One Night Stand

Brandy, dressed in silver stilettos and a matching gown that hugged her curves, paced angrily back and forth across her living room floor. Damien had called her earlier and said he wanted to take her out to dinner to their favorite restaurant Mortice's. He had something important to tell her. He said he’d be here by 7:30. He was thirty minutes late. And Brandy did not like to be kept waiting.

The thought of calling him and asking where he was crossed her mind for the tenth time but, like the other nine times, she quickly squashed it. She was Brandy Ochoa. It was his privilege to be dating her. She was not going to call him and beg to know where he was like some pathetic, lovesick fool. He'd call her and beg her to forgive him for being late. She'd make him suffer for a little bit and then forgive him.

Brandy's phone rang, interrupting her thoughts. She answered it on the third ring.

“Hello?”

“Brandy,” Damien's tired voice said from the other end of the line, “it's me. I know I said I'd take you out tonight, but—”

“But what?” Brandy demanded angrily. “You aren't seriously canceling on me, are you? You made me wait thirty minutes for a phone call saying you can't make it our date? You better have a good excuse.”

He let out a long, slow sigh.

“Brandy, I'm sorry. One of my patients has gone into premature labor. I'm still at the hospital and I won't be leaving until long after the baby is delivered.”

She pressed her lips firmly together. Of course it was something work related. If Brandy'd had any say in his career choice, he'd have become a politician like his father. Their schedules weren't constantly changing like doctors.

“You couldn't have called and told me this an hour ago so I could make different plans?”

He sighed and Brandy could see him massaging the bridge of his nose like he always did when he was having an unpleasant conversation.

“This is the only time I was able to get to my office and call you. I don't have much time as it is. I have to get back to my patient.”

An image of the blue haired girl from his office popped into Brandy's mind.

“What about your assistant? That blue haired girl who brings you coffee. She could have made the call for you.”

There was a pause.

“Alice?”

“Whatever.”

“Alice's my intern, Brandy. She's in college. She's at her apartment or dorm room or wherever it is that she lives. Even if she was here, she would have been too busy helping me prepare for the delivery.”

Brandy grimaced. He had an excuse for everything. She wished she could reach through the phone and throttle him. To think, she'd wasted a trip to the salon just to be stood up!

“The least you can do is to tell me what you were going to tell me over dinner, Damien.”

There were a few moments of silence.

“I'd rather speak to you about that in person. I'll call you tomorrow to discuss it. I have to go.” As an afterthought, he added, “Oh, and could you cancel our reservation? Thanks.”

He hung up the phone before Brandy had a chance to object.

She set her mouth in a firm line, gripping the phone tightly in her hand, and came to a quick decision.

Fine. If he wanted to talk to her face to face, then they would talk face to face. But she wouldn't be waiting until tomorrow.

Brandy whipped her wrap from the back of the sofa and snatched her keys off the table.

Thirty minutes later she was click-clacking her way to the front desk where she demanded to see Dr. Damien Sheffield. When she refused to listen to the nurse's objections that Dr. Sheffield was very busy and could not be interrupted, Brandy was told to wait in the obstetrics wing for him to come meet her.

She didn't wait long.

Damien came storming down the corridor, face set in anger, hair disheveled and eyes blazing two minutes after Brandy settled herself into one of the uncomfortable plastic seats.

He was wearing green scrubs with a mask looped around his neck under his chin. There was a slightly bloody glove on his right hand, but his left hand was bare.

“You'd better have a good reason for coming down here and interrupting my work, Brandy,” he growled as soon as he reached her.

Brandy stood from her seat and sniffed haughtily, ignoring his obvious anger.

“You said you had something to tell me?”

Damien's eyes flared and, for a second, Brandy thought he might hit her. He didn't.

“I told you we would talk about it tomorrow.”

“I didn't feel like waiting until tomorrow,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “You said you had something important to tell me, I want to hear it. Now.”

“Now is neither the time nor place for what I have to say. We will talk about it tomorrow.” He glanced angrily over his shoulder. “Now if you'd excuse me, I have to get back to my patient.”

He turned away from her and she heard him mumbling something about incompetent nurses pulling him from his job to deal with something trivial.

Brandy's hand shot out and latched onto his arm. How dare he call her trivial! She was Brandy Ochoa and she was important dammit! More important than anything he had been doing before, even if it was preparing to deliver a premature baby.

The kid was probably going to die anyway.

Brandy felt a chill run down her spine at the look he gave her when she told him this.

“It probably will, if you don't let me go,” he said angrily. “If you really want to talk about this, then wait in my office until I'm done.”

He snatched his arm away and marched back down the corridor.

Brandy's face flushed angrily as she stomped over to his office, slamming the door behind her. What right did he have to be angry with her? He was the one who'd canceled their date after promising to take her out to dinner! She was the one who should be mad!

Brandy slouched in the chair behind Damien's desk before quickly righting herself. She was an Ochoa and slouching was unseemly. It showed poor breeding.

She glanced at the cluttered desk in front of her and saw Damien's cell phone sitting on top of a pile of papers. The screen lit up and Brandy picked up the phone.

“You have one new voicemail,” she read aloud.

Glancing around the room to make sure there wasn't anyone hiding in a corner or something, Brandy pressed the button that would take her to the phone's voicemail and pressed it to her ear.

Brandy winced and pulled the phone away from ear as Anthony's voice roared through the tiny earpiece.

“What the hell, Damien! I'm on my date with MacKinsey right now, or at least I'm supposed to be. I had to excuse myself and go to the bathroom because she just told me you're planning on having Stella move in with you! And what's this about a marriage? Call me the minute you get this. If I have to track you down it will not be pretty.”

There was a second of silence before she was given the option of saving or deleting the message. She saved it and swept out of the room, phone clutched in her hand.

She stormed over to the desk in the reception area and glared at the nurse.

“Where can I find Damien Sheffield?”

The nurse was petite with short brown hair and large blue eyes. She shrunk back at the look in Brandy's eyes.

“I-I'm sorry, ma'am. But Dr. Sheffield is b-busy at the moment. You're—”

Brandy cut her off before she could finish.

Slamming her hands down on the desk and leaning forward so her nose almost touched the nurse's, Brandy growled, “I don't care what he's doing. Tell me where he is this instant!”

The nurse, tears welling in her eyes, looked around as if to find someone to help her. Finding no one, she hung her head and nodded.

“Just a moment,” she whispered. She walked over to the computer and began typing on the keyboard, sending Brandy frightened looks every few seconds. She used the mouse to click something on the screen and looked at Brandy before quickly averting her eyes to her hands. “He's in the O.R. doing an emergency C-section.”

After getting directions to the O.R., Brandy stepped back and allowed her face to relax into a cold smile.

“Thanks.”

Brandy pivoted on her heel and started down the corridor her boyfriend had gone down barely ten minutes earlier, phone still clutched tightly in her hand.

Damien had a lot of explaining to do.

>><<>><<

It hadn't taken Lisa much to coax Stella out of her room once MacKinsey left on her date with Anthony. With the promise of homemade pizza and breadsticks, Stella had all but floated out of her room, asking if they could watch a movie as well. Lisa agreed, on the condition that Stella went with her to the store to buy the supplies needed to make the food while Rachael and Alice chose a DVD from Stella and MacKinsey's large collection.

Stella hesitated for a second before nodding.

“Okay. As long as you two promise to choose a good movie.”

Rachael rolled her eyes.

“Don't I always?”

Alice, already searching through shelves of DVDs, looked over her shoulder

“You chose last time. It's my turn to pick a movie.”

Stella and Lisa sent Rachael worried looks.

Rachael smiled and whispered, “Don't worry. I'll keep an eye on her.”

Nodding, Lisa grabbed Stella's arm and dragged her towards the door.

Stella cried out in pain. Lisa dropped her arm.

“Are you okay, Stella? I am so sorry,” Lisa gushed as she looked at Stella's ashen face.

Stella closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath.

“Yeah. I'm fine. I'm fine,” she insisted when Rachael and Alice moved towards her. “Lisa just gripped my arm a little too tight. Calm down guys and make sure you pick a good movie.” She got behind Lisa, ushered the brunette out the door and closed the door behind them.

