6. Brooke
Chapter 6
Brooke
I stepped out of my apartment, and of course I just had to bump into my insufferable neighbor who had just come back from walking Brady with his daughter Anne . We stared at each other for a second, and his eyes slowly took in my outfit before he lifted his lips into a thin line.
“ Asher ,” I greeted, and he replied with a stiff nod, and I mimicked his actions as I crossed my arms over my chest.
“ Hi , Anne !” I greeted her cheerily, and I was sure I heard him scoff, but when I raised my head, he still had that rigid thin line on his lips.
Can’t this man smile?
“ Hi , Brooke ,” she smiled as she tilted her head to the side as her huge blue eyes took in my appearance before she revealed her toothless grin. “ Where are you going?”
“ Anne ,” her father scolded gently, and I smiled as I stood up straight.
“ I’m going to meet my best friend for dinner. Do you want me to come back with a gift for you?” I asked her, and she hummed as she pressed her finger on her chin.
I looked up at Asher and tilted my head to the side, silently asking him if I was allowed to buy his daughter something, and he first looked at her before turning back to face me and slightly nodded his head.
“ Cake !” She raised her finger, and I giggled as I snapped my fingers.
“ I got you, girl.” She giggled as she covered her mouth, and I smiled. Darn it, how could Asher have such an adorable daughter?
“ How are you liking the candles?” he suddenly spoke up, and I raised my eyebrows in shock.
“ They’re okay,” I nodded, but I loved them! Ugh , I was obsessed with the vanilla smell, and my apartment felt like home! I had no idea I was a vanilla scent person before the candles he gave me. “ And how is Brady fitting in?”
Brady was fitting in nicely from what I could hear whenever I sat on my balcony. It seemed that Anne and Brady had quickly become friends because I would hear her call for him to come sit with her and be her guest, along with Asher , during her tea parties.
I swear Asher was blessed with the most fun and cute daughter ever!
“ Good .” One word answer. Cool .
“ Well , I have to go now. I’ll see you later with your cake, Anne ,” I told her as I waved my hand, and she waved back excitedly. “ Which flavor?”
“ She’s okay with anything,” Asher confirmed my suspicions, and I stiffly nodded as I took a step away from the family.
This man was awkward, and he knew how to infuriate me all too well; it felt like I had to try extra hard just to have a conversation with him that didn’t involve us cussing each other out and hating each other’s existence.
“ Alright , then. Later .” I walked away from them toward the elevator, and he called out my name before I reached the elevator. I wondered what I had done wrong in the space between “later” and walking toward the elevator. “ Yes ?”
He lifted his phone, and I stared at it as if it was some weird foreign object that I had never seen before even though I was holding my phone in my hands.
“ Give me your number.” What ?
“ No ,” I declined, and he sighed as he rolled his eyes.
“ I’m not asking you out.” He sounded annoyed, and I took some offense in his tone. Was he trying to say that he wouldn’t be remotely interested in me?
“ What is that supposed to mean?” I asked in the same annoyed tone, and he breathed out harshly as he shook his head.
“ Forget it.” He started to walk away, and I ran after him in my six-inch platform heels, refusing to be dismissed like that.
“ I don’t think so.” I grabbed his phone from his hand and put in my number. “ I don’t answer my phone after ten p.m.” I told him, and he took his phone from me, his lips slightly lifting, but he still looked rigid. “ And I don’t like nudes!”
Although I would appreciate yours from the waist up, I thought to myself; he rolled his eyes, and my smile grew as I watched him walk away without saying anything.
I watched him until he entered his apartment, and that was when I realized just how much time I had spent watching him walk away. What was wrong with me? I shook my head and ran toward the elevator again.
“ Hi , bestie!” I squealed as I opened up my arms for my best friend who ran toward me with a huge smile etched on her face.
“ Bestie !” she squealed, equally excited, and we hugged and swayed together. I absolutely loved Marie with all my heart, and I would do anything for my girl. “ Oh , wow, you smell so good!”
“ You smell like money.” We separated, and she flipped her short hair and shrugged a shoulder. “ Oh !”
“ I’ll tell you all about him during dinner,” she confirmed my suspicions, and I nodded, knowing very well I was about to hear all of her nasty stories. “ Since when have you been a vanilla scent girl?” she asked as we followed the waiter to our table, and I groaned.
“ It’s a long story.”
“ Probably juicier than mine, do tell.” She sat down and cupped her face as she stared at me with interest.
“ Can we like, maybe order drinks first?” I laughed as I pointed to the waiter who waited patiently with a kind smile and a notebook in hand as we settled in our seats. Summer was warm all around, and Chicago looked prettier during the nighttime. It felt like the perfect time to fall in love.
Wishful thinking.
“ We’ll both start off easy with cosmos,” she ordered for us. The waiter looked at me for confirmation, and I nodded in agreement.
“ Two each,” I added, and his eyes widened as he nodded and wrote down our orders. I got paid yesterday, and my bills were paid; I deserved a treat.
“ I’ll get that to you right away!”
“ So , tell me the long story,” she rubbed her hands as she smiled, eager to hear all about Asher .
“ So , it’s my new neighbor,” I sighed, and her eyes widened as she pointed her finger at me.
“ The one Matthew said was attractive and looked mean?” she asked, and I rolled my eyes.
“ Yes , him.”
“ Is he as attractive as Matthew described him?”
“ Way hotter.”
“ And that bothers you?”
“ He’s arrogant and rude,” I clarified, and she cocked her head to the side.
“ That does sound like something a hot man would be.”
“ He was in the military.”
“ Oh ,” she winced as she nodded, taking in the bits of information I was giving her.
