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    My Big, Huge Mistake
    My Big, Huge Mistake
    My Big, Huge Mistake
    Ebook271 pages3 hours

    My Big, Huge Mistake

    By M.E. Clayton

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    What happens when you have too much alcohol at your best friend’s party?

    Unfortunately, a night you can never forget.

    Chloe
    With a great job, an awesome family, and great friends, Chloe Slater’s life feels pretty snazzy if she does say so, herself. The only dark cloud over her rather happy life is the unrequited love she harbors for her best friend, Callum. She’s been in love with him since the moment she understood what real love was. Growing up, he’d been her best friend and the man she secretly hoped to marry, one day.

    When Callum graduates from law school, their families throw a party to celebrate. Fortunately-or unfortunately, depending on who you ask-Callum and Chloe can hold their alcohol better than their lightweight siblings. So, while everyone else is passed out, Chloe finds all her dreams coming true when Callum finally makes a move, ending in a night of everything she’s always fantasized.

    Callum
    With a promising career, an awesome family, and great friends, Callum Rosewood couldn’t ask for a better life. He was so confident in life that even his future was mapped out perfectly. Already working for one of the best law firms in the state, his plan was to make his best friend, Chloe, dump whatever shmuck she was dating, marry her, have three kids, then live happily ever after.

    When he and Chloe get stupid drunk the night of his graduation party, he isn’t too concerned that they ended up in bed together. After all, it wasn’t like he hasn’t been in love with her all his life. As far as he was concerned, she was going to be his wife anyway. Having been best friends all their lives, what could possibly go wrong?

    When alcohol leaves a lasting impression...
    After Chloe forces herself to pee on that godforsaken little stick, she swears she’ll never drink another drop of alcohol for the rest of her life (which turns out to be a lie, by the way). Avoiding Callum like the plague, she tries to figure out what she’s going to do, but she finally caves and tells him the truth.

    After Callum finds out that Chloe’s pregnant as a result of their drunken night together, to say he’s pissed would be a great understatement. However, refusing to ruin their parents’ friendship, become a weekend father, entertain the thought of an abortion or adoption, there’s only one thing left to do.

    With Callum believing that Chloe got pregnant on purpose, what with her failing to mention she wasn’t on birth control and all, being married to her ex-best friend is turning out to be the worse than the mistake of sleeping with him. However, just when they think things can’t get any worse...they do.

    Word to the wise, my friends, if you're going to have a drunken one-night stand, don't have it with your best friend.

    NOTE: This book contains adult language, adult situations, and explicit sexual encounters. If sensitive to any of the aforementioned issues, please do not purchase.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherM.E. Clayton
    Release dateMar 1, 2019
    ISBN9780463594773
    My Big, Huge Mistake
    Author

    M.E. Clayton

    M.E. Clayton works fulltime and writes as a hobby only. She is also an avid reader and Pinterest addict. When she's not working, reading, writing, or on Pinterest, she is spending time with her family and friends, or her dog, Boy, or her cat, Seatbelt. She lives in California with her husband and enjoys doing nothing but reading. Seriously. She does nothing but read. However, that's how she likes it.

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    Reviews for My Big, Huge Mistake

    3.5/5

    33 ratings2 reviews

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    • 3/5
      The storyline was good, Callum was too over the top of his righteousness. It took too long for Andrew to finally get through to him. In an unexpected pregnancy there are always 2 people involved, especially if he didn't use a condom!
    • 2/5
      This book is freaking confusing. The guy is a jerk, he acts like he does not like her at all and have sex with her even after treat her like shit. The girl is everything but a heroine, does not stand up for herself, hear a lot of bad things coming from him and does not says a word and after all she forgives him with a bit of a cry and promise that he loves her (rolling eyes here).
      I don’t know what this written was thinking about, but this book is not a romance for me.

    Book preview

    My Big, Huge Mistake - M.E. Clayton

    Just a couple of things before I let you go and get your read on. While I am doing my best to work with better editing and proofreading software, all my books are solo, independent works. I write my books, proofread my books, edit my books, create the covers, etc. I have one beta who gives me feedback on my stories, but other than that, all my books are independent projects.

    That being said, I apologize, in advance, for the typos, grammar inconsistencies, or any other mistakes I may make. Since writing is strictly a hobby for me, I haven’t looked into commitments in regard to publishers, editors, etc. My hope is that my stories are enjoyable enough that a few mistakes, here and there, can be overlooked. However, if you’re a stickler for grammar, my books are probably not for you.