Lisa eyed Stella's arm guiltily as they stepped into the elevator. How could she have forgotten Stella was hurt? She could be so stupid sometimes.

As if she could read Lisa's mind, Stella tapped the taller girl with her foot.

“Stop beating yourself up, Lisa. It's not like my arm's going to fall off or anything.”

“Are you sure about that? Maybe we should take you to see a doctor.”

Stella rolled her eyes.

“I was with a doctor all afternoon. He didn't say anything about my arm.”

Lisa frowned. She felt like Stella was just saying that to make her feel better. She was sure Damien hadn't even looked at her arm, not really anyway. She opened her mouth to ask Stella, but when she moved to follow Stella out of the elevator she collided with someone and fell back. A stack of folders, papers, and a briefcase followed.

“Oh my gosh! Lisa, are you okay?”

“Yeah, Stell. I'm fine.” She sat up and brought a hand to her head. “Ow. What hit me?”

Her response was a deep, nervous chuckle.

“That would be me. Sorry about that.”

She looked up to see an extremely handsome man staring down at her, hand extended to help her to her feet. He had short brown hair and bluest eyes she had ever seen. He was dressed smartly in a two-piece suit complete with a tie and black dress shoes. He looked just like her ex-boyfriend, Ken.

She took his hand and allowed him to pull her up.

“No,” she breathed, “it's my fault. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going.”

She didn't add that at the moment she could barely remember her name, let alone where she was going and why she was going there. All that mattered was that this extremely handsome guy was holding her hand.

Lisa's face flamed as she quickly released his hand. She was sure he thought she was a freak or something, holding onto to his hand like that. What was wrong with her?

He ran his fingers through his hair and looked down at the scattered mess on the floor, letting out a loud sigh as he bent down to start picking everything up.

Lisa was helping him immediately.

He smiled at her—Lisa was sure she'd faint, her heart started beating so fast—and shook his head.

“You don't have to help me.”

“Yes I do. If I had been paying attention I wouldn't have run into you and you wouldn't have dropped everything.”

They reached for the last item at the same time, their hands touching. Lisa immediately snatched hers back, face flaming. She could've sworn she felt a jolt of electricity shoot through her.

She eyed him curiously, wondering if he'd felt it too. It didn't seem like he did as he attempted to balance the large load in his arms while rising to his feet.

He smiled at her again when he was done.

“If you really want to pay me back, you could go to dinner with me on Saturday.”

Lisa fought the childish urge to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. She got to her feet.

“Um...sure. I guess that could be arranged.”

“Okay. I guess I'll see you then.”

“Yeah. See you then.” She turned to watch him go to the elevator and realized she hadn't told him her name yet or how he could reach her. “Wait!”

He stopped the closing doors with his foot and looked at her curiously.

“Yes?”

“My name's Lisa.”

He grinned.

“Joe.” The doors started to shut again but once again he stopped them with his foot. “Which apartment are you in? I need to know where to pick you up.”

Without thinking, Lisa gave Stella's apartment number. She said goodbye to Joe and watched the doors shut after him with a sigh.

“You're pitiful, you know that?”

Lisa jumped and whirled around. She blinked in surprise.

“Stella? When did you get here?”

The blonde looked at Lisa incredulously for a moment and then shook her head.

“You're impossible.” She grabbed Lisa's arm and dragged her out of the apartment building. “We're supposed to be going to the store to buy food but instead you're making plans to go on a date with some stranger you just happened to run into.” She glanced up at Lisa as they walked towards the parking lot. “He could be some deranged serial killer for all you know.”

Lisa rolled her eyes and pulled Stella in the opposite direction. She'd rather walk to the store. She didn't feel like getting stuck in traffic.

“Don't go trying to give me advice, Stella. You're the one who's pregnant from a drunken one night stand. Not me. You're not allowed to give lectures.”

Stella pouted

“It's not like I did it on purpose. Someone should have told me a Grasshopper had alcohol in it.”

“You were sitting at a bar, Stella. What did you expect?”

“Juice.”

Lisa couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled from her throat. Of course Stella would go to an adult club and expect there to be no alcohol. Sometimes Lisa thought Stella grew up under a rock they way she acted.

