Exposed - Chapter 23
Tuesday
Matt
I stared at Brooklyn’s face as she slept. The light streaming in through the window made her look almost ethereal. I was almost scared to move. Like she’d suddenly disappear again.
But it was morning, and Jacob would probably come running in here.
I needed to get going. I’d wait until whenever Brooklyn was ready to tell him about us.
It already seemed like a big step that she’d let me up here last night.
We were moving forward. Just like we agreed.
And I already had another delivery of two dozen bouquets set to arrive today.
That would put us at almost seven weeks as far as I was concerned.
I reached out and ran my fingers through her hair. “Brooklyn?”
She slowly opened her eyes and smiled. “Hey.”
“I’m going to head out,” I whispered.
She shook her head and nestled into my chest. “Not yet.”
I stared down at her hand on my bicep. Her wedding band and engagement ring shone in the morning light.
I wanted to propose to her. But was she ready to take those off?
I wanted the rings not to bother me. But I’d be lying if I said they didn’t.
I wanted my ring back on her finger. And this time when I asked her to marry me, I’d do it right.
In front of all our friends. A grand gesture.
Tanner would definitely be able to help with that.
But I already had a few ideas. And I knew when all my friends would be together next: Penny’s birthday this Friday.
I kissed the top of Brooklyn’s head. “Meet me at Empire High for practice later?”
“Or you could just take the whole day off again,” she said and smiled up at me.
As good as that sounded…I had a proposal to plan. And other work to do, unfortunately. “I wish I could. But I have a few meetings.”
“Okay. Jacob and I will see you after school then.” She laughed. “That is so weird to say. But also somehow so right. Doesn’t it kind of still feel like we’re 16?”
“You certainly have the stamina of a 16-year-old,” I said as I climbed out of bed.
She threw a pillow at me and I caught it.
“Trust me, I meant that in a good way.” I climbed back onto the bed and kissed her. “See you later, baby.”
“See you later.”
Not even the idea of Nigel moving in next door could wipe the smile off my face as I headed out to my car.
***
James opened the door holding a steaming cup of coffee. “I saw you heading up. Everything alright?”
“It’s so weird how many cameras you have.” I walked into his apartment.
“When you have something to protect, it doesn’t seem that weird.” He stared at me. Like he was waiting for me to admit I now had something to protect.
I shrugged. He’d kept Brooklyn’s return a secret from me for days. I could make him squirm for a few minutes. I walked past him and poured myself a cup of coffee too.
“So you’ll probably want some cameras soon too. Right?”
I shrugged again.
“We haven’t heard from you since Sunday. What’s going on?”
Okay, that seemed like long enough. “If you’re asking if I’m going to get back together with Brooklyn… The answer is yes.”
He smiled.
“But I have an idea I want to run past you. I know we were talking on Sunday about what we should all do for Penny’s birthday. Hear me out…” I lifted my hands and spread my fingers. “Prom.”
“I think she just wants a quiet night in. And there aren’t any proms to crash right now. It’s October, not May.”
“We’re not going to crash one. We’re going to throw our own. Penny never went to prom, right?”
“Yeah…but…”
“Brooklyn was talking about all the things she missed out on. Graduation, prom, college. I can only really give her one of those things.”
“So this isn’t really about Penny,” James said.
“It’s for both of them. Since they both missed out. Come on, this will be so much fun. And it will be the best surprise ever. The birthday to end all birthdays. Plus…I think it’ll be a pretty great time to re-propose to Brooklyn.”
“You want to propose to Brooklyn on Penny’s birthday? This really doesn’t feel like a great birthday present.”
“Are you kidding? Penny has been meddling in my love life for years. She’ll be thrilled. And…I mean…it’s prom. That means you’ll get lucky at the end of the night. Come on. Say yes.”
“Yes!” Penny said. “I can’t wait!”
We both turned to see her hurrying over to us.
Shit. I hadn’t seen her come into the kitchen. “Penny, how long have you been listening? It was supposed to be a surprise.”
She swatted her hand through the air. “I’d rather be in on it anyway. I’m so freaking excited! Prom?! And are you really going to propose? This is going to be so much fun!”
