Read Chance (The One More Night Series) for Free Online Page B

about you, Abby.”
    My first instinct was to tell him to run.  My life wasn’t that interesting.  In fact, if anything, it was a boring grind.  “Unfortunately, there isn’t much to know,” I said.
    “Why do I doubt that?”
    I waved my hand in the air.  “Probably for the same reason that I sense a whiff of disappointment coming off the horizon.”
    He cocked his head at that.  “So let me get this straight.  You’re telling me that there’s nothing interesting about you?”
    “What I’m saying is that when compared to your life, it’s only going to send you into a coma—and I don’t want to do that for a number of reasons.”
    “I wonder what you know about my life…”
    “Nothing really.”
    “OK.  So, I hope that you haven’t already labeled me, because I haven’t labeled you.  Maybe you’ve had adventures that I haven’t had.  Maybe you’ve had all sorts of interesting things happen to you that have changed your life, or your perspective on life.  Have you?”
    “Not yet, but I hope to.  It’s one of the reasons I moved to Manhattan.”
    He leaned back against the sofa and lifted his glass of Scotch to his lips.  “You’re pretty hard on yourself,” he said.  “Why is that?”
    I shrugged.  “There are a few reasons.  First, I come from a small town and was born to deeply religious, working-class parents who still struggle to get by.  Trust me—there isn’t anything of interest there.  Second, I’m working hard to get through grad school, which takes up most of my time when school is in session.  Third, I’m trying to make it in this city, which means working a lot, so I don’t have much of a social life.”  I motioned around me.  “And fourth, it’s unlikely that—after tonight—I’ll ever see anything like this or you again.  Like I said—dull.”
    “How do you know you won’t see me again?”
    “I think we both know what the rest of the night holds for us, Chance.  And how we’ll go on with our lives when it’s over.”
    “I guess I didn’t get that memo.  If you know how we’ll go on with our lives when tonight is over, I’d like to know.”
    “I don’t know.  Not exactly, anyway.  But I have an idea of how it will go, and it’s fine.  I accept it.  It’s just that I’ve never done anything like this before.”
    “You mean sharing a drink with a stranger?”
    “Not in his hotel room.  And certainly not after making out with him in an elevator that had a camera trained on us.”
    “Oh, that,” he said.  “That was pretty intense, wasn’t it?  Same goes for how I took you on that table.  Do you regret any of it?”
    “No.”
    “So, I have to ask—how do you know how tonight will end?” 
    “I just assume that we’ll go our own separate ways as if nothing happened.”
    “Really?” he asked.
    “How else could it go?”
    “Who knows?  I guess I’m not so cynical to think that tonight hasn’t meant something to me, because it has.  Tonight, I met a fascinating, beautiful woman who caught my eye the moment I saw her, and that rarely happens because I’m usually too involved with my work.  So, as far as I’m concerned, there’s something about you that I shouldn’t ignore, because I don’t do this often.  I don’t know what will happen between us when morning comes.  Maybe we’ll go our own separate ways.  Maybe we won’t.  I live my life open to possibilities, not closed to them.”
    “It’s not as if I’m obverse to them.”
    “Then what is it?”
    “I’m just a realist.”
    When I said that, he took a big swig off his Scotch and looked up at the ceiling.  “Sorry to hear that,” he said.
    “I’ve kind of had to be.”
    “What does that have to do with this situation?”
    “Isn’t it obvious?”
    “I guess it isn’t.  Enlighten me.”
    “We’re from two different worlds.”
    “And yet here we are in the same room talking with each other.  Isn’t that weird?  Those two worlds are