“ And he is now a firefighter.”
“ Oooh . He likes a uniform,” she raised her eyebrows, and I smiled as I nodded.
“ And he looks so good in it too,” I told her, and she grinned as she held her cheeks.
“ I need detail. Build him for me so that I can grasp this story better.”
“ I can do you one better,” I whispered as I leaned in closer. “ I have a picture.”
“ How’d you get a picture?” she whispered as I scrolled through my gallery, and I smiled as I shrugged.
“ I have my ways,” A colleague sent it on the group chat when he came to visit our center, and she wanted us to all gush over him with her.
I was the only one who reacted with a nauseated emoji.
“ He definitely is way hotter,” she spoke softly as she zoomed in the picture. “ Does he normally shave?”
“ I don’t know. The first time I met him, he had a very clean shadow, and it added to the appeal,” I nodded slowly as I recalled our first meeting. “ On account of that, I almost set my new apartment on fire when I moved in.”
“ What !” she shouted, shocked, and I scoffed, covering my mouth to stop myself from laughing. “ Why didn’t you tell me?”
“ We both got so busy, and I barely had time to let you know about the small things happening in my life,” I said as I moved our bags away from the center of the table and against the wall.
I smiled up at the waiter who had returned with our drinks and placed all four on the middle of the table.
“ Four cosmos for the ladies,” his voice was so gentle, and it brought a sense of comfort. He was gonna get a huge tip from me today. “ Have you decided what you would like to eat?”
“ Creamy chili oil pasta for me, please,” Marie ordered.
“ And I’ll have the summer bowtie pasta,” I said as he scribbled down in his notebook; he gave us a simple nod to confirm that he had noted down our orders.
“ So , it’s one creamy chili oil and summer bowtie pasta, right?” Marie and I nodded, and he looked at us. “ Anything else?”
“ Oh , please bring us gin and tonic when you bring our meals. Just a glass each,” I specified, and he smiled as he scribbled down the additional order.
“ Will that be all?”
“ Oh , and can I please get red velvet cake to go, please. Two slices.”
“ Got it. Will be back soon with your meal and drinks, ladies.” He walked away, and I met Marie’s confused gaze.
“ You don’t like red velvet cake,” she said suspiciously, and I smiled.
“ It’s for my neighbor’s daughter.”
“ He has a daughter?” she gasped, and I hummed my answer. “ Damn , the plot gets thicker, and I don’t know the plot yet. So , spill, Missy !”
I told her the story of how I almost burnt down my apartment and how Asher broke my door when he came to save me. Marie made some dreamy comment about him literally being my hero, but I wasn’t having it.
If anything, Asher was the reason why I didn’t want to make any new friends. I had never hated anyone so quickly as I did with him.
He was a horrible person, but of course Marie didn’t agree with me, even after I told her that he had started a petition to get me kicked out of the building.
“ I don’t know; I just think he’s arrogant because of what he may have gone through in the military,” she pointed out, and while that might’ve been valid, I had to disagree.
“ It’s an explanation, but it shouldn’t be an excuse. It makes me hate him,” I gritted out, and she giggled as she took a sip of her cosmos from her second glass.
“ That sounds like a conversation you have to take up with him.”
“ Well , I kind of did when he came to adopt a dog at our center.”
“ You mean after you shouted at him because you thought he was stalking you?” she laughed, and I groaned as I hid my face in my hands.
“ I was genuinely scared, Marie ! He seemed angry at me, so I thought he was a stalker,” I shrugged, and she giggled, nodding.
“ No , I definitely understand you. But I’m glad you actually confronted him when your colleagues were around you. I raised a smart woman.”
“ Indeed .” I nodded as I felt that the drinks were beginning to take an effect on me, and we had barely touched our food as I told her all that had happened since I moved. “ Anyway , so I thought we were starting to be civil with each other because he gave me a stellar review, bought me candles, and asked for my number.”
“ He bought you candles and asked for your number?” She was starting to slur as we talked, and I nodded slowly.
“ Separate events but same person, and that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. I suddenly smell like vanilla because of him.” Was I even making sense? The alcohol was kicking in way sooner than it normally did, and I was afraid of returning home completely drunk.
One would think I would’ve cut myself off alcohol after what happened a few years ago, and yet here I was using it as a coping mechanism.
“ Maybe he likes you.”
“ Ew !” I cried out as I shook my head. “ I’d rather have Matthew like me,” I sighed dreamily as I cupped my face.
“ What will you do if he does like you?” I got excited for a second but Marie felt the need to explain further. “ Your neighbor, I mean. What would you do if he said he liked you?”
Right at that moment, my phone vibrated in my bag. I pulled it out and immediately noticed a number I didn’t know. When I read the contents of the message, I flipped my phone around so that Marie could read the text.
“ Please start looking for a place. The petition is working, and I currently have half of the building’s signatures. Kind regards, A . Stone ,” she read, and her eyes widened. “ Woah .”
“ Yeah , I don’t think he would ever like me,” I answered, feeling a bit annoyed by his audacity.
I had immediately sobered up and felt like crying. Why couldn’t I just enjoy a night out without him trying to get me riled up?
Marie noticed my annoyance and placed her hand on mine, softly rubbing my knuckles, and I weakly smiled at her as I swallowed my tears.
“ Do you want to talk about Matthew and all the fun things you guys will do as a couple?”
“ Yes , I would like that,” I murmured with a heavy voice, smiling weakly at her.
“ Your neighbor’s a dick!” she blurted out, and I nodded in agreement.
“ He is!” We spent the rest of our dinner alternating between discussing Asher and Matthew , and I felt way better at the end of our night.
Why is he so confusing?