The One After [SHAWN MENDES]

Chapter 12

I stood in my kitchen eating ice cream straight from the carton while Inky meowed at me to share. After I got home the night before, I couldn't sleep, which made for a very long day of accounting work. I'd clocked out an hour ago and was drowning my sorrows in calories.

"You get one taste," I told my kitty as I put a tiny dab of the frozen treat in her bowl. She gobbled it up, licked her chops, and started yowling for more. "Sorry, baby. You'll get sick if you eat too much."

Picking up my phone, I saw that my only messages were from my two best friends who wanted to know if I'd seen Shawn yet. Would it be so terrible if I said we decided not to take things further and left it at that? I wasn't in the mood to explain to anyone how horribly wrong things had gone. I did, however, need to write about it. Taking my ice cream with me, I went to my bedroom and grabbed my journal from its spot on the side table.

I have gone my whole life avoiding falling in love, so why did I have to get attached to someone who doesn't like me back? I'm not in love (that was my meditation mantra this morning) but if we'd had sex, I bet I would have been. Maybe things turned out for the best. I need to chalk this up as a valuable learning experience and move on. What did I learn? That I don't want to be involved with anyone famous and that having unrequited feelings stinks.

My doorbell sounded and for a second I was frozen. Had Shawn sent me more flowers? Or was he at my door? Either possibility gave me hope, so I leapt out of bed and hurried to answer it. Two scowling faces greeted me through the peephole.

"So you're alive?" Fallon asked sarcastically after I opened the door.

"Not a single reply to our texts all day!" Briya scolded.

"Come on in." They sat down on the couch while I stepped into my bedroom to retrieve the ice cream. "Want me to get you spoons? There's not much left, but I'll share."

"Oh shit. Ice cream binge, huh? That means something happened. You need it more than we do, so keep eating while you spill it," Fallon urged.

"Maybe I'm having a PMS craving," I told her with a frown before I sat cross-legged on the floor and shoveled a huge bite in my mouth.

"Naw. You're upset. I can tell," Bri said. "Is this about Shawn? Has he ignored you since he came home?"

"No. He called me yesterday and invited me over to watch a movie. I went and it was nice."

Fallon leaned forward. "But?"

There was no way I could keep what happened a secret when they were ambushing me like this. "But it didn't end well."

"Was he bad in bed?" Briya queried in a hushed voice.

"We didn't get far enough for me to find out, and if he was, I couldn't tell you because he made me sign a non-disclosure agreement."

"Get the fuck out of here!" Fallon screamed. "An actual NDA?"

"Yep."

Briya got off the couch and sat next to me. "Did you refuse to sign it? Is that why things went downhill?"

Sighing, I explained that I did indeed sign it because in the heat of the moment, I really wanted to have sex with him. I left out the part about his promising erection.

"I would have done the same thing," Bri said. "How many chances do you get to fuck someone like Shawn Mendes."

Fallon held up a hand. "Wait up...are you even allowed to tell us this? Does the NDA cover just the sex stuff, or are you forbidden to tell us anything about your time with him?"

I shrugged. "I'm not sure, there was a lot of fine print and I was horny, so I didn't read all of it. He made it sound like he didn't want anything publicized, so as long as you two swear you won't send this into Deux Moi, I think it's fine."