Lisa told her this and Stella stuck out her tongue. Stella opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by her phone.

She took it out of her pocket and looked at the screen, Lisa peering over her shoulder.

“Anthony? Why's he calling you while he's on his date with MacKinsey?”

Stella shrugged.

“No clue. But I better answer it. Something could be wrong.”

When she answered Anthony started yelling so loud Lisa could hear every word he said and Stella had to hold the phone from her ear.

“Stella you are not moving in with Damien! You're only nineteen! You barely even know him. And you definitely aren't marrying him. I don't care if you are pregnant. Stella? Are you listening to me?”

Stella glared at the phone and cautiously lifted it to her ear.

“You had so better be glad we aren't around anyone right now Anthony. You were yelling so loud I'm surprised the whole world didn't hear you. Are you trying to ruin my life? Go back to your date with MacKinsey and tell her I'm going to kill her when she gets home. Oh, and you can't tell me what to do with my life. This is my decision to make. Mine and Damien's. I'll see you later. After your date with MacKinsey.” She hung up the phone and placed it back in her pocket. “Jerk.”

Lisa smiled.

“He's just worried about you, Stell. He only has you best interest in mind.”

“He doesn't need to yell for the whole world to hear,” she grumbled. “But I suppose it's not entirely his fault. He'd be enjoying his date if that gossipy friend of yours wasn't always running her mouth.”

“She's your friend too,” Lisa said, throwing her arm around Stella's shoulder. “And you know you wouldn't take her any other way. MacKinsey without gossip is just plain creepy. Besides, you can't be angry with her. I need the both of you to help me plan for my date with Joe on Saturday.”

“We're going to stalk you on your date to make sure he's not some sort of rapist or something. Not just MacKinsey and me. All of us.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. She wouldn't put it past them. A few years ago when Alice developed a crush on one of the boys at Cram School and agreed to go out for coffee with him, they'd all stalked her. It had been MacKinsey and Stella's idea. Rachael and Lisa had decided to go only to keep the two blondes from getting into trouble, or at least that had been their excuse.

“Just stay out of sight.”

>><<>><<

Joe Michaels unlocked the door to his apartment, balancing his load in one arm and still thinking about the pretty brunette he'd made a date with for the end of the week. Lisa was her name.

He usually didn't make dates with complete strangers, but the words had tumbled out of his mouth before he could stop them. He'd been going for something more along the lines of “I hope to see you around” but what's done is done and he had a date with a beautiful stranger on Saturday.

He closed the door behind him with his foot, dropped his pile on the coffee table and all but ripped his tie off, throwing it onto the couch. He hated ties. They always made him feel like he was choking. But they were required.

Joe shed his coat, letting it join the tie on the couch and kicked off his shoes on the way to his room. He returned to the living room a few minutes later, dressed only in a pair of sweat pants. He picked up the cordless sitting on the coffee table and pressed speed dial 4, Shin's Chinese Restaurant.

He didn't know why he was ordering from them again. The last time he'd ordered from Shin's he'd had to get his stomach pumped. Maybe he had a death wish. He ordered his usual of General Tso's Chicken and hung up.

He settled on the couch, cracked his knuckles and pulled the large pile of folders and papers towards him. This was the newest case given to the office and he was working on it with his father. He and his father were prosecutors, trying to prove that the defendant was the one responsible for the murder of his young wife and two small children.

He pulled the pictures of the three murder victims and cringed. No matter how many times he looked at the images of the three bodies, it always made his stomach crawl. Especially the image of the youngest child. A little girl, barely a year old. Her skin was tinged blues and purples with bruises. Her tongue was hanging out of her mouth and he could see the remnants of what he thought were tears on her face. Her eyes, open, seemed to be staring directly up at him from the picture. She'd been choked to death.

It was his duty to this little girl, her brother and mother to prove it was her father that killed them. He pursed his lips, silently vowing to make sure the man was given life with no chance of bail. At the least.

He put the picture back on the table with the others and picked up a few of the folders. His father had given him the job of looking over the evidence they had against the defendant and the witnesses the defense had. He was supposed to come up with the questions to cross examine the witnesses. When he got to the office in the morning, the two of them would look over everything together.

