[A/N: Quick note at this point: I learned that apparently Colin and his family in real life are living in Ireland, which I wasn't aware of (because I apparently didn't do my research properly 🙈), while I for some reason was under the assumption that they were living in LA like the rest of them. For the sake of this story though, it's important that they all live in LA, so let's please pretend, okay? 🙏😁]
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„Daddy daddy, Evan pushed me in the pool!", the little girl climbed out again, her face almost as red as the floaties on her arms.
„Hey, Flynn, Leo!", Sean yelled, „You'll be nice and let Millie play with you, alright?"
The boys rolled their eyes, most of all Evan who had hoped to catch a break from playing with his little sister today and have some fun with his buddies instead.
„Uhm... Colin?", Sean looked over at his mate, who was staring absentmindedly into the distance, searching through his memory again and again, trying to remember as many details of last night as he could possibly grasp, but all he got was moments, snapshots at most.
A sound, a whisper, a moan that sent a shiver down his spine just by thinking about it. The feeling of her skin underneath his fingertips, the smell of her hair, the taste of her tongue and then... the sex... he barely remembered it, but somewhere in his subconsciousness he knew that it must have been absolutely mindblowing... for him, at least.
Why oh why could he not remember?! How often in the past had he secretly dreamt of being with her, without even daring to admit it to himself? And then, when he actually had the chance, he had to booze so much beforehand that he was barely even present for any of it, and worst of all, he had probably made a complete fool of himself because that dangerous amount of alcohol in his blood could only have resulted in a terrible experience for her. He probably hadn't lasted more than a minute, then fallen asleep, snoring. His only hope was that she would remember even less from last night than him, she had been pretty drunk too, after all.
On the other hand, they probably wouldn't even have started flirting and making out, had they stayed sober. And the jury was still out on whether that would have been the better option. Probably, because in that case, it wouldn't be so utterly uncomfortable and embarrassing right now, thinking that at the latest, he would have to face her again next month at the convention in Paris, pretending like nothing ever happened. Yes, he considered himself a pretty decent actor, but THAT would most certainly be his most challenging role to date.
„Colin!", Sean repeated, waving his hand in front of his eyes, „Are you alright, man?"
The Irishman jerked up, looking at him as if he just now remembered that he was even there. „Oh... uhm, sure! What's up?"
„Well, your son just pushed your daughter into the pool. I mean, she's wearing the floaties, but, can she already swim well enough?"
„What?!", he turned back to the kids while Millie ran into his arms, crying, and he didn't care at all that she was soaking wet, „Evan, what did I tell you about your sister and the pool?"
„Sorry, dad..."
„Don't say sorry to me, say sorry to Millie!"
He rolled his eyes. „Do I have to?"
„Yes, you do!"
„But she started it!"
„Evan!"
„Alright...", he sighed dramatically, „Sorry, Millie!"
She stuck out her tongue at him, then went back to cuddling with her daddy until she was bored and – miraculously – everything was well again and she went back to playing with the boys, almost managing to push Leo into the pool, but she was still a little bit too small for that.
„Everything okay with you?", Sean tried one more time to break through to his friend who was unusually quiet today, „Or should I assume that your pouty mood has to do with a certain ex wife flying to Hawaii with her yoga instructor?"
„He's not her yoga instructor, even though I know you love to believe that", he replied, „But... no. Actually, it has nothing to do with Helen."
„Aha, but there IS something that DOES have to do with someone!"
„It's not, really not, it's just... I'm a little hungover, to be honest. I went out last night."
His eyes grew big. „With whom?!"
„What is this, an interrogation? Well... alone!"
He was absolutely not interested in having this conversation with him and he was already starting to wonder whether it had been a good idea at all to visit him, today of all days, but until just now he had still been under the naive assumption that Sean would take his mind off of Lana. SEAN! Of all people... the man he had seen kissing her more often than her ex husband.
Sean scoffed. „Alone... as if you'd go drinking alone?"
„And why wouldn't I?"
„You never go out drinking alone! You're way too shy, and too scared to get wasted with no one there to take care of you."
„Yeah, well, it's the first time I'm divorced, so I guess there's a first time for everything."
„So this is about Helen..."
„No!", he sighed, „It's not, it's... okay, maybe there was a woman."
He could see his mate's eyes light up. „What?! Who is she? How was it? How long have you known her? Will you see her again?"
„Oh, uhm, I don't know, okay?"
„Which... which one of the questions was that the answer to?"
„I don't know..."
„Well", Sean shrugged, „If that's how you are with her too, then that's definitely not going anywhere. I mean, did you... you didn't... spend the night with her, did you?"
He didn't answer, just took another sip of his lemonade.
„OH MY GOD, you did!! How was it??"
„I'm not going to talk about this with you!"
„Uhm, I'm sorry, but if you're not talking about this with your best mate, then WHO?"
„NO ONE, okay? It's private! Also, I can't tell you how it was because I don't know! We were both completely drunk and I barely remember a thing."
„Damn... and now? Are you going to see her again? Do you have her number?"
„No", he lied, „And to be honest, I don't want to see her again. It... didn't feel right. It was too soon."
„Too soon?! Buddy, you and Helen broke up A YEAR ago! And you haven't had any action since then?"
„So what? It's not like changing into a new pair of shoes, okay? Helen was the only woman I had ever... until... well... until now."
Sean looked at him with big eyes. On the one hand, he knew it was the truth, but on the other, it was still extremely hard to wrap his head around.
„So... this woman from yesterday... she was only the second woman you've ever slept with? I mean... that does make her kinda special, doesn't it?"
Colin shook his head and rubbed his temples, he definitely wasn't feeling well enough to entertain this conversation any further. „Whatever, maybe, but it doesn't matter, that woman from yesterday, she was just..."
„Oh, Lana!"
„WHAT?!", Colin stared at him in shock, „No no, absolutely not! It most definitely wasn't Lana!"
„Uhm, no, I mean... Lana just texted me?", he looked at him perplexed, lifting up his phone to show it to him.
„Oh... oh, of course", he cleared his throat blushing, „I... I thought you were suggesting that Lana and I..."
„No worries, I wasn't. That would be a bit ridiculous, don't you think? But actually, speaking of Lana, what I was going to say is: you have to start living again and get yourself out there, be open to new experiences! Otherwise you'll end up lonely and miserable, sleeping your way around the world without ever really, truly feeling anything... just because you're too scared after the last time you got hurt. Like Lana."
„Hey, that's not fair! She's not lonely and miserable... I'm sure... and you almost make it sound like she's some sort of slut?"
„That's not how I meant it at all, of course! Plus, I'm not even making any assumptions, those were pretty much the exact same words she said to me a few weeks ago, the last time we spoke. Anyway, in a few minutes we'll be able to ask her how she's doing and hear it from herself."
„W... wait, what? Why is that?", all color had disappeared from his face in an instant.
„Well, she's on her way here! That's what she just texted me. We had made plans for her to come over today a while ago already."
„She, but... then why did you tell me it was okay for us to come?"
Sean frowned. „Why not? I mean... I'm sure Lana's looking forward to seeing you? You haven't seen each other in forever, have you? It'll be fun!"
„Oh no no no, I really don't want to intrude, if you two made those plans without me, you should have the day to yourselves", he got up, nervously putting his things back into his pockets.
Sean, meanwhile, was at a complete loss. He hadn't previously told Colin about Lana's visit because he had initially planned to surprise him. Positively! But this reaction was something completely unexpected that he just didn't know where to place.
„Evan, Millie! Come here, time to go home!", he yelled over to his kids.
„Come on now, really?", asked Sean, „I really don't want to throw you out? This feels super weird right now!"
„It doesn't need to, really! I wanted to go soon anyway, we still need to run some errands, it's already late."
„But..."
„Really! It's okay. Okay?", he helped towel dry his two children, doing the bare minimum to be able to pull their clothes over their still wet bathing shorts and suit. They didn't complain though, they weren't in the mood for taking them off anyway.
Sean was still puzzled, but slowly surrendered, accepting that he wouldn't get any other answer from him anymore today.
„Oh, did you tell Lana I was here?", Colin asked before being on his way.
He shook his head. „No, not yet. I thought it could be a nice surprise."
„Okay, great! I'll see you then, buddy! Kids, you say goodbye, to Sean, Flynn and Leo!"
The boy and girl said their goodbyes before they got dragged away by their father, and they almost had to run to keep up with him as he just had to get out of there as fast as he could.