James laughed. “Are you sure? I know you said you wanted a night in…”
“No, this is so much better. I’ve always felt like a loser for not going to my own prom. Now I can tell everyone I did go to prom. And no one has to know it was a decade after I graduated.”
“Why didn’t you go to your own prom again?” I asked.
“Because no one asked me. I was really shy. I was basically an invisible nerd.”
I couldn’t picture that at all. And I was pretty sure she was wrong about all of it. “The guys at your school were probably just too scared to ask the hottest girl out.”
For the first time in years, James didn’t give me a death stare when I talked about Penny looking hot. Instead, he just pulled her into his arms. “That sounds right to me. And this is going to be the best prom ever. So much better than whatever lame prom your high school had back then.”
She smiled.
“Definitely,” I said. “Plus, this time all of us will be going together.”
“What do you remember about your prom?” Penny asked, looking up at James.
“Not much really. I do remember getting really high in the limo.”
Penny shook her head. “And you?” she asked me.
“I was a total downer.”
“Yeah, I think we all need this,” Penny said. “But is there really time to plan it? It’s only three days away…”
“I’ll handle everything,” I said. “It’s for your birthday. Leave it to me.” And Tanner. I definitely needed Tanner’s help if I was going to pull this off.
“It’s for Penny’s birthday,” James said. “I want to help too.”
“That would be great. Prom, guys! This is going to be epic.”
“It definitely will be,” Penny said.
I would have loved for it to be a surprise for her too. But, she already looked really happy about it. “I should go get started. Maybe we can meet up after your classes to talk about some ideas?”
James nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
“I’ll try to have a few venue options by then. I gotta go, I have a million things to do.”
Penny laughed as I hurried out of their apartment.
This really was going to be epic. As long as I could get Tanner on board to help. But…of course he’d help.
The traffic this morning didn’t even bother me.
Or the weird moat outside Tanner’s apartment.
I half expected Tanner and Nigel to be sitting in wingback chairs, ready to scold me for sleeping at Brooklyn’s last night.
But I’d texted Tanner a heads up. And Nigel had been with us for way too long last night.
“Yo, Tanner!” I called into the hall. “Tanner?” I popped my head into the kitchen. Where was he? I walked into the great room. “Tanner?” He wasn’t in the dining room either. “Nigel?”
No response.
There was a pretty high chance Nigel was at his new house. Or in mine, bothering Brooklyn. Was I all alone in here? I didn’t think that had ever happened. Ever since I’d moved in, I hadn’t really gotten to explore. And there was one room I was really curious about.
I walked past the door that led to the pool, and over to the only other door I’d opened. The one with the glowing light. It had been blinding. I hadn’t gotten a chance to see what was in the room other than too much light. I wrapped my hand around the doorknob.
“No!” Nigel yelled and threw himself in front of the door. “Snoopers get burned!”
Where had he come from? “Nigel, I just want to see what’s in the room…”
He slapped me hard across the face. “Shut your whore mouth!”
What the hell? Had he picked that slapping thing up from Brooklyn? And we’d been over this… “You can’t say that to people, Nigel. It’s really offensive. And why did you just hit me?”
“I’m sorry I struck you. But you’re not allowed in that room.
” He looked to his left. “Or that one.” He glanced to his right.
“Or that one.” He pointed to one across the hall.
“And definitely not that one.” He shuddered.
“You’re not allowed in any of the rooms unless invited in. Snoopers get burned.”
“You’ve said that. Burned how exactly?”
“It’s an old saying.”
“It really isn’t.”
Tanner ran out into the hall from a room I hadn’t been in yet. “I did it!” he yelled. “I did it, dear boy!” He lifted me up off the ground and spun me around.
“You did it?!” Nigel yelled. “You did it!”
“I did it!” Tanner yelled again and set me down on my feet. “You glorious, bastard.” He clapped both sides of my face. “I’m one step closer!”
“What is happening…”
Tanner high-fived Nigel.
But Nigel kind of grabbed his hand and awkwardly shook it instead.
“I’d tell you to work on that, but I don’t even care right now,” Tanner said. “Celebrate however you want to celebrate, Nigel! Studying be damned!”
“What are you so happy about?” I asked.
“Kennedy finally fucked Felix! And apparently they weren’t intimate in high school. So it’s true love in its finest and most magnificent form!”
“She’s in love, she’s in love, and everyone knows it!” Nigel said and jumped up and down. And then he did some weird jig number with his feet.
“Okay, maybe don’t do that,” Tanner said to Nigel. “It’s a lot.”
Nigel stopped mid dance.
“Thank you, Matt. For not marrying Kennedy and robbing me of this win. I really needed this.”
Okay…
“You’re okay right? With Kennedy and Felix being lovers?”
Actually…yes. I thought I might feel a little weird. But, I’d seen the way they looked at each other. It was the same way Brooklyn and I looked at each other. “I’m really happy for them.”
“Thatta boy.” Tanner slapped me on the back. “And I can tell you’ve had sex, but I checked and that’s not a win for me. Total shit if you ask me. But I am happy for you. And I’m more like 99 percent sure it’s true love for you two now.”
“Great.” This conversation didn’t make any sense. “Speaking of Brooklyn…I need your help. I want to propose to her. And I have this idea to get all our friends together and kind of recreate prom for Penny’s birthday on Friday. I know it’s last minute, but do you think you could help?”
“Oh, a promenade? I haven’t attended one in ages. That sounds marvelous. We’ll need horse drawn carriages.” He snapped his fingers at Nigel. “Take notes.”
Nigel pulled out a notebook from behind his back and wrote down ‘horse drawn carriages.’
“No, not a promenade,” I said. “A prom.”
“Yes. Prom enade. I’ve got this.”
“No, I don’t know what that is. I’m talking about like a high school prom.”
Tanner just stared at me like he’d never heard of it before.
“With dancing.”
“A promenade has forms of dancing…”
“No, like a prom.” What the hell? Why was he not getting this? I pulled out my phone and did a Google search for prom. I held it up to show him some pictures.
He adjusted his glasses and squinted at my phone. “So just like a normal dance?”
“Yes. But it’s for graduating seniors. Brooklyn and Penny both never got to attend theirs. I want to recreate it.”
“Are there even strippers?” Tanner asked.
“No, there aren’t strippers.”
“What kind of promenade doesn’t have strippers?”
When he was first talking about a promenade it sounded old-fashioned. The stripper thing just came out of left field. “Proms don’t have strippers. No sex club stuff at all.”
“None? That doesn’t even sound that fun.”
I laughed. “It’ll be fun. You attend events all the time, Tanner. Normal ones with dancing. You know what I’m asking for here. Prom.”
“I’ve honestly never heard of it. Have you, Nigel?”
“No strippers or horse drawn carriages? But there’s dancing? That doesn’t make sense, Master Matthew. There must at least be horses. And cheese plates.”
What the fuck? “No horses. Or weird cheeses. You guys, it’s just like a normal high school dance. Can you help or not?”
Nigel shrugged. “It sounds boring. But we can do it.”
“Can I at least choose the location?” Tanner asked. “I have a few venues that I think would be perfect.
I didn’t think that was a good idea, based on the fact that he was very confused about what I wanted. “Run everything by me before confirming anything.”
“But I already booked the carriages,” Nigel said.
“How? You didn’t even move.”
“I did. You just didn’t notice. We’ve been having this conversation for a while.”
“You guys have to run everything by me and James. He’s helping, since it’s for Penny’s birthday too.”
“Oh, good,” Tanner said. “Certainly he’ll know what a promenade is. I’m starting to think it’s a billionaire thing.” He slapped me on my back. “You wouldn’t understand.”
Sick burn on the fact that I only had millions. “Just promise me there won’t be tons of sex club stuff,” I said. “I want it to be classy.”
“I only ever hire classy strippers. This is going to be epic.” Tanner shook his head and his smile grew. “I can’t believe Kennedy and Felix were true love. I’m the best. I bet I can set up a few more people at our Friday promenade.”
Hopefully James was actually going to help me with the planning. Because apparently Tanner only knew how to throw orgies. And I wanted my proposal to be perfect this time around.