Chapter 3

Ten Years Later

Matthew Donovan, Head Loan Officer at a branch of the First National Savings and Loan bank, was bent over his paperwork industriously. If you'd ask him ten years ago what his 10 year plan was, he'd answer "live long enough and then open a bar". However his plans were thwarted by a strange one night stand that drove him away from bars and grills and rooted him in the Mojave desert and Las Vegas.

It was a typical day at the bank, and he was pretty busy. His secretary had just confirmed his next appointment, with a woman named Jackie West. Mrs. West apparently wanted to secure a small loan to expand her business, a popular music shop. While there were some problems with her past credit, Matt was still thinking of granting the loan request. His instincts, which seldom led him wrong, were saying that this would be a good move for the bank.

He paused to take a drink from the coffee mug on his desk. It was a personalized mug that read: 'I may be hot, but that doesn't mean I'm vampire meat' The mug had been a gag gift from Roger to him one Christmas after he'd come out to his friend.

Actually, Roger had thrown his head backwards and break to crazy laughter before revealing he had met vampires before in LA. The third musketeer, as Roger kept calling Bella after she rejected him, had met, got bitten and lived to tell the tale by a third kind of vampire as well.

"You're just not that special"

She had saucered to him after he had unwrapped the mug. His eyes strayed to the photos in the frame on his desk. Several of them were of Roger and his wife Angela, Bella's roommate and of course of Jackie herself. There were a few of Evan, Roger and Angela's first child and he even had an ultrasound picture of their second child, due in six months.

Matt was happy for them. He wasn't so happy for himself, because his love life was nothing to write home about. His few girlfriends had all been lackluster, at best. He just didn't know what he was doing wrong.

He had a good job, a nice house, a cat to keep him company but nobody to curl up with in front of a roaring fire or cuddle with in bed at night. While he recognized how well off he was compared to others, he really wished that he could meet someone special.

"Mr. Donovan? Your next appointment is here,"

his secretary said from the doorway.

"Thank you, Grace, please show her in,"

"Come right in, Mrs. West"

he heard Grace's voice say.

"Thanks,"

an oddly familiar voice replied. Matt wondered where he'd heard it before as he glanced up.

"Hello, Mrs. West, I'm Matthew Donovan. Won't you sit down…?"

he began politely, then his eyes widened when he saw the startlingly beautiful woman standing in his doorway. Long black hair was pulled back behind a fine-boned face that looked like it belonged on a painting.

But his reaction to Mrs West was nothing compared to the other woman's reaction to the sight of HIM. The woman's coal black eyes widened, and her mouth fell open.

"It's you! Oh my God, I can't believe it!"

she cried in disbelief. Matt blinked in puzzlement.

"I beg your pardon?"

he said, as Jackie West just stood there with her mouth hanging open. The woman finally pulled herself together enough to reply.

"You don't... remember me?"

she asked cautiously. Matt frowned.

"Should I?"

Jackie West ran a hand over her hair.

"Wow. Umm…that does explain a lot I guess…"

he paused, and then met Matt's eyes straight on.

"I took you home after I met you in a bar a little over ten years ago. We had sex, then when I went out to get us some breakfast the next morning you disappeared. I never saw you again."

Shock rippled through Matt. Dear God! He was face-to-face with that one-night stand from so long ago! He gulped.

"I see,"

Jackie frowned a bit.

"You really don't remember me?"

she said incredulously. Matt shook his head.

"I was drunk that night, really, really drunk. I don't remember much about that night after my third drink, to tell you the truth. All I do remember was waking up in a strange apartment the next morning with a massive hangover and the knowledge that I'd been... with someone. There was no one around, so I threw up in the toilet and ran like hell"

Jackie's dark eyes widened.

"I'm sorry. I had no idea how drunk you were. I just thought you were really cute and you seemed pretty into it"

Jackie's voice was both apologetic and faintly amused at the same time. Matt felt rather bad. Until he remembered exactly what had happened that night. The bites all over his body had taken the best part of the rest of the term to heal. Hell he didn't even know what kind of vampire the woman was!

Matt's eyes traveled all over Mrs. West examining her quickly. There was only a faint ray of sunlight coming in from his window but it didn't touch the woman. She wasn't shying away from it though like Roger said his vampire nanny used to do. She wasn't wearing any kind of jewelry so he didn't think she was the Mystic Falls kind of vampire he was so familiar with.

"You came here today to talk about the loan you wanted for your business."

Matt's tone became cold and professional then, unwilling to let her keep talking about the past. Jackie West frowned but conceded and sat on a chair across from his crossing her long legs.

"Yeah. I just had no idea I'd know the loan officer. God. Your last name is Donovan, huh? I never got it that night."

She smiled. Matt felt uncomfortable but tried to steer them back to the loan. This whole situation had thrown him off.

"You applied for a small business loan to expand your bar"

"Yes, that's right. I'm doing so well I want to add a little more private area. I've gotten lets of requests for that, I just need a little bit of money to do the remodel and buy the necessary equipment."

"I've looked over your application and done some checking into your credit history, and I decided to approve the loan, Mrs. West,"

he said as calmly as he could.

"Oh, cool. Look, this is just weird. Maybe you can pretend that this is just a normal situation, but I can't. I've never been able to forget you, not since that night. Would you like to go out with me sometimes this week?"

Matt's head jerked up, and he saw that Jackie had a serious expression on her handsome face. The dark eyes were locked on his and he clamped his lips close so he wouldn't give and say 'Yes'. His whole body wanted so agree so badly.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea…"

he said through clamped lips

"Why not?"

Jackie asked impatiently.

"We could finally get to know each other for real,"

She added calming down and smiling an alluring smile his way. Matt's fingers tightened around his pen.

"Look, Mrs. West"

"Call me Jackie,"

He sighed.

"That wouldn't be a good idea, either. We had a one-night stand ten years ago and experience has taught me I was lucky to see the sun the next day. So.."

he reached to open his right desk drawer. He retrieved a present given to him by Jeremy before his untimely death. Raising his eyes to meet the coal black ones of Jackie West he spoke calmly putting the object on his desk.

"Are you going to leave me alone or will we have to see what the papers write tomorrow about your automatic ignition in my office?"

Jackie's eyes widened as her breathing stopped.

"You wouldn't"

"Try me"

He pushed the papers to Jackie and a pen.

"Sign this and leave"

Jackie hesitated only for a moment. Then she nodded.

"All right."

"Great"