there. “I guess I should have told you he was going to live with his aunt in D.C.,” she admitted meekly.
Taliana’s heart thudded dangerously against her ribs as her head snapped up. “You? knew Zak was here?
Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”
“I forgot?”
“Mom!”