One Wild Night

He glanced at his bedside clock. It was just seven in the morning. They had barely gotten three hours of sleep.

Who could be at the door? Lucy? She was with her family, so he wasn't so sure she was the one. If not her, then who? He wondered as he quickly got off the bed so that the person wouldn't ring the doorbell again. He tried to move quietly so that he wouldn't disturb Bryan's sleep, but Bryan stirred in his sleep.

"Are you expecting someone?" Bryan asked in a sleepy voice but didn't open his eyes.

"Not exactly," Tom said as he walked out of the bedroom. Although he wasn't expecting anyone, he knew that it could be Lucy who had likely come to check on him after seeing her car parked outside her apartment. Once he got to the living room and opened the door, he was very surprised to see Sonia standing by his door.

"Hi! Good morning," she greeted with a bright smile, while Tom just stared at her in surprise.

Although he knew that Sonia had traveled down to see Lucy, he hadn't expected to meet her this way, not with her standing outside his door by seven in the morning.

Sonia had barely been able to sleep all through the night, despite the amount of alcohol she had consumed. She had been too worried about Bryan to sleep. She had kept waking up at intervals to dial his line, and each time it failed to connect, her heart became even heavier.

She had finally dozed off in the early hours of the morning and had woken up barely an hour later. Since Lucy and her mother were still asleep when she woke up, she had decided to take an early morning stroll. She had been surprised to see Lucy's car parked outside since it hadn't been there when she arrived the previous evening. That led her to believe that Tom was probably around in his apartment. And here she was.

"Good morning," Tom greeted, his surprise evident in his tone.

"I'm Sonia..."

"Of course, I know who you are," Tom cut in to save her the stress of introducing herself.

"Can I come in?" Sonia asked uncertainly since she didn't know if Tom was going to be receptive to her because she had just publicly called off her engagement with his brother the previous day.

Tom glanced inside the house, wondering if Bryan would like to meet Sonia yet. On second thoughts he opened the door for her to get in, knowing that if his brother was anything like him, he would want to meet Sonia at any point of the day.

"Thank you," Sonia said as she walked into the house.

Bryan who was now awake and had been on his way to the living room to find out who was visiting his brother so early in the morning, paused when he heard the familiar voice, and his heart skipped a beat.

Had it been less than twenty-four hours since he last heard that voice? It felt like ages since he had last seen laid his eyes on her. He missed her and wanted nothing more than to kiss her and let her know how much he loved her and couldn't bear to be away from her.

"Uhm, I know it's our first time meeting, and you probably already heard that I called off things with your brother. I'm very sorry for barging in on you this way," Sonia babbled, and Tom shook his head to stop her.

"You don't have to explain yourself or be sorry. Is Lucy okay?" He asked the first question that came to his mind. He recalled that he had promised to give Lucy a call when he got home the previous evening, but then he had been carried away by Harry's call, and then Bryan's call and arrival, and following that Bryan had insisted they find those behind the social media scandal. They had gotten home too late, and he hadn't wanted to disturb Lucy's sleep so he had failed to call her.

"Physically? She's okay. Her mom is with her. But I'm not so sure if she's okay emotionally, considering all that is going on. That's one of the reasons I'm here. Before we get into that, have you heard from your brother?" Sonia asked with a concerned frown.

"Bryan?" Tom asked in a loud voice to alert Bryan that he was the subject of discussion.

"Yes, unless you have another brother that I don't know about," She said with a trace of sarcasm in her voice, making Bryan's lips curve in a smile as he listened to her. He could almost imagine her rolling her eyes.

Although he was very tempted to go out there to her and show her just how much he had missed her, he refrained himself from doing so. He needed to hear what she had to say.

Tom's lips twitched in amusement, "No, I haven't heard from him. Why?" Tom asked, and Sonia looked at him for a moment without saying a word.

Knowing how Tom had deceived her best friend in the past, she couldn't exactly be blamed for not believing his words, "Can I take your word for it?" Sonia asked doubtfully.

"It's up to you. Hold on, let me get my phone and see if I can reach him," Tom said as he walked past Sonia and headed for his bedroom. Seeing how she seemed to have trust issues with him, he didn't want to start on the wrong foot with her since she was not just his baby's best friend, but his sister-in-law.

He almost bumped into Bryan who was standing by the door and eavesdropping on their conversation, "What are you trying to do?" Bryan asked as he followed Tom on tiptoes.

They both walked into the bathroom so they could speak without being heard, "I thought you were still asleep. Why are you eavesdropping? You don't want to talk to her? She is very worried about you," Tom said, and Bryan snorted.

"Serves her right. She decided to call things off after all," Bryan said, and Tom shook his head.

"Just yesterday you looked like you were going to die if you didn't see her, and now you're going to let your pride get in the way?" Tom asked.

"She should get a taste of her own medicine," Bryan said stubbornly.

"You're so immature. Suit yourself," Tom said as he picked up his phone and returned to the living room to join Sonia.

"I intend to," Bryan said with a smirk as he followed Tom, and then stood behind the door once again so he could hear what Sonia had to say.

"His line is not connecting," Tom said when he dialed Bryan's line and raised it to his ear.

"Yeah. Everyone has been trying to reach him. I hope he's okay," Sonia said with a slight frown.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he's okay wherever he is. Bryan is known to sulk when he doesn't get his way," Tom said with a wink, and jerked his head in the direction where Bryan was hiding, making Sonia narrow her eyes.

"One time when he was fourteen, he bedwet and then tried to hide the clothes so that no one would find out what he had done. He even turned the mattress over..."

Bryan's face contorted in a scowl, and he gritted his teeth in annoyance as he listened to Tom share the embarrassing details of his childhood with the lady he loved, while Sonia who had sounded very worried a moment ago started giggling.

"... And then his school crush who happened to be Jade's friend came visiting. Mom wasn't aware of the girl's presence, so when she went around the rooms to pick our dirty laundry and got a whiff of the stale urine under Bryan's mattress she started yelling about how Bryan always..."

"Shut up, or I'm going to kill you!" Bryan growled at Tom angrily as he came out of his hiding, ready to swing a punch at Tom, but he was quick to duck.

Sonia who had already gotten the hint from Tom that Bryan was in the house, looked at Bryan with disapproval as he continued to chase Tom around the living room, but it was obvious that he was still favoring one of his legs.

"Bryan!" Sonia snapped at him, and he turned to look at her with a scowl.

"What do you want?" He asked grudgingly, even though now that he was standing face to face with her, he could no longer remember why he was mad at her.

"Why are you here?" Sonia asked even though what she wanted was to run into his arms and embrace him.

"What do you care?" Bryan asked with a scowl.

"Alright.. Daddy will excuse you kids to sort things out while I give Lucy a call," Tom said as he walked away, but neither of them paid any attention to him.