Review: One Nightstand by Rick Bettencourt

Title: One Nightstand (Boughs of Evergreen Anthology)

Author: Rick Bettencourt

Publisher: Beaten Track Publishing

Pages/Word Count: 37 Pages

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb: Doug’s not good with one-night stands, yet in the early hours of Christmas Eve, he returns home with Kirk – a good-looking guy he met at the club. Nestled together in the kitchen of his New England cottage, sipping hot chocolate and watching the snow fall, Doug wishes there could be more to this casual encounter. It’s a feeling that stays with him as he heads off to a frantic day of work at the mall, swamped with last-minute holiday shoppers…the last place he expects to find something magical.

Review: When I first saw the title of this short story I thought it was a typo, but it’s not. It makes perfect sense once Doug and Kirk come to the realization they want to share something more than just a one night stand. One Nightstand is a story about being alone and being lonely, set amidst the crush of the holiday season. Doug is the man who’s loneliness is at the heart of Rick Bettencourt’s short story, part of the Boughs of Evergreen anthology benefitting The Trevor Project.

This is such a sweet and simple narrative, one of longing, one of two strangers who get together without expectation but end up discovering that the one thing they have in common is their loneliness. Doug wants to be more than the hit-him-and-quit-him stereotype, and Kirk recognizes something just a little bit different in the connection he made with the man he never intended to see again.

There isn’t a backstory in One Nightstand, nor is there much front-story, truth be told. It is, however, an in-the-moment glimpse of hope and happiness, of two people who find the unexpected in each other and turn it into a romance by building their own traditions around the magic of Christmas.

You can buy One Nightstand here: