TWO: Hi, Stepbrother.

BRITNEY ASTON.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we’re about to begin our descent. Please fasten your seatbelts and seatbaack as we prepare to land.”

If there was one word to perfectly describe how I felt, it was going to be “Jet lagged”.

The after effect of long flights with your whole body feeling pretty much fucked up. But rather unfortunately for me, I couldn’t completely put the blame on the plane. The several hours flight I’d just embarked on was barely enough to birth such strong nausea and jet lagged feeling in me- my new life was.

Standing at the Heathrow international airport, my phone in one hand, barely tidied luggage in another, I wanted to throw up. For a second, i impatiently couldn’t wait for my mother to finally show up and drag me to her new house and my new life but few minutes later, I hoped she’d just take her time and show up several minutes later. At least, late enough for me to have pulled myself together.

“Britney! Oh my goodness, Britney!”

I could have cried as I immediately recognized the piercing loud voice that belonged to my mother. She was here. Finally, here.

“Hi mum,” the fatigue was evident from my voice as I struggled to walk up towards her. “Hey.”

“Hey, hunny!” She threw her arms around me, enveloping me in an unfamiliar hug that made me immediately shudder. For a second, I had to step back, remembering the fact that I barely had time to take a shower, the scent of the man I’d spent the night with still reeking all over me. “How are you? Long flight? How have you been? Oh my goodness it feels like it’s been ages since I last saw you!”

Technically, it was.

“Yeah,” I managed to squeeze in a hug then pulled away barely five seconds later. “I am really exhausted.”

“Of course, you are,” she quickly took the bag from me and led the way. “Come on, allow me. I’ll drive you home.”

“Home?” I almost hiccuped. “Your new- home?”

“Yes,” she nodded innocently. “Your new dad can’t wait to meet you.”

“Stepdad,” I quickly corrected, failing at trying to hide my lack of enthusiasm towards her attempt at a new perfect family.

“Of course,” my words must have struck a nerve as her face immediately went sour. “Jack can’t wait to meet you.”

“Yeah, me too,” I nodded. “I can’t wait to meet him.”

She served me a look that made me feel she thought I was lying but quite honestly, I wasn’t. I was genuinely interested in knowing what the man who caught her eye and gave her the permission to live in such delusions looked like.

No more words were uttered as we walked to her car, got in and began the ride to my new home.

An entire hour passed and finally, I could tell we were almost at my new house. My mum’s face that looked plain, almost emotionless, throughout the drive suddenly lit up and she turned to spare me quick glances, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

“Have we arrived?” I did her the favor of speaking up first. “Is this where you- where we would be living?”

“Yes,” she nodded excitedly and in a few more seconds of her gaze fixed on the road, she drove straight into an already opened gate. “Here we are! We’re home!”

Her excitement as she got down from the car and helped me with my luggage served as enough distraction for me as I took my time to stare at my new surrounding. All it took was a couple of seconds for me to realize my mum had indeed hit the jackpot with her new husband.

He was rich and literally anyone could tell. The house erected right in front of me was close to five times bigger than my old house, making me wonder just how many rooms it could have.

The entire compound screamed luxury, a couple of fancy cars in sight from a distance. It had a well trimmed garden outside, a sprinkler alongside a mini water fountain bringing life to it. The walls were all painted white, expensive looking bulbs lurking around every corner.

Quite frankly, I was impressed.

And only became more impressed the moment I finally stepped into the interior part of the house.

It was literally another level of luxury, the exterior part of the house clearly serving as just a preview. It was huge, beautiful and for a second, got me excited about my new life.

“Do you like it?” My mum asked as my eyes scanned a ceramic ornament adoring the corners of the living room. “Jack was almost going to redecorate just so you would feel at home. I told him he didn’t have to. It suits your taste like this, doesn’t it?”

“It does,” I nodded, my eyes catching a glimpse of shimmer from one of the chandeliers dangling from the ceilings. “Um, do just the both of you live alone?”

“Yes.”

My eyes widened. “Just you two?”

“Well, most of the time,” she nodded. “But not anymore! You are moving in and so is Jack’s son! So it’ll be four of us now. Oh, doesn’t that sound exciting?”

For some reason, my stomach immediately churned. Maybe it was because I had no idea my new stepfather had a son which automatically meant I having a stepbrother. But before I could figure it out, my thoughts were interrupted by unfamiliar sound of footsteps walking into the living room.

“Rose,” the unfamiliar steps were accompanied by an unfamiliar voice. “Hi, honey. I didn’t know you were back.”

“I am,” my mum grinned as she turned to give the unfamiliar man behind her a quick peck on the lips. “I wanted to surprise you so, surprise!”

His gaze shifted from my mum’s painted red lips to meet my eyes and I immediately recognized him as Jack. My new stepfather.

“Oh, hello.”

His reply was almost immediate, followed by a bright smile on his face as he approached me. “Hello! You must be Britney. Oh, I’m so glad we finally met. I’ve heard so much about you!”

