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“You guys can stop whispering about me.” I keep my eyes focussed on the green and red pipe cleaners I am twisting into wreaths to decorate the Christmas tree Simon brought over two days ago. It has been sitting in the corner of the living room with its branches looking bare.
If I look at them, they will know that my mind keeps drifting beyond the ornaments I am making to Simon and the naughty things we got up to on this couch earlier today.
“Focus.” Kelsey says, holding up a string of multi-coloured lights. “Decorating this tree is a priority.”
Kelsey arrived home about an hour ago with bags full of stuff from the craft store to make ornaments, cranked the Christmas music, and we have been a glue gunning assembly line ever since. I don’t really mind. I enjoy crafts. Kind of miss doing them with my kids. Not that they were ever thrilled to participate, especially my girls. Abigail was always too busy with her sports, and Lillian preferred video games and gossiping with her friends. Sometimes Jake will do them with me, but his preference is to play Lego or ride his bike with his buddies.
And this tree needed something. It has been looking pitiful sitting in the corner with its bare branches, although, admittedly, it kind of fit my mood right up until this afternoon. A naughty grin slides across my face at the memory of what Simon and I did in front of that tree.
“Not until you give us some juicy details.” Marisol’s head pops around from the back of the tree, where she is helping Kelsey with the lights. She steadfastly refused to get involved in anything that involved glitter or glue.
“There aren’t any juicy details.” The heat in my cheeks would give away the lie, even if they hadn’t arrived to find Simon in nothing more than a pair of low-slung jeans, which emphasized his well-defined abs and dark hair leading to hidden delights. I wrench my thoughts away from Simon’s happy trail and what is at the other end of it, before I can’t make eye contact with my friends ever again.
“Your shirt was on backwards.” Jenna sets the glue gun carefully on the table. She is creating ornaments with each of our names by sticking Scrabble tiles together.
“There are lots of reasons for my shirt to be on backwards,” I protest. Not that I am fooling anyone. Simon and I were literally caught with our pants down, and the room had sexy vibes written all over it.
Kelsey snorts and hands the strand of lights to Marisol. “I’m thinking we need to sit you down for the sex talk.”
“Maybe, she just doesn’t kiss and tell,” Charlotte says, barely looking up from the wine corks she is diligently painting to look like snowmen.
“Oh, she’s going to tell, because she definitely did some kissing,” Fae says from next to me on the couch. “And by the look of her, it was sensational.”
“Oh God,” I groan and flop back on the couch, flinging one arm over my eyes and trying not to think about the sinful things that Simon did to my naked breasts right here on this couch. I can’t hold it in anymore, because I don’t do enough sensational kissing to not kiss and tell. At least to my girlfriends, anyway. It isn’t like I am going to make an announcement in the village square. “It was amazing. He is so sweet, and I basically jumped him.”
Okay, so jumping him probably isn’t giving them the exactly right visual of what happened. It was much more romantic, and I did ask him before I tackled him to the ground. Then there was the whole condom scramble.
I giggle.
Marisol pops back out from behind the tree. “What is that giggle?”
I purse my lips to keep from laughing again. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”
Marisol grunts as she wiggles out from behind the tree. Placing her hands on her hips, she stares me down. “Spill.”
I let my arm drop, peering at each one of my friends. The whole thing is kind of embarrassing, but at the same time, I know they will get it.
“Okay,” I groan, “picture yours truly,” I swipe my hand down my body, “running around with no shirt or bra on, searching for condoms.”
“You didn’t have a condom? Please tell me you used a condom. This group is too old for baby drama.” Marisol folds her arms across her chest and gives me the exact look that I would have given my daughters if I suspected they let a boy anywhere near them without a condom.
“That’s what you took from that?” Kelsey asks, dropping the string of lights and moving closer. “Did you miss the part about the free-range boobs and running?”
“We used a condom.” I shoot Marisol a so-there look. “Thanks to Kelsey’s supply.”
“I’m still trying not to imagine Ruby’s boobs flopping everywhere. It must’ve been a sight,” Fae says.
“At least I still had my panties on.”
“No. Panty-free is always preferable to braless. Vaginas need much less support during running,” Jenna says.
Maybe it is because Jenna is usually so serious and logical, or maybe we all just need to let some stuff out, but I sputter, then Charlotte does, then suddenly we are all laughing. Full-on belly laughs. The kind that are as cathartic for your soul as a good cry.
“Hey. This is my naked escapade that you’re all finding so funny.” I try to say it with a serious face, but I can’t. It is too much, and I collapse into Fae, and we howl together until there are tears coming from our eyes.
When we finally sober up enough to function, Kelsey gets us right back to work at decorating the tree. Nolan is picking her up for a night hike to some kind of spectacular viewpoint, and she wants to have the tree decorated before he gets here.
I get it. It was really sweet of him to make sure that we had a tree, even sending Simon over when Nolan couldn’t deliver it himself. And she wants to make sure that he knows she appreciates it, plus she likes him. She might think she is fooling us, but she isn’t. She has it bad for Nolan.
“I’m assuming since you’re going out with him tonight that things worked out at climbing,” Jenna says.
“Climbing went great. I made it to the top, although my muscles are going to make me pay for it tomorrow.” Kelsey bends down to plug in the lights to illuminate the tree, keeping her face turned from us.
She thinks she is sly, but my afterglow has heightened my senses, sharpened my intuition, and I know she is trying to keep her voice casual. Something definitely happened with Nolan.
“Uh huh.” Jenna adds Kelsey’s name ornament to the tree. “Maybe, I should make one of these with Nolan’s name on it, so that he has one for next year.”
Apparently, Jenna senses it too.
Kelsey guffaws. “You might want to hold off on booking us a wedding venue. This thing is still just an arrangement. Nolan and I are just friends. But speaking of friends, I hope you all have your sexy secret Santa gifts ready.”
A collective groan sweeps through the room, and Jenna and Fae resume their argument about the gift exchange. I ignore them. Sexy secret Santa gifts are the last thing on my mind. Hanging another wreath on the tree, I grin inwardly as their chatter fades into the background. Today was really special, and maybe Christmas without my kids isn’t going to be so bad, because I have all my friends—and Simon—to spend it with.
And hopefully we will have lots of opportunities to do more of all the things we got up to this afternoon. I smile briefly at the thought, then I suck in a breath as my chest squeezes. I didn’t think any of this through. My hand trembles, and I drop one of the wreathes.
It took awhile for my train of thought to catch up to the reality of the situation. I was too distracted by all the teasing to connect the dots. But now that I have, I can barely breathe.
Simon left so quickly after the gang arrived that we never discussed our next move. The date was only for today, and while he did give me some benefits that were explicitly not part of the dating package, he didn’t say anything about tomorrow.
“I think I just had my first one-night stand.” The words are out of my mouth before I can fully process them.
The room goes silent, and without needing to turn around, I can feel every eye pinned to me. They move towards me, uneasy in their movements. They are probably trying to work out whether or not I am upset about the situation.
Spoiler alert. I am completely freaking out.
Nausea rises in my throat. I am a middle-aged woman with three kids—five, if you count my ex-stepkids, whom I desperately want to keep counting—I should know better than to be engaging in frivolous sexual behaviour. I understand the dangers.
I didn’t even have one-night stands in college. Of course, that might have had more to do with falling madly in love with Fred and marrying him instead of finishing my degree—like a person who has their life together would—than any other choices I may or may not have made.
“Are you sure it was a one-night stand?” Charlotte asks carefully, wrenching me out of my spiralling thoughts.
“He didn’t make plans to see me again.” The pitch of my voice is bordering on shrill. I don’t really care about the status of the sex. I care about Simon. I want Simon to want to see me again. And I want him to want more than a one-night stand.
“In his defence, he left under less than ideal circumstances.” Fae places her hand on my arm.
“And it wasn’t technically night, so...”
“Not helpful, Kelsey.” Marisol has her no-nonsense voice on.
“Have you checked your phone? Maybe he texted you,” Jenna says. “The music is pretty loud...”
I dive for my purse, scrambling to pull my phone out.
One glance at the screen, and I let my breath out in a rush, hugging the phone to my chest as the world tilts. He texted me.
SIMON: When can I see you again?
Based on the timestamp, he must have sent the text the moment he arrived back at his family’s cabin. I frantically start typing. That was hours ago. He probably thinks I don’t want to see him again.
ME: I’m ready whenever you are
I bite my lip, waiting for his response. I feel the eyes of my friends on me as forever passes before my phone chimes less than a minute later.
SIMON: How about I pick you up after dinner?
My breath swoops out of me as my eyes digest his words. He wants to see me again. My fingers shake as I tap out my response, grinning crazily.
ME: Perfect
Turning back towards the room, I find five pairs of eyes fixed on me and five sets of eyebrows raised questioningly.
“He wants to see me tonight,” I shriek, jumping up and down. Suddenly, they are all around me, jumping with me.
After an afternoon of incredible sex, Simon Ascot wants to see me again, and this time, I didn’t pay for his attention. Waves of excitement crash over me.
“I’ll get the wine,” Marisol says.
Our excitement is interrupted by the doorbell ringing.
“Shit. That must be Nolan. I’m not ready. I need to change,” Kelsey says and bolts for her bedroom.
“Don’t worry, we’ll keep him entertained while....” My voice trails off when I open the door to reveal a woman instead of Nolan.
It is Julia. Her long hair is swept up into a stylish bun, emphasizing her cheekbones. Her pink trench coat hugs her curves perfectly, including her obvious baby bump. My brain stutters. Julia is pregnant, and she is here. She isn’t in Mexico on her honeymoon with Greg. She is here with their love child to haunt me.
My vision blurs as cold dread shudders through my body. I cling to the door for strength, forcing myself not to slam it in her face. Nausea pushes at my throat. I know I am not supposed to care anymore, and I know that her being pregnant doesn’t change a thing, and yet I want to be sick.
“You’re not Nolan.” Charlotte’s matter-of-fact tone yanks me out of my nightmare.
I shake my head, and the scene in front of me comes into sharp focus. It isn’t Julia. My stomach settles, leaving only a ghost of nausea behind. Obviously, sex with a sinfully hot man wasn’t enough to get me over the Greg and Julia situation.
“I’m Amber, and I’m looking for Simon Ascot.”
The sickly-sweet tone of her voice has my nausea bubbling up into my throat again. I sway as darkness presses at the side of my eyes. My one-night stand status pales in the face of the pregnant woman looking for Simon.
And to think that I thought it was his perfect ex-wife I had to worry about.