JC pulled into the same driveway he'd pulled into hours before and cut the engine. The night was murky, leaving the moon as the only light available to guide them to the front door.

"Sorry," she said, slowly picking her way along the sidewalk. "I forgot to turn on the lights outside." 

"That's what iPhones are for," he said, pulling up the flashlight app. Suddenly the walkway was bright and luminous and they easily made their way to the front door, where she also found her key and slid it into the lock.

"Handy," she commented, as he turned off the flashlight and stepped into the condo.

"I have a million more apps that do nothing but stupid shit."

She led him inside and down the hall to the living room. "Can I get you a beer or some wine or a Pepsi...I could mix you a drink, if you want something stronger."

"What, you got like a full bar in here or something?"

"Something. Come on."  He followed her to the kitchen and stood back when she opened the right side of the enormous stainless steel refrigerator. Two brands of beer, what looked like a case of Pepsi and a few gallons of different flavors of juice filled most of the interior. On the bottom shelf and in the drawers were a few food items, as if they were an afterthought.

"Your fridge looks like you live in LA. Girls don't eat out there."

"Help yourself to whatever you like," she said, opening the freezer. It was packed full of frozen dinners and frosty packages of meat. "I just don't keep much in the fridge. I buy fresh fruit and veggies every morning at the farmer's market. I eat what I cook and toss the rest. I don't like the idea of food slowly rotting in my fridge."

He grabbed a bottle of beer and twisted the cap off, offered it to her and then grabbed another when she took it.  

They settled into the deep, soft cushion of the overstuffed couch, covered in a microfiber in a stylish slate grey and drank the first few sips of their beers in silence.

"So.." JC started, mindlessly wiping the lip of his bottle. "When I asked you out yesterday, you were a bit hesitant. Any reason for that?"

She smiled. "Not used to hearing no, are you?"

He laughed, long and loud. "I'm actually plenty used to that. I hear no all the time. I wonder now if it had something to do with the guy you don't want to talk about."

"A little," she admitted. Sheepishly, she bowed her head and ran her fingers through her hair, pulling it forward to hide her face. "I haven't been with anyone since him. I hadn't had an interest in dating, not even for a casual night out, in a long time. It scared me a little that I was ready to jump when you said you wanted to take me out."

"How come?"

"Because I do have a therapist. And she tells me that I'm not interested in the easy guy. The guy that's willing to lay everything down for me, right here and right now. I want the guy I can't have. I want the one that would willingly walk away from me." She lifted her head and finished softly. "I want the one that forgot about me."

"Maybe..." He sucked in a breath. "Maybe you want to conquer that experience. Maybe you want to conquer him?"

"Maybe." She sighed. "At any rate, it's not exactly healthy."

"Maybe not. Or maybe that's a conformist way to look at it. Maybe there's nothing wrong with having to work for something. Worth going after what you want, knowing you might not get it, but really relishing the fight for it."

Elizabeth grinned, chuckling. "You like that theory because it ends up in me jumping you."

JC laughed along. "I like any theory that ends up in someone jumping me. But that's been my whole life. Reaching for things I don't think I can get. Some things I got. Some things I didn't. I liked the fight."

"So you're saying..." She paused, a mischievous grin on her lips as she slid closer to him on the couch. "You're saying that you think it's a good idea for me to do this?"

He was ready for her as she tipped her head toward him, mouth slightly open, breathing at a standstill. They collided in a rush of deeply inhaled breaths and guttural, sensuous moans. He crawled her body with his hands, moving slowly upward until they were buried in her hair. They kissed, breathlessly, endlessly, like they'd been waiting fifteen years to do it.

When they came up for air, JC tipped his head to one side and nuzzled her just below her earlobe. Elizabeth gave low, sultry chuckle. "You don't remember that that tickles."

"Yes I do," he murmured, nipping lightly at the fragrant skin of her neck. He toyed with the thin strap of her bra before moving down into the deep ‘V' of her blouse and slipping his hand inside the shirt, and then the cup of her tiny lace bra. Her nipple stood at attention, taut and red. She shuddered when he fondled and flicked it, then nibbled her earlobe a little more.

"Uh... so I think I'll take you up on that offer to get a little more comfortable."

"What offer?"

"The one you made the last time I saw you." She sat up, then stood and grabbed both bottles of beer. "Come on," she chirped, leading him down a hall and around a bend to the corner bedroom.

Spacious wasn't the word for this room. It was more like two rooms combined into one, a bedroom and a sitting room, complete with fireplace and window seat, giving a cozy perch from which to watch the ocean just feet away. A set of sliding glass doors covered by sheer drapes led to the wrap around patio, just wide enough for a bistro table and an oversized umbrella.

The waves were louder in this room. It was soothing, relaxing as they climbed up onto the four-poster bed with the intricately carved headboard and lay next to each other. Listening. Waiting.

"I suppose you do this a lot, huh"

He rolled his head in her direction. "This?"

"Don't pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about. I'm a big girl. I know average men who do one night stands. Don't pretend your famous, celebrity ass doesn't do it too."

"Yeah, my famous celebrity ass does them. That's how I lost my girlfriend."

"Oh. Forgot about that."

"You never had a one night stand?"

"A couple," she answered, shrugging a shoulder. "Meant nothing."

"They're not supposed to mean anything, silly. That's why they're one night stands."

She smiled, though it was thin and weak.

"Are you worried about how you'll feel afterward? Even though, if we'd have had sex way back then, it still would have been a one night stand?"

"Even if we'd have had sex way back then, I already liked you too much for it to not mean anything. And this... tonight... will mean something to me."

JC was quiet for a few seconds. Then he asked, "Are you trying to fight for something, here? Trying to conquer me?"

She giggled once. Then again. "Oh my God. Probably. That's why I'm so turned on right now."

"Are you really?"

"Yeah. Really."

"Tell me."

"I'm really turned on right now."

He laughed. "Okay, smartass."

"What do you want me to say?"

He rolled to his side and reached for her, slid her across the bed until she was right up against him. "Tell me what you're feeling. How you know you want me."

"I didn't know I wanted you until I heard your voice yesterday. I knew it was you. I couldn't even see you, and I knew it was you. My body knew. I've been on high alert since yesterday. My... my heart beats out of control and I can't breathe when you look at me. When you touch me, all sorts of things happen to me, like volts of electricity shoot through me-"

"Like that?" He asked, brushing his fingertips down her arm.

"Fuck," she responded, closing her eyes, doing her best to hold back a shudder but losing the fight.  

"Did you just come?"

"No." Her eyes opened and fixed on his. "I want to, though."

He bent over her and pressed his lips against hers, gently until she welcomed his tongue and he claimed her mouth with an impassioned moan. He rolled toward her, then settled in the space between her legs as her arms circled his neck.

"I want you," she whispered between frantic kisses. "I don't care if it's a bad idea or if it's a one night stand or if it's unhealthy. I've been waiting all this time for this moment. I want it."

"Me too," he whispered, shaking with desire. "I want it. I want you."

In a flurry, clothes were tossed in all directions-jeans and shirts and shoes, underwear and a bra until two warm naked bodies were rolling around on the bed together. Elizabeth sat up for a moment and rolled to the edge of the bed, reached for a drawer and plucked out two gold foil envelopes.

"I hope these fit," she said, tossing the condoms in his direction.

He snapped one up, ripped the package open, removed the disc and rolled the latex on himself, smoothing it down the shaft until he was covered. "Contrary to popular belief, I do not have a giant dick," he mused with a smile.

She glanced at him, tipping her head as if she was mentally measuring.  "It'll do."

"Gee, thanks."

"You're welcome. You'll find that we complement each other well."

He laughed. "Is that your way of saying you're tight?"

She smiled, that mischievous, devilish smile again. "Try it. Find out."

"I'll get to it," he said. "Eventually." A moment later his mouth was on one nipple, sucking and licking her into oblivion before moving on to the other, and then kissing his way south until he'd arrived at a light patch of soft hair. He let the patch guide him lower, further south until his mouth closed around her warm center, applying teasing flicks and light suction.

"Oh my--- Oh, fuck!" She grabbed him, grasping handfuls of hair, her hips bucking in rhythm with the movements of his tongue. For a few minutes, she said nothing, barely breathed while riding the wave from pleasure to intense pleasure to loud, shuddering, thundering explosion.

Before she could even recover, he was inside her, gently thrusting until he was buried to the hilt. He began a slow, sensuous grind. Her body responded in kind, rolling in symphony with his.

"See, you didn't think about the best benefit of waiting so long to do this."

Her grin was slow to spread across her face, giving her the appearance of drunkenness. "And what's that benefit?"

"I'm better at it now," he answered, then sped his movements, increasing the strength of his thrusts until they were rocking the headboard against the wall. Mumbles and sighs gave way to moans and cries until, together, they stiffened, gripping each other tightly, grunting barely decipherable phrases into the warm, muggy air.

"Jesus," JC said, heaving great gulps of air as he pulled out and rolled to the side.

"You can just call me Elizabeth. Or Liz," she added, chuckling. The grin on her face was worth a million words. She was satisfied.

"Smart ass," he panted, his gaze on the ceiling fan slowly turning. They said nothing to each other for a good, long while. Breathing slowed and sweat dried and the air hung heavy with, ‘what now' lingering between them.

Elizabeth rolled to her side, propping her head up on an elbow. "I was thinking about something you said earlier. About how you thought that making things right between us would be like a good omen for you, relationship wise."

"And then you said it was a crock of shit."

"Well, what if I was wrong about that? What if..."

He rolled to his side so he could see her, look her in the eye. "What if?"

"What if this wasn't a one night stand?"

JC eyed her, curious. "How could it not be? Besides doing this again tomorrow," he added with a wink.

"There's always that. It's just a weird thought I had."

"Expound on the weird thought."

She shrugged a shoulder, shyly reaching out to run her fingertips across his chest. "Me and you... we ended up being so much alike, you know? Like, what if... what if all the way back then, we were meant to be together but things got all screwed up? And you went your way and I went mine, but it never worked out with anyone else because that's not who we were meant to be with?"

"I'd say.... I'd say that's some pretty outside the box, thinking, Elizabeth."

She smiled. "But I shouldn't conform. Right?"

"Right. So what you're saying is that even though I live across the country, and I'm kind of a big deal as far as 90's pop music goes-" They both paused to laugh. "You think there's something here that we should pursue."

"You don't?"

"I'm asking you what you think."

"I think... for the first time, probably ever, I see a future with someone. I don't know if it's because you're practically unattainable or because I've wanted you since I was nineteen and everything finally came full circle, but... it's like we got a second chance, JC. You don't feel it? You don't see it?"

Her eyes widened, pleading with him. "Am I crazy?

JC didn't answer, not for a few beats. The clock on the bedside table quietly ticked away the seconds. The ocean waters rushed in, then back out. Elizabeth's eyes never wavered from his.

"You're not crazy," he mumbled.  "I don't think running into you was coincidence. Maybe you're like my Christmas Angel or something."

She laughed. "I am clearly your Ghost of Christmas Past. You know, from A Christmas Carol. Sent to help you right the wrongs of your past so that your present and future go the right way."

He laughed with her, then scooted closer, gathering her in his arms. She held him tight, her lips roaming his neck and shoulders. "Maybe you could be Christmas present. And Christmas future, too. What do you think?"

She tipped her head up and grinned. "I think I see that. Do you?"

"For the first time," he answered, with a smile and a happy, content sigh. "I think I do."