    Also, I am an avid reader-I mean an AVID reader. I love to read above any other hobby. However, the only downside to my reading obsession is when I fall in love with a series, but I have to wait for the additional books to come out. And because I feel that disappointment down to my soul, when I started publishing my works, I vowed to publish all books in my series all at once. No waiting here…LOL. Now, the exception to that will be if enough readers request additional stories based off the standalone, such as in Facing the Enemy. At that point, if I decide to move forward with a requested series, I will make sure all additional books are available all at once. As much as this is a hobby for me, I am writing these books for all of you, as well as myself.

    Thank you, for everything!

    Contact Me

    I really appreciate you reading my book and I would love to hear from you! Now, unfortunately, because I do have a full-time job, and a family I love spending time with, at this time, I’m afraid it would be very hard for me to maintain a multitude of social media sites. However, for the sites I do participate in, here are my social media coordinates:

    Website

    Facebook

    Instagram

    Email

    Newsletter

    Dedication

    For Gene & Linda Oliveira-

    Two people who have blindly and enthusiastically supported everything I’ve done. Thank you so, so, so much. You have no idea how wonderful it feels to be supported so completely.

    Playlist

    What Does It Take – Honeymoon Suite

    Love Me Harder – Ariana Grande

    This Woman’s Work – Kate Bush

    Fallin’ – Alicia Keys

    Angel – Aerosmith

    Back For Good – Take That

    Beautiful Soul – Jesse McCartney

    Breathe – Michelle Branch

    Broken – Seether

    Call It Love – Poco

    Darlin’ I – Vanessa Williams

    Girl Can’t Help It – Journey

    Hanging By A Moment – Lifehouse

    I Can’t Tell You Why – Eagles

    I Shall Believe – Sheryl Crow

    Life After You – Daughtry

    Miracles – Jefferson Starship

    Piano In The Dark – Brenda Russell

    Rooms On Fire – Stevie Nicks

    Say Goodbye – Jordan Knight

    Prologue

    Most people would to be looking at the bride during a wedding. I mean, how could you not? She was supposed to be the attraction to beat all attractions.

    This was her day, right?

    Well, as I stood up here in front of a room full of people, I was hoping that all eyes were not on me because the contempt on my face was unmaskable. Was unmaskable a word?

    Anyway, believe me, I’ve tried and tried, all morning, to don a happy façade of a smile, but to no avail. I was standing up here, pledging the rest of my life to a man who couldn’t stand me, and his expression wasn’t any happier than mine.

    But to be fair, I couldn’t stand him, either.

    Oh…ha, ha…you were probably wondering why I was marrying a man who held no affection for me, whatsoever. That was the only easy thing about all this ridiculousness.

    See, the man who was standing before me-glaring at me with hate and loathing battling in those stunning pools of caramel eyes of his-used to be my best friend since birth. Our mothers were lifelong friends, making our fathers the best of friends, as well. My parents’ contribution to the earth’s population was myself and my older brothers, Anthony Junior and Stephen. Callum’s parents (Callum would be the groom who was currently wishing a thousand deaths upon me) had popped out his smug, arrogant, obnoxious, infuriating self in addition to his older brother, Timothy, and his older sister, Darlene.

    Since Callum and I had been the babies of the families and the same age, we’d been thrown together at the earliest of ages, and we had become best friends.

    Until we weren’t anymore.

    We shared our first day of pre-school, our first school bus ride, our first sport sign-up (it was soccer, by the way), our first broken bones (I broke my leg falling out of a tree and Callum broke his arm trying to catch me), our first school dance…well, we just shared a lot of firsts.

    You’re probably thinking we shared that first, too, but we hadn’t. Callum had ended up losing his virginity to some tramp who had already been a junior in high school while he had only been in the eighth grade. I ended up losing mine years later. As a matter a fact, it hadn’t been until my second year in college that I had finally given up the goods to the guy I’d been dating for about a year. It hadn’t been anything to write home about, but at least I had cared about the guy.

    As Callum and I had grown older, we had still shared a lot. We had kept in touch as much as we could, what with both of us going to different colleges, but we had become more private over the years. We hadn’t felt the need to share every little thing. We had kept our personal relationship details private and had glossed over who we were dating whenever one of us had met someone new.

    However, that had all come to a disastrous end, three months ago, when Callum had come home to celebrate his graduation from law school. The party had been small and cozy with only family in attendance. We had celebrated until our parents had gone to sleep and our siblings had passed out in a haze of alcohol.

    Oh, and how I wished I could go back in time and pass out with said siblings, but I couldn’t since time travel wasn’t a thing, no matter how much I wanted it to be.

    Nooooooo. You want to know what I did?

    I had proceeded to drink my weight in liquor, and instead of throwing up and passing out like a good little alcoholic, I had ended up in bed with my best friend.

    Naked and doing things I still couldn’t believe.

    And because my best friend had been just as stupefied with drink as I had been…you guessed it, folks. We had forgotten to use condoms. That’s condoms with an ‘s’ because we hadn’t had sex just once, and then come to our senses, full of shock and guilt, like normal people. Nooooooo. We screwed all goddamn night long.

    As you’ve probably already guessed, due to our minor lack of judgment, we ended up with a major problem. Yours truly had gotten knocked-up. And because the choices had been an abortion (which…uh, no), adoption (see abortion insert), being a single momma (which I had no problem with, except it would destroy my parents’ friendship with Callum’s parents), or marrying the prick….

    Well, since I was wearing this cursed wedding dress, enough said.

    The funny thing was that this hadn’t even been my idea. The man currently banishing me to the depths of Hell in his mind had damn near forced this horrible, horrible idea on me. He had said-and this was a quote, mind you-that, ‘Our parents aren’t going to suffer for our stupidity. So, you either marry me willingly or I’ll drug you and find the shadiest preacher I can find to make this happen’.

    Yay.

    Not.

    Chapter 1

    Chloe~

    I wasn’t sure how much more of this I would be able to take.

    I sat in a chair that was as far away from Callum as possible without it being too obvious that I didn’t want to be anywhere near my newly acquired husband. I sat silently as I watched my parents and Callum’s parents host the reception. Both fathers had given their speeches along with Callum’s brother (since he was the Best Man and all), and both mothers had cried and carried on.

    Honestly, everyone seemed pretty happy and lively.

    It was only Callum and I who were miserable and wishing to be anywhere else on the planet.

    I was pissed because we’d been so careless. He was pissed because he genuinely believed that I had trapped him with my pregnancy.

    Pfft, puhleeease.

    Because out of all the men on the planet, he was the best candidate to trap into marriage? I mean, seriously, if I were all about trapping a man, it would have been one who wasn’t annoying as fuckall.

    I had tried pointing out-several times, might I add-that this marriage had been his idea, not mine. So, how the hell was that me trapping him? I had also tried to point out that I hadn’t been appointed a court date to dispute charges of rape against his person. So, again, how was this me trapping him?

    However, I did almost end up with a court date to dispute assault charges when he told me that I should have been responsible enough to…let me see, how exactly had he worded it? Oh, yeah…‘If you’re going to spread your legs, you should have enough sense to be on birth control’. I had almost cracked his skull in with my Donald Duck clock, but Donald hadn’t deserved that kind of abuse.

    Soooooooo, my ex-best friend/new husband believed that this was my entire fault, and that I’d had some long, thought out, nefarious plan to force his hand in marriage since we’d been born.

    Could a man be more arrogant?

    No, seriously.

    Could he?

    Still, the entire night hasn’t been a complete disaster. We had managed to get by with Callum kissing me softly on my cheek when the priest had announced us husband and wife. Plus, I’d been able to keep from having to hold his hand when I had pretended that I needed to use both my hands to gather my dress up as we walked down the aisle after our ridiculous vows.

    I had also lied to our mothers earlier and had made up some fake ankle sprain that occurred as I was walking down the aisle. They bought it, so I’d been able talk my way out of having to engage in the bride/groom first dance. I had even gotten out of the cake eating when I had pulled my mom aside and had lied again, telling her that my stomach hurt. I pointed out that, if she didn’t want me spending the entire reception in the bathroom, she had better save me from the cake.

    The lie had worked beautifully.

    She had made up some nonsense about preserving the top tier, blah, blah, blah, but all I had cared about was that Callum wouldn’t have a chance to shove cake in my face. I’ve no doubt he would have held it over my face until I died of suffocation, that way he could act like the poor inconsolable groom/widow.

    I just needed to get through one more hour and we could make our escapes. Sure, it sucked that we had to go back to his house together because it would look sketchy as hell if I spent our wedding night at my house while he spent it at his, but, oh well. We were still kind of at a standstill on where we were going to live, but I knew one of us would have to bite the bullet sooner rather than later.

    Come dance with me, you beautiful bride. I looked up into the sweet, kind, blue eyes of Callum’s best friend (now that I’d been replaced), Andrew McAlister. He was a good-looking piece of man meat, and maybe in another life I would have jumped on that, but not now.

    You know, being married and all.

    I’d love to, but I hurt my left ankle earlier. It really hurts. I had to stick to the script.

    He leaned in closer. I bet I can take the weight off your ankle if I hold you really, really close. He winked at me, and I melted just a little.

    Well, in that case, I’d love to, I agreed.

