Filed to story: Once Upon a One Night Mistake Book PDF Free by Simone Shirazi
“That’s what he told you?” Taliana furrowed her brow as she glanced over at Vanessa.
“He never said anything; it’s just what everyone assumed,” Vanessa corrected, tucking a stray lock of blonde hair behind her ear. “But now that she’s back and he’s been acting so weird around her, I don’t think anyone’s believing it anymore. What did he say really happened?”
If she and Sebastian were going to fool everyone into thinking they were really an item, everyone would have to know the true backstory first, and hopefully begin to hate Blair as much as he did. But the last thing she wanted was to go behind his back and spill something she wasn’t supposed to-aka pull a Jude-so she held up a finger for her sisters to wait and sent a quick text to Sebastian, asking if she could tell the twins the real reason behind his split with Blair.
His reply?
I literally don’t care.
That was good enough for her.
“Their breakup wasn’t as friendly as everyone thinks,” Taliana finally told the twins, glad that Marissa instantly reached for her phone. Now everyone was going to find out what a horrible person Blair was. “He told me she cheated on him with his brother and that she disappeared right after.”
“No way!” Marissa practically shrieked. “She cheated on him with
William? Why would she do that?”
Taliana raised and lowered a shoulder. “I know he’s a pretty good-looking guy, but other than that, I have no clue.”
Vanessa shook her head. “Yeah, you’re right about him being hot. William Phillips is drop dead? gorgeous if you go for the preppy frat boy type, but he’s also a total skeeze. I’ve seen him shamelessly hit on girls, even Sebastian’s girlfriends. It’s kind of gross.”
“Doesn’t seem like a very good brother,” Taliana noted. “If I were Sebastian, I probably would have-” The chiming of the doorbell cut off the rest of her sentence.
“Is that him?” Marissa asked excitedly as she sprang from the bed.
Taliana, on the other hand, sat up slowly. “It shouldn’t be. He said he wasn’t planning on getting out of the car.”
“Maybe he changed his mind,” she said excitedly. She then shoved Taliana’s clutch into her hands, grabbed her arm, and started pulling her toward the door. “Come on!”
Taliana grumbled a few incoherent curses as the twins pushed her out of the bedroom, into the hallway, and down the stairs toward the door. Marissa looked through the peephole and squealed in delight.
“It’s him!” she announced in a stage whisper. “And he looks so? handsome .”
Taliana rolled her eyes and gave Marissa a light shove to the shoulder. “Go wait in the living room and make sure Katherine and Dad don’t see him. If they catch Sebastian here, we’ll never leave.”
“Fine, but we’ll be listening.” Vanessa pointed to her ear and then pointed a threatening finger at Taliana before disappearing around the corner with a pouting Marissa by her side.
Taliana shook her head as she opened the door, prepared to give Sebastian a telling off, but when her eyes landed on him, the words died in her throat.
“Hello, sweetheart,” he greeted with a grin. “You look absolutely?stunning tonight.”
For the next few seconds, all Taliana could do was stare at him in awe. To say he looked good was the understatement of the century. His charcoal-gray suit and dark purple shirt were perfectly tailored and clung to him in all the right places. Even his normally disheveled hair was combed neatly for once. This definitely wasn’t the Cry Baby she knew.
“Who are you and what have you done with the real Sebastian Phillips?” Taliana demanded as she surveyed him once more.
He snorted and strolled into the foyer. “I’m his evil twin. The real Sebastian is locked in the trunk of my car.” He shot Taliana a look as if to say? who else could I be? before looking around. “Where are your parents?”
“The twins are covering for me,” she said, motioning vaguely to the back of the house. “Why did you come in?”
“I forgot to tell you to pack an overnight bag, but you weren’t answering your phone after you texted me. You’re not coming home tonight.”
Taliana raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Why not? Where are you taking me?”
“We’re spending the night at Michael’s house after dinner,” he explained. “And unless you want to wear that for the rest of the night, I advise you to go pack something.”
After shooting him a sour look, she started for the stairs. “Fine, fine. But the fact that I have no say in what’s going on here is-” Once again, her sentence was cut off by the sound of the back door closing and her father calling her name.
Sebastian and Taliana locked eyes for one fleeting moment before the panic set in. He lunged for the door first, knowing there was no way they could allow themselves to be caught, but she was close on his heels. Soon she was stumbling out and racing toward Sebastian’s Mercedes, managing to get inside and close her door before he took off down the street at breakneck speed.
Ten minutes later, Sebastian pulled to the curb outside the restaurant. Had it not been for the valet stand and the velvet rope in front of the doors, Taliana would have never assumed this place was a world-famous eatery. The only thing that hinted at it was the faded script on the antique wood door that read
The Sultan’s Palace .
After handing his keys to the valet, Sebastian joined Taliana on the sidewalk, his expression pained. She was pretty sure hers mirrored his.
“We can do this,” he said, as if he were trying to convince himself of that.
Taliana nodded. “We can do this.”
Sebastian blew out a breath and offered her his arm before guiding her into the dimly lit entryway of the restaurant. The ma?tre d’ glanced up when they reached him, a pleasant smile lighting up his face.
“Mr. Phillips!” he greeted. “Your family is already here. Please follow me.”
Taliana’s hand tightened slightly on Sebastian’s arm as a wave of panic crashed over her. She had an awful feeling that something was going to go wrong tonight. Hell, everything was bound to go wrong with the two of them in the same room anyway, but with the addition of his family? That was just asking for disaster.
Sebastian shot her a look, silently urging her to relax, but that only made everything worse. By the time they had passed by the bar and headed to the spiral staircase that led to the second and third floors, he was practically dragging her along.
“I can’t do this,” Taliana gasped, shaking her head. “Your family is never going to believe this!”
“Why do you say that?” he asked as they started up the staircase, shooting her a worried look.
“Sebastian, we can hardly get along for more than five minutes!” she answered exasperatedly, resting her free hand on the wrought iron railing. “How are we going to manage it for hours?”
“We’ve done it before, you know. It couldn’t be that hard to do it again.”
Taliana squinted in confusion. “What are you talking about?”