One Night...

Chapter 1

Scarlett stood in the bathroom of her apartment in the Hollywood Hills, staring at herself in the mirror with a look of complete horror. She tugged at her long blonde hair, twirling it around her fingers nervously. Her face was a horrible mix of pale and green, waves of nausea flooding over her. Her clear blue eyes filled with tears, and she looked at her reflection in the mirror as they streamed down her face. Her hand visibly shook as she held the fateful stick in her right hand, and she glanced at it for the hundredth time just to make sure it said what she thought.

"Positive." Well, she'd read it right, she thought to herself with a sigh. She wondered how long it would take before she could move from the bathroom, and after what felt like an hour but was probably more like ten minutes, the petite blonde struggled out of the safe confines of the bathroom out into the living room where her roommate Kelsey sat, blissfully watching Gossip Girl on Netflix without as much as a care in the world.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kelsey asked nonchalantly, glancing up at her friend with furrowed brows. "Are you not going to work, it's like 9 am?" Scarlett slumped onto the couch, still clutching the pregnancy test in her hand. "Kelse," she said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper, and Kelsey looked at her with concern. 

"Are you sick? What's going on?" her roommate asked as Scarlett started to breathe heavily. She felt like she was hyperventilating, like the walls of their apartment were closing in, and before she could stop herself, she started to cry. "Kelse, I'm pregnant." She spat out the words like they were poison, barely audible through her sobs, but Kelsey heard them, her eyes shooting open wide as she jumped off the loveseat and bounded to the couch next to Scarlett, immediately wrapping her arms around her best friend. 

"Wait, pregnant? Are you sure, Scar?" Kelsey asked incredulously, and Scarlett nodded through the sobs. "I took like four tests, so I'm pretty sure," the blonde cried, wiping away the tears as more kept flowing.  "But how? I mean, you and Rowe haven't slept together in like three months, right?" Kelsey asked, scratching her cheek a little. "Oh, god, Scar, you didn't hook up with him randomly did you?" Scarlett shook her head, thinking back to the events that had transpired over the past several months.

Scarlett had met Rowe in her first year of law school at USC. They were in the same class during their first semester Contracts I class, and Rowe was charming, funny and outgoing, the kind of guy who had girls swooning. All of the girls in the class were head over heels for him, and Scarlett was shocked and flattered when the tall, dark haired guy with the piercing hazel eyes and wide smile asked her to coffee one day after class. Rowe was brilliant, funny and popular, and he saw Scarlett as the perfect girl for his post-graduate life. He'd been a major womanizer during his undergraduate years at UCLA, the classic fraternity guy who slept with anything that walked. But in law school, he figured it was time to settle down. He had major ambitions to go into politics, and Scarlett seemed the perfect partner for him. She was classically beautiful, came from a wealthy New York family, and she was smart, always near the top of the class at USC. Rowe knew if he was ever going to make it in politics, he'd have to ditch his penchant for wannabe Instagram models and find himself a proper wife, and Scarlett Woods fit the bill perfectly.

Scarlett adored Rowe, finding him funny, smart and kind. She knew about his hard-partying past, but she didn't worry about it. Who hadn't been rowdy in college? She'd had her share of long nights during her sorority girl years at the University of Virginia, but that was in the past. They were adults, and Scarlett thought Rowe was her soul mate. He talked about getting married constantly, making big plans as Rowe joined a prestigious Los Angeles law firm doing corporate mergers and acquisitions, while Scarlett landed her dream job as an entertainment lawyer at a Studio City firm representing actors, athletes and social media stars. The night the two found out they'd passed the California Bar Exam, Rowe had a party at the couple's favorite restaurant in Santa Monica, and he proposed to her in front of his parents and all of their friends. Scarlett was so happy that she thought life couldn't possibly get better.

Unfortunately, she was right. About three months later, she used her spare key to let herself in to Rowe's townhouse, hoping to surprise him after he'd had a hard week at work. She was the one who got the surprise when she found him in bed with an Instagram model. She ran out of the apartment, vowing to never speak to Rowe again. She was devastated and he begged for her forgiveness. She sat him down to talk like adults and demanded the truth, and he confessed that he'd had a string of one night stands since they'd been together. What was worse, he wanted her to marry him anyway, insisting that the flings had meant nothing and that she was the one for him. Scarlett was shattered, and after some reflection, she decided that this had all happened for a reason. She wasn't meant to be some trophy wife, and she was almost happy that she'd found out about Rowe before she married him and risked her future. 

He did everything he could to get her back, and though she'd broken off the engagement and given back the diamond sparkler he'd given her, he continued to insist that he would change, unable to accept that his perfect trophy girlfriend wouldn't take him back. They continued chatting on the phone and texting, with Rowe insisting he would prove to her that he could be different and that he was done sleeping around. One night, Kelsey dragged Scarlett out to Hyde to a party with influencers, YouTubers and social media types. Kelsey was a beauty vlogger and loved those types of things, and she talked Scarlett into going with the promise that she might meet some potential clients. After half an hour at the club, she was instead met with the sight of Rowe making out in the corner with another beauty guru who Kelsey knew vaguely, and Scarlett was officially done. 

That night, seeing Rowe with that girl after all that he'd put her through, thinking of him constantly fucking every slut he could find while she tried her hardest to be a perfect future wife, perfect attorney, perfect person, she officially lost it. Being little miss perfect had gotten her nowhere, and it was as if she had an epiphany. Why did she always have to be so practical, so cautious, so...perfect? She started talking to some cute guy at the bar, and he seemed as intent as she did to throw caution to the wind and have a crazy night. He told her about how his ex had made some YouTube video about him where she basically trashed him, and he was sick of always being the nice guy. She could relate to that, and before she knew what was happening, they were downing drinks together, kissing in the corner of the club, and walking out together hand in hand without any of their friends noticing. She put aside all of her normal hesitations and concerns about how a good girl was supposed to act and went with the cute guy to his apartment. They made out feverishly and before either knew what was happening, they were having sex in his bedroom. It was the first one-night stand Scarlett had ever had in her 25 years on Earth, and as she thought back to it, it seemed like Murphy's Law that here she was, four weeks later, and she was standing in her apartment with a positive pregnancy test. It was like the world was out to get her.

She sighed thinking about all that had transpired, and she figured at this point, she had to spill to Kelsey about the whole thing. "It wasn't Rowe, Kelse," she said quietly, and Kelsey looked at her with shock. She'd been friends with Scarlett since they were 18, and they'd moved to Los Angeles together. Kelsey knew the blonde better than almost anyone, and she was flabbergasted that her sensible, cautious friend had ended up in this predicament. "Scar, are your serious? What the...?" Kelsey's voice trailed off as Scarlett sighed, tears pricking in her eyes again.

"Um, remember the night at Hyde?" she asked Kelsey softly, and Kelsey nodded her head. "Yeah, where you found Rowe with that slut Tatiana?" she asked, and Scarlett shook her head. "I met that guy at the bar remember? The nice red head with the sweet brown eyes?" Kelsey's eyes went wide as she recalled the events of the night. "Oh, yeah... Red-headed Andrew?" Kelsey exclaimed, and Scarlett nodded, head in her hand as she thought of the situation. "Yep, I slept with Red-headed Andrew," Scarlett said weakly, not having the faintest idea what she should do next.