    I heard little gasps of shock as Andrew lifted me bride-style, then walked out onto the dance floor with me. I should probably feel embarrassed or ashamed that I was dancing with another man when I hadn’t even danced with the groom, but, hey, the groom hadn’t offered to carry me out onto the dance floor. Plus, the groom was perfectly fine with not having to dance with me.

    True to his word, Andrew wrapped his right arm around my waist and used his body to support mine. His left hand held my right one close, and he moved in a soft, slow circle, making sure there was no weight on my left leg. It was sweet, and I felt a smidge bad for lying, but not bad enough to tell him to put me down.

    I rested my head on Andrew’s shoulder and closed my eyes. You smell nice, I pointed out.

    I could hear and feel him chuckle. Thanks. You smell nice, too.

    After a few seconds-and because I was no fool-I asked the obvious. Why did you ask me to dance, Andrew?

    Because you really are beautiful? He posed his answer like a question.

    I pulled my head back, so I could look at him. Are you asking me or telling me?

    He sighed. I know the real reason you guys got married, Chloe. I just wanted to tell you that despite…all that, to Callum, this is a real marriage. His face looked serious. It was almost as if he were expecting the worst from me, and he hoped that this little speech of his would make a difference.

    I didn’t know that he confided all the dirty, ugly, little details to you. I was a little upset to be caught off guard like this, but I really wasn’t surprised. Callum needed someone he could vilify me to.

    Chloe-

    May I cut in?

    Andrew stopped turning me and we both froze at Callum’s request. I wasn’t sure why Andrew froze, but I froze out of sheer shock. Why in the hell would Callum want to cut in? I mean, seriously, why?

    Was the boy nuts?

    "Of course, Cal. After all, she is your wife," Andrew conceded.

    Good to know one of you still remembers that, Callum muttered.

    I wanted to roll my eyes. I mean, how could I not? He was being stupid and ridiculous. However, because I was an adult, I managed to restrain myself from such a childish act, and I allowed Callum to take me into his arms.

    The peace lasted all of three seconds. You can stop with your fake sprained ankle bullshit now, Chloe.

    No, actually I can’t. I told that fake story to too many people. I’m riding that lie out until I can get the hell out of here, I retorted. I could actually hear his teeth grinding and a brilliant idea popped into my head. I’m going to wince, reached down and grab my fake injured ankle, and you will gallantly assist me back to my chair. This way we don’t have to-

    Callum threw his head back and laughed. Now, to everyone else, it might look like he was enjoying himself and was happy as a ham to have me in his arms, but I knew better.

    Remember.

    Best friends since birth until the ex-best friends’ debacle.

    So, you’re perfectly fine with braving the pain to dance with Andrew, but it’s not worth suffering to dance with your husband? Callum hissed in my ear.

    Oh, believe me when I tell you I’m suffering tremendously right now, I hissed back.

    Don’t make me murder you on your wedding day, Chloe, he threatened.

    Pfft, please, I scoffed. It would take someone with a sense of compassion to put me out of my misery. So, talk about an empty threat.

    He laughed again. Well, if I’m going to be miserable for the rest of my life, then so the fuck are you. Callum squeezed my body tighter. I’m going to spend every single day making sure you’re as miserable as I am. You’re going to regret ever opening your legs for some convenient dick.

    Wow.

    Now, I understood that people tended to get nasty when they were upset or have had their feelings hurt, and so forth, but this was too much by comparison. He was really acting like I had taken advantage of him in his drunken state and had purposely gotten pregnant.

    The no good, arrogant, despicable, cocksucking sonofabitch.

    I quicky hit back at him because I wasn’t going to take his shit like some weak-willed pussy. "No way I’ll regret it, Callum. The way I see it, I can fuck any convenient dick that I come across now because I can’t get knocked-up twice. I mean, really, this mistake with you is rather quite liberating."

    I felt him step on my foot so hard that I gasped and reached down in real pain. He stepped back, and then scooped me up, holding me close to him. From the outside looking in, it appeared as if he was a concerned groom taking care of his new bride.

    That was so not the case.

    His next words were proof that it was either step on my toe or strangle me in front of our parents and wedding guests. He nuzzled his face into the crook of my neck as he walked me off the dance floor. Make no mistake, Chloe. I will torture you in ways your mind will not be able to comprehend right before I kill you if you ever betray your wedding vows to me.

    And because I wasn’t ready to be the mature one and because Callum was acting like a world class prick, I responded as cheekily as I could. You actually remember our wedding vows? I shrugged a shoulder. I guess you’ll have to write them down for me. I tend to forget meaningless gibberish.

    I thought he was going

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