Page 2 of Only for Tonight
“I’ll go with you, so Mom and Dad can make out in the car and get it over with so I don’t have to see it when we get there.”
My father wraps his arm around Evelyn’s waist. “I’m never going to get over making out with her.” He bends his head and kisses her lips and she sighs, as if it’s the first kiss he’s given her and not that they’ve been together for over twenty years.
“Is Kiera coming?” I look up the steps toward my youngest sister’s bedroom.
“She’s gone skiing for the weekend,” Victoria announces. “Besides, she’s sixteen and the last thing she wants to do is hang out with the old people.”
“We are not old,” my father snorts. “We are—” He tries to think of a word but Victoria cuts him off.
“Old,” Victoria repeats. “See you there.”
She walks out of the door and snatches my hand, pulling me with her. “See you there,” I say quickly before I’m pulled out into the cool air. Taking the keys out of my pocket and unlocking the door, I open the door for her. “Get in, Tori.” I use the nickname that she got when Kiera couldn’t say her whole name and she just became Tori.
“I don’t know why you are still single.”
“Because I want to be,” I answer her honestly. “Besides, I haven’t found the right person yet.” She gets in and looks up at me.
“How do you think you’re going to find the right person when you keep dating the same old girl?” she asks me, reaching out her hand for the door handle but I close it before she touches it.
I walk around to the driver’s side as I spot my parents walking out of the house. Hand in hand, my father rubbing his thumb over his bottom lip, no doubt having just had a make-out session with Evelyn. I guess they are the reason I haven’t found my person. I don’t just want a person to date. I want a person I can grow old with. A person who walks into the room and all I can do is think about kissing her. A person who will stand by my side through the good and the bad, not just when it’s convenient for them. Like my last girlfriend, who didn’t understand why I couldn’t go out on the town while I was recovering from an injury that took me out of the game for three weeks. The sound of the horn honking has me opening my driver’s side door.
“It’s freezing,” my sister hisses.
“You might be warmer if your dress covered your back,” I tell her and she snorts.
“If that isn’t you deflecting, I don’t know what is.”
“What am I deflecting?” I ask her as I start the car and she messes with the heat in the car, rubbing her hands together.
“That you keep going for the same girl over and over again.” I pull out of the driveway.
“I do not.” I focus on the road.
“You so do.” She laughs. “It’s those artificial girls who are all ‘my boyfriend plays for the NHL.’” She makes a fake voice. “You have not had a girlfriend for longer than six months. And the reason for that is because you know it’s safe since you don’t actually want anything serious with them. It’s called sowing your oats, Mom says.”
“I was with Tiffany for almost a year,” I remind her of the girlfriend I just broke up with.
“And you broke up with her because?” She taps her finger on the door handle. “Shall we discuss all the reasons that you broke up with her?” She tilts her head to the side, waiting for me to answer.
I don’t bother answering her because she is kind of right. Tiffany was a party girl, even though she was two years older than me. She was the “it girl” because I was burning up the standings. She would always want to go out and celebrate, even though we were a couple months into the season, and anything could happen. It got to the point where we just had different ideas on what our future looked like so we, or better yet I, decided we should maybe stop wasting each other’s time.
I pull up to the hotel and head straight to the valet, getting out at the same time Tori’s door is pulled open. “Keys are in the cupholder,” I tell the guy who gives me a white valet tab.
“Okay, big brother,” Tori urges, “how about you let loose”—she throws her hands up in the air—“have a drink. Have two drinks. Bring out the vacation Jaxon who is funny and witty. Unlike this Jaxon who plays hockey and is all serious and focused, if only for tonight, yeah?”
I chuckle as she wraps her hand around my bicep. “Yeah, only for tonight.” I make fun of her words. I never thought that this would be the night that my life was going to change.
two
Ariella
I’m collecting my things to put in my purse—lipstick, lip gloss, a compact, even though I never actually reapply my lipstick, and then my phone. Looking down, I see that I’ve missed about five text messages.
“Oh my,” I say to myself as I open the app, “how long was I in the bathroom for?” I scan the text messages. Spotting a text from Lexi, who is my cousin and best friend.
Lexi: Have fun tonight. Give everyone my love and a little hug. Call me in the morning! Send me a picture of your dress!
I decide to snap a picture of myself in the full-length mirror near the door, sending it to her and adding in:
