Exposed - Chapter 11
Saturday
Matt
“Matt?” Tanner called. “Where are you? Nigel? Nigel! Where is everyone?”
My eyelids felt heavy. I tried to call for Tanner, but my lips felt weird.
“We’re in here!” Nigel called.
A blurry Tanner walked into the bathroom and stared at me.
“What is this?” Tanner asked.
“He was acting hysterical,” Nigel said. “So I put him down.”
I laughed from the bubble bath.
“Nigel, did you drug him?”
“He was acting hysterical,” Nigel said again.
Tanner sighed. “How many times do I have to tell you to not drug our house guests?”
“But he was mad at me. He said I didn’t blend into the wall. And I like attention, but not negative attention.”
“You don’t blend into the wall when you’re wearing that. It’s bright orange and my walls are not orange.”
I laughed again.
“Hey, buddy,” Tanner said and clapped in front of my face. “Wake up. You need to be on your A-game tomorrow.”
I closed my eyes again.
“Damn it, Nigel!” Tanner yelled. “Undo whatever you did.”
“But he looks so happy.”
“He’ll be even happier if he’s lucid enough to hear Brooklyn tell him she loves him tomorrow.”
Brooklyn loves me? I felt myself sinking into the bubbles. That was a lie. She didn’t say it back.
***
“Matt,” someone said. “Matt!”
I opened my eyes to see Tanner shaking my shoulder. I yawned and sat up. “What’s going on?”
“Finally, you’re up. You have a text.” He thrust my phone in my face and then went to my closet.
The screen looked all blurry. I rubbed my eyes but it didn’t help.
Tanner threw a pair of jeans at my head.
But my reflexes were too slow to catch them.
“No wait, you need a more appropriate pant,” he said and chucked a pair of tuxedo pants at my head.
“What’s going on? I can’t see anything.”
“Drink this,” Tanner said and handed me a glass.
I shook my head. I’d vowed not to drink any more of Nigel’s green juice. I didn’t love the idea of him having a secret, unspecified ingredient. Especially because he liked to wink at me when he said it. I was almost 100% certain that he skeeted in it.
“Trust me,” Tanner said. “Nigel drugged you last night. You need this to properly wake up.” He slapped the side of my face.
“Ow.”
“See? You’re out of it. And you need to be with it because you’re supposed to meet up with Brooklyn in 20 minutes and I have somewhere to be or everything will be ruined.”
“Wait, what?” I took a sip of the drink and my vision immediately cleared. “Where am I meeting Brooklyn?” I’d been worried that she wouldn’t reach back out. But she’d texted me this morning like she’d promised. She wasn’t running away this time.
“Her text was very coy. She said Central Park. That you’d know where. She’s a flirtatious one, isn’t she?” He pointed to my phone, but I was already up and grabbing the jeans.
“No, the other ones,” Tanner said.
“I’m not wearing a tuxedo to Central Park.”
“It’ll make the proposal better.”
I paused with one foot in my jeans. “What?”
“Ignore me, I said I wouldn’t say anything. Pretend I’m not here.”
“That’s what Nigel said to me last night as he tried to blend into the wall again. Right before the whole night got very blurry.”
“Yes, whatever, you two had a little spat and he drugged you. Get over it. He had your best interests in mind. And it’s not like you drowned in your bath.
You were fine. And he stopped your hysteria, because you were certainly relaxed.
I get it, Brooklyn being married is a bit of a blow.
But she’s single now and you’re going to want to propose to her.
This afternoon, I think. So put on your tuxedo and stop dilly dallying. ”
“She said last night that she just wants to talk. I wasn’t at all hysterical, but I was upset. I can’t believe she got married. After everything we promised each other?”
“The past is in the past,” Tanner said as he looked through my shirts.
“It doesn’t feel that way right now. And I know that her husband passed away. It seems like it was probably recently. She’s really upset. She’s not ready to get proposed to. Would you stop looking through my clothes and talk to me for a second?”
Tanner turned around. “I disagree with everything you said. You love her. And she obviously still has feelings for you if you made love and talked the night away.”
“We talked about how she moved on from me.”
“Because you didn’t let her finish her story.”
“Tanner, how much have you been hanging out with her?”
“A lot. We’re friends. Here, this one will do.” He pulled something out of my closet that I didn’t own.
Was Nigel shopping for me now? I didn’t have time to argue about this. I didn’t want to be late. I pulled on the newer pair of jeans and the button-up shirt. It all fit perfectly. Because of course it did…Nigel was always checking me out.
“I need you to promise me something,” Tanner said.
“To not kill Nigel?”
