Best Friends Forever

Natalie nodded.

“He saved me from them, but they were pissed and they both tried to jump him. But he kicked their asses.” Natalie and Tara stood at rapt attention. “Then we wound up on the dance floor, and he started kissing me. And I mean, really kissing me. Next thing I know, we’re up here on the roof, and…”

“What’s his name?” Natalie asked.

“Shit,” Ayla replied. “I have no idea.”

Tara was apoplectic. “What do you mean? You got his number, right?”

“Not exactly,” Ayla confessed.

“I’m totally lost,” Natalie replied. “You just met this guy, who’s, hey, hats off to you, he’s like, mega-hot, but how do you not know his name?”

“It all just, sort of, you know happened? I guess?” Ayla said. She was starting to have regrets. Big ones. As fantastic as the sex was, she couldn’t blame it on being drunk. She hadn’t had that much to drink. Was the whole thing a set up?

And they hadn’t used any p

rotection. How could she be so stupid?

“Shit,” Ayla stated, plainly.

“What?” Tara asked, putting her hand on her best friend’s shoulder.

“I’m not supposed to start for,” Ayla started counting backwards in her head, assisted by her fingers. “Another two weeks, give or take. Fifteen days. I’m right in the middle of my cycle.”

Natalie’s face was ashen. “Yeah, but you used…wait a minute, you didn’t use anything?”

Ayla slowly shook her head.

“There’s no way,” Tara interjected. “My cousin and her husband have been trying, and I mean really trying to have a baby for forever now. Seriously, one time isn’t going to get you preggers. No way.”

“It only takes one time, you idiot,” Natalie said. “Did he like, pull out or anything? He for sure finished inside you?”

Ayla nodded. Her eyes became wet with tears. “Stupid. So, so stupid. Ugh! What was I thinking? Yes, he finished inside me. Like, a lot.”

“Morning after pill,” Natalie said, matter-of-factly. “We’ll go get you one first thing. That’s what it’s for. Everybody makes mistakes.”

Ayla was crying, and both friends embraced her. “One to ten, Ayla, how was he?” Tara asked.

“One million,” Ayla replied.

Chapter 6

Security escorted Mick Merryweather to an office just off the main casino floor. Once he explained who he was, who he worked for, and what had happened to cause the scuffle, the captain released him without notifying local law enforcement.

On his way out, he paused to ask about the beautiful stranger with whom he’d enjoyed the evening. He could still taste her faintly.

“Those girls were all eighteen. This was a ‘high school graduation party,’ of sorts, I guess. When two of them lost their friend, the one you were with, they asked one of my officers to help them find her. They were so panicked they confessed about being under 21. We reviewed the surveillance and watched the two of you go to the parking garage, and we watched you exit out onto the roof. No vehicles left, so we figured you must be in some sort of blind spot. Happens more often than you might think.”

Mick started to ask for a name, any one of their names, but he reconsidered. Eighteen? Thank God she was eighteen, but still. That was the sort of scandal he, and Watterson Gaming, didn’t need.

Better to drop the entire thing. No matter how indescribably good she looked, and felt. He was almost old enough to be her father.

“How old do you think he was?” Tara asked. She seemed more obsessed with the mystery man than even Ayla was, as they lay on the sectional in Ayla’s living room late the next morning.

“I have no idea,” Ayla answered. Maybe thirty?”

“You are so bad! Who are you, and what have you done with my best friend?” Tara teased.