“Same here,” I forced a smile and stretched my hand to give him an handshake only for him to ignore it and pull me into a quick affectionate hug. “Oh, a hug.”

“We’re family now,” he was still grinning by the time he pulled away from the hug. “We don’t have to be so formal with each other. Alright?”

I forced another smile, his strong British accent piercing my ears. It strangely sounded familiar, making me wonder if it was just the few number of British people I’d encountered ever since I arrived.

“This must be new for you,” he continued. “But I promise it won’t be for long. I love your mother very much and I hold her dear to me. Which means, I automatically hold you very dear to me too.”

“Sure,” I swallowed, sparing my mum a quick glance. She was grinning from ear to ear, the impromptu declaration of his love for her clearly doing wonders to her system. “Yeah.”

“Your room’s upstairs,” he seemed to never run out of words to say. “I can help you with your luggage and help you settle down, what do you say? And then you can head downstairs for dinner.”

“I’m sorry I wanted our first meeting to go perfectly,” he bit his lip, glancing at his wristwatch. “But my son seems to be running late.”

“Oh, it’s fine,” I quickly shook my head, preventing him from apologizing one more time. “It’s fine. Things are already good as it is.”

“Oh you’re so sweet,” he smiled again. “But worry not, Travis would be here soon. He’ll definitely join us for dinner.”

I nodded sluggishly, not particularly interested in meeting my new stepbrother. When I was younger, I did want a sibling but as I grew older and got to know more about my mum’s lifestyle, I quickly deleted that idea from my mind so the thought of finally having a sibling didn’t exactly excite me anymore.

“I’ll just go freshen up then.”

With waves and smiles, I was led to my room by my mum. Just as they said, it was upstairs- one of the numerous rooms on the upper floor.

I stepped into the room, impressed at the work done in it. It was clearly refurnished with new wallpaper and furniture that gave off girly vibes. Thankful for the thoughtfulness put into it, I quickly dropped my luggage, locked the doors and stripped off my old clothes to get into the shower and freshen up for the first time in almost 24 hours.

Hot water gushed out of the taps as I showered but it was barely hot enough to get rid of the now familiar scent still lurking around me. The cologne was strong. So strong it had me taking breaks from the shower to inhale it and remind myself of how good it felt to be in direct contact with the owner of the smell.

“Snap out of it, Britney,” I muttered to myself as I felt cold shivers run down my spine. “It’s over. It was a one night thing. It’s never going to happen again.”

With every attempt to get it out of my head, the memories only became more vivid. I could literally see his face. Feel his breath against my skin. Feel his body against mine and feel an unexplainable heat between my legs as every new memory assaulted me.

“Britney!” I pinched myself this time to snap out of it. “It’s over! You’re never going to see him again. He lives in the U.S and you’re now in London. For heavens sake you don’t even know his freaking name.”

I could write a poem about why i needed to delete that one night event out of mind and recite it over and over in a desperate attempt to forget it all. But I barely had time for that so instead, I muttered the same old words over and over, reminding myself to forget it all.

“It’s over. You’re never going to see him again. It was just a one night stand.”

“It’s over. You’re never going to see him again. It was just a one night stand.”

Throwing fresh clothes on, I walked out of the room and headed downstairs. I could already smell the aroma of freshly cooked food, temporarily distracting me from my erotic thoughts as I walked down the stairs.

“Britney, there you are!”

I took my first step towards the dining and quickly, my mum showed up to usher me in. I didn’t object as she locked arms with me and led the way, her smile still on her face.

“Travis is finally here,” she spoke up. “I was afraid he would miss dinner but he’s here.”

“Oh, okay. Cool.”

She tightened her grip on me as we took a sharp turn to walk into the dining room. Instinctively, the second we got there, my eyes roamed around, probably in search of anything familiar or probably because my nose had suddenly picked up a familiar scent.

A familiar scent….

A very familiar scent…

I froze in my step, my eyes refusing to look around me any further. There was something strange going on. Something was just not right.

“Britney,” my mum’s voice pulled me out of my short trance. “This is Travis, your new step brother.”

The familiar scent of that cologne shouldn’t have felt so close to me. It was alluring, distracting and even terrifying.

It belonged to no one but the guy I had a one night stand with the night before. And he lived in the U.S, thousands of miles away from me. So why could I suddenly perceive it so closely?

“Britney?”

Snapping myself out to my wild imaginations, I pulled myself together and plastered a fake smile on my face, ready to meet my stepbrother.

“Hi, I’m-“

I shouldn’t have raised my head.

No, I shouldn’t have met his eyes.

Rather, I shouldn’t have taken the flight to London to live with my mum.

And more importantly, I shouldn’t have had a one night stand with a stranger simply because I thought we were never going to bump into each other again.

Because, fate had a wicked way of playing with me and just when I thought I was ready for my new life, memories from the past simply came back to make a mockery of me.

And of all ways to make a mockery out of me, it chose by having the guy I slept with barely 24 hours ago suddenly showing up right in front of me as my step brother!