Chapter Two #2
“I just mean to say,” Nick continued, “I’ve known this was coming.
” He sighed. “Maybe not six months into your relationship.” He raised an eyebrow.
“You know there’s a lesbian joke I could make about this.
But in all seriousness, B, I knew on some molecular level.
” He smiled. It was a bittersweet smile.
“It was going to happen eventually. Hell, she spends ninety-nine percent of the time at your place already. I’m not sure any of her clothes are even still here.
This might be the world’s easiest move.”
He reached across the table and let his hand rest on Brooke’s forearm, squeezing a few times.
Brooke smiled at his touch. “Thanks, Nick. You really are a standup guy.”
“I know.” He shook his hair back, as if to flip it. As it was, it was entirely too short for that. The effect was adorable either way. “Share her sometimes though, yeah?”
Brooke nodded vehemently. “Of course, Nick. Whenever you want.”
“See, then fine.” He smiled, this smile felt more real. Less sad, more conspiratorial. “So,” he began, “how are you going to ask her?”
The truth was that Brooke had never been good at moments like this.
It’s why she had never mustered up the courage to ask Anna out for real in the first place.
She always got in her own head. That damn fear of rejection, a lingering burn.
She knew that Anna would say yes. She knew that the evening would be a happy one, no matter how Brooke asked.
She knew that they would probably cry and then honestly probably fornicate to celebrate.
She blushed at the thought. But gods, how she feared that moment after the question left her lips.
Her shoulders had gone all tense, lifting with each passing second, hovering somewhere around her ears.
Nick beamed. “Brooke Kent, have you no plan?” His normally subtle accent was in full force, maybe slightly mimicking Brooke’s own.
“It’s not that I don’t know what I want to accomplish, it’s just the doing of the thing,” Brooke felt nauseous all of the sudden.
“You know she’s going to say yes.”
Brooke nodded. “Yeah. I've even talked to my therapist about why I might lock up over things like this.” She sighed and wiped her hand over her face.
“Well, personally, I think you should go big, bold, and cheesy.” He flashed her a dazzling smile. “Like an American teenager asking a girl to prom”
Brooke frowned. “That’s not exactly my style.”
Nick laughed. “No, it’s not. But Anna didn’t get asked to prom. And it is her style. Just this once. Not for your engagement, which you know I will happily help you plan.” At the comically terrified reaction Brooke made, Nick continued, “when you’re ready for it.”
“So, bold and cheesy?”
He nodded. “I think it could be cute. Fill your apartment with flowers, play romantic music, make a poster.”
Brooke couldn’t help but smile. He was right, that was absolutely not the vibe she would be going for for an engagement, but just this once, for this next step, it might kind of be perfect. “That’s not a horrible idea, Nick.”
“Of course it isn’t. I’m brilliant.”
When the day finally came to ask Anna to move in, Nick and Christine came over to help Brooke set up.
Vivienne had a prior engagement, that both Nick and Christine speculated was with Allegra.
Per Anna’s explicit demands, Brooke had to pay attention to any and all news about this development to report back.
She also had to ask good follow up questions—specifically the types of questions that Anna would ask.
“So, Vivienne never says who she has or hasn’t hooked up with,” Christine said, stating a fairly well known Vivienne fact.
“Not even to the two of you?” Nick stopped what he was doing to dramatically put his hands on his hips.
Brooke knew she should be participating.
After their celebration tonight, she knew Anna would ask if there’d been any new tea.
And Brooke, for someone who loved actual tea so much, sure could get better at getting it, learning it, and sharing it.
Anna’s words, absolutely not her own. At the same time, she was nervous, and they had gotten started a little later than she had wanted on account of the pizza arriving later than she had requested.
“Can we do the rose petals, and gossip about our friends?” She asked, trying to keep her voice light. Even she could hear the nerves curling around the edges of her words.
Christine scoffed, “we’re not gossiping, we’re exchanging information.” She did go back to spreading rose petals all over Brooke’s living room floor, though.
“And I happen to know that they have fucked,” Nick said, quite pleased with this juicy morsel. “That’s just a fact. It’s not gossip.”
That stopped Brooke in her tracks. “And you know that, how?”
“Allegra doesn’t act like some British super-spy who can’t divulge their affairs. I got coffee with her a week ago and she said they had absolutely fucked a few weeks prior to that.” Nick grinned. His smile seemed triumphant.
Brooke was unaware that spilling the best tea was a game one could win, but here she was, wishing Anna was here to help. “Did she say if they were dating?” Anna would be proud of her for that.
She waited for the answer while she continued working on her ridiculous poster. She still wasn’t sure this was the best plan, but Nick and Christine were both fairly certain that Anna would love it.
“They’re definitely not. Or if they are dating, it’s new. They weren’t a week ago,” Nick said, pointedly showing Brooke his work as he spread his own bag of rose petals on her floor.
Christine stopped what she was doing to tap at her chin. “Vivienne is definitely on the aromantic scale. In the ten years that I’ve known the two of you, she’s never once had an official partner, male or female.”
“Well, not one that we’ve met. She’s never had an issue hooking up with people though,” Brooke countered.
“Aromantic and asexual are not the same thing. And she could just be demisexual, you know?” Christine suggested.
Nick raised his hand. “Sorry, they’re not the same thing?”
Christine shook her head. “Nah, you can totally want to fuck someone and not date them. That’s how Todd and I started.” She let out a self deprecating laugh and waved her hand, “honestly it’s how we are most of the time anyway. That’s why we still haven’t moved in together.”
Nick frowned. “But don’t you have a cat together?”
“We’re not gossiping about me and Todd, we are…” she grinned at Brooke before continuing, “exchanging facts about our friends.”
None of them could hold back a quick round of laughter after that. “This is ridiculous,” Brooke said. “Fine, Nick, you clearly have all the intel, tell us everything you know and make it quick, we’ve got an apartment to decorate.”
“Anna has been good for you,” Christine said, her smile softening. She reached out and squeezed Brooke’s forearm before turning all of her attention to Nick. “She’s right though, spill.”
“Right, so after the brownie event, they exchanged numbers. But I guess neither of them used them. Allegra said something about not wanting to read the vibes wrong or something like that,” Nick said.
“That seems unlike Vivienne. She would shoot her shot and move on if rejected,” Brooke said. She’d known Vivienne the longest. They’d met in boarding school and hadn’t met Christine until Oxford.
Christine nodded. “I agree. Every time I’ve seen her pick someone up, or get picked up for that matter, it’s been very direct.”
Nick held his hands up in surrender. “I only have one half of the story here, do you want what I’ve got or not?”
“Well obviously,” Christine said, rolling her eyes.
“Okay, so board-game night nearly a month ago, we were all back together.”
Nick was talking about the board game night he and Anna had hosted. The whole group had crammed themselves into Anna and Nick’s apartment.
Brooke tried to remember Allegra and Vivienne’s interactions from the night.
Anna and Nick had definitely both clocked the chemistry between them and Brooke had confessed that she had noticed it at brownie night.
That had been the night that Anna had set clear, concise expectations in the tea gathering and sharing department.
Other than prolonged eye contact, she couldn’t really think of anything glaring that might have transpired between them at the game night.
“Apparently, after it ended, Vivienne gave Allegra a ride home after she found out that Allegra was going to take public transit,” Nick continued.
“So, they fornicated after board game night?” Brooke asked.
“No, and for the nine-thousandth time, please stop saying fornicated,” Nick said.
Christine giggled. “She always has, you’re not going to break that habit.”
“Well, when did they have intercourse?” Brooke asked.
Nick visibly recoiled. “That’s worse, go back to fornicate.” He threw another handful of rose petals, just to delay the point. “They did start to text after that night though. They got drinks the following Friday. And apparently after a few drinks they hooked up in the bar’s bathroom.”
“No?” Christine squeaked. “They didn’t!”
“I’m just sharing the story as I know it. But yes. The bar’s bathroom and then again at Allegra’s apartment. Then again a few nights later.” He wiggled his eyebrows scandalously.
“Friends with benefits, do we think?” Christine asked.
“I mean, they could be dating. Vivienne might have had official, labelled partners and just never spoken about them before,” Brooke insisted. “She's a very private person.”
“That’s true, if you’re a bank drawer, she’s a vault.” Christine tapped her chin again. “I’m going to ask her if she’s ever had a boyfriend or girlfriend at dinner next Monday.”
“Why?” Brooke asked, genuinely curious, but also to tell Anna later.