“No. It’s impossible to kill Nigel, trust me.”
Wait…what?
He put his hands on my shoulders and made me look at him. “I know you have a hot temper.”
“I have a right to be annoyed about Nigel drugging me last night…”
“I’m not talking about Nigel. I’m talking about you in general.
You’re hot headed. You like to fight. You like to not listen.
Honestly, sometimes it seems like you enjoy pissing people off just for the sake of it.
It’s an odd quirk if you ask me. And I implore you, for the love of all living things, please keep your mouth closed and listen to everything Brooklyn has to say.
Think before you open your mouth. Take deep breaths. Do some introspective thinking. Yes?”
“I’m not that hot headed.”
Tanner laughed and let go of my shoulders. “So you aren’t planning on going to James’ place and yelling at everyone this afternoon?”
I pressed my lips together. Honestly, I was planning on doing that. But they deserved it. They were supposed to be my friends.
“Silence is consent,” Tanner said.
“No, that’s definitely not right.”
“Huh. It must have changed recently. Anyway, you’ll listen to Brooklyn and not freak out? Because you’re really going to want to freak out. And you can’t.”
I stared at him. “What do you know?”
“Me?” He put my tuxedo back in the closet. “Nothing.”
“No, you know something. Tanner, you kept Brooklyn’s return a secret from me. Stop keeping more stuff from me. Just tell me what you know.”
“I’ve already said too much. And I need to go hang out with my grandson.” He started walking away.
“And what the hell is that about? You can’t buy children!” I said to his retreating back. What the hell was he doing? I just hoped that while I was out of it last night, Nigel hadn’t kidnapped a kid too.
As I finished getting ready, it was like Nigel knew I’d been thinking about him. He appeared in my bathroom mirror. I jumped and turned around.
Nigel cleared his throat. “Master Tanner says I must apologize. So…I’m sorry that you were naughty last night and that you needed to be put in a nice relaxing bath to ease the hysteria.”
I glared at him. “That doesn’t really sound like an apology, Nigel. You drugged me.”
“But I said I’m sorry.”
He didn’t even sound a little sorry. And he blamed it on me. “I was just talking to you last night. About how I was upset that Brooklyn married someone else.”
“Exactly, you were upset. So I helped.”
“I just wanted to talk, Nigel.”
He stared up at me. “You wished to talk…to me?”
“Yeah. We were having a conversation.”
“Oh. I like that. I like conversing. I won’t drug you again. Unless you specifically ask.”
That sounded like a much better apology to me. “I’ll forgive you. If you tell me what the secret ingredient in your green juice is.”
A smile spread across his face. “I can’t do that. It’s my secret ingredient.” He winked at me.
The way he said ‘my’ in that sentence, combined with the wink, made me want to hurl.
“Are you okay, Master Matthew?”
“Nigel, have you been skeeting in my juice?”
He cocked his head to the side. “Shooting clay targets around your juice? No, I haven’t been skeet shooting in ages. I prefer large game hunting.”
“I meant like…cumming.”
“Where are you coming?”
“Where are you cumming?” I asked.
“I’m confused. Are we going somewhere? Am I invited on your morning date to meet Brooklyn?” He looked down at his lederhosen. “I’ll need to change into something more appropriate. I want her to like me as much as Kennedy likes me.”
What was he talking about? He never wore appropriate clothing. “No, Nigel. I’m asking you if you ejaculate in my juice?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Do you want me to?”
“No.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said and started walking away.
“Nigel, don’t you dare ejaculate in my beverages!”
But he didn’t respond.
Fuck. That did not go how I wanted it to. Now it seemed like the secret ingredient wasn’t Nigel’s skeet. And now somehow it was going to be. I shook my head. That wasn’t important right now. I just needed to stop drinking it.
What mattered was that I was going to be late. And 16 years ago, I’d had a bad habit of not showing up for Brooklyn when she needed me. She needed to know that I wasn’t the same guy.
I took a deep breath. But…I was the same guy.
In the most important way: I was still in love with her.
And I wasn’t sure if she loved me anymore.
Tanner may have been hanging out with Brooklyn a lot.
But he was wrong that Brooklyn was ready for a proposal.
When she’d lost her mom, she’d been broken.
When she’d lost her uncle, she broke again.
She’d already lost so much. And now her husband?
I clenched my jaw, trying to not think about those words. I tried to just focus on Brooklyn.
I knew what it felt like to lose my fiancée. To lose her. It was devastating. All consuming. That’s how she was feeling right now. Right now she just needed me. I’d waited 16 years to be with her. Brooklyn hated wasting time, but I’d wait a fucking lifetime for her to be mine again.