He opened the folder and began flipping through it. It was Chester Cullen's, the defendant, statement. He claimed to have been out of the house at the time of the murders. Cullen said he'd been visiting with a friend when it happened.

Joe reached for the pencil pouch he always left sitting on the table and pulled out some highlighters and a pen, highlighting and taking notes as he went through the folders.

He was starting on the fourth folder when his concentration was broken. It took him a moment to realize someone had rung his doorbell. Knowing it was probably the Shin's delivery boy he grabbed his wallet out of his coat pocket and went to answer the door.

When he opened the door, he was surprised to see Chad McPherson standing there, waving his bag of food in his face.

“You owe me $10.95.”

Joe stepped aside and let Chad into the apartment.

“It's not like I asked you to pay for my food,” he said, handing over the money. “What are you doing here anyway?”

Joe and Chad had been friends since meeting in high school, shortly after their fathers were assigned a case together. They'd planned to become the two best prosecutors at the office once their fathers retired, but then Chad changed his mind and decided to become a college professor. Joe was on his own.

“I need some advice.” He stopped short after glancing at the coffee table covered with pens, highlighters, papers and folders. “But it looks like you're busy. Maybe I should have called first.”

Joe snorted. That wasn't the kind of friendship they had. They could show up at either's home in the middle of the night, no questions asked.

“I always have time for you, buddy.” He grinned, waggling his eyebrows. “Especially if you help me look through all these papers.”

Chad rolled his eyes, handed Joe the bag of food, sat on the couch beside his friend and picked up one of the many folders.

“This is the reason I decided not to become a lawyer. Late nights sifting through briefs to make a case.”

“Yeah. You just traded it in for late nights grading a million term papers,” Joe told him around a mouth full of food. He swallowed and picked up the folder he'd been looking at when the doorbell rang. “So, what do you need advice about?”

The young professor shrugged, going through his folder and making notes as he went.

“I think one of my students has crush on me.”

Joe choked on the food going down his throat. By the time he was finally able to swallow, tears were streaming down his face.

“What?” He asked when he was finally able to speak, his voice raspy.

Chad frowned at him.

“It's not that unbelievable. You don't need to go and die. Go get something to drink,” he added as Joe continued to cough softly.

Joe went to the kitchen, gulped down some water and quickly returned to his seat beside his friend.

“I didn't mean it like that. It's just, you haven't even been able to get the attention of women our age. Now you're telling me one of your students likes you.” He paused, giving the information time to sink in. “Isn't that against the law or something? I mean, can't it get you fired?”

Chad rolled his eyes.

“No, I won't get fired just because she likes me. I'd get fired if I did anything about it. Relationships between professors and students are strictly prohibited.”

“Mmm. So, what makes you think she has a crush on you?”

“Well, she keeps coming to me asking for tutoring. That wouldn't be so weird if she needed it. The problems I give her, she can finish them faster than I can.”

Joe whistled. Chad taught calculus at the university and he was really good at it. He'd been top of their calculus class when they'd been in high school and was able to finish most of the problems quickly and without a calculator. If this girl could finish faster than he could, she definitely didn't need tutoring.

“So, what did you do?” Joe grinned. “Wow her with your amazing calculating abilities? Because, you know, I hear women find that extremely attractive these days.”

Chad laughed.

“Shut up.”

Joe took another bite of his food and picked up another folder. This one was marked Witnesses. He opened it and began reading.

“So, what do you want advice on? How to get rid of her?”

“Not exactly.”

Joe looked up from his folder and noticed the blush making its way across Chad's face. He liked the girl.

“C'mon, Chad! Is she really worth risking your career over? She can't be that great!”

A look of offense crossed Chad's face.

“How can you say that? You've never even met her. She's wonderful! Rachael is beautiful and smart and funny—when she isn't angry. Her hair is...and her eyes. You should see her smile. Oh! And her laugh.”

Joe rolled his eyes.

“If you feel this strongly about her, and you're willing to risk your job, then I don't see what's stopping you from asking her out.”

“She's one of Anthony's 'sisters.' He's already furious with Damien for getting Stella pregnant. There's no saying what he'll do if I start dating Rachael.”

Joe turned back to his folder.

“Just don't get her pregnant.”

“Thanks,” Chad grumbled dryly.

Joe smiled. He was about to tell Chad to relax and he'd help figure things out when one of the witnesses' nAlly caught his attention. Winston Ochoa.

“Dude,” he whispered, catching Chad's attention. “Brandy's dad is a character witness for the guy Dad and I are going against in court.”

>><<>><<

Damien exited the operation room, exhausted. That had been his first Cesarean. It had gone smoothly, both mother and child were fine, but it was still nerve wracking. He'd pulled off his gloves and mask before leaving the room.

He smiled at his patient's husband and parents.

The husband walked up to him, face stricken with worry.

“How is she? Is she okay? What about the baby?”

Damien held up his hands and allowed small laugh to escape his lips.

“Everything's fine. The operation went smoothly. Both Marlene and your son are fine.” He gave the family time to hug each other and thank him before allowing them to go in and see the baby.

He was about to follow them when he heard someone clear their throat. He turned to see Brandy sitting in one of the chairs across the hall.

He frowned.

“What are you doing here, Brandy? I thought I told you to wait in my office.”

Brandy didn't answer. She stood up from her seat and held his phone out towards him. Before he could ask what she was doing with his phone she pressed a button and he could hear Anthony's angry voice blaring from the earpiece.

“What the hell, Damien! I'm on my date with MacKinsey right now, or at least I'm supposed to be. I had to excuse myself and go to the bathroom because she just told me you're planning on having Stella move in with you! And what's this about a marriage? Call me the minute you get this. If I have to track you down it will not be pretty.”

The first thing to cross Damien's mind was that he was glad no one was around. Brandy wasn't afraid to cause a scene. The second thing was that he was going to have to talk to Stella about giving her friend a muzzle. The third thing was that Anthony would surely kill him this time. He noticed the look on Brandy's face. Of course, that was only if Brandy didn't kill him first.

“Interesting little message, isn't it Dare Bear?”

“What were you doing going through my things, Brandy?”

She rolled her eyes and sneered at him.

“What did you expect me to do? Sit in there and twiddle my thumbs for an hour and a half?”

“Dr. Sheffield? Is everything alright out here?”

Damien turned to see Dr. Mattis walking towards him, mouth pulled down in a frown. The silver haired doctor did not look happy.

Damien sighed.

“Everything's fine. I was just about to come—”

Brandy interrupted him.

“You weren't about to go anywhere. You were about to explain this message to me.”

Damien scowled at her.

“Brandy, I have a job. I'm not done with it yet. Go wait in my office while I finish and we'll talk about it then.”

She glared.

“I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what I want to know.”

Was she trying to get him fired? Was she really that selfish? He needed to go back in there and explain that even though the operation had gone smoothly, they would still need to keep an eye on the baby for a while to make sure there weren't any complications. He was supposed to be there if the family had any questions.

Dr. Mattis placed his hand on Damien's shoulder.

“Go. You obviously have some problems you need to clear up,” he said coolly. “I'll handle things in there.”

Damien opened his mouth to protest but caught of glimpse of Brandy. He grimaced and agreed. He wouldn't put it past Brandy to follow him in there and demand he tell her what was going on in front of his patients.

When Dr. Mattis went back to join the patients Damien grabbed Brandy's wrist roughly and dragged her back to his office. The walk was silent except the click-clacking of Brandy's heels. He slammed the door closed when they entered his office and all but threw Brandy away from him.

“What is your problem, Brandy? Are you trying to get me fired?”

“No,” she snapped. “I'm trying to figure out why my boyfriend is having another woman move in with him and is even considering marriage.”

“We could have talked about this later, when I was done working.”

Brandy crossed her arms.

“Well you're done working now. Talk.”

Damien stared at her incredulously.

“No, Brandy! I don't have to explain myself to you. Especially not since you've come here and probably risked my job by bringing personal matters to the workplace!”

She reeled back on her heels, face flushing with rage.

“I'm your girlfriend, Damien! I have a right to know if you're letting someone move into your house, especially if you plan on marrying this woman.”

“No,” Damien said hotly, “you don't.”

Brandy laughed bitterly.

“I don't? And why not?”

Damien sighed angrily and sat down in the chair behind his desk.

“Do you really want to know what I was going to speak with you about at dinner, Brandy?”

She frowned at him, a look of confusion in her eyes.

“That's the reason I came here, originally. But I'm sure it can wait. The matter at hand is—”

“I was going to break up with you.”

A look of shock crossed her face, but it was quickly replaced with anger.

“You were going to what?” Her voice came out in a venomous whisper.

Damien ran his fingers through his hair, ignoring the murderous glare she was sending his way. This wasn't even close to how he'd planned on breaking up with her. He'd wanted to take her out to dinner and break it to her slowly, not just throw it in her face. But now that the words had tumbled out of his mouth, he felt sort of relieved.

He looked her square in the eyes.

“I said I was going to breakup with you at dinner.” He held up his hand when she tried to speak. “But, since we didn't go to dinner I guess I'll have to do it here.”

Brandy stared at him wide-eyed, mouth opening and closing like fish out of water. She looked more angry than sad.

Damien took her momentary silence as an opening to keep speaking.

“Brandy, we've been dating for two years and I've decided that's long enough. It just isn't going to work out. The first few months were fun. You were nice—most of the time anyway—and sometimes even funny. But after a while that all began to change. You became demanding, harsh, judgmental and jealous and I rarely ever saw the woman I began dating in the first place. The only reason I stayed with you was because it was expected of me but I can't do it anymore.” He sneered at her. “Maybe Ned can handle you and your constant attitude, but I certainly can't.”

She didn't burst into to tears like some women would have or offer to change or beg him not to leave her. Instead, Brandy threw his phone at him—which he barely managed to catch—and stalked up to him, grabbing the collar of his shirt.

Her eyes were blazing as she pulled him closer to her.

“You're only doing this because of this Stella character, aren't you?”

Damien closed his eyes for a second and pictured the blonde hair, the pale skin, the blue eyes. He couldn't stop the small smile that flitted across his face or the slight quickening of his heart.

He opened his eyes and shrugged.

“I admit meeting her prompted me to do this sooner than I probably would have. But even if I had never met her, eventually I still would have ended this relationship.”

She scowled at him, their noses almost touching.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Damien?”

Damien knew he probably should have been intimidated by the ferocious look in her eyes and deathly sound of her voice, but he couldn't bring himself to be.

“I've never been so sure of anything in my life.”

The scowl disappeared from her face and her eyes darkened with desire as she leaned closer, brushing her lips against his. She was going to try to seduce him.

“Whoever this woman is, I doubt she's anything compared to me.”

She pulled his face to hers in a crushing kiss and crawled into his lap. And even though he was kissing her back—he couldn't help it, she was a really good kisser—he found his mind wandering back to the kiss he had shared with Stella at the arcade a few days earlier.

That kiss had made his blood boil and his mind go completely blank. His heart had nearly burst through his chest. The whole world had disappeared except for the two of them. It had left him breathless and he would have done anything Stella wanted him to, no matter how ludicrous.

This kiss with Brandy had nothing on the one he'd shared with Stella. His blood didn't boil, it barely even sparked. His mind was still its usual, jumbled mess. His heart was quite content to stay where it was and he was still conscious of their surroundings. When the kiss ended he could still breathe and the only thing he wanted was for Brandy to leave.

Brandy settled into his lap and smiled up at him.

“If you break up with me, you'll be missing out on a lot.”

Damien stared at her blankly.

“I think I can manage.” He lifted her from his lap and led her to his office door. “You should leave, Brandy. I have work to do and papers to fill out.” He didn't add that she shouldn't embarrass herself further by throwing herself at him again. “I don't want Dr. Mattis to find you still here when he drops by.”

Her eyes drew together in a glare and her face hardened in a glower. Damien had the distinct urge to say her face might freeze that way if she wasn't careful. He ignored it.

Brandy threw the door open and started to walk out, but paused. She looked over her shoulder at him, face set in a cold smile.

“You're going to regret this, Dare Bear. You have no idea who you're messing with.”

As the door closed behind her, Damien felt a shiver run down his spine. Why did he feel like his life was about to take a turn for the worst?