Just This Once by Evelyn Jeannie Hall

Sixteen

Don’t freak out, don’t freak out, don’t freak out, had become Lacey’s current mantra.

Despite this, she nodded as if paying attention to whatever Elizabeth rambled on about, feeling so flustered that her hands shook. She stuck them behind her back to camouflage this, but her mind went in twenty directions at once. What would happen if Zane’s presence set off the alarm? Or if by some miracle it didn’t, would he have to remain trapped in that claustrophobic office all evening? She only had the hours between now and when Elizabeth would open the store just prior to the butt crack of dawn to fix this.

Lacey had been playing this whole mess by ear moment to moment, but she felt her panic rising in her like a tide. She had to go back and get him out of there before this all turned into a clusterfuck of catastrophic proportions. Not that it wasn’t already.

Elizabeth had continued traveling down the sidewalk as she talked, her trajectory taking them to the subway.

“Where are we going?” Lacey did her best to sound nonchalant and had no idea whether she was pulling it off or not. “You don’t want to hit up Torico’s?” Torico’s carried everything from ice cream cones to gelato to frozen ice cream cakes. Also, they were within three intersections of there.

“The temp’s so high, I thought we’d go to the grocery store instead. If we get a couple of half-gallons, we can hopefully get them home before they melt. Also, they’ll last us longer.” That conclusion suited Elizabeth to a T. Her sister had always been the type to analyze a situation and provide the best thought out solution. Too bad that was working so hard against Lacey right now.

She had to make a decision. And it wasn’t that she couldn’t trust Elizabeth. She trusted both Elizabeth and Katrina—and Benji for that matter—with her life. But she didn’t want to see the look of censure her sister would give her if she found out Lacey and Zane had made passionate whoopie against the door of the Elizabeth’s so recently acquired office.

Not only would her sister think their activities inappropriate, she’d probably also consider them unsanitary since she had this thing about germs and cleanliness. And to be fair, she might have a point. Lacey hadn’t thought about this until right then, but what if they’d violated some sort of health code statute? Weren’t those food inspectors crazy stringent? How frequently did the FDA or whoever conduct their sweeps?

Zane had used a condom, so it wasn’t like they were leaving some sort of black light evidence trail behind, but still. If they discovered what she and Zane had done, could they fine Elizabeth? Or even shut down her bakery over it?

Confessing to her and Zane’s status as fuck buddies would be bad enough, but if that worst-case scenario happened?

Elizabeth might never forgive her.

And neither of her siblings would ever stop thinking of her as undependable, impetuous, and reckless. It’d only been over the past two years that she’d begun to foster a reputation for becoming more mature and reliable. That had been the deciding factor in her choice to cover up her affair from her family in the first place. That and any possible fallout between Benji and Zane.

As much as she’d enjoyed her fly by the seat of her pants lifestyle, it felt good to have her sisters’ respect. Elizabeth had beamed with pride at Lacey as she’d thanked her today, and she didn’t want to flush that down the toilet in one fell swoop. She struggled to come up with some legitimate sounding reason to part ways with Elizabeth when she received a text notification. Wondering if it was Zane, she didn’t hesitate to open it, but the message only turned out to be spam.

Still, it gave her an idea.

“Oh, wow, Ethan’s in town.”

“Ethan?” Elizabeth asked her.

“Yeah, you remember my friend who went backpacking with me through Europe?” She toggled the screen on her phone as if reading something intently. “He said he has something he wants to give me, and he’ll only be here in the city for the next hour. God, talk about no notice.”

Lacey scrutinized her sister through her peripheral vision. Had she been convincing enough? The drawback with being an identical triplet was knowing each other as well as you knew yourself. It made lying exceedingly difficult.

“Is it important?”

“Sounds like it. But you and I were going to celebrate. Maybe I’ll just… uh…” Lacey deliberately trailed off.

“No,” Elizabeth’s features seemed a little tight, but then they loosened. “No, go meet with him. We can celebrate later.”

Lacey stared into her sister’s face because her feelings of regret were real. “Are you sure? I don’t want to let you down.”

“You’re not. We’ll just postpone things. We can save the ice cream for another time.”

“That sounds awesome,” she said, treading in the opposite direction as Elizabeth went back toward the stairwell that would take her up to their apartment above the bakery. “I’ll see you this evening.”

As soon as Elizabeth had vanished from view, Lacey hoofed it back to Zane as fast as her sandals would carry her. Fortunately, her sister had made her an extra key and shared the security code with her as soon as she’d become the owner.

Unlocking the bolt, she typed in the six-digit code, but instead of giving her the high-pitched beep she’d been expecting, it emitted a low harsh buzz. Shit! Was it 627809 or 627908? She tried the second option and heaved a huge sigh of relief when she received the cheery beep rather than the buzz of doom.

Securing the door behind her, Lacey yelled out as she strode toward the office, “Zane? I disarmed everything. You can come out.” The second Zane appeared, she threw herself at him. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“Not your fault. Though I will admit when I headed over here, that’s not how I imagined this afternoon would go. How’d you manage to head Elizabeth off?”

“It took some finagling and a fib about my friend needing to see me right away, but it worked. She thinks I’m sprinting across town as we speak, but I still need to get back to her ASAP.”

“No problem,” he said as they strolled together out of the building, Lacey resetting the alarm system and feeling much more relaxed. Zane looked more relaxed, too.

“Probably should go.”

“Yeah,” he said by way of farewell as they separated. They’d managed to put about twenty paces between them when he came to a halt. “Hey, Lacey?” She pivoted back around. “Let’s go to that Paleo place next month instead. My Red Wings made the playoffs and will be here at Madison Square Gardens for at least one game sometime around then. We could hit up some food then go to the stadium. What do you say?”

“Grown men on ice skates whacking their sticks together? Sounds hot,” she deadpanned, raising her voice loud enough for him to hear and loving it when he shook his head at her.

“You making fun of my favorite sport, woman?”

“Absolutely.”

“Why do I put up with you?” he called out, and even from that distance she could see his trademark wide grin.

“Probably because of all the nasty-assed sex I let you have with me.”

Lacey didn’t lower her voice, so a young woman jogging with a toddler in a stroller volleyed an unappreciative frown at her as she went by. Also, two elderly women sitting on a nearby bench actually huffed in indignant disapproval.

“Millennials are so uncouth,” said the first, fussily straightening a broach on her scarf.

“Saying such things in public,” bemoaned the second, pushing up her bifocals. “We’d never do that in my day.”

Lacey wondered if what the bespectacled lady had said was true. Also, if they never talked about sex in public, did that mean they didn’t get to have it in private? Lacey hoped not. If so, those ladies had missed out big time. Lacey almost blabbed those very words but censored herself in the nick of time. Still, the image of those women’s reactions struck her as funny as hell, and when she glanced in Zane’s direction, she noticed that even though he now had his back to her, said back was shaking from repressed laughter.

Lacey retrieved her phone and dashed off a short text.

Lacey: You really can’t take me anywhere.

Zane: *rolling on the floor laughing emoji*

Then, she heard the notification sound again.

Zane: #Truth. Still want to take you out, though.

Lacey: I’ll be there with bells on.