Yay for being home! My voice is gone - too much karaokee - but what can you do? Sorry to everyone who's stories I haven't commented on but I'm just getting back into things tonight!
Hopefully I'll be caught up to speed and back in business tomorrow. This is kinda short and kinda not good but... it was needed for what's coming =)
Hope you enjoy it anyway!
Whisper - A Fine Frenzy
It wasn't that he wasn't completely exhausted, because he was. After coming back from Emily's apartment - Mike in tow - they'd made it home just time to catch Cosmo waking up.
Whatever was wrong with her Brooks had been up almost all night trying to get her back to sleep. Now, that it was day time, she was out in the living room with Mike.
He was watching her in an attempt to give Brooks some must needed rest, but it wasn't helping. Everytime Brooks felt his eye lids get heavy and they began to close, his mind began to wander back to his off-limits neighbour.
It wasn't even so much that she was actually'off-limits', Brooks had just painted her into that box and now it was impossible to take her back out.
Before he had done it simply because he thought she was some kind of crazy, controlling, bitch that just wanted to ruin his fun... it seemed like a reasonable assumption at the time that he wouldn't want to be anywhere near her, ever.
All that had changed though, with the arrival of Cosmo.
Emily had gone above and beyond anything that Brooks would have asked of her. She'd not only helped him out by watching his daughter when he had no one else to, but she'd helped him and Mike too, and somehow managed to create a deep-rooted connection with Cosmo in the process.
It was almost odd to think that if Brooks hadn't found out he was a father, Emily would still be nothing more than the crazy girl across the hall.
With a deep, loud exhale, he pulled the covers up over his head in an attempt to stop the filtering day light from finding him.
His blind was still drawn shut but he could tell by the sunlight slipping through the cracks around the window frame.
The blankets enabled him to be consumed once more by darkness, but they couldn’t stop his mind from racing.
Now that he was past the initial shock and excitement of everything he’d discovered that evening, he was left with an unbearable amount of emptiness and confusion.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to ignore the heat of the thick covers as he allowed his mind to continue to wander around Emily, and all the changes their relationship had gone through. He'd be lying if he said that Cosmo was the only person she'd made a deep connection with. She'd become someone that he could rely on, someone that he could trust and have faith in; there weren't a lot of women he could say that about.
And that had been enough, or at least he'd thought that was where their relationship would end.
He hated to admit not only that it was possible he was wrong on that account, but why he was wrong. He should have better self control then what he was displaying now. After all, Emily hadn't changed. She was the exact same girl that she had always been as long as he'd known her, so if there was a wild side to her, it had always been there.
However, regardless as to whether or not she had changed; this discovery changed everything for him.
How was he suppose to be able to look at her the same way again? He couldn't. He knew it now without even being in the same room as her, that his mind would fall into the gutter as soon as he saw her. Even if she didn't realize it, she was already having a strange influence on Brooks.
She was suppose to be his neighbour, his nanny, not someone he wanted to be on...
Brooks still couldn't be sure why all those things were in her room. Was it all work? All play? Or both? It didn't even matter though, one of the reasons Brooks had never been able to make relationships last was mostly because of sex. Sure, there were girls that he'd been able to talk into things, or girls that were intoxicated enough to do what he wanted them to... but he'd never met someone who he was sure would be into the same things as he was.
Everything... the toys, the costumes, the whole concept of being able to take a dominating role in a sexual situation was too much for him to ignore.
But of course that wasn't all.
Seeing this kinky side of her had changed his mindset about her completely. He already knew that he could get along with her, now that they'd made it to this point in their relationship, and he already knew he liked spending time with her. If he combined that with all the things he now wanted to do to her... why couldn't he finally have a relationship that worked out?
But then that lead to another situation all together. Did he even want a relationship with her? More than that… would she even want one with him? Everything had changed for Brooks in the past few weeks, everything. But that was all in his life, Emily’s own personal life hadn’t really changed. Sure, she was spending more time at their apartment, but she was still doing exactly what she had been doing before.
So why would she changed what she was doing now?
There was no indication on her part that she would, or that she’d even want to. If Brooks even attempted to start anything, he’d be putting himself way out into an uncomfortable position; a place he hadn’t been in before.
What were his options then? The way he saw it he had two. He either said something to her, or he didn’t.
If he didn’t, then he’d be playing it safe, and most likely, nothing would happen. He’d go on and she’d go on and that would be that… but would he be ok with that? Did the risk of putting his feelings out into the open, outweigh the possibility of passing up the opportunity?
And what if he did tell her, and she admitted that she liked him too? Could he ignore the fact that she’d been selling her body to strange men, and more than that, would she stop?
Could he even ask her to stop?
Even if it wasn’t something he approved of, it was her livelihood… she made a living having sex with strangers, so was it even possible for her to do something else?
Maybe this was one of those ‘you’re not suppose to try and change a girl’ conversations he had had with his mom. Of course, if his mom knew what it was he was trying to change, she’d probably approve.
It was all too much for him, especially in the mindset he was in now. He was too tired to get up but too distracted to fall asleep. He need to figure something out, and he needed to do it now.
Without much trouble he was able to get Emily’s work number from the landlord who lived on the bottom floor.
He now sat on the bottom of his bed with the number in his left hand, the phone in his right. He wasn’t even sure what he was going to say, or where he was calling. Was it an escort service or some kind of secret phone number she used for clients only? He could have just called her cell phone, but he felt like this would kill two birds with one stone, he could tell her they needed to talk and she would already assume that he knew the truth about her… that way when she got home, she’d know he already had all the information.
Clearing his throat he punched in the number and then dropped down onto his back, pressing the phone to his ear.
The girl who answered was talking so quickly Brooks could hardly make her out, and he mumbled out a random string of filler noise before he could get the balls to say anything. “Hi. Is Emily there?”
“Ummm she’s with someone right now, can I take a message?”
“Sure… you can tell her that ah… it’s Mike… Green.” Brooks closed his eyes and silently cursed his stupidity. His original idea was to try and get a hold of her, if he couldn’t he’d just hang up; but leaving a message was force of habit.
Saying Mike’s name was also a force of habit when he didn’t want someone to know it was him… of course now when Emily asked Mike why he called, well… they’d both look like idiots.
“Like, Mike Green… the hockey player?”
“Ugh… yah…”
The girl started to giggle and Brooks sat up, ready to hang up the phone. “That’s so funny! I mean, I know everyone always goes on about how awesome she is but… I guess word travels fast with you hockey boys, doesn’t it?”
“What?”
“The guys she’s with right now is one of your team-mates. I mean… this is what? His fourth, fifth time getting together with her? I guess he’s been telling you guys all about it, right? I hear the kind of things you talk about in those locker-rooms.”
Brooks could hardly speak. He mumbled another incoherent string of noises before he hung up.
He stood up slowly, before throwing the phone across the room and running his hands through his hair as he watched it shatter.
Maybe he could forgive her for fucking strangers, but he couldn’t forgive this.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
17. Kinky
Ok, sorry this is late! But better late then never, right? Anyway, I'm gonna try to get another update done tomorrow... but I work tomorrow night and then I'm leaving for Moncton for saturday and sunday. I doubt I'll get anything done then, but I should have something up either late sunday or sometime monday!
Sorry about leaving you guys hanging but I promise some good things are on the way =D!
Oh, I also didn't proof this... sorry lol
Brooks had spent the last few days trying to be home as little as possible. It wasn’t just the fact that he hated Denise either, he had noticed that Mike and her were in one of their strange moments - the kind where they tip-toed around each other enough that they could both pretend everything was ok.
It was a time-bomb waiting to happen.
Any minute of any day, anything could happen that would set Denise off… and Brooks didn’t want to be there when that shit hit the fan.
Plus, he had seen the egg timer on Mike’s bedside table and, well, he knew enough to give them some alone time.
He’d spent his time bouncing back and forth between the local park and the rink. When Emily was available to watch Cosmo, he’d hit up the optional practices, in the hopes of maybe improving his point total for the season. Unfortunately, come Wednesday morning, Emily wasn’t accessible to watch Cosmo for him, so Brooks decided to spend the morning at home.
He was deeply joyful when he found out that Denise was also leaving that day, something he tried to hide from a moderately depressed looking Mike.
He could hear them talking behind Mike’s bedroom door, and it took all his willpower not to press an empty glass against the wood and try to listen in. He wasn’t really that nosy, he was just extremely bored, with nothing better to do since Cosmo was napping.
As if a higher power was trying to protect Mike’s privacy, the phone rang and Brooks moved out of the hallway and into the kitchen to answer it. “Hello?”
“Brooks! Hi… it’s Emily.” She said in a rush, sounding out of breath and stressed out. “Listen, remember when I told you I was gonna be gone for the night for business?” Brooks nodded to himself, instinctively bringing his hand up to his stomach in an attempt to keep the sickening feeling from spreading. “Well I think I forgot to lock the door… will you just… could you lock it for me? Don’t go inside, just lock it?”
“Yah-”
“Seriously. Do NOT go inside and start snooping through my shit, ok?”
“Ok.”
“Brooks?”
“I said ‘Ok’!” He huffed, half-wondering if she had just somehow seen his laps in willpower.
Emily sighed ran her hand over her face. “Alright, thank you.” She said, adding the last part half-heartedly.
They said their goodbyes and got off the phone. Brooks hung the receiver back up onto the wall and headed out into the hallway.
He laughed out loud as he got closer to the door, realizing that not only had she forgotten to lock it, but she’d forgotten to shut it.
He pushed the door open and reached his hand around it, turning the lock on the handle until it clicked. He moved to close it but he stopped himself, holding his breath as he pushed it open slightly; then fully.
The apartment was immaculately clean, freakishly so. It looked like something from the cover of a magazine, to the point that Brooks felt awkward even standing in the front entrance way.
He cleared his throat and looked out back over his shoulder into the deserted hallway. “Hello?” He called into the spotless space, for good measure.
Nobody answered and Brooks took a few steps in, stepping on the balls of his feet as lightly as possible. He thought that there was a good chance her floor was so clean that she’d be able to see his footprints on it, but when he looked back he saw nothing.
Breathing a sigh of relief he moved further into the apartment, looking for… well, whatever.
The entire place was impersonal. There were no pictures of people and no distinguishing factors. The walls were all white and the furniture was too; the decorations were dark red and black accents, none of them anything special.
Clicking his tongue at his failed attempt at creeping, Brooks turned back around and headed towards the door.
He stopped in front of the hallway, glancing down it. It was almost eerie, looking at it from that direction. Emily’s apartment - architecturally - was the complete opposite of Brooks and Mike’s. It had all the same mouldings and set-up, but it was ass backwards. Of course that wasn’t what caught Brooks’ attention…
He moved off down the hallway until he came to a stop outside the one door that was holding his interest. It was almost closed completely, minus the black thing that was holding it opened, squeezed in-between the door and the door frame.
Brooks pushed the door open and picked up the thin, sheer material, turning it over in his hands. He finally held it up in front of himself and looked at it the proper way, realizing it for what it was - a see-through, black, lace bra.
His mouth dropped open and he couldn’t help but feel his breathing get heavier and quicker. He dropped his hand down to the side, but didn’t let go of the undergarment as he stepped into the room.
Emily’s room was the complete opposite of the rest of her apartment. It was cluttered and unorganized, dark and full of personal artefacts.
There were pictures of her as a young adult in college and a few with her and other girls, all squeezed in together and smiling for the camera.
But that wasn’t even what held Brooks’ attention the most.
The bed was centered in the middle of the room and was covered in black silk sheets and a cheetah print throw. The headboard was large and dark, and had two long poles on each side, offset by a pair of metal handcuffs hanging from each side.
Unable to help himself, Brooks leaned closer to examine the metal cuffs, tugging on one of them to see whether or not they were real; they were. He also noticed the way they’d been warn into the wood of the headboard, leaving the wood underneath exposed.
Brooks turned and knocked his leg on the bedside table. It was sheer, driven curiosity that caused him to reach down, with the intent to pull open the drawer. He stopped short though, instead turning his head to the side and grabbing at the things that were littering the floor.
With the scoop of a single, large hand, he managed to obtain an extremely high, red stiletto, a pair of black fishnets, a skimpy green g-string, and a candy garter belt. “Holy hell.” He mumbled, holding his booty tight against his chest and running back out of Emily’s apartment.
Without thinking he kicked the door of his apartment open and ran down the hall, slamming his shoulder into Mike’s bedroom door and letting himself in. “Mike!” He yelled, not caring at all that his room-mate was currently wrapped up in a blanket with his girlfriend.
Brooks dove onto the bed in between them and shoved Denise out of the way. “Move Dennis! This is important.”
“Mike! He just-”
“Woah! What’s that?!” Mike yelled, cutting off Denise’s complaint and grabbing the fishnets out of Brooks’ hand.
“It’s the fucking mother load buddy! Her whole room is filled, FILLED with this kinda stuff. It’s everywhere… it’s like… my room… only like, if I was a girl…” Brooks tried to explain, dropping his arms down and releasing all of Emily’s things onto the bed.
Mike sat up, excitedly pawing through the different things before looking up at Brooks.
“Holy shit! She’s a freak like you! Candy under-wear-garmet-string-thing? You love underwear and you love candy… and strings! You’re soul mates.”
Denise exhaled loudly and tugged on the blanket until Brooks moved off it and let her go. She wrapped it around her body and started to walk away from the bed. “I’ll get dressed in the bathroom…”
“This is insane!”
“I know… I just… I mean… do you think she’s really into it or do you think she just does it for work?”
Mike shrugged and contemplated putting one of the candies in his mouth. “I don’t know but, we need to find out.” He suggested, looking up at Brooks as if to prove how serious he was.
“How though?” Brooks asked, his mind still reeling from all the endless possibilities.
Mike shrugged again and pushed himself out of the bed, covering his nakedness with a pair of boxers and jeans. “We should go back and see what else is there…”
“Do you think that’s morally wrong?” Brooks asked, but the answer didn’t matter, he was already following Mike out towards the living room.
“I don’t know but, we’re gonna do it anyway.” Brooks smiled at the fact that Mike was on the same wavelength as him, as they headed down the hallway.
Something in the back of his mind was nagging at him, mostly the idea that all of these things were props, used for her to entertain other men, but he pushed that aside. The mental images of her in these things was setting his thoughts into another direction entirely.
It wasn’t until Mike was sitting cross-legged on Emily’s floor with a pocket vibrater in his hand that he realized two things. One, he was holding a vibrater in his hand, and two, he’d just left Denise alone, and she was probably gone now. “Hey Brooks?” He called, glancing over his shoulder as Brooks appeared from Emily’s closet holding up a complete ’sexy cop’ outfit on a hanger. “How do you just do this kind of stuff with a girl? Do you just tell her it’s gonna happen, or do you just do it?”
“Why? You thinking of livening up your sex life with Denise?”
Mike snorted, looking away to hide the deep blush that was spreading across his cheeks. “No. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with it so it’s not like I have to… you know… “ He sighed, dropping the tiny silver vibrator onto the floor and leaning his head back against Emily’s bed. “I just don’t know what to do!!” He whined, loudly. “I take off her clothing, poke her with my finger till it’s wet, then I put my dick in… what more does she want from me?!” He sighed and pulled himself up, until he could flop face first onto the bed. “I just don’t want to get all fuckin’ wild and go too far…”
Brooks started to laugh and Mike snapped his head up as he reappeared from inside the closet. In one hand he was holding a large pink dildo, in the other he had a ball gag, dangling from his index finger. “Let me explain how this works to you buddy…” He grinned, directing his sheepish gaze at Mike. “When you think you’ve gone too far… you haven’t even scratched the surface.”
Sorry about leaving you guys hanging but I promise some good things are on the way =D!
Oh, I also didn't proof this... sorry lol
Brooks had spent the last few days trying to be home as little as possible. It wasn’t just the fact that he hated Denise either, he had noticed that Mike and her were in one of their strange moments - the kind where they tip-toed around each other enough that they could both pretend everything was ok.
It was a time-bomb waiting to happen.
Any minute of any day, anything could happen that would set Denise off… and Brooks didn’t want to be there when that shit hit the fan.
Plus, he had seen the egg timer on Mike’s bedside table and, well, he knew enough to give them some alone time.
He’d spent his time bouncing back and forth between the local park and the rink. When Emily was available to watch Cosmo, he’d hit up the optional practices, in the hopes of maybe improving his point total for the season. Unfortunately, come Wednesday morning, Emily wasn’t accessible to watch Cosmo for him, so Brooks decided to spend the morning at home.
He was deeply joyful when he found out that Denise was also leaving that day, something he tried to hide from a moderately depressed looking Mike.
He could hear them talking behind Mike’s bedroom door, and it took all his willpower not to press an empty glass against the wood and try to listen in. He wasn’t really that nosy, he was just extremely bored, with nothing better to do since Cosmo was napping.
As if a higher power was trying to protect Mike’s privacy, the phone rang and Brooks moved out of the hallway and into the kitchen to answer it. “Hello?”
“Brooks! Hi… it’s Emily.” She said in a rush, sounding out of breath and stressed out. “Listen, remember when I told you I was gonna be gone for the night for business?” Brooks nodded to himself, instinctively bringing his hand up to his stomach in an attempt to keep the sickening feeling from spreading. “Well I think I forgot to lock the door… will you just… could you lock it for me? Don’t go inside, just lock it?”
“Yah-”
“Seriously. Do NOT go inside and start snooping through my shit, ok?”
“Ok.”
“Brooks?”
“I said ‘Ok’!” He huffed, half-wondering if she had just somehow seen his laps in willpower.
Emily sighed ran her hand over her face. “Alright, thank you.” She said, adding the last part half-heartedly.
They said their goodbyes and got off the phone. Brooks hung the receiver back up onto the wall and headed out into the hallway.
He laughed out loud as he got closer to the door, realizing that not only had she forgotten to lock it, but she’d forgotten to shut it.
He pushed the door open and reached his hand around it, turning the lock on the handle until it clicked. He moved to close it but he stopped himself, holding his breath as he pushed it open slightly; then fully.
The apartment was immaculately clean, freakishly so. It looked like something from the cover of a magazine, to the point that Brooks felt awkward even standing in the front entrance way.
He cleared his throat and looked out back over his shoulder into the deserted hallway. “Hello?” He called into the spotless space, for good measure.
Nobody answered and Brooks took a few steps in, stepping on the balls of his feet as lightly as possible. He thought that there was a good chance her floor was so clean that she’d be able to see his footprints on it, but when he looked back he saw nothing.
Breathing a sigh of relief he moved further into the apartment, looking for… well, whatever.
The entire place was impersonal. There were no pictures of people and no distinguishing factors. The walls were all white and the furniture was too; the decorations were dark red and black accents, none of them anything special.
Clicking his tongue at his failed attempt at creeping, Brooks turned back around and headed towards the door.
He stopped in front of the hallway, glancing down it. It was almost eerie, looking at it from that direction. Emily’s apartment - architecturally - was the complete opposite of Brooks and Mike’s. It had all the same mouldings and set-up, but it was ass backwards. Of course that wasn’t what caught Brooks’ attention…
He moved off down the hallway until he came to a stop outside the one door that was holding his interest. It was almost closed completely, minus the black thing that was holding it opened, squeezed in-between the door and the door frame.
Brooks pushed the door open and picked up the thin, sheer material, turning it over in his hands. He finally held it up in front of himself and looked at it the proper way, realizing it for what it was - a see-through, black, lace bra.
His mouth dropped open and he couldn’t help but feel his breathing get heavier and quicker. He dropped his hand down to the side, but didn’t let go of the undergarment as he stepped into the room.
Emily’s room was the complete opposite of the rest of her apartment. It was cluttered and unorganized, dark and full of personal artefacts.
There were pictures of her as a young adult in college and a few with her and other girls, all squeezed in together and smiling for the camera.
But that wasn’t even what held Brooks’ attention the most.
The bed was centered in the middle of the room and was covered in black silk sheets and a cheetah print throw. The headboard was large and dark, and had two long poles on each side, offset by a pair of metal handcuffs hanging from each side.
Unable to help himself, Brooks leaned closer to examine the metal cuffs, tugging on one of them to see whether or not they were real; they were. He also noticed the way they’d been warn into the wood of the headboard, leaving the wood underneath exposed.
Brooks turned and knocked his leg on the bedside table. It was sheer, driven curiosity that caused him to reach down, with the intent to pull open the drawer. He stopped short though, instead turning his head to the side and grabbing at the things that were littering the floor.
With the scoop of a single, large hand, he managed to obtain an extremely high, red stiletto, a pair of black fishnets, a skimpy green g-string, and a candy garter belt. “Holy hell.” He mumbled, holding his booty tight against his chest and running back out of Emily’s apartment.
Without thinking he kicked the door of his apartment open and ran down the hall, slamming his shoulder into Mike’s bedroom door and letting himself in. “Mike!” He yelled, not caring at all that his room-mate was currently wrapped up in a blanket with his girlfriend.
Brooks dove onto the bed in between them and shoved Denise out of the way. “Move Dennis! This is important.”
“Mike! He just-”
“Woah! What’s that?!” Mike yelled, cutting off Denise’s complaint and grabbing the fishnets out of Brooks’ hand.
“It’s the fucking mother load buddy! Her whole room is filled, FILLED with this kinda stuff. It’s everywhere… it’s like… my room… only like, if I was a girl…” Brooks tried to explain, dropping his arms down and releasing all of Emily’s things onto the bed.
Mike sat up, excitedly pawing through the different things before looking up at Brooks.
“Holy shit! She’s a freak like you! Candy under-wear-garmet-string-thing? You love underwear and you love candy… and strings! You’re soul mates.”
Denise exhaled loudly and tugged on the blanket until Brooks moved off it and let her go. She wrapped it around her body and started to walk away from the bed. “I’ll get dressed in the bathroom…”
“This is insane!”
“I know… I just… I mean… do you think she’s really into it or do you think she just does it for work?”
Mike shrugged and contemplated putting one of the candies in his mouth. “I don’t know but, we need to find out.” He suggested, looking up at Brooks as if to prove how serious he was.
“How though?” Brooks asked, his mind still reeling from all the endless possibilities.
Mike shrugged again and pushed himself out of the bed, covering his nakedness with a pair of boxers and jeans. “We should go back and see what else is there…”
“Do you think that’s morally wrong?” Brooks asked, but the answer didn’t matter, he was already following Mike out towards the living room.
“I don’t know but, we’re gonna do it anyway.” Brooks smiled at the fact that Mike was on the same wavelength as him, as they headed down the hallway.
Something in the back of his mind was nagging at him, mostly the idea that all of these things were props, used for her to entertain other men, but he pushed that aside. The mental images of her in these things was setting his thoughts into another direction entirely.
It wasn’t until Mike was sitting cross-legged on Emily’s floor with a pocket vibrater in his hand that he realized two things. One, he was holding a vibrater in his hand, and two, he’d just left Denise alone, and she was probably gone now. “Hey Brooks?” He called, glancing over his shoulder as Brooks appeared from Emily’s closet holding up a complete ’sexy cop’ outfit on a hanger. “How do you just do this kind of stuff with a girl? Do you just tell her it’s gonna happen, or do you just do it?”
“Why? You thinking of livening up your sex life with Denise?”
Mike snorted, looking away to hide the deep blush that was spreading across his cheeks. “No. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with it so it’s not like I have to… you know… “ He sighed, dropping the tiny silver vibrator onto the floor and leaning his head back against Emily’s bed. “I just don’t know what to do!!” He whined, loudly. “I take off her clothing, poke her with my finger till it’s wet, then I put my dick in… what more does she want from me?!” He sighed and pulled himself up, until he could flop face first onto the bed. “I just don’t want to get all fuckin’ wild and go too far…”
Brooks started to laugh and Mike snapped his head up as he reappeared from inside the closet. In one hand he was holding a large pink dildo, in the other he had a ball gag, dangling from his index finger. “Let me explain how this works to you buddy…” He grinned, directing his sheepish gaze at Mike. “When you think you’ve gone too far… you haven’t even scratched the surface.”
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
16. Mike’s #2 Girl
Please Don’t Tell Her - Jason Mraz
Mike was walking around the apartment, trying to show Cosmo how to strut, when someone hit the buzzer.
Brooks was in the shower and unfortunately, Mike could never figure out how to work the ‘talking’ part of it, so he just hit the one to open the door, and then walked back away. “Ok Cosmo, you need to focus, swagger is very, very important when it comes to getting ladies.”
“And you know all about getting ladies.” Mike came to a halt as if Freddy Kruger had just whispered something into his ear. His eyes were wide and he turned around slowly, and faced the opened door.
She was the last person he expected to see.
“Oh, hey Denise… what’s up?” His voice was a bit higher than normal, but Denise didn’t notice. She stood awkwardly in the doorway, waiting.
Figuring out what she probably wanted, Mike moved towards her and opened his arms up, hugging her against his chest. He could feel her nuzzling her face into his neck and he bent forward, pressing his lips onto the top of her head. It was easy, when she wasn’t talking, to remember that there was a time when they use to get a long.
“My Boots!” Cosmo cried from behind them, resorting to her much faster transportation of crawling as she came towards him. “My boots!”
“Oh it’s ok Cosmo, it’s just Denise!” Mike cooed, releasing his grip on his girlfriend and bending over to pick up the jealous child. “Can you say Denise? Da-nee-sa?”
Cosmo grabbed onto Mike’s lip with a tiny hand, and glanced over at Denise, her mouth ajar. “So… who is this?” Denise asked, taking a step back, awkwardly.
“This is Cosmo, Brooks’ daughter.” He explained, slowly after pulling her hand away from her mouth. He couldn‘t figure out why she would even ask that.
“Since when does Brooks have a daughter?”
Mike rolled his eyes and raise his eyebrows. “Are you serious Denise? Why are we even having this conversation… god! Where have you been anyway, under a rock?”
“Away on business with the Mayor! Where I’ve been for three weeks… did you not even notice I was gone?!”
“Umm… when do you leave?”
Denise let out a infuriated growl. “I don’t leave, Mike. I’m BACK!”
“Hey! What are you yelling at him for?” Brooks asked, coming out of the bathroom just in time to see Denise’s freak-out. He was wearing nothing but a towel, slung loosely around his waist; a few, missed drops of water rolling their way down his taut chest as he watched the two of them.
“Mike didn’t realize I had left for work.” She hissed, her hands clenching into fists.
“Oh, when do you go?” Brooks asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
Closing her eyes and exhaling slowly, Denise tried to remain calm. Mike was stupid and she knew Brooks was just mocking her. “Alright, I’ll just talk to you later.” She finally said quietly, turning around to leave, but Mike caught her arm.
“You don’t have to go Denise.” He said gently, tugging her arm slightly to pull her back towards him. “Brooks was taking Cosmo out to the park for a bit so… you could spend some quality time with me, if you want?”
Sighing Denise glanced past Mike and Cosmo to where Brooks was still standing. “Ok, ok!” He held up his hands, turning around and going into his room; mumbling something about being able to take a hint.
Less then a half hour later, Mike and Denise were laying on the couch, and Brooks and Cosmo were heading out to the park.
Flicking through the channels, he stopped on a travel commercial for Mexico. “If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would it be?” Denise asked absently as she ran a finger along Mike’s bicep, which was wrapped around her waist.
“I dunno…” Miked said, slowly as he thought it over. “Oh no! I do! Back in Fiji with Brooks! That was like, the best week of my life! What about you?” Mike asked excitedly, smiling as he remembered all the fun things they’d done on the tropical island.
Denise cleared her throat. “Oh… I was gonna say… here with you…”
“Well that’s boring.” Mike heard a click and he looked up, towards the door. “Emily! Hey, what’s up?” He shouted cheerfully.
“Hey Mike… hi… Denise…” She said when she realized who else was in the apartment. “Where’s Cosmo?”
“Gone to the park with Brooks.”
“Oh, alright. I was just running to Target and I was gonna see if they wanted to come. I guess I’ll just see you guys later.” She said, giving them a small smile before she headed out the door.
Neither of them said anything for a few minutes. Mike went back to watching TV and Denise chewed on her lip thoughtfully. “So… Emily’s really pretty.” She said finally, after not being able to contain the thought any longer.
She could feel Mike shrug behind her, but he didn’t say anything as he continued to focus on the TV. “Don’t you think so?”
“I guess… if you like hookers.”
“Hookers?”
“Yah, Emily’s a prostitute. You know… like the girl in The Hills.” He explained as he put his attention back to the show they were watching.
Denise sighed and rolled her eyes. “No one on the Hills is a prostitute… they’re just girls that are rich because of their dads.”
“Yah, because their dad’s pimp them out as prostitutes-”
“I’m not having this conversation with you. Why do you think she’s a prostitute?”
Mike let out a frustrated sigh. “Never mind, you wouldn’t understand anyway…”
Denise bit her tongue, and didn’t allow the thoughts out that were now filtering through her brain; no she didn’t allow her self to hiss out the fact that Brooks would understand.
She knew there was no point in arguing with him, as far as Mike was concerned no one in the world was as fantastic as Brooks was; not even her. Not even close.
“When do you leave again?” He asked finally, after the silence became unbearably heavy.
“Wednesday.”
“This Wednesday? That’s like… three days away.” He mused, and Denise couldn’t tell whether he was happy or sad that she was leaving soon; or if he even felt anything at all.
She didn’t say anything, again just shrugging and not wanting to have this conversation with him. She hated talking about these types of things with him, she was sure that he was just a breath away from telling her it was over.
And maybe that would be for the best, but regardless of how he felt, she still loved him - desperately - and the last thing she wanted was for that to happen. Mike yawned as her thoughts ran away with her, and she couldn’t help but yawn too, she hadn’t realized how tired she was until she had curled up with him on the couch. “Wanna go lay down in your room?” She asked him absently. She felt him nod behind her and he sat up, taking her hand and pulling her up beside him.
As soon as she was standing, he dropped her hand and turned around, heading down the hallway without a backward glance.
Denise sighed to herself and followed after him.
Mike was laying on his back, under the covers when she made it to his room. His chest was now bare and she could see his pants laying on the floor where he’d discarded him. “I thought I said ’lay down’ not ’let’s get naked’.”
He gave her that cheeky, boy-ish grin that made her heart melt, and crossed his arms behind his head and stared up at her.
She hated when he watched her get undressed. “Don’t look, Mike.”
“I’m about to put my penis in you… what’s the difference if I see you naked first?”
“You know I don’t like that!” She complained, biting her lip as he finally nodded. He rolled over onto his side, with his back to her.
She undressed quickly and crawled into the bed beside him, pulling the covers up to her neck before he rolled back around.
“You’re gonna have to be fast.” She said suddenly, glancing over her head at the clock on the bedside table.
Groaning, she sat up, careful to keep the sheet around her as she pulled open the bedside drawer and pulled out the egg timer she’d put in there when he’d moved in here.
“Not the egg timer!” He whined as she set the dial to ten minutes.
“I need twenty minutes to clean up before I have to drop off some files at the Mayor’s office, and I only have an hour before they need to be there. That means you have exactly ten-er- nine and a half minutes left.”
“But I-”
“Nine minutes and twenty seconds, nineteen seconds, eighteen seconds…”
Mike let out an angry huff before he rolled over onto her and pushed himself into her. She wasn’t that wet, so her tightness pulled against him, causing an uncomfortable amount of friction until she was totally impaled on him.
He thrust into her a few times before he could feel the warm, familiar wet surround him.
He pushed his face into the nap of her neck and smiled against her soft skin as her hands wound their way through the hair on the back of his head. He opened his mouth and traced his tongue along her collar bone up onto her neck.
Denise shut her eyes against the mounding pleasure, but snapped them back opened again, remembering she had a meeting later. “Mike don’t slobber on me… remember I have to go to the Mayor’s-”
“Ok! Ok…” He shut his eyes again and tried to re-find his rhythm, but he found himself pumping in time with the egg timer; it would be so much easier to get into it if she didn’t always insist on using the egg timer.
He finally groaned and sat up on his knees, grabbing her hips in his hands as she squirmed to keep her body covered by the sheets.
Mike tilted his head back and moved her body, bringing it up to his forcefully.
He could feel his orgasm building to a head and he started to grunt against it, until she swatted his hand. “Don’t come in me Mike! I don’t want semen dripping out of me when I’m at work.”
Mike mumbled something to himself, something incoherent, before he pulled his thickness out of her and starting pumping his hand along his length. Denise let out a slight squeal and rolled out of the way, right before the white, sticky liquid rained down on her. "Aww! Denise! It's all over my bed now."
"I told you I didn't want semen coming out of me, Mike! Why would putting it all over me be ok?" She sighed before turning around and pulling the covers around her tighter.
Mike watched her disappear around the corner, as the egg timer went off and the sound of the shower started to come through the wall.
He heard the sound of the water hitting the floor disappear, as she stepped underneath the spray, and he could easily picture her standing there, the water pouring over her soft skin. He sighed to himself as he wished that he could just go hop in there with her; but that wasn't possible, she'd completely freak out.
If she was only leaving herself twenty minutes to get ready, that meant that she wasn’t planning on re-doing her hair… no, if he went in there now, he’d be walking back out without his nuts.
Instead he flopping back down on the bed, careful not to lay on anything wet or sticky.
Mike was walking around the apartment, trying to show Cosmo how to strut, when someone hit the buzzer.
Brooks was in the shower and unfortunately, Mike could never figure out how to work the ‘talking’ part of it, so he just hit the one to open the door, and then walked back away. “Ok Cosmo, you need to focus, swagger is very, very important when it comes to getting ladies.”
“And you know all about getting ladies.” Mike came to a halt as if Freddy Kruger had just whispered something into his ear. His eyes were wide and he turned around slowly, and faced the opened door.
She was the last person he expected to see.
“Oh, hey Denise… what’s up?” His voice was a bit higher than normal, but Denise didn’t notice. She stood awkwardly in the doorway, waiting.
Figuring out what she probably wanted, Mike moved towards her and opened his arms up, hugging her against his chest. He could feel her nuzzling her face into his neck and he bent forward, pressing his lips onto the top of her head. It was easy, when she wasn’t talking, to remember that there was a time when they use to get a long.
“My Boots!” Cosmo cried from behind them, resorting to her much faster transportation of crawling as she came towards him. “My boots!”
“Oh it’s ok Cosmo, it’s just Denise!” Mike cooed, releasing his grip on his girlfriend and bending over to pick up the jealous child. “Can you say Denise? Da-nee-sa?”
Cosmo grabbed onto Mike’s lip with a tiny hand, and glanced over at Denise, her mouth ajar. “So… who is this?” Denise asked, taking a step back, awkwardly.
“This is Cosmo, Brooks’ daughter.” He explained, slowly after pulling her hand away from her mouth. He couldn‘t figure out why she would even ask that.
“Since when does Brooks have a daughter?”
Mike rolled his eyes and raise his eyebrows. “Are you serious Denise? Why are we even having this conversation… god! Where have you been anyway, under a rock?”
“Away on business with the Mayor! Where I’ve been for three weeks… did you not even notice I was gone?!”
“Umm… when do you leave?”
Denise let out a infuriated growl. “I don’t leave, Mike. I’m BACK!”
“Hey! What are you yelling at him for?” Brooks asked, coming out of the bathroom just in time to see Denise’s freak-out. He was wearing nothing but a towel, slung loosely around his waist; a few, missed drops of water rolling their way down his taut chest as he watched the two of them.
“Mike didn’t realize I had left for work.” She hissed, her hands clenching into fists.
“Oh, when do you go?” Brooks asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
Closing her eyes and exhaling slowly, Denise tried to remain calm. Mike was stupid and she knew Brooks was just mocking her. “Alright, I’ll just talk to you later.” She finally said quietly, turning around to leave, but Mike caught her arm.
“You don’t have to go Denise.” He said gently, tugging her arm slightly to pull her back towards him. “Brooks was taking Cosmo out to the park for a bit so… you could spend some quality time with me, if you want?”
Sighing Denise glanced past Mike and Cosmo to where Brooks was still standing. “Ok, ok!” He held up his hands, turning around and going into his room; mumbling something about being able to take a hint.
Less then a half hour later, Mike and Denise were laying on the couch, and Brooks and Cosmo were heading out to the park.
Flicking through the channels, he stopped on a travel commercial for Mexico. “If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would it be?” Denise asked absently as she ran a finger along Mike’s bicep, which was wrapped around her waist.
“I dunno…” Miked said, slowly as he thought it over. “Oh no! I do! Back in Fiji with Brooks! That was like, the best week of my life! What about you?” Mike asked excitedly, smiling as he remembered all the fun things they’d done on the tropical island.
Denise cleared her throat. “Oh… I was gonna say… here with you…”
“Well that’s boring.” Mike heard a click and he looked up, towards the door. “Emily! Hey, what’s up?” He shouted cheerfully.
“Hey Mike… hi… Denise…” She said when she realized who else was in the apartment. “Where’s Cosmo?”
“Gone to the park with Brooks.”
“Oh, alright. I was just running to Target and I was gonna see if they wanted to come. I guess I’ll just see you guys later.” She said, giving them a small smile before she headed out the door.
Neither of them said anything for a few minutes. Mike went back to watching TV and Denise chewed on her lip thoughtfully. “So… Emily’s really pretty.” She said finally, after not being able to contain the thought any longer.
She could feel Mike shrug behind her, but he didn’t say anything as he continued to focus on the TV. “Don’t you think so?”
“I guess… if you like hookers.”
“Hookers?”
“Yah, Emily’s a prostitute. You know… like the girl in The Hills.” He explained as he put his attention back to the show they were watching.
Denise sighed and rolled her eyes. “No one on the Hills is a prostitute… they’re just girls that are rich because of their dads.”
“Yah, because their dad’s pimp them out as prostitutes-”
“I’m not having this conversation with you. Why do you think she’s a prostitute?”
Mike let out a frustrated sigh. “Never mind, you wouldn’t understand anyway…”
Denise bit her tongue, and didn’t allow the thoughts out that were now filtering through her brain; no she didn’t allow her self to hiss out the fact that Brooks would understand.
She knew there was no point in arguing with him, as far as Mike was concerned no one in the world was as fantastic as Brooks was; not even her. Not even close.
“When do you leave again?” He asked finally, after the silence became unbearably heavy.
“Wednesday.”
“This Wednesday? That’s like… three days away.” He mused, and Denise couldn’t tell whether he was happy or sad that she was leaving soon; or if he even felt anything at all.
She didn’t say anything, again just shrugging and not wanting to have this conversation with him. She hated talking about these types of things with him, she was sure that he was just a breath away from telling her it was over.
And maybe that would be for the best, but regardless of how he felt, she still loved him - desperately - and the last thing she wanted was for that to happen. Mike yawned as her thoughts ran away with her, and she couldn’t help but yawn too, she hadn’t realized how tired she was until she had curled up with him on the couch. “Wanna go lay down in your room?” She asked him absently. She felt him nod behind her and he sat up, taking her hand and pulling her up beside him.
As soon as she was standing, he dropped her hand and turned around, heading down the hallway without a backward glance.
Denise sighed to herself and followed after him.
Mike was laying on his back, under the covers when she made it to his room. His chest was now bare and she could see his pants laying on the floor where he’d discarded him. “I thought I said ’lay down’ not ’let’s get naked’.”
He gave her that cheeky, boy-ish grin that made her heart melt, and crossed his arms behind his head and stared up at her.
She hated when he watched her get undressed. “Don’t look, Mike.”
“I’m about to put my penis in you… what’s the difference if I see you naked first?”
“You know I don’t like that!” She complained, biting her lip as he finally nodded. He rolled over onto his side, with his back to her.
She undressed quickly and crawled into the bed beside him, pulling the covers up to her neck before he rolled back around.
“You’re gonna have to be fast.” She said suddenly, glancing over her head at the clock on the bedside table.
Groaning, she sat up, careful to keep the sheet around her as she pulled open the bedside drawer and pulled out the egg timer she’d put in there when he’d moved in here.
“Not the egg timer!” He whined as she set the dial to ten minutes.
“I need twenty minutes to clean up before I have to drop off some files at the Mayor’s office, and I only have an hour before they need to be there. That means you have exactly ten-er- nine and a half minutes left.”
“But I-”
“Nine minutes and twenty seconds, nineteen seconds, eighteen seconds…”
Mike let out an angry huff before he rolled over onto her and pushed himself into her. She wasn’t that wet, so her tightness pulled against him, causing an uncomfortable amount of friction until she was totally impaled on him.
He thrust into her a few times before he could feel the warm, familiar wet surround him.
He pushed his face into the nap of her neck and smiled against her soft skin as her hands wound their way through the hair on the back of his head. He opened his mouth and traced his tongue along her collar bone up onto her neck.
Denise shut her eyes against the mounding pleasure, but snapped them back opened again, remembering she had a meeting later. “Mike don’t slobber on me… remember I have to go to the Mayor’s-”
“Ok! Ok…” He shut his eyes again and tried to re-find his rhythm, but he found himself pumping in time with the egg timer; it would be so much easier to get into it if she didn’t always insist on using the egg timer.
He finally groaned and sat up on his knees, grabbing her hips in his hands as she squirmed to keep her body covered by the sheets.
Mike tilted his head back and moved her body, bringing it up to his forcefully.
He could feel his orgasm building to a head and he started to grunt against it, until she swatted his hand. “Don’t come in me Mike! I don’t want semen dripping out of me when I’m at work.”
Mike mumbled something to himself, something incoherent, before he pulled his thickness out of her and starting pumping his hand along his length. Denise let out a slight squeal and rolled out of the way, right before the white, sticky liquid rained down on her. "Aww! Denise! It's all over my bed now."
"I told you I didn't want semen coming out of me, Mike! Why would putting it all over me be ok?" She sighed before turning around and pulling the covers around her tighter.
Mike watched her disappear around the corner, as the egg timer went off and the sound of the shower started to come through the wall.
He heard the sound of the water hitting the floor disappear, as she stepped underneath the spray, and he could easily picture her standing there, the water pouring over her soft skin. He sighed to himself as he wished that he could just go hop in there with her; but that wasn't possible, she'd completely freak out.
If she was only leaving herself twenty minutes to get ready, that meant that she wasn’t planning on re-doing her hair… no, if he went in there now, he’d be walking back out without his nuts.
Instead he flopping back down on the bed, careful not to lay on anything wet or sticky.
Friday, May 21, 2010
15. Wedding Announcement, Gay Jokes and a Drunken Pick-up
Brooks didn’t want to kill anyone, so he tried to pretend like he couldn’t feel Jose flicking his ear from the row behind him.
The annoying little French-man was leaning up through the seats, suppressing a laugh as he continued to poke at his ear; as if Brooks didn’t already realize he was there.
He wanted to turn around and punch him, but that would get him in trouble with Boudreau; and, then the guys would never leave him alone. No, as long as he didn’t do anything, they’d eventually get board and move on to something else. At least he hoped so.
“Alright boys, we need to celebrate tonight!” Knuble yelled from somewhere at the back of the bus. “Listen up… I finally asked Melissa to marry me so… drinks are on me!”
Half the bus cheered, the other moaned, Brooks said nothing.
“You can’t get married Knuble! You’re like a baby! What are you 21, 22?” Morry complained, getting a few nods from the rest of the guys on the bus.
Knuble gave him a questioning glance. “Dude, I’m 37.”
“Fuck you are old.” Semin laughed, and Brooks couldn’t help but chuckle along at that. I didn’t really pay attention to anything else though, he simply turned and glanced past a sleeping Mike, until he could watch the view fly by out the window.
“Aww see! He’s not even paying attention, he’s watching his boyfriend sleep!” Ovechkin sneered from a few seats in front of Brooks. It’s wasn’t what he was saying, but the tone that caught his attention, and he turned towards Alex.
“What did you say?”
“Oh we were just talking about celebrating tonight, but you were occupied so you missed it…” He answered, laughing at his own line of thought.
“I mean, we’d invite you guys to come but we really don’t want to break up this ‘Broke Back Mountain’ thing you’ve got going on…” He added, earning a few hoots from his Russian counterparts.
“Shut the fuck up, Alex.” Brooks snapped, trying to keep his voice down, but he managed to wake Mike.
“What’s going on?” He yawned sleepily, glancing around to see everyone staring at him.
Brooks opened his mouth to say something, but Alex spoke above him. “Just talking about how queer you are.”
Mike sighed, not bothered, but annoyed. “We’ve been over this Alex… I won’t have sex with you. I’m sorry, I’m just not interested in men that way.”
“Oh please Mike, you’re so far in the closet you’re in Narnia.” Knuble cracked, causing Mike to laugh along. Unlike Brooks, Mike didn’t take the gay comments to heart, he could laugh them off and deal with them. Brooks couldn’t.
“Brooks, I just realized what it is you remind me of… a gay letter” Alex pressed, as he started to spin around in his seat.
Rolling his eyes, Brooks exhaled loudly. “What does that even mean?”
“You only come in male boxes. Get it?”
2 days later
Brooks laid on the couch in his apartment. Mike was laid out in the lazy boy chair to his right, while Cosmo was sitting on his stomach.
His legs were pulled up towards him, leaving enough room for Emily to sit at the bottom of the couth.
They were watching Might Ducks and laughing as Coach Bombay tried to find kids to play on his hockey team. “See Cosmo, that’s his mistake… he’s focusing too much on his defensive players, everyone knows it’s all about the forwards.”
“Oh Puh-leeeez!” Mike groaned, tilting his head backwards to look at Cosmo. “Don’t listen to your dad, he’s just jealous because he knows real men play defence… and you wanna be a real man, right Cosmo? Just like your Uncle Mike.”
“No way! She’s gonna be a big time forward like her dad, crushing the competition with body-weight and sheer willpower.”
“You guys forgot that Cosmo’s a girl again… didn’t you?” Emily chuckled softly as she glanced at her watch.
“No!” Brooks said defensively, grabbing Cosmo under the arms and lifting her easily; spinning her until she was looking right at Emily. The little girl gave her a two-tooth grin and clapped her hands, squealing. “This is the face of a killer. She’s going to be the toughest hockey player in the history of the world.”
Emily leaned forward and kissed Cosmo on the forehead. “Sorry that I have to leave you here with them alone… keep them in line ok?” She laughed, standing up and pushing herself.
“Where are you going?” Brooks and Mike chimed together.
Emily laughed at their unison. “It’s Friday night, I work… I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
“Woah… you work? I thought you worked here now?” Brooks asked, his eyes popping open.
“No, I look after Cosmo when you guys have games, I still have a job.” She snorted, shaking her head as she headed out the door.
Brooks stared after her, his mouth a jar. “Here’s your one chance Fancy don’t let me down! Here’s your one chance Fancy don’t let me down! Now don’t let me down! You’re momma’s gonna help you get uptown!” Mike started to sing in a high voice.
Snapping his head back down Brooks glared at him. “One more word, and I’m breaking your Reba McEntire Cds.”
It was unusually for Emily to be thinking of anything else but the numerous men around her, after all, her livelihood deepened on them having a good time; but she still found herself thinking about Cosmo, Mike and Brooks, and where she had left them.
They were probably still curled up on the couch, watching Mighty Ducks and trying to explain to Cosmo what icing meant, and how to shoot a knuckle-puck. The idea made her smile, and distracted her enough that she didn’t see Jake come up behind her.
“I’m not gonna lie to you Emily, you’re incredible.” He said coyly, his hand running along the smooth, bare skin of her back.
Emily didn’t even stiffen or feel awkward, he wasn’t the first guy that had made a pass at her while she was working.
“What can I say, I’m talented at what I do…” She said, glancing over her shoulder to smile at him; that smile she could pull out when she needed to. The smile that hid any kind of real emotion she was feeling, the one that allowed her to do her job convincingly.
He smiled back, his eyes half-hooded by the effects of the alcohol on them. Normally a girl wouldn’t feel flattered to have a drunk guy hitting on her, but Emily felt a little smug. There were girls on the stage taking their clothing off - legs open and tits out - but he was still looking at her. So maybe she wasn‘t exactly dressed like Mother Teresa, but she wore as much as she could, given the line of work she was in. “Aww… well thanks for the offer Jake, but I got someone to get home to after.” She lied, the lie that went hand in hand with the smile. She always said that when someone tried to take her home and it wasn‘t in the game plan; her fall back, imaginary boyfriend.
He nodded, sheepishly. “I figured as much… hot girl like you… but still, Brooks Laich, that’s pretty cool.”
Emily’s eyes widened as she realized what Jake was thinking.; after all, he had seen her talking to Brooks the day he’d come over to her apartment. She figured it was dangerous ground, Brooks was a mild celebrity in Washington and it was probably in her best interest to just set the story straight. But she didn’t. “Oh yah… he’s fantastic… everything a girl could ever want in a man.” She finished firmly, realizing that she wasn‘t actually lying anymore.
Jake held up his hands in defeat, giving her one last wistful smile before heading back across the club to watch the girls that were still on the pole.
Emily checked her watch and sighed. She was pretty much done here, she was usually always done with the men half-early; she wish the same could be said for the women.
Unfortunately, the women were much more demanding on her skills, time and energy then the men, and they were all waiting for her upstairs.
Grabbing her large, stuffed, black bag, she sighed to herself as she headed up towards the second level of the club.
The annoying little French-man was leaning up through the seats, suppressing a laugh as he continued to poke at his ear; as if Brooks didn’t already realize he was there.
He wanted to turn around and punch him, but that would get him in trouble with Boudreau; and, then the guys would never leave him alone. No, as long as he didn’t do anything, they’d eventually get board and move on to something else. At least he hoped so.
“Alright boys, we need to celebrate tonight!” Knuble yelled from somewhere at the back of the bus. “Listen up… I finally asked Melissa to marry me so… drinks are on me!”
Half the bus cheered, the other moaned, Brooks said nothing.
“You can’t get married Knuble! You’re like a baby! What are you 21, 22?” Morry complained, getting a few nods from the rest of the guys on the bus.
Knuble gave him a questioning glance. “Dude, I’m 37.”
“Fuck you are old.” Semin laughed, and Brooks couldn’t help but chuckle along at that. I didn’t really pay attention to anything else though, he simply turned and glanced past a sleeping Mike, until he could watch the view fly by out the window.
“Aww see! He’s not even paying attention, he’s watching his boyfriend sleep!” Ovechkin sneered from a few seats in front of Brooks. It’s wasn’t what he was saying, but the tone that caught his attention, and he turned towards Alex.
“What did you say?”
“Oh we were just talking about celebrating tonight, but you were occupied so you missed it…” He answered, laughing at his own line of thought.
“I mean, we’d invite you guys to come but we really don’t want to break up this ‘Broke Back Mountain’ thing you’ve got going on…” He added, earning a few hoots from his Russian counterparts.
“Shut the fuck up, Alex.” Brooks snapped, trying to keep his voice down, but he managed to wake Mike.
“What’s going on?” He yawned sleepily, glancing around to see everyone staring at him.
Brooks opened his mouth to say something, but Alex spoke above him. “Just talking about how queer you are.”
Mike sighed, not bothered, but annoyed. “We’ve been over this Alex… I won’t have sex with you. I’m sorry, I’m just not interested in men that way.”
“Oh please Mike, you’re so far in the closet you’re in Narnia.” Knuble cracked, causing Mike to laugh along. Unlike Brooks, Mike didn’t take the gay comments to heart, he could laugh them off and deal with them. Brooks couldn’t.
“Brooks, I just realized what it is you remind me of… a gay letter” Alex pressed, as he started to spin around in his seat.
Rolling his eyes, Brooks exhaled loudly. “What does that even mean?”
“You only come in male boxes. Get it?”
2 days later
Brooks laid on the couch in his apartment. Mike was laid out in the lazy boy chair to his right, while Cosmo was sitting on his stomach.
His legs were pulled up towards him, leaving enough room for Emily to sit at the bottom of the couth.
They were watching Might Ducks and laughing as Coach Bombay tried to find kids to play on his hockey team. “See Cosmo, that’s his mistake… he’s focusing too much on his defensive players, everyone knows it’s all about the forwards.”
“Oh Puh-leeeez!” Mike groaned, tilting his head backwards to look at Cosmo. “Don’t listen to your dad, he’s just jealous because he knows real men play defence… and you wanna be a real man, right Cosmo? Just like your Uncle Mike.”
“No way! She’s gonna be a big time forward like her dad, crushing the competition with body-weight and sheer willpower.”
“You guys forgot that Cosmo’s a girl again… didn’t you?” Emily chuckled softly as she glanced at her watch.
“No!” Brooks said defensively, grabbing Cosmo under the arms and lifting her easily; spinning her until she was looking right at Emily. The little girl gave her a two-tooth grin and clapped her hands, squealing. “This is the face of a killer. She’s going to be the toughest hockey player in the history of the world.”
Emily leaned forward and kissed Cosmo on the forehead. “Sorry that I have to leave you here with them alone… keep them in line ok?” She laughed, standing up and pushing herself.
“Where are you going?” Brooks and Mike chimed together.
Emily laughed at their unison. “It’s Friday night, I work… I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
“Woah… you work? I thought you worked here now?” Brooks asked, his eyes popping open.
“No, I look after Cosmo when you guys have games, I still have a job.” She snorted, shaking her head as she headed out the door.
Brooks stared after her, his mouth a jar. “Here’s your one chance Fancy don’t let me down! Here’s your one chance Fancy don’t let me down! Now don’t let me down! You’re momma’s gonna help you get uptown!” Mike started to sing in a high voice.
Snapping his head back down Brooks glared at him. “One more word, and I’m breaking your Reba McEntire Cds.”
It was unusually for Emily to be thinking of anything else but the numerous men around her, after all, her livelihood deepened on them having a good time; but she still found herself thinking about Cosmo, Mike and Brooks, and where she had left them.
They were probably still curled up on the couch, watching Mighty Ducks and trying to explain to Cosmo what icing meant, and how to shoot a knuckle-puck. The idea made her smile, and distracted her enough that she didn’t see Jake come up behind her.
“I’m not gonna lie to you Emily, you’re incredible.” He said coyly, his hand running along the smooth, bare skin of her back.
Emily didn’t even stiffen or feel awkward, he wasn’t the first guy that had made a pass at her while she was working.
“What can I say, I’m talented at what I do…” She said, glancing over her shoulder to smile at him; that smile she could pull out when she needed to. The smile that hid any kind of real emotion she was feeling, the one that allowed her to do her job convincingly.
He smiled back, his eyes half-hooded by the effects of the alcohol on them. Normally a girl wouldn’t feel flattered to have a drunk guy hitting on her, but Emily felt a little smug. There were girls on the stage taking their clothing off - legs open and tits out - but he was still looking at her. So maybe she wasn‘t exactly dressed like Mother Teresa, but she wore as much as she could, given the line of work she was in. “Aww… well thanks for the offer Jake, but I got someone to get home to after.” She lied, the lie that went hand in hand with the smile. She always said that when someone tried to take her home and it wasn‘t in the game plan; her fall back, imaginary boyfriend.
He nodded, sheepishly. “I figured as much… hot girl like you… but still, Brooks Laich, that’s pretty cool.”
Emily’s eyes widened as she realized what Jake was thinking.; after all, he had seen her talking to Brooks the day he’d come over to her apartment. She figured it was dangerous ground, Brooks was a mild celebrity in Washington and it was probably in her best interest to just set the story straight. But she didn’t. “Oh yah… he’s fantastic… everything a girl could ever want in a man.” She finished firmly, realizing that she wasn‘t actually lying anymore.
Jake held up his hands in defeat, giving her one last wistful smile before heading back across the club to watch the girls that were still on the pole.
Emily checked her watch and sighed. She was pretty much done here, she was usually always done with the men half-early; she wish the same could be said for the women.
Unfortunately, the women were much more demanding on her skills, time and energy then the men, and they were all waiting for her upstairs.
Grabbing her large, stuffed, black bag, she sighed to herself as she headed up towards the second level of the club.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
14. Boys will be Stupid
He felt like a complete douche, to say the least. It was so bad that he was actually happy Ovechkin had scored a hat-trick. That meant that no one was paying attention to him, and with the swarm of reporters in the locker room, he was more than able to sneak away after his shower.
He didn’t want to explain to Mike why he freaked out like that, or why he was fine now, and so he was glad when Mike didn’t ask anything about it.
That was the good thing about being friends with someone for so long; they knew when you needed to talk, and they knew when you needed them to leave you alone.
Their drive home was relatively quiet, and at some point, Cosmo had fallen asleep in the back of his SUV.
Brooks could still see the headlights of Emily’s car in the rear-view mirror, so he knew they’d all be arriving back to the apartment at the same time.
At the thought of Emily, he couldn’t help but exhale loudly.
It was frustrating to the point of infuriation.
Part of him was relieved; if he could be wrong about thinking a guy was flirting with her, then maybe it was possible he was wrong about what she did for a living.
The other part of him was simply feeling dejected. He couldn’t explain his reactions on the ice, or even the way he had been this morning when he met the guy outside her apartment door.
He chalked it up to the fact that Emily was spending a lot of time at his place, mainly, a lot of time with his daughter. Cosmo was attached to her - that much was obvious to anyone - and he didn’t want to think that the only female influence in her life was up to something he didn’t approve of.
“Everything ok?” Brooks sighed as he felt Emily come up behind him. She moved towards him slowly, but with purpose, careful not to startle him as he stared out the window.
He nodded his head finally, after musing over her words for a minute. He’d have to lie… there was no way to explain what he was going through without coming right out and telling her that he knew what she did. “Yah… just a little… stressed, I guess.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” She asked quietly, gently placing her hand on Brooks’ arm. He turned around to stare at her, his brain turning to mush as he tried to think of how he could let her know that there was nothing she could do, short of… well… not having sex with men for money.
What he didn’t know is that she assumed he was talking about being a single father on the road all the time, not specifically about her.
“You know…” She added slowly, after she realized that he wasn’t going to say anything. “You don’t have to be embarrassed if you need help… there’s nothing wrong with asking for it.” And she meant it. She had no problem spending her free time helping him with Cosmo. She loved that little girl and basically, she didn’t trust some stranger to come in and look after her.
He wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, other then, maybe she was using backward psychology to reach out to him.
Like maybe she was embarrassed to tell him what she did, but she wanted out of it and thought that if Brooks hired her then she wouldn’t have to do it anymore. He went with it. “You mean like… you’d help with Cosmo? On a full-time basis?”
She smiled at him and shrugged. “If that’s what you wanted, then yah… I mean… I’m right across the hall and, she already knows me-“
“No, I think that’s fantastic idea.” Brooks couldn’t help but smile; this was one of those awesome decisions, where he could help himself and help her in one go.
“I guess that’s settled then… you can move in tomorrow.”
“Wait. What?”
“Well I mean… yah, you’re only across the hall but… all of Cosmo’s stuff is here so you might as well just stay-“
“I think that’s a really bad idea.” She said quickly, quietly, averting her eyes away from him. “Sure I can come over here whenever and I’ll stay when you guys are gone but I’d rather have my own place.” She sneaked a peek up at him, giving him an apologetic smile. “If that’s ok with you.”
Brooks nodded dumbly, he wasn’t even a hundred percent sure why he had offered to let her move in in the first place, but it wasn’t something he was about to pressure her into. “Yah, that’s fine… I, umm… just forget I said anything.”
“Fine! But if this comes up again… she’s not getting my room!” Mike said loudly as he stuck his head out from around the corner, his smile a mixture of guilt and concern.
As if fate was giving them the opportunity to test out their new ‘nanny’, Brooks and Mike had another away game the following night.
They decided to spend the morning at home, skipping the optional practice. Mike was simply too lazy to go, and Brooks wanted to spend as much time with Cosmo as possible, before he was gone for another three days.
Emily sat in the living room with Cosmo, as the two boys stood in the kitchen, arguing over who had actually managed to ‘capture the flag’ in their latest game of Halo.
She could only smile to herself as Brooks talked a – painfully – gullible Mike into the belief that it had been his heroic acts that had one the game.
Cosmo was tugging on a loose strand of her hair, and she reached back, pulling the tight bun free and allowing her hair to cascade down around her shoulder. The little girl squealed with delight and grabbed onto the dark mass of hair in front of her.
“Yours is prettier you know… you have hair like your daddy.” Emily cooed, gently tugging one of Cosmo’s tiny pig-tails. “Do you know how many girls want nice blond hair like this? Lots! You’re gonna make all the other girls jealous when you’re older… I’ll have to shoo the boys away with a broom.”
“Or daddy will beat them to death with his hockey stick.” Brooks chuckled from behind them. Emily glanced over her shoulder to see him leaning over the back of the couch, watching them.
Emily blushed a bit, surprised that she didn’t hear him approach.
That was short lived though, as Cosmo have a hard tug on her hair. “Oh ouch!” She yelped, gently taking Cosmo’s hand and trying to unwind her hair from it. “No hair-pulling please…” She said calmly, before lifting Cosmo off her lap and putting her on the floor.
Mike called out to Brooks and he turned around, heading back into the kitchen and leaving Emily on the floor, watching after him.
“Em-me!” Cosmo squealed as she pulled herself onto her feet; her tiny hands holding onto the coffee table for support.
Emily opened her mouth, but couldn’t find the words as her lips curled up into a smile.
“Brooks…” She finally exhaled, trying not to frighten Cosmo, who was staring down at her foot. “Brooks, I think she’s gonna walk…”
Brooks and Mike were there in an instant. Both of the standing beside the couch, staring at Cosmo intently.
“Cosmo! You’re standing! You’re standing like a real person!” Mike yelled loudly. He made a fist and held it up to Brooks, who bumped his own fist against it before leaning back into their customary hand shake.
“Cosmo!” Emily yelled excitedly as the young girl let out a scream. When the boys looked back she was already in Emily’s arms, laughing excitedly. “Oh my gosh! Did you see that? You’re first steps!” She cried loudly, planting a kiss on Cosmo’s forehead.
“Wasn’t that amazing? To think we were all here for that?” Emily grinned, looking over at Brooks and Mike.
“Umm…” Mike began to say, not sure whether or not he should tell Emily that he’d just completely missed it.
“It wasn’t my fault!” Brooks said loudly, glancing back and forth between Mike and Emily. “It was his fault, he was the one that wanted to do the hand shake!”
Emily rolled her eyes and exhaled loudly. “Do you mean to tell me that you idiots just missed her first steps, because of a fist bump?”
“We should go.” Mike interjected quickly, nodding at Brooks before running down the hallway towards his room.
Brooks nodded. “Yah… away game and all that… See ya!” He yelled, moving over to kiss Cosmo on the head before following after Mike.
A few minutes later they were both jogging out the apartment door, leaving Emily and Cosmo on the living room floor.
“Well sweetie… looks like it’s gonna be a girl's night, huh?”
He didn’t want to explain to Mike why he freaked out like that, or why he was fine now, and so he was glad when Mike didn’t ask anything about it.
That was the good thing about being friends with someone for so long; they knew when you needed to talk, and they knew when you needed them to leave you alone.
Their drive home was relatively quiet, and at some point, Cosmo had fallen asleep in the back of his SUV.
Brooks could still see the headlights of Emily’s car in the rear-view mirror, so he knew they’d all be arriving back to the apartment at the same time.
At the thought of Emily, he couldn’t help but exhale loudly.
It was frustrating to the point of infuriation.
Part of him was relieved; if he could be wrong about thinking a guy was flirting with her, then maybe it was possible he was wrong about what she did for a living.
The other part of him was simply feeling dejected. He couldn’t explain his reactions on the ice, or even the way he had been this morning when he met the guy outside her apartment door.
He chalked it up to the fact that Emily was spending a lot of time at his place, mainly, a lot of time with his daughter. Cosmo was attached to her - that much was obvious to anyone - and he didn’t want to think that the only female influence in her life was up to something he didn’t approve of.
“Everything ok?” Brooks sighed as he felt Emily come up behind him. She moved towards him slowly, but with purpose, careful not to startle him as he stared out the window.
He nodded his head finally, after musing over her words for a minute. He’d have to lie… there was no way to explain what he was going through without coming right out and telling her that he knew what she did. “Yah… just a little… stressed, I guess.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” She asked quietly, gently placing her hand on Brooks’ arm. He turned around to stare at her, his brain turning to mush as he tried to think of how he could let her know that there was nothing she could do, short of… well… not having sex with men for money.
What he didn’t know is that she assumed he was talking about being a single father on the road all the time, not specifically about her.
“You know…” She added slowly, after she realized that he wasn’t going to say anything. “You don’t have to be embarrassed if you need help… there’s nothing wrong with asking for it.” And she meant it. She had no problem spending her free time helping him with Cosmo. She loved that little girl and basically, she didn’t trust some stranger to come in and look after her.
He wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, other then, maybe she was using backward psychology to reach out to him.
Like maybe she was embarrassed to tell him what she did, but she wanted out of it and thought that if Brooks hired her then she wouldn’t have to do it anymore. He went with it. “You mean like… you’d help with Cosmo? On a full-time basis?”
She smiled at him and shrugged. “If that’s what you wanted, then yah… I mean… I’m right across the hall and, she already knows me-“
“No, I think that’s fantastic idea.” Brooks couldn’t help but smile; this was one of those awesome decisions, where he could help himself and help her in one go.
“I guess that’s settled then… you can move in tomorrow.”
“Wait. What?”
“Well I mean… yah, you’re only across the hall but… all of Cosmo’s stuff is here so you might as well just stay-“
“I think that’s a really bad idea.” She said quickly, quietly, averting her eyes away from him. “Sure I can come over here whenever and I’ll stay when you guys are gone but I’d rather have my own place.” She sneaked a peek up at him, giving him an apologetic smile. “If that’s ok with you.”
Brooks nodded dumbly, he wasn’t even a hundred percent sure why he had offered to let her move in in the first place, but it wasn’t something he was about to pressure her into. “Yah, that’s fine… I, umm… just forget I said anything.”
“Fine! But if this comes up again… she’s not getting my room!” Mike said loudly as he stuck his head out from around the corner, his smile a mixture of guilt and concern.
As if fate was giving them the opportunity to test out their new ‘nanny’, Brooks and Mike had another away game the following night.
They decided to spend the morning at home, skipping the optional practice. Mike was simply too lazy to go, and Brooks wanted to spend as much time with Cosmo as possible, before he was gone for another three days.
Emily sat in the living room with Cosmo, as the two boys stood in the kitchen, arguing over who had actually managed to ‘capture the flag’ in their latest game of Halo.
She could only smile to herself as Brooks talked a – painfully – gullible Mike into the belief that it had been his heroic acts that had one the game.
Cosmo was tugging on a loose strand of her hair, and she reached back, pulling the tight bun free and allowing her hair to cascade down around her shoulder. The little girl squealed with delight and grabbed onto the dark mass of hair in front of her.
“Yours is prettier you know… you have hair like your daddy.” Emily cooed, gently tugging one of Cosmo’s tiny pig-tails. “Do you know how many girls want nice blond hair like this? Lots! You’re gonna make all the other girls jealous when you’re older… I’ll have to shoo the boys away with a broom.”
“Or daddy will beat them to death with his hockey stick.” Brooks chuckled from behind them. Emily glanced over her shoulder to see him leaning over the back of the couch, watching them.
Emily blushed a bit, surprised that she didn’t hear him approach.
That was short lived though, as Cosmo have a hard tug on her hair. “Oh ouch!” She yelped, gently taking Cosmo’s hand and trying to unwind her hair from it. “No hair-pulling please…” She said calmly, before lifting Cosmo off her lap and putting her on the floor.
Mike called out to Brooks and he turned around, heading back into the kitchen and leaving Emily on the floor, watching after him.
“Em-me!” Cosmo squealed as she pulled herself onto her feet; her tiny hands holding onto the coffee table for support.
Emily opened her mouth, but couldn’t find the words as her lips curled up into a smile.
“Brooks…” She finally exhaled, trying not to frighten Cosmo, who was staring down at her foot. “Brooks, I think she’s gonna walk…”
Brooks and Mike were there in an instant. Both of the standing beside the couch, staring at Cosmo intently.
“Cosmo! You’re standing! You’re standing like a real person!” Mike yelled loudly. He made a fist and held it up to Brooks, who bumped his own fist against it before leaning back into their customary hand shake.
“Cosmo!” Emily yelled excitedly as the young girl let out a scream. When the boys looked back she was already in Emily’s arms, laughing excitedly. “Oh my gosh! Did you see that? You’re first steps!” She cried loudly, planting a kiss on Cosmo’s forehead.
“Wasn’t that amazing? To think we were all here for that?” Emily grinned, looking over at Brooks and Mike.
“Umm…” Mike began to say, not sure whether or not he should tell Emily that he’d just completely missed it.
“It wasn’t my fault!” Brooks said loudly, glancing back and forth between Mike and Emily. “It was his fault, he was the one that wanted to do the hand shake!”
Emily rolled her eyes and exhaled loudly. “Do you mean to tell me that you idiots just missed her first steps, because of a fist bump?”
“We should go.” Mike interjected quickly, nodding at Brooks before running down the hallway towards his room.
Brooks nodded. “Yah… away game and all that… See ya!” He yelled, moving over to kiss Cosmo on the head before following after Mike.
A few minutes later they were both jogging out the apartment door, leaving Emily and Cosmo on the living room floor.
“Well sweetie… looks like it’s gonna be a girl's night, huh?”
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
13. Neighbourly Concern
“Alright so… did you ask Emily yet about tonight?” Brooks asked, glancing over at Mike who was staring back at him.
“Her price for tonight?” He replied back slowly, unsure as to what they were talking about. When Brooks didn’t say anything Mike looked back at the TV.
Sighing, Brooks got up and crossed the living room floor. He was getting really sick of the snide remarks coming out of Mike. Of course he didn’t bother getting angry at him, 99% of the time Mike didn’t even realize what he was saying anyway.
Instead Brooks headed out into the hallway and turned right, walking until he reached Emily’s apartment.
He knocked on the door and stepped back, waiting for her to answer; which she did, quickly.
She pulled it open and smiled at him, like she had been expecting him. Her smile soon faded though, when she appraised Brooks. “Oh hi… what are you doing here?” She glanced past him, her eyes darting to the stairwell.
“Umm…” Brooks turned and followed her stare, seeing nothing but the empty hallway. He turned back to her and found she was smiling up at him. “I was just wondering if you could watch Cosmo tonight… we have a game.”
“Oh sure. I just have a meeting in a minute but… it shouldn’t take too long… I could be over there in an hour and a half?” She turned the last part into a question, leaving Brooks to nod as he heard footsteps.
There was a man coming up the stairs; a man who was smiling at Emily.
He was wearing a tight brown Abercrombie shirt and a pair of ripped jeans. He was wearing a hat backwards and couldn’t have been more than Brooks’ age. “Holy shit… Brooks Laich!” He commented as he came down the hallway towards them. He extended his hand and Brooks shook it, tightening his grip as much as he could in order to inflict pain on this strange man.
“How are you?” Brooks said through a clenched jaw. But the guy had already turned his attention towards Emily.
“I gotta tell you… I am really looking forward to this.”
“I’m glad!” She said, smiling up at him. “Come on in. I’ll see you in a bit.” She added to Brooks before ushering the guy into her apartment and closing the door.
He stood there, completely at a loss for words – something that was apparently becoming a new habit – staring at her door and wondering what he was suppose to do.
He had the unnatural desire to kick the door down and pulverize the guy, or, go to the landlord and pay off her rent so she wouldn’t have to do this anymore.
No, they were both good ideas but right now the first one was sounding fantastic.
It wasn’t until he could hear Cosmo giggling from the living room that he unclenched his fists and walked away. He was a father now. Whatever Emily wanted to do was her business, but he couldn’t go around getting into fights over it.
If she wanted to be a whore, then that was her problem.
Brooks could hear Emily before he could see her. She was walking down the hallway, giggling with the guy she’d just slept with. He felt himself stiffen as she came to a halt in front of their closed door. She wished him a good night and then walked into their apartment.
Mike waved, completely oblivious to any emotional change Brooks had suffered since he’d gone to see Emily; and Brooks liked it that way.
“Em-me!” Cosmo squealed. She reached up as high as she began to wave her arms around in hopes of drawing Emily’s attention.
“Hi Cosmo!” Emily cooed back, obviously just as excited as the little girl was. She scooped her up and turned to smile at Brooks and Mike. “So what time are you guys leaving for the rink?”
“Now-ish.” Mike answered as he continued to flick through the channels.
“In a bit…” Brooks explained further, studying Emily intently. “How about you and Cosmo come down and watch the game?” He added suddenly, causing Mike to smile at him and Emily to crease her brow.
“I guess so… if you want me to take her to a hockey game… are you sure it won’t be too loud?” Brooks shook his head, knowing he’d been even younger than Cosmo the first time his dad took him to see the Moose Jaw Warriors play; a team he’d eventually play for. There was nothing wrong with bringing your child to a hockey game, especially when you wanted to keep an eye on her.
The thought made him disgusted with himself. He knew the kind of person Emily was, and she wasn’t bad. He didn’t want what she did for a living to change that.
There was just some paternal instinct in him that was forcing him to make sure that his discovery wouldn’t affect his child or the quality of life she had.
“Yah, it’d be nice to you have you both there.” Brooks said absently, not really realizing the emphasis he had placed on ‘both’, until he looked back at Emily to meet her gaze.
“Well this just got awkward.” Mike sighed, pushing himself off the couch, taking Cosmo out of Emily’s hands, and heading down the hall. “Come on Cosmo, let’s leave Edward Lewis and Vivian alone for a bit.” Mike said, as he carried Cosmo into her room.
“Edward who?” Brooks asked, turning around to look at Emily, hoping she had some kind of answer.
She stared quizzically after Mike, but answered Brooks. “Edward Lewis… that’s Richard Gere’s character in Pretty Woman.”
“Oh…” Brooks exhaled, his voice higher than usual. “Well… we should go.” He had seen that movie a million times with his mom, and if Emily had actually seen Pretty Woman - which she obviously had - then she could probably pick up on the fact that Mike had just called her a prostitute.
“Finally fucking the neighbour then?” Ovechkin shouted as he came up behind Brooks, who was standing in the walkway, waiting to be told to go on the ice. He turned around to stare at the laughing Russian. “I saw her up in the family and friends section with the rug-rat.” He added, explaining how he had discovered her presence.
Brooks didn't bother to say anything else to Alex. One, he didn't like the guy so he didn't feel like he owed him any kind of explanation, and two, he didn’t really want to discuss anything that had to do with Emily and sex.
It didn’t even matter though, before he even turned around Boudreau was yelling at them to get going.
Brooks lifted up his feet and hustled towards the ice, jumping onto the slick surface and propelling himself away from Alex as fast as possible. Mike followed after him, and together they climbed into the team’s bench. “Everything… ok?”
“Fine, Mike.” Brooks replied shortly. He didn’t like being angry at Mike, but he was. None of this was his fault, but the idea of another guy shoving himself into Emily made him sick… in a concerned-neighbour way, of course. He couldn’t even think about it anymore, but he did still find himself turning around to see where she was.
She was pretty easy to spot. In her non-team coloured clothing and the fact that she had a baby jumping on her lap, she stuck out like a soar thumb. She saw that he was looking at her and used Cosmo’s hand to wave to him; he could see her mouthing things like ‘look there’s daddy’, and ‘say hi to daddy’.
He lifted his hand to acknowledge them both, feeling uncomfortable with the appropriateness of this situation. Isn’t this what the wives of his team-mates did with their kids? Brought them to games and acted like the proud parents there were?
Of course they weren’t like that. Emily wasn’t like that. People like her didn’t get married and have children.
But still, it felt like he was watching his own wife entertain his child; and for a minute, he allowed himself to believe it.
“She’s got nice tits!” Semin yelled as he squeezed in between Mike and Brooks; ruining the moment of make-believe and pulling Brooks into reality. Brooks didn’t even bother to take offence at the fact that Semin was commenting on Emily’s body.
In some weird foreigner way, he was probably telling Brooks that she looked like a nice respectable woman.
“Umm… sure.” He finally answered, taking one last glance at his daughter and his neighbour before he turned his attention to the start of the game.
Brooks wasn’t sure how he knew it was happening, but it was almost like some kind of gut instinct. He knew that someone was talking to her before he had even turned his head to seek her out through the crowd.
Cosmo was playing with what appeared to be a plastic straw; chewing on it and then waving it around her head. Yet it was Emily he focused in on, or, more so the man that was sitting on the stairs beside her.
The guy was young and obviously flirting with her. Brooks could feel himself heat up and he skated towards the glass, bumping Backstrom out of his spot so that he could keep a closer watch. “That your whore up there?” Someone chirped at him.
Brooks snapped his head around to see Carcillo standing beside him, and he lost it.
Whether it was the fact that he hated the Flyers, or the fact that Carcillo had actually called Emily a whore, he didn’t know… it didn’t matter.
Before he could make sense of what he was doing, his gloves were off and he was punching the smug grin off his opponents face.
Carcillo got a few punches in before he gave up and tried to turtle, but Brooks just went down with him; his arm aching from the force of the blows he was inflicting.
The linesman pulled him off and Carcillo stayed on the ground; injured but not as injured as he was letting on.
“Oh god! He just attacked me for no reason, I didn’t even say anything… I might be blind! He blinded me! We get a penalty right? We should get a penalty for that! Five minutes for blinding!”
“Shut the fuck up Carcillo.” The ref spat as he pulled the flailing Flyer onto his feet. “You!” He barked, pointing his thumb at Brooks. “Maybe you need to cool off hot-rod, take it to the showers.”
Brooks didn’t bother arguing, there was only two minutes remaining in the game and he just wanted to get the fuck off the ice. He glanced over at Emily and Cosmo as he let.
Emily was looking floored and worried, completely ignoring the guy beside her. That made Brooks sort of happy, at least she was watching the game now; however, those feelings were short lived when he looked down on her lap to see his daughter in tears.
She was reaching out to him as she sobbed ‘dada’, and he cringed, motioning for Emily to follow him as he skated off the ice.
He didn’t bother showering, and only stopped long enough to kick off his skates and remove the top half of his gear.
He headed down the back hallway in his Underarmour, hockey shorts and shin pads. “Are you ok?” Emily blurted as soon as he came into sight, Cosmo fighting against her arms to get to Brooks.
“Yah, yah… I’m fine.” He cooed, more to Cosmo than to her. He scooped his daughter up in his arms and held her close. “It’s ok baby, daddy’s fine, see? Just a boo-boo.”
He held her at arms length and saw a slow two-tooth grin spread across her face. “That’s my girl.”
Emily exhaled lightly and Brooks drew his attention back over to her. “Sorry if I interrupted you conversation.” He said, unable to keep all the bitterness out of his tone.
But she waved away his words, not noticing any anger in them.
“Just my cousin Craig, no biggie… I see him all the time anyway.” She explained, biting her lip as she turned her concerned eyes to Cosmo.
“Oh.” Was all Brooks could say dumbly as he glanced back and forth between the two women in his life, unsure as to whom he owed the bigger apology.
“Her price for tonight?” He replied back slowly, unsure as to what they were talking about. When Brooks didn’t say anything Mike looked back at the TV.
Sighing, Brooks got up and crossed the living room floor. He was getting really sick of the snide remarks coming out of Mike. Of course he didn’t bother getting angry at him, 99% of the time Mike didn’t even realize what he was saying anyway.
Instead Brooks headed out into the hallway and turned right, walking until he reached Emily’s apartment.
He knocked on the door and stepped back, waiting for her to answer; which she did, quickly.
She pulled it open and smiled at him, like she had been expecting him. Her smile soon faded though, when she appraised Brooks. “Oh hi… what are you doing here?” She glanced past him, her eyes darting to the stairwell.
“Umm…” Brooks turned and followed her stare, seeing nothing but the empty hallway. He turned back to her and found she was smiling up at him. “I was just wondering if you could watch Cosmo tonight… we have a game.”
“Oh sure. I just have a meeting in a minute but… it shouldn’t take too long… I could be over there in an hour and a half?” She turned the last part into a question, leaving Brooks to nod as he heard footsteps.
There was a man coming up the stairs; a man who was smiling at Emily.
He was wearing a tight brown Abercrombie shirt and a pair of ripped jeans. He was wearing a hat backwards and couldn’t have been more than Brooks’ age. “Holy shit… Brooks Laich!” He commented as he came down the hallway towards them. He extended his hand and Brooks shook it, tightening his grip as much as he could in order to inflict pain on this strange man.
“How are you?” Brooks said through a clenched jaw. But the guy had already turned his attention towards Emily.
“I gotta tell you… I am really looking forward to this.”
“I’m glad!” She said, smiling up at him. “Come on in. I’ll see you in a bit.” She added to Brooks before ushering the guy into her apartment and closing the door.
He stood there, completely at a loss for words – something that was apparently becoming a new habit – staring at her door and wondering what he was suppose to do.
He had the unnatural desire to kick the door down and pulverize the guy, or, go to the landlord and pay off her rent so she wouldn’t have to do this anymore.
No, they were both good ideas but right now the first one was sounding fantastic.
It wasn’t until he could hear Cosmo giggling from the living room that he unclenched his fists and walked away. He was a father now. Whatever Emily wanted to do was her business, but he couldn’t go around getting into fights over it.
If she wanted to be a whore, then that was her problem.
Brooks could hear Emily before he could see her. She was walking down the hallway, giggling with the guy she’d just slept with. He felt himself stiffen as she came to a halt in front of their closed door. She wished him a good night and then walked into their apartment.
Mike waved, completely oblivious to any emotional change Brooks had suffered since he’d gone to see Emily; and Brooks liked it that way.
“Em-me!” Cosmo squealed. She reached up as high as she began to wave her arms around in hopes of drawing Emily’s attention.
“Hi Cosmo!” Emily cooed back, obviously just as excited as the little girl was. She scooped her up and turned to smile at Brooks and Mike. “So what time are you guys leaving for the rink?”
“Now-ish.” Mike answered as he continued to flick through the channels.
“In a bit…” Brooks explained further, studying Emily intently. “How about you and Cosmo come down and watch the game?” He added suddenly, causing Mike to smile at him and Emily to crease her brow.
“I guess so… if you want me to take her to a hockey game… are you sure it won’t be too loud?” Brooks shook his head, knowing he’d been even younger than Cosmo the first time his dad took him to see the Moose Jaw Warriors play; a team he’d eventually play for. There was nothing wrong with bringing your child to a hockey game, especially when you wanted to keep an eye on her.
The thought made him disgusted with himself. He knew the kind of person Emily was, and she wasn’t bad. He didn’t want what she did for a living to change that.
There was just some paternal instinct in him that was forcing him to make sure that his discovery wouldn’t affect his child or the quality of life she had.
“Yah, it’d be nice to you have you both there.” Brooks said absently, not really realizing the emphasis he had placed on ‘both’, until he looked back at Emily to meet her gaze.
“Well this just got awkward.” Mike sighed, pushing himself off the couch, taking Cosmo out of Emily’s hands, and heading down the hall. “Come on Cosmo, let’s leave Edward Lewis and Vivian alone for a bit.” Mike said, as he carried Cosmo into her room.
“Edward who?” Brooks asked, turning around to look at Emily, hoping she had some kind of answer.
She stared quizzically after Mike, but answered Brooks. “Edward Lewis… that’s Richard Gere’s character in Pretty Woman.”
“Oh…” Brooks exhaled, his voice higher than usual. “Well… we should go.” He had seen that movie a million times with his mom, and if Emily had actually seen Pretty Woman - which she obviously had - then she could probably pick up on the fact that Mike had just called her a prostitute.
“Finally fucking the neighbour then?” Ovechkin shouted as he came up behind Brooks, who was standing in the walkway, waiting to be told to go on the ice. He turned around to stare at the laughing Russian. “I saw her up in the family and friends section with the rug-rat.” He added, explaining how he had discovered her presence.
Brooks didn't bother to say anything else to Alex. One, he didn't like the guy so he didn't feel like he owed him any kind of explanation, and two, he didn’t really want to discuss anything that had to do with Emily and sex.
It didn’t even matter though, before he even turned around Boudreau was yelling at them to get going.
Brooks lifted up his feet and hustled towards the ice, jumping onto the slick surface and propelling himself away from Alex as fast as possible. Mike followed after him, and together they climbed into the team’s bench. “Everything… ok?”
“Fine, Mike.” Brooks replied shortly. He didn’t like being angry at Mike, but he was. None of this was his fault, but the idea of another guy shoving himself into Emily made him sick… in a concerned-neighbour way, of course. He couldn’t even think about it anymore, but he did still find himself turning around to see where she was.
She was pretty easy to spot. In her non-team coloured clothing and the fact that she had a baby jumping on her lap, she stuck out like a soar thumb. She saw that he was looking at her and used Cosmo’s hand to wave to him; he could see her mouthing things like ‘look there’s daddy’, and ‘say hi to daddy’.
He lifted his hand to acknowledge them both, feeling uncomfortable with the appropriateness of this situation. Isn’t this what the wives of his team-mates did with their kids? Brought them to games and acted like the proud parents there were?
Of course they weren’t like that. Emily wasn’t like that. People like her didn’t get married and have children.
But still, it felt like he was watching his own wife entertain his child; and for a minute, he allowed himself to believe it.
“She’s got nice tits!” Semin yelled as he squeezed in between Mike and Brooks; ruining the moment of make-believe and pulling Brooks into reality. Brooks didn’t even bother to take offence at the fact that Semin was commenting on Emily’s body.
In some weird foreigner way, he was probably telling Brooks that she looked like a nice respectable woman.
“Umm… sure.” He finally answered, taking one last glance at his daughter and his neighbour before he turned his attention to the start of the game.
Brooks wasn’t sure how he knew it was happening, but it was almost like some kind of gut instinct. He knew that someone was talking to her before he had even turned his head to seek her out through the crowd.
Cosmo was playing with what appeared to be a plastic straw; chewing on it and then waving it around her head. Yet it was Emily he focused in on, or, more so the man that was sitting on the stairs beside her.
The guy was young and obviously flirting with her. Brooks could feel himself heat up and he skated towards the glass, bumping Backstrom out of his spot so that he could keep a closer watch. “That your whore up there?” Someone chirped at him.
Brooks snapped his head around to see Carcillo standing beside him, and he lost it.
Whether it was the fact that he hated the Flyers, or the fact that Carcillo had actually called Emily a whore, he didn’t know… it didn’t matter.
Before he could make sense of what he was doing, his gloves were off and he was punching the smug grin off his opponents face.
Carcillo got a few punches in before he gave up and tried to turtle, but Brooks just went down with him; his arm aching from the force of the blows he was inflicting.
The linesman pulled him off and Carcillo stayed on the ground; injured but not as injured as he was letting on.
“Oh god! He just attacked me for no reason, I didn’t even say anything… I might be blind! He blinded me! We get a penalty right? We should get a penalty for that! Five minutes for blinding!”
“Shut the fuck up Carcillo.” The ref spat as he pulled the flailing Flyer onto his feet. “You!” He barked, pointing his thumb at Brooks. “Maybe you need to cool off hot-rod, take it to the showers.”
Brooks didn’t bother arguing, there was only two minutes remaining in the game and he just wanted to get the fuck off the ice. He glanced over at Emily and Cosmo as he let.
Emily was looking floored and worried, completely ignoring the guy beside her. That made Brooks sort of happy, at least she was watching the game now; however, those feelings were short lived when he looked down on her lap to see his daughter in tears.
She was reaching out to him as she sobbed ‘dada’, and he cringed, motioning for Emily to follow him as he skated off the ice.
He didn’t bother showering, and only stopped long enough to kick off his skates and remove the top half of his gear.
He headed down the back hallway in his Underarmour, hockey shorts and shin pads. “Are you ok?” Emily blurted as soon as he came into sight, Cosmo fighting against her arms to get to Brooks.
“Yah, yah… I’m fine.” He cooed, more to Cosmo than to her. He scooped his daughter up in his arms and held her close. “It’s ok baby, daddy’s fine, see? Just a boo-boo.”
He held her at arms length and saw a slow two-tooth grin spread across her face. “That’s my girl.”
Emily exhaled lightly and Brooks drew his attention back over to her. “Sorry if I interrupted you conversation.” He said, unable to keep all the bitterness out of his tone.
But she waved away his words, not noticing any anger in them.
“Just my cousin Craig, no biggie… I see him all the time anyway.” She explained, biting her lip as she turned her concerned eyes to Cosmo.
“Oh.” Was all Brooks could say dumbly as he glanced back and forth between the two women in his life, unsure as to whom he owed the bigger apology.
Hidden Story
Hey all!
So I have a story that's about 6 updates long... it's not that exciting or anything that I was going to share with the blogging world, but I figured, why not?
Basically, it's a Mario Lemieux story and it's all smut. The story line is basically sex lol.
I'm not opening it up on here just because of the content and I don't want ppl to attack me for it, so if you're interested in reading it... send me an e-mail (future.mrs.kane@hotmail.com) and I'll invite you to it.
It's not something that's going to be updated on a regular basis, but if you're interested in something else to read... it's there.
I'm also finishing my Max Talbot short story (only a handful of updates left), as I'm working on HM so if you wanna read that... you can it's located here.
So I have a story that's about 6 updates long... it's not that exciting or anything that I was going to share with the blogging world, but I figured, why not?
Basically, it's a Mario Lemieux story and it's all smut. The story line is basically sex lol.
I'm not opening it up on here just because of the content and I don't want ppl to attack me for it, so if you're interested in reading it... send me an e-mail (future.mrs.kane@hotmail.com) and I'll invite you to it.
It's not something that's going to be updated on a regular basis, but if you're interested in something else to read... it's there.
I'm also finishing my Max Talbot short story (only a handful of updates left), as I'm working on HM so if you wanna read that... you can it's located here.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
12. Shut up, Mike
Brooks didn’t sleep much that night. Between his impromptu spring cleaning and Cosmo waking up several times; he was exhausted by the time everyone else was getting up for the day.
He tried not to let it show, after all, he didn’t want to ruin his mother’s visit and anything could do that, given the pounding headache he could hear her complaining about. So, keeping his own complaints to a minimum, he headed into the kitchen to say ‘good morning’.
“Hey everyone…” He said as he rounded the corner, trying not to laugh when he got sight of Mike in an old Redskins ball cap. It was obvious he was trying to draw any unwanted attention away from his hair, but he still looked like a tool.
Emily was there too, already dressed in a white shirt and cream-coloured cardigan. Her dark hair was pulled back off her face, into its customary bun, like always. The only difference was the fitted – semi short - denim skirt she was wearing. Brooks had never actually seen her wear anything besides dress pants and those long black skirts that porn stars wore in movies; when they were suppose to pass as naughty teachers.
Either way, her legs were long, smooth and tanned. Oddly enough, he could almost picture what they’d feel like wrapped around his neck…
Trying to shake away the thought, he pulled his eyes away from her legs to see that she was smiling at him, seemingly pleased about something. He didn’t have a lot of time to think about it though, as his mother was already trying to get his attention. “Oy vey! Let me tell you… I think I ate some bad Gebratens last night. Never have I been so sick-“
“Mom, you drank like four bottles of sherry…” Brooks began to protest, but his mother swatted his words away, carelessly, with a hand.
“Your poor mother… I brought you into this world, gave you life, sacrificed my body to make sure you’d be born healthy… and this is all I get, criticism. Do you hear me Janet, my son is criticizing me?” Brooks rolled his eyes and turned to stare at Mike, who was pointedly paying close attention to the Lucky Charms he was eating.
“So, what did you guys want to do today? I have the day off so… I could take you shopping if you’d like.” Emily interjected quickly. Brooks sighed in relief, there was no way his mother would turn down shopping.
“Well I guess since we got all the baby-proofing done, there’s no reason why we couldn’t go… I haven’t been shopping in ages!” Janet said mournfully, as if that was the worse thing anyone could ever go through.
Mike kept his head low, trying to stop eye-contact, as the women all turned to him.
“I actually need Mike’s help with some things so… if you ladies wouldn’t mind maybe… leaving him here.” Brooks said, answering Mike’s grateful smile with a nod.
“Alright!” Esther said quickly, pushing her chair back from the table and standing up. “We better get going; we’ve got lots of things to pick up.”
Brooks cringed softly as they all got up from the table and began searching for their purses. He could only imagine what they’d come back with…
It wasn’t even that he had a problem with his mom spending his money, not at all. In fact, he was glad that she did… he certainly didn’t have a need for all of it. He was more afraid of what she’d end up getting for him.
His mother had a very odd sense of necessities and decoration; which usually resulted in a cornucopia of useless things pilled in his closet. Things he didn’t need… things he would never buy for himself.
All he could do was glance over at Emily and eye her suspiciously; careful to keep his eyes actually focused on her face and not anywhere like, well, her legs.
How was it possible that she had Wednesday off? Why was she always off? She obviously worked because she’d told him that she did, and she had to afford this place somehow.
She’d mentioned to him once before that her parents didn’t have a lot of money, so she had had to work her own way through college. That obviously meant that she wasn’t living here on daddy’s dime. Brooks decided to press the matter as his mother and Janet got ready. “So… not working today?” He asked, trying to sound casual; out of the corner of his eye he could see Mike perk up, his interest peeked.
“Nope, not till tomorrow night.” She said with a nonchalant shrug. “I don’t work days usually… and if I do, I can usually get it done in my apartment.”
“Oh… I see. And ’it’ being…?”
“My job.”
Brooks opened his mouth to say something else but Mike beat him to it. “Touché.” He grinned, earning a snort of amusement from Emily.
Before Brooks could regain his train of thought, she was standing up and walking towards the front door.
“Brooks, maybe you should come with us… get some nice highlights in your hair-“ Esther said, coming towards him. She grabbed onto the short pieces of hair and started tugging on them. He swatted her away.
“Come on mom! Enough with the hair… and you know I don’t like it long… I only do that for the playoffs. I keep it short. It’s easier to manage this way.” Brooks explained, for what felt like the millionth time.
“It looks so much better long… you look like one of those neo-Nazis when it’s like this- doesn’t he look good with long hair, Emily? Girls like long hair now-a-days, right?”
“Of course, women love a guy with a full head of hair, gives them something to run their fingers through…”
Esther nodded, as if that comment settled the whole thing; but Brooks was too flabbergasted by Emily’s comment to even register what his mom was doing. It might not have been overtly sexual comment, but it was the closet thing to one, he’d ever heard her say.
“See you guys later.” Emily grinned, looking over her shoulder as Janet and Esther followed her out the door.
It closed behind them, leaving the two boys alone.
Brooks stood there, running a hand through his shortly cropped strands, as Mike chewed a few more spoonfuls thoughtfully.
When he was done he stood up and dropped his bowl into the sink, before turning around to appraise Brooks. “So… not cutting your hair ever again?”
“Shut up, Mike.”
Brooks waved goodbye to his mom as she and Janet pulled out of the parking lot in their rental car. He shifted Cosmo’s weight on his hip, in order to get a better grip on her.
Mike was beside him, sniffling as his watched them leave; he was a momma’s boy through and through. “It’s gonna be ok Mike… you’ll see her at Christmas.” Brooks sighed, throwing an arm around his shoulders.
“It’s… I mean, whatever… it’s not like I care.” He grunted, trying to pretend that he didn’t care. Brooks didn’t bother arguing, he simply turned Mike around and led him back inside as Cosmo squealed excitedly.
Brooks put her down on the floor once they were back in their apartment, and she took off at full tilt. Her destination was the pile of toys that now took over one quarter of the room; his mother had spared no expense at Toys R’ Us, a few days before when she was shopping with Emily and Janet.
Shaking his head, Brooks watched her go, crawling faster then he thought possible.
“So, what do you want for supper?” Mike said, clearing his throat.
Brooks shrugged. “I don’t know… what is there?”
Mike went into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge, it was empty. He checked the freezer next, and threw a celebratory fist bump into the air when he saw what was inside. “Wicked! Brooks! They made us dinner for like… three weeks!” He yelled excitedly, motioning to Brooks.
Brooks moved in beside Mike and smiled to himself as he saw just how crammed-full their freezer was.
“Well, looks like spaghetti…” Brooks smiled, pulling out two zip-lock containers, setting them on the counter to unthaw.
Mike went to the cupboard to get some bowls out, but was unable to. “What in the fuck…?” He said to himself, tugging on the cupboard harder. “Brooks, I can’t get this to open…”
Heading towards him, Brooks shooed his hand away and grabbed onto the handle himself. He tugged a few times, but it still wouldn’t open. “Oh shit… the baby-proof locks…” He groaned loudly.
“Great! Before we couldn’t wash the dishes… now we can’t even use them!”
“Calm down, Mike, there has to be some way to open them…” Brooks sighed, trying to push one of his thick fingers into the small opening.
It was too big though, and he gave up, shrugging to himself as he grabbed the zip-lock containers and chucked them in the microwave. “Looks like we’re eating out of the tubs tonight.”
Mike exhaled loudly and headed into the living room to see Cosmo.
“Hey Mike,” Brooks called after him, trying to sound casual, “what do you think Emily does for a living?”
“I don’t know… she didn’t say, did she?” He called back, adding a hint of sarcasm in his tone.
“Yah but I mean…she only works nights… or in her apartment… and she makes enough money to live here…” He chewed on his lip as he punched ‘three minutes’ into the microwave. “Works at night and makes a lot of money…” He muttered to himself as he waited for the buzzer to go off.
“You don’t think- nah…” He began, turning around to face Mike, who was looking at him expectantly. “You don’t think she’s like… a prostitute or something?”
Mike laughed. “Yah right, who’d want to pay to have sex with Emily! She’s like not h-… actually… she is pretty hot…” He mused, his facial expression changing from amusement, to deep thought, to shock. “Holy shit!”
“No… no. I was just, no…” Brooks muttered, turning back around and hitting the ‘stop’ button before the annoying dinger sounded. “I mean… no… no.”
“Well, I’d fuck her.” Mike added, as if that settled the whole thing.
“No… she’s not…” Brooks held up his hands and moved them in front of him, as if trying to chase the thought away. “I mean… she’s so…” he moved his hands rigidly, up and down, trying to explain her personality in a single action. “But… she’s like…” his hands began to take on a different motion, one that explained the anatomy of a woman. The shape, the curves… the way her legs were toned and- “holy shit.”
“Well… you know what we have to do now don’t you?”
“What?” Brooks asked, his voice almost airy as his eyes focused far away, on nothing at all.
“We’re gonna have to pay her for sex!” Mike said, like it was such a simple solution.
Brooks spun around, shock on his face. “What?!” He yelled loudly, glaring at Mike.
“Well… we can’t let this go to waste… we live next door to a night walker… hey! That gives me an idea! I know how to figure out if she’s a prostitute!”
Brooks held out his arms, imploring Mike to continue. “Ok so… we put a red light in front of the door and play that ‘Roxanne’ song… if she comes… then she’s a prostitute.”
“You. Are. An. Idiot.” Brooks hissed, breaking up each word so that it would get his point across more effectively. “We’re blowing this out of proportion, she’s not a prostitute… it’s just… it’s been a long day. Forget I said anything.”
“Rooooooxanne! You don’t have to put on that red dress tonight! Rooooooxanne!-“
“Shut UP!” Brooks yelled, his tone and volume causing Cosmo to whimper. “Oh shit… I’m sorry Cosmo…” He sighed, moving into the living room and scooping her up. “Daddy didn’t mean to scare you, ok?” He began to move around the room slowly, lulling her into a sense of security once more. “Mike,” he started, calmly this time. “we’re just being stupid… she’s not a prostitute so, just please forget I brought it up.”
“Knock, knock.” Emily called, pushing the door open and glancing at the two boys. “Sorry… the door was open and I heard yelling, is everything ok?”
Mike stood up and cleared his throat, turning around and walking off down the hall. “Umm… yah, Mike and I were just having a disagreement…”
Brooks turned around and looked down the hall at Mike who was now mouthing ‘she heard the song’, and pointing around him at Emily. “Anyway, you want to come in for a bit?”
“Oh no thanks, I just got a call and I have to run and meet a client. No rest for the weary, right?” She smiled, waving goodbye to Cosmo and closing the door behind her.
“She said client!” Mike called in a loud whisper from the shadows of the hallways.
“I know Mike.”
“That’s what prostitutes call their-“
“Shut up, Mike!”
He tried not to let it show, after all, he didn’t want to ruin his mother’s visit and anything could do that, given the pounding headache he could hear her complaining about. So, keeping his own complaints to a minimum, he headed into the kitchen to say ‘good morning’.
“Hey everyone…” He said as he rounded the corner, trying not to laugh when he got sight of Mike in an old Redskins ball cap. It was obvious he was trying to draw any unwanted attention away from his hair, but he still looked like a tool.
Emily was there too, already dressed in a white shirt and cream-coloured cardigan. Her dark hair was pulled back off her face, into its customary bun, like always. The only difference was the fitted – semi short - denim skirt she was wearing. Brooks had never actually seen her wear anything besides dress pants and those long black skirts that porn stars wore in movies; when they were suppose to pass as naughty teachers.
Either way, her legs were long, smooth and tanned. Oddly enough, he could almost picture what they’d feel like wrapped around his neck…
Trying to shake away the thought, he pulled his eyes away from her legs to see that she was smiling at him, seemingly pleased about something. He didn’t have a lot of time to think about it though, as his mother was already trying to get his attention. “Oy vey! Let me tell you… I think I ate some bad Gebratens last night. Never have I been so sick-“
“Mom, you drank like four bottles of sherry…” Brooks began to protest, but his mother swatted his words away, carelessly, with a hand.
“Your poor mother… I brought you into this world, gave you life, sacrificed my body to make sure you’d be born healthy… and this is all I get, criticism. Do you hear me Janet, my son is criticizing me?” Brooks rolled his eyes and turned to stare at Mike, who was pointedly paying close attention to the Lucky Charms he was eating.
“So, what did you guys want to do today? I have the day off so… I could take you shopping if you’d like.” Emily interjected quickly. Brooks sighed in relief, there was no way his mother would turn down shopping.
“Well I guess since we got all the baby-proofing done, there’s no reason why we couldn’t go… I haven’t been shopping in ages!” Janet said mournfully, as if that was the worse thing anyone could ever go through.
Mike kept his head low, trying to stop eye-contact, as the women all turned to him.
“I actually need Mike’s help with some things so… if you ladies wouldn’t mind maybe… leaving him here.” Brooks said, answering Mike’s grateful smile with a nod.
“Alright!” Esther said quickly, pushing her chair back from the table and standing up. “We better get going; we’ve got lots of things to pick up.”
Brooks cringed softly as they all got up from the table and began searching for their purses. He could only imagine what they’d come back with…
It wasn’t even that he had a problem with his mom spending his money, not at all. In fact, he was glad that she did… he certainly didn’t have a need for all of it. He was more afraid of what she’d end up getting for him.
His mother had a very odd sense of necessities and decoration; which usually resulted in a cornucopia of useless things pilled in his closet. Things he didn’t need… things he would never buy for himself.
All he could do was glance over at Emily and eye her suspiciously; careful to keep his eyes actually focused on her face and not anywhere like, well, her legs.
How was it possible that she had Wednesday off? Why was she always off? She obviously worked because she’d told him that she did, and she had to afford this place somehow.
She’d mentioned to him once before that her parents didn’t have a lot of money, so she had had to work her own way through college. That obviously meant that she wasn’t living here on daddy’s dime. Brooks decided to press the matter as his mother and Janet got ready. “So… not working today?” He asked, trying to sound casual; out of the corner of his eye he could see Mike perk up, his interest peeked.
“Nope, not till tomorrow night.” She said with a nonchalant shrug. “I don’t work days usually… and if I do, I can usually get it done in my apartment.”
“Oh… I see. And ’it’ being…?”
“My job.”
Brooks opened his mouth to say something else but Mike beat him to it. “Touché.” He grinned, earning a snort of amusement from Emily.
Before Brooks could regain his train of thought, she was standing up and walking towards the front door.
“Brooks, maybe you should come with us… get some nice highlights in your hair-“ Esther said, coming towards him. She grabbed onto the short pieces of hair and started tugging on them. He swatted her away.
“Come on mom! Enough with the hair… and you know I don’t like it long… I only do that for the playoffs. I keep it short. It’s easier to manage this way.” Brooks explained, for what felt like the millionth time.
“It looks so much better long… you look like one of those neo-Nazis when it’s like this- doesn’t he look good with long hair, Emily? Girls like long hair now-a-days, right?”
“Of course, women love a guy with a full head of hair, gives them something to run their fingers through…”
Esther nodded, as if that comment settled the whole thing; but Brooks was too flabbergasted by Emily’s comment to even register what his mom was doing. It might not have been overtly sexual comment, but it was the closet thing to one, he’d ever heard her say.
“See you guys later.” Emily grinned, looking over her shoulder as Janet and Esther followed her out the door.
It closed behind them, leaving the two boys alone.
Brooks stood there, running a hand through his shortly cropped strands, as Mike chewed a few more spoonfuls thoughtfully.
When he was done he stood up and dropped his bowl into the sink, before turning around to appraise Brooks. “So… not cutting your hair ever again?”
“Shut up, Mike.”
Brooks waved goodbye to his mom as she and Janet pulled out of the parking lot in their rental car. He shifted Cosmo’s weight on his hip, in order to get a better grip on her.
Mike was beside him, sniffling as his watched them leave; he was a momma’s boy through and through. “It’s gonna be ok Mike… you’ll see her at Christmas.” Brooks sighed, throwing an arm around his shoulders.
“It’s… I mean, whatever… it’s not like I care.” He grunted, trying to pretend that he didn’t care. Brooks didn’t bother arguing, he simply turned Mike around and led him back inside as Cosmo squealed excitedly.
Brooks put her down on the floor once they were back in their apartment, and she took off at full tilt. Her destination was the pile of toys that now took over one quarter of the room; his mother had spared no expense at Toys R’ Us, a few days before when she was shopping with Emily and Janet.
Shaking his head, Brooks watched her go, crawling faster then he thought possible.
“So, what do you want for supper?” Mike said, clearing his throat.
Brooks shrugged. “I don’t know… what is there?”
Mike went into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge, it was empty. He checked the freezer next, and threw a celebratory fist bump into the air when he saw what was inside. “Wicked! Brooks! They made us dinner for like… three weeks!” He yelled excitedly, motioning to Brooks.
Brooks moved in beside Mike and smiled to himself as he saw just how crammed-full their freezer was.
“Well, looks like spaghetti…” Brooks smiled, pulling out two zip-lock containers, setting them on the counter to unthaw.
Mike went to the cupboard to get some bowls out, but was unable to. “What in the fuck…?” He said to himself, tugging on the cupboard harder. “Brooks, I can’t get this to open…”
Heading towards him, Brooks shooed his hand away and grabbed onto the handle himself. He tugged a few times, but it still wouldn’t open. “Oh shit… the baby-proof locks…” He groaned loudly.
“Great! Before we couldn’t wash the dishes… now we can’t even use them!”
“Calm down, Mike, there has to be some way to open them…” Brooks sighed, trying to push one of his thick fingers into the small opening.
It was too big though, and he gave up, shrugging to himself as he grabbed the zip-lock containers and chucked them in the microwave. “Looks like we’re eating out of the tubs tonight.”
Mike exhaled loudly and headed into the living room to see Cosmo.
“Hey Mike,” Brooks called after him, trying to sound casual, “what do you think Emily does for a living?”
“I don’t know… she didn’t say, did she?” He called back, adding a hint of sarcasm in his tone.
“Yah but I mean…she only works nights… or in her apartment… and she makes enough money to live here…” He chewed on his lip as he punched ‘three minutes’ into the microwave. “Works at night and makes a lot of money…” He muttered to himself as he waited for the buzzer to go off.
“You don’t think- nah…” He began, turning around to face Mike, who was looking at him expectantly. “You don’t think she’s like… a prostitute or something?”
Mike laughed. “Yah right, who’d want to pay to have sex with Emily! She’s like not h-… actually… she is pretty hot…” He mused, his facial expression changing from amusement, to deep thought, to shock. “Holy shit!”
“No… no. I was just, no…” Brooks muttered, turning back around and hitting the ‘stop’ button before the annoying dinger sounded. “I mean… no… no.”
“Well, I’d fuck her.” Mike added, as if that settled the whole thing.
“No… she’s not…” Brooks held up his hands and moved them in front of him, as if trying to chase the thought away. “I mean… she’s so…” he moved his hands rigidly, up and down, trying to explain her personality in a single action. “But… she’s like…” his hands began to take on a different motion, one that explained the anatomy of a woman. The shape, the curves… the way her legs were toned and- “holy shit.”
“Well… you know what we have to do now don’t you?”
“What?” Brooks asked, his voice almost airy as his eyes focused far away, on nothing at all.
“We’re gonna have to pay her for sex!” Mike said, like it was such a simple solution.
Brooks spun around, shock on his face. “What?!” He yelled loudly, glaring at Mike.
“Well… we can’t let this go to waste… we live next door to a night walker… hey! That gives me an idea! I know how to figure out if she’s a prostitute!”
Brooks held out his arms, imploring Mike to continue. “Ok so… we put a red light in front of the door and play that ‘Roxanne’ song… if she comes… then she’s a prostitute.”
“You. Are. An. Idiot.” Brooks hissed, breaking up each word so that it would get his point across more effectively. “We’re blowing this out of proportion, she’s not a prostitute… it’s just… it’s been a long day. Forget I said anything.”
“Rooooooxanne! You don’t have to put on that red dress tonight! Rooooooxanne!-“
“Shut UP!” Brooks yelled, his tone and volume causing Cosmo to whimper. “Oh shit… I’m sorry Cosmo…” He sighed, moving into the living room and scooping her up. “Daddy didn’t mean to scare you, ok?” He began to move around the room slowly, lulling her into a sense of security once more. “Mike,” he started, calmly this time. “we’re just being stupid… she’s not a prostitute so, just please forget I brought it up.”
“Knock, knock.” Emily called, pushing the door open and glancing at the two boys. “Sorry… the door was open and I heard yelling, is everything ok?”
Mike stood up and cleared his throat, turning around and walking off down the hall. “Umm… yah, Mike and I were just having a disagreement…”
Brooks turned around and looked down the hall at Mike who was now mouthing ‘she heard the song’, and pointing around him at Emily. “Anyway, you want to come in for a bit?”
“Oh no thanks, I just got a call and I have to run and meet a client. No rest for the weary, right?” She smiled, waving goodbye to Cosmo and closing the door behind her.
“She said client!” Mike called in a loud whisper from the shadows of the hallways.
“I know Mike.”
“That’s what prostitutes call their-“
“Shut up, Mike!”
Monday, May 17, 2010
11. Mommy Knows Best, Part I
I love each and every one of you… but I have to give a special shout out to Jay… for keeping me on track and being able to see inside my brain when I can’t find my way around the damn thing =)
Brooks was excited to be home. He was happy to be away from Boudreau, happy to be back in his own space; and a tiny little part of him, somewhere deep, deep down, was happy to see Emily again.
When he pulled up out front of the apartment building, he could hardly contain his eagerness to get up the stairs and crash onto the couch, and chuck his suitcase somewhere out of sit. At least until the next road trip.
It was lucky for him that Mike also felt the same way about being home, so he didn’t question Brooks as they jogged up the stairs together.
He did however give Brooks an know-it-all grin, as they rounded the last set of stairs and Brooks came to a complete halt.
Emily was standing in the hall with Brooks’ Xbox in her hands, as she tried to juggling a pair of controllers and a few games on top of it. Brooks didn’t know why his heart was palpating so badly; he assumed it was the thought of losing Fable 2 to a girl that looked like she was about to drop. “Umm… what are you doing?
Emily gave them a sheepish grin before she nodded back towards their apartment door; which was wide open. “Watching Janet and Esther rip through your living room.” She giggled, before turning around and heading towards her apartment.
Brooks and Mike watched her disappear through the door, before returning a moment later, empty handed.
“Where did you-? Why-?” Brooks sputtered before he finished his ascent of the stairs and jogged into his apartment. “Mom?” He asked in disbelief as he saw his bother holding a glass of sherry; her free hand on her hip as she watched another woman stick child proof locks onto a cabinet.
“Brooksie!” She yelled, so enthusiastically that she sent a giant gob of the red liquid onto the floor. “Oh shit… well, what can ya do? I’m sure you’ve got a rug somewhere…” She sighed before rushing over to hug him.
“Hey Esther!” Mike yelled happily as he followed after Brooks, coming to a stop behind him.
Brooks’ mom let go of him and moved to embrace Mike. “Oh my! This must be the little dear!” She squealed, dropping her hold on him and slamming her glass into his chest. “Here take this! Let me see you- oh, she’s just- Janet look- she looks like me! Lucky little girl. Hello Cosmo! I’m your Nanny Laich!”
Mike’s mom, stood up and headed towards them, and it was then Brooks noticed the glass in her hand. His eyes focused in on two empty bottles of cooking sherry in the sink, and he sighed at Mike. “Oh look at her!” Janet yelled, causing Mike to jump.
He looked back and forth between to two women, confused at his mother’s sudden appearance; Mike had a hard time remembering that his mother had another name besides ‘mom’.
“Where did you come from?” He asked, as she pushed her way next to Esther to study to baby.
“Shh Mike! You’re gonna wake her!” She yelled, before she stretched up onto her tip-toes and grabbed his hair in her hands. “Oh no, what’s this? How many times do I have to tell you to get rid of this thing?! You use to have such nice hair and now you look like you had your hair cut by a weed-wacker. Why is there nothing on the sides? And what is that suppose to be? You kids… I don’t understand it. I was saying to Esther just this morning, I said ‘Esther these kids-‘.”
Emily suppressed a snort as she appeared behind Mike, apparently she’d been hanging around outside to give them some privacy. “Oh Emily!” Esther said excitedly, flagging her down with a free hand. “Come look at my little granddaughter! Isn’t she just the most gorgeous thing you’ve ever seen?”
Emily only smiled and nodded, before carefully taking Cosmo out Esther’s arms. Apparently she could also tell that they were intoxicated, and Brooks was grateful to have his daughter in the arms of someone a bit more stable at the moment. “She sure is… I’ll just go put her in the crib.” Emily said quietly. She headed down the hallway and Brooks watched her go.
“She’s some catch Brooks! I always knew you’d end up with-“
“Whoa!” He said loudly, snapping his head back around to look at his mother. “No! I’m not… we’re not-“
“Esther where did you say those hair clippers were? I need to do Mike’s hair… this is just awful! No wonder you don’t have a girlfriend!” Mike didn’t bother to correct her; he just shook his head sadly and shot a reproachful look at Brooks.
Brooks and Mike both watched Janet head to the bathroom as she prattled on about Mike’s hair, in the same tone that Esther was using to give Brooks a life lesson on women. They finally found each others eyes and headed towards the couch, plopping down on it and trying to figure out a way to get their mother’s to calm down.
“Mom! I don’t want to!” Mike complained as his mother cornered him in the kitchen, waving the clippers like a weapon.
“Michael David Green!” Janet shot at him, causing him to cringe more than the image of those clippers coming anywhere near his head.
Holding his arms up in front of him in self-defence, he moaned miserably. “Aww, mom!”
“Janet, are you really sure that you should be doing that tonight?” Brooks asked slowly as he moved into the kitchen behind her, picking up one of the several empty bottles in the sink. “I mean, you can always do it tomorrow…”
“Oh no, no… I’m good now. Come on Mike, sit down like a good boy.” Janet cooed, motioning for Mike to take a seat at the table. He looked over at Brooks, his eyes pleading for a hero.
Sighing deeply, Brooks moved over to him. “Hey Janet… I don’t think Mike really needs a hair cut, how about you give those to me?” He tried three more times with that approach before giving up and deciding on another method. “You know what Janet, you’re right… he needs a cut bad, that faux hawk is pretty bad. Let me do it though.”
Janet smiled in agreement, handing the clippers over to Brooks who quickly ripped the cord out of the wall and began to wind it around the clippers.
Janet was almost as intoxicated as Brooks’ mom now, so she didn’t even really comprehend what had just occurred. She looked around confused, as if trying to remember why she’d come into the kitchen in the first place.
Brooks gave her a quick smile as he moved past her, catching Emily’s eye before heading towards his room and carefully stowing the clippers under his bed; away from any other intoxicated mothers.
He was coming out of his room, planning on going into the living room to chat to Emily for a bit, when he saw his mother ambling down the hall ahead of him. Something was clutched in her right hand, but he couldn’t make out what. He sighed and followed after her, hoping that she didn’t have some kind of embarrassing baby pictures or what have you.
Of course, it wasn’t like he could do anything about it. He could scream at his mom till he was red in the face and she still wouldn’t hear him; he loved her to death but she had the worse case of selective hearing he’d ever seen.
When he actually got into the living room and saw her drop down beside Emily on the couch, he cringed. His mom was holding the latest issue of Playboy in her hands. “Now here’s a question…” She began holding it up in front of Emily, who blushed scarlet and began to giggle in a high-pitched, awkward tone. “I understand his father reading these… cause he’s old and my boobs hang down by my ankles-”
“-mom-”
“-but really! He’s rich, he’s good-looking… why does he need this? He should be out with real women, not hiding in the bathroom with his nudey mags!”
“Mom! I don’t hide in the bathroom and read porn! It’s just… it’s just in there!”
“Oh it’s just in there!” She laughed, slapping Emily lightly in the arm. “Yah, and Auchwitz was just a summer camp!”
Brooks threw his hands over his and groaned. It wasn’t that he had a problem with his heritage, or he didn’t understand just how horrible WW2 had been, but his mom had a tendency of brining it up at the strangest times; usually to get some kind of reaction from the people around him. “God mom! Please don’t start with the concentration camps… you weren’t even there! And I highly doubt that Emily came over here for a history lesson, so please… can we not do this right now?”
“Don’t you patronize me Brooksie! I know people, who knew people!”
“Oh my god…” Brooks didn’t know what else to do. His mother was taking a deep breath, and he knew he’d never shut her up once she got on a roll. Instead he grabbed Emily and pulled her off the couch, leading her out of his apartment and down the hall.
“I am so sorry if she offended you-” He began to apologise, but Emily started to laugh and he stopped, staring down at her like she was crazy.
She tried to say something but couldn’t manage it as her laughter became louder. “No… no…” She finally sighed, getting her emotions under control and waving a hand at him. “Don’t worry about it, I’m not at all… I just… she’s something else.” Emily smiled, taking a deep breath and exhaling it slowly, trying to keep herself from bursting into hysterics again.
“Anyway, you probably don’t want to leave Mike in their with them, alone, for too long… and I should get some sleep. Big day tomorrow.” She added, as she reached out to open her door.
“Why what’s going on tomorrow?” Brooks asked, confused as to why she was talking to him like her day had something to do with him.
“Because tomorrow we’re baby-proofing and spring cleaning your apartment.” She shrugged casually, closing the door behind her and leaving Brooks in the hallway; his mind racing over the amount of things in his apartment that he didn’t want his mom or Emily to see.
It was going to be a long night.
Brooks was excited to be home. He was happy to be away from Boudreau, happy to be back in his own space; and a tiny little part of him, somewhere deep, deep down, was happy to see Emily again.
When he pulled up out front of the apartment building, he could hardly contain his eagerness to get up the stairs and crash onto the couch, and chuck his suitcase somewhere out of sit. At least until the next road trip.
It was lucky for him that Mike also felt the same way about being home, so he didn’t question Brooks as they jogged up the stairs together.
He did however give Brooks an know-it-all grin, as they rounded the last set of stairs and Brooks came to a complete halt.
Emily was standing in the hall with Brooks’ Xbox in her hands, as she tried to juggling a pair of controllers and a few games on top of it. Brooks didn’t know why his heart was palpating so badly; he assumed it was the thought of losing Fable 2 to a girl that looked like she was about to drop. “Umm… what are you doing?
Emily gave them a sheepish grin before she nodded back towards their apartment door; which was wide open. “Watching Janet and Esther rip through your living room.” She giggled, before turning around and heading towards her apartment.
Brooks and Mike watched her disappear through the door, before returning a moment later, empty handed.
“Where did you-? Why-?” Brooks sputtered before he finished his ascent of the stairs and jogged into his apartment. “Mom?” He asked in disbelief as he saw his bother holding a glass of sherry; her free hand on her hip as she watched another woman stick child proof locks onto a cabinet.
“Brooksie!” She yelled, so enthusiastically that she sent a giant gob of the red liquid onto the floor. “Oh shit… well, what can ya do? I’m sure you’ve got a rug somewhere…” She sighed before rushing over to hug him.
“Hey Esther!” Mike yelled happily as he followed after Brooks, coming to a stop behind him.
Brooks’ mom let go of him and moved to embrace Mike. “Oh my! This must be the little dear!” She squealed, dropping her hold on him and slamming her glass into his chest. “Here take this! Let me see you- oh, she’s just- Janet look- she looks like me! Lucky little girl. Hello Cosmo! I’m your Nanny Laich!”
Mike’s mom, stood up and headed towards them, and it was then Brooks noticed the glass in her hand. His eyes focused in on two empty bottles of cooking sherry in the sink, and he sighed at Mike. “Oh look at her!” Janet yelled, causing Mike to jump.
He looked back and forth between to two women, confused at his mother’s sudden appearance; Mike had a hard time remembering that his mother had another name besides ‘mom’.
“Where did you come from?” He asked, as she pushed her way next to Esther to study to baby.
“Shh Mike! You’re gonna wake her!” She yelled, before she stretched up onto her tip-toes and grabbed his hair in her hands. “Oh no, what’s this? How many times do I have to tell you to get rid of this thing?! You use to have such nice hair and now you look like you had your hair cut by a weed-wacker. Why is there nothing on the sides? And what is that suppose to be? You kids… I don’t understand it. I was saying to Esther just this morning, I said ‘Esther these kids-‘.”
Emily suppressed a snort as she appeared behind Mike, apparently she’d been hanging around outside to give them some privacy. “Oh Emily!” Esther said excitedly, flagging her down with a free hand. “Come look at my little granddaughter! Isn’t she just the most gorgeous thing you’ve ever seen?”
Emily only smiled and nodded, before carefully taking Cosmo out Esther’s arms. Apparently she could also tell that they were intoxicated, and Brooks was grateful to have his daughter in the arms of someone a bit more stable at the moment. “She sure is… I’ll just go put her in the crib.” Emily said quietly. She headed down the hallway and Brooks watched her go.
“She’s some catch Brooks! I always knew you’d end up with-“
“Whoa!” He said loudly, snapping his head back around to look at his mother. “No! I’m not… we’re not-“
“Esther where did you say those hair clippers were? I need to do Mike’s hair… this is just awful! No wonder you don’t have a girlfriend!” Mike didn’t bother to correct her; he just shook his head sadly and shot a reproachful look at Brooks.
Brooks and Mike both watched Janet head to the bathroom as she prattled on about Mike’s hair, in the same tone that Esther was using to give Brooks a life lesson on women. They finally found each others eyes and headed towards the couch, plopping down on it and trying to figure out a way to get their mother’s to calm down.
“Mom! I don’t want to!” Mike complained as his mother cornered him in the kitchen, waving the clippers like a weapon.
“Michael David Green!” Janet shot at him, causing him to cringe more than the image of those clippers coming anywhere near his head.
Holding his arms up in front of him in self-defence, he moaned miserably. “Aww, mom!”
“Janet, are you really sure that you should be doing that tonight?” Brooks asked slowly as he moved into the kitchen behind her, picking up one of the several empty bottles in the sink. “I mean, you can always do it tomorrow…”
“Oh no, no… I’m good now. Come on Mike, sit down like a good boy.” Janet cooed, motioning for Mike to take a seat at the table. He looked over at Brooks, his eyes pleading for a hero.
Sighing deeply, Brooks moved over to him. “Hey Janet… I don’t think Mike really needs a hair cut, how about you give those to me?” He tried three more times with that approach before giving up and deciding on another method. “You know what Janet, you’re right… he needs a cut bad, that faux hawk is pretty bad. Let me do it though.”
Janet smiled in agreement, handing the clippers over to Brooks who quickly ripped the cord out of the wall and began to wind it around the clippers.
Janet was almost as intoxicated as Brooks’ mom now, so she didn’t even really comprehend what had just occurred. She looked around confused, as if trying to remember why she’d come into the kitchen in the first place.
Brooks gave her a quick smile as he moved past her, catching Emily’s eye before heading towards his room and carefully stowing the clippers under his bed; away from any other intoxicated mothers.
He was coming out of his room, planning on going into the living room to chat to Emily for a bit, when he saw his mother ambling down the hall ahead of him. Something was clutched in her right hand, but he couldn’t make out what. He sighed and followed after her, hoping that she didn’t have some kind of embarrassing baby pictures or what have you.
Of course, it wasn’t like he could do anything about it. He could scream at his mom till he was red in the face and she still wouldn’t hear him; he loved her to death but she had the worse case of selective hearing he’d ever seen.
When he actually got into the living room and saw her drop down beside Emily on the couch, he cringed. His mom was holding the latest issue of Playboy in her hands. “Now here’s a question…” She began holding it up in front of Emily, who blushed scarlet and began to giggle in a high-pitched, awkward tone. “I understand his father reading these… cause he’s old and my boobs hang down by my ankles-”
“-mom-”
“-but really! He’s rich, he’s good-looking… why does he need this? He should be out with real women, not hiding in the bathroom with his nudey mags!”
“Mom! I don’t hide in the bathroom and read porn! It’s just… it’s just in there!”
“Oh it’s just in there!” She laughed, slapping Emily lightly in the arm. “Yah, and Auchwitz was just a summer camp!”
Brooks threw his hands over his and groaned. It wasn’t that he had a problem with his heritage, or he didn’t understand just how horrible WW2 had been, but his mom had a tendency of brining it up at the strangest times; usually to get some kind of reaction from the people around him. “God mom! Please don’t start with the concentration camps… you weren’t even there! And I highly doubt that Emily came over here for a history lesson, so please… can we not do this right now?”
“Don’t you patronize me Brooksie! I know people, who knew people!”
“Oh my god…” Brooks didn’t know what else to do. His mother was taking a deep breath, and he knew he’d never shut her up once she got on a roll. Instead he grabbed Emily and pulled her off the couch, leading her out of his apartment and down the hall.
“I am so sorry if she offended you-” He began to apologise, but Emily started to laugh and he stopped, staring down at her like she was crazy.
She tried to say something but couldn’t manage it as her laughter became louder. “No… no…” She finally sighed, getting her emotions under control and waving a hand at him. “Don’t worry about it, I’m not at all… I just… she’s something else.” Emily smiled, taking a deep breath and exhaling it slowly, trying to keep herself from bursting into hysterics again.
“Anyway, you probably don’t want to leave Mike in their with them, alone, for too long… and I should get some sleep. Big day tomorrow.” She added, as she reached out to open her door.
“Why what’s going on tomorrow?” Brooks asked, confused as to why she was talking to him like her day had something to do with him.
“Because tomorrow we’re baby-proofing and spring cleaning your apartment.” She shrugged casually, closing the door behind her and leaving Brooks in the hallway; his mind racing over the amount of things in his apartment that he didn’t want his mom or Emily to see.
It was going to be a long night.
10. Road Trip
In response to a question on my last post… my original intention was to do daily posts with this story, but I got too far behind and I seem to have a lot on my plate right now… this weekend was a bad one for getting anything productive done, but hopefully it was a ‘once-in-a-while’ kind of thing.
Although I’m not sure if I’ll get back up to nightly posts… I’ll be aiming for a new post every 2 or 3 days.
I don’t like to leave you guys hanging, so hopefully that works out alright… I can promise it’ll never get down to just weekly posts on a regular basis though.
Also, I just realized WHERE I left this one hanging so… again… sorry! lol I should also let you know that I don’t really enjoy this update but I’m sick of trying to fix it so… forgive the rough edges and all that; I’m hoping to have another one up tonight to make up for this! Cheers! =)
Brooks was at an awkward cross-roads in his parenting career, with no good alternative; an impasse, so to speak. He didn’t want to bother Emily by trying to get her to watch Cosmo for a week, but at the same time, taking his daughter on a road trip to the west coast didn’t seem like a good idea either. And contrary to the ideas of his team-mates; eight months was not old enough to ‘fend for herself’.
He did the only thing he could do, with the amount of time that had been given to him; in the act of packing up every baby thing he had and loading it into the back of his SUV along with everything else that he’d need for their four day excursion in California.
Boudreau was not happy about the idea at all but, as his wife was going along with the team, he’d allowed Brooks to take Cosmo, with the understanding that she wouldn’t be in the way.
“All ready?” Mike asked as he came out the front door of their apartment complex, Cosmo already strapped into her baby seat; the device hanging from Mike’s arm. Brooks nodded and slammed the back door shut, coming towards Mike in order to tug the car seat away from him.
He opened the back door and secured it inside, glad that it no longer took him forever to strap her in. “So what are you thinking? How is she gonna be on the airplane?” Brooks could only shrug in response as he pulled out onto the road, and then out onto the bypass. They hauled ass to the airport, making it before any of their other team-mates. That had been the plan all along; get in early, board the chartered flight to the sunshine state and allow Cosmo to get comfortable with her surroundings before they were propelled thousands of feet into the air.
A six hour flight and thirty minute bus ride later, the guys were settling into their rooms at the hotel. When Brooks and Mike had first arrived in their room they were happy to find that someone had called a head and found a playpen for Cosmo to sleep in.
She’d been restless on the plane, to say the least. It was a good thing that the guys were too loud and rowdy to notice a little girl getting cranky; if anything she complained less that Ovechkin did, and as far as Brooks was concerned, that was good enough for him.
Now she was wide awake and exploring her new surroundings. She was booting around the floor on all fours, chasing after Mike; who of course, was also crawling.
“Boots!” She squealed as she caught up to him, grabbing onto his pant leg with a determined little fist.
When he laughed and rolled over, his smile changing into a look of pain as he let out a groan. “Oh no, Cosmo! No biting!” He sat up and grabbed her around the middle, tugging her away from his leg until she was sitting up in his lap. “What did I say about biting”
“Boots!” She squealed again, grabbing onto his bottom lip and tugging it.
“I wish she’s stop calling me that.” He murmured to Brooks as she laughed up at him. Of course Mike wanted her to be happy but he was having a hard time figuring out why she was convinced that he was a monkey from a kids TV show.
Brooks just moved over towards them and gently took Cosmo in his arms. He walked away from Mike and moved to open the door. “We’re gonna go for a walk, check some things out. Maybe stop and get some milk… you want to come?”
“Sure.” Mike shrugged, pushing himself off the floor and closing the gap between them. He moved in front of Brooks to open the door, and then raised his eyebrows when he saw an agitated Boudreau in the hallway.
“Brooks… you got a bit? We need to get together and talk about this ah…”
“Child?” Mike finished for him, harshly. Brooks sighed at Mike, giving him a ‘I really don’t wanna to do this’ glance, before handing Cosmo over to him.
“Yah sure Coach… I’ll be back in a while.” He added to Mike, as he turned and followed Boudreau down the hallway.
Mike watched them go, trying to console Cosmo as she let out a tiny whimper, her hands reaching out in the direction Brooks was leaving in. “Sorry Cosmo, you’re stuck with uncle Mike-“
“Boots.”
“Yah sure… anyway, what do you wanna do? Wanna go… Chuck-E-Cheese! Cosmo! You’re a kid! We can go to Chuck-E-Cheese! Yes!” Mike yelled loudly. He grabbed Cosmo’s bag and slung it over his arm, before taking off into the hallway. “Oh Cosmo! It’s the greatest place on earth… they have toys and games… and pizza!”
“Ezza!” Cosmo screamed in agreement as they disappeared around the corner.
“Ok… it should be just over… ugh!” Mike groaned. His arms were starting to get tired and now he was just lost. Very, very lost. “I was sure that it was over this way… hey!” He yelled, jogging over to a guy rifling through the garbage. “Do you know where Chuck-E-Cheese is? You know… where a kid can be a kid?” He said, quoting the commercial for good measure.
The guy nodded and pointed down the street. “Left off of main, and then two blocks down.”
“Awesome! Thank you!” Mike beamed, heading down the street in the direction the guy had pointed him in.
They managed to find the building they were looking for a few minutes later, and Mike hurried inside, hoping that they were still able to beat the evening rush.
The waitress showed them to their seats and brought a high chair for Cosmo. “See Cosmo, who says you can’t trust strangers!” He grinned as he opened his menu and began flipping through it.
“Well?! What did he say?” Mike asked, pulling the door open, before Brooks had a chance to reach for his room key.
Mike had been watching through the peep whole since he had tucked Cosmo into bed; almost a half hour before.
Brooks shrugged, not particularly wanting to relive the longest day of his existence. “Not a lot really… he just reiterated the fact that we need a nanny, that we can’t bring her on road trips and that this can’t have any impact on the way we play.”
“What a douche.” Mike decided finally, glancing over his shoulder at Cosmo as he spoke. “What did you say to him?”
“Not too much. I didn’t want to be in there any longer than I had to be… plus after all that I had to go sit beside Ovie and do a press conference.” He sighed as he dropped down on his bed and rolled onto his side. “Like I even needed to be there… his head’s so big he takes up the whole stage. Plus, it’s awkward sitting next to him when Boudreau keeps trying to blow him the whole time.”
“Alright that’s it… you know what you need?” Mike asked as he headed towards the room to Brooks, grabbing onto his hand and trying to pull him to his feet.
Mike answered before Brooks had a chance. “A group hug!”
“It’s not a group hug when there’s just two of us Mike…”
“Well, a duo-hug then!”
Brooks mumbled something along the lines of, “that’s… kinda weird…”, but he stood up anyway and allowed Mike to wrap his beefy arms around him.
Mike sighed and tried to push some good vibes into Brooks, who wasn’t hugging him back.
“Should we maybe stop?” He asked finally, trying to wriggle his way out of Mike’s grasp. “Ok yah, this is starting to get awkward.” Brooks huffed finally, pushing Mike away.
They both took a step back from each other and looked away uncomfortably before Mike cleared his throat and Brooks grabbed for the TV remote. “So how about them Wizards?” Mike said, forcing his voice down an octave, to which Brooks just rolled his eyes.
“Let’s just go to bed Mike…” He sighed, putting the remote back on the night stand and throwing back the covers of his bed.
Mike didn’t object, as they both began to strip down to their boxers, before climbing into their respective beds.
Mike was fast asleep and snoring lightly within minutes, to which Brooks was annoyed. He wished he could fall asleep that easily.
Instead he laid on his back as the lights of the city glowed in through the large plate glass windows. He had one hand under his head, the other thrown carelessly across his bare chest; the sheets covering him from the waist down, only.
He exhaled lightly and closed his eyes, trying to focus on anything that would help him fall asleep. He needed rest, he knew that; Cosmo would be up sometime through the night and he still needed to find some way to get 8 hours of sleep before the game tomorrow night.
He could already feel the exhaustion expanding through his body and the last thing he needed was to be out of it during the game. After the discussion he’d had with Boudreau earlier, he didn’t need anymore fuel for the flame.
After all, Boudreau’s words were still running rampant through his head.
“I respect what you’re trying to do Laich, but it’s just too much… I mean, enough is enough.” Boudreau was staring at him in a mock-authoritative way. Like the student teacher who can’t really tell you what to do, but they believe they can anyway.
“Sorry, not sure that I’m following you… enough is enough about what?”
Rolling his eyes Boudreau had answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “The kid! Get rid of it…” He exclaimed, exasperated. “Look Laich, I’m sure that somewhere down the road you wanna have kids, but that’s a woman’s job. You guys play hockey and your wives stay home with the kids… you don’t see any of the other guys bringing their kids on the road.
If you don’t have someone to take care of her for you, then you either hire someone, or find a family that can.
We’re winning the cup this year, and I can’t have you risking our success because you’ve got diaper duty at 4 in the morning. Comprende?”
There were so many things Brooks wanted to say in that moment, but his initial emotion of anger was held at bay by the fact that he was completely dumbfounded. “You’re talking about my daughter-“ He had finally managed to sputter, before he was cut off.
“A daughter you didn’t even know existed until a week ago.” He snorted. At those words, spoken in that accusing tone, Brooks finally found his backbone.
“You’re exactly right. I didn’t know she existed until a week ago… but that makes no difference in how I feel about her now. She’s mine and as long as I’m here, she will be too… if you have a problem with that, then it’s your fucking problem.
You want me gone, then you trade me… but don’t think for one second that if I had to chose between this team, or her, that you’d even stand a chance.” He’d growled, turning around and following one of the PR reps out onto the stage to take his place beside Ovechkin.
He could feel the heat of Boudreau’s stare on him through the whole interview, but he didn’t care. Any anger his coach was feeling was insignificant in comparison to the way he felt right now.
Brooks kicked the sheets away from his body. Even in the early October night, he could feel the California heat creeping in around him.
Finding a relaxing position, he rolled onto his side and closed his eyes as his consciousness began to drift away.
He wasn’t sure how long he was out before he woke to the sound of a muffled whine. Sitting up he glanced across to room to where Cosmo was standing, her hands clutched tightly to the top lip of the playpen-her grip being the only thing that was keeping her on her feet.
Giving her a tired grin, he pushed himself off the bed and moved across the room, lifting her out of the playpen and squeezing her against his chest.
He walked back over to his bed and laid her down in the middle, assembling the pillows until he was positive she couldn’t roll off the bed.
Dropping down beside her, he extended his a finger to meet her awaiting hand. She squeezed his large index finger and smiled up at him. “Dada…” she yawned happily, before her grip loosened and her eyes fluttered shut.
Although I’m not sure if I’ll get back up to nightly posts… I’ll be aiming for a new post every 2 or 3 days.
I don’t like to leave you guys hanging, so hopefully that works out alright… I can promise it’ll never get down to just weekly posts on a regular basis though.
Also, I just realized WHERE I left this one hanging so… again… sorry! lol I should also let you know that I don’t really enjoy this update but I’m sick of trying to fix it so… forgive the rough edges and all that; I’m hoping to have another one up tonight to make up for this! Cheers! =)
Brooks was at an awkward cross-roads in his parenting career, with no good alternative; an impasse, so to speak. He didn’t want to bother Emily by trying to get her to watch Cosmo for a week, but at the same time, taking his daughter on a road trip to the west coast didn’t seem like a good idea either. And contrary to the ideas of his team-mates; eight months was not old enough to ‘fend for herself’.
He did the only thing he could do, with the amount of time that had been given to him; in the act of packing up every baby thing he had and loading it into the back of his SUV along with everything else that he’d need for their four day excursion in California.
Boudreau was not happy about the idea at all but, as his wife was going along with the team, he’d allowed Brooks to take Cosmo, with the understanding that she wouldn’t be in the way.
“All ready?” Mike asked as he came out the front door of their apartment complex, Cosmo already strapped into her baby seat; the device hanging from Mike’s arm. Brooks nodded and slammed the back door shut, coming towards Mike in order to tug the car seat away from him.
He opened the back door and secured it inside, glad that it no longer took him forever to strap her in. “So what are you thinking? How is she gonna be on the airplane?” Brooks could only shrug in response as he pulled out onto the road, and then out onto the bypass. They hauled ass to the airport, making it before any of their other team-mates. That had been the plan all along; get in early, board the chartered flight to the sunshine state and allow Cosmo to get comfortable with her surroundings before they were propelled thousands of feet into the air.
A six hour flight and thirty minute bus ride later, the guys were settling into their rooms at the hotel. When Brooks and Mike had first arrived in their room they were happy to find that someone had called a head and found a playpen for Cosmo to sleep in.
She’d been restless on the plane, to say the least. It was a good thing that the guys were too loud and rowdy to notice a little girl getting cranky; if anything she complained less that Ovechkin did, and as far as Brooks was concerned, that was good enough for him.
Now she was wide awake and exploring her new surroundings. She was booting around the floor on all fours, chasing after Mike; who of course, was also crawling.
“Boots!” She squealed as she caught up to him, grabbing onto his pant leg with a determined little fist.
When he laughed and rolled over, his smile changing into a look of pain as he let out a groan. “Oh no, Cosmo! No biting!” He sat up and grabbed her around the middle, tugging her away from his leg until she was sitting up in his lap. “What did I say about biting”
“Boots!” She squealed again, grabbing onto his bottom lip and tugging it.
“I wish she’s stop calling me that.” He murmured to Brooks as she laughed up at him. Of course Mike wanted her to be happy but he was having a hard time figuring out why she was convinced that he was a monkey from a kids TV show.
Brooks just moved over towards them and gently took Cosmo in his arms. He walked away from Mike and moved to open the door. “We’re gonna go for a walk, check some things out. Maybe stop and get some milk… you want to come?”
“Sure.” Mike shrugged, pushing himself off the floor and closing the gap between them. He moved in front of Brooks to open the door, and then raised his eyebrows when he saw an agitated Boudreau in the hallway.
“Brooks… you got a bit? We need to get together and talk about this ah…”
“Child?” Mike finished for him, harshly. Brooks sighed at Mike, giving him a ‘I really don’t wanna to do this’ glance, before handing Cosmo over to him.
“Yah sure Coach… I’ll be back in a while.” He added to Mike, as he turned and followed Boudreau down the hallway.
Mike watched them go, trying to console Cosmo as she let out a tiny whimper, her hands reaching out in the direction Brooks was leaving in. “Sorry Cosmo, you’re stuck with uncle Mike-“
“Boots.”
“Yah sure… anyway, what do you wanna do? Wanna go… Chuck-E-Cheese! Cosmo! You’re a kid! We can go to Chuck-E-Cheese! Yes!” Mike yelled loudly. He grabbed Cosmo’s bag and slung it over his arm, before taking off into the hallway. “Oh Cosmo! It’s the greatest place on earth… they have toys and games… and pizza!”
“Ezza!” Cosmo screamed in agreement as they disappeared around the corner.
“Ok… it should be just over… ugh!” Mike groaned. His arms were starting to get tired and now he was just lost. Very, very lost. “I was sure that it was over this way… hey!” He yelled, jogging over to a guy rifling through the garbage. “Do you know where Chuck-E-Cheese is? You know… where a kid can be a kid?” He said, quoting the commercial for good measure.
The guy nodded and pointed down the street. “Left off of main, and then two blocks down.”
“Awesome! Thank you!” Mike beamed, heading down the street in the direction the guy had pointed him in.
They managed to find the building they were looking for a few minutes later, and Mike hurried inside, hoping that they were still able to beat the evening rush.
The waitress showed them to their seats and brought a high chair for Cosmo. “See Cosmo, who says you can’t trust strangers!” He grinned as he opened his menu and began flipping through it.
“Well?! What did he say?” Mike asked, pulling the door open, before Brooks had a chance to reach for his room key.
Mike had been watching through the peep whole since he had tucked Cosmo into bed; almost a half hour before.
Brooks shrugged, not particularly wanting to relive the longest day of his existence. “Not a lot really… he just reiterated the fact that we need a nanny, that we can’t bring her on road trips and that this can’t have any impact on the way we play.”
“What a douche.” Mike decided finally, glancing over his shoulder at Cosmo as he spoke. “What did you say to him?”
“Not too much. I didn’t want to be in there any longer than I had to be… plus after all that I had to go sit beside Ovie and do a press conference.” He sighed as he dropped down on his bed and rolled onto his side. “Like I even needed to be there… his head’s so big he takes up the whole stage. Plus, it’s awkward sitting next to him when Boudreau keeps trying to blow him the whole time.”
“Alright that’s it… you know what you need?” Mike asked as he headed towards the room to Brooks, grabbing onto his hand and trying to pull him to his feet.
Mike answered before Brooks had a chance. “A group hug!”
“It’s not a group hug when there’s just two of us Mike…”
“Well, a duo-hug then!”
Brooks mumbled something along the lines of, “that’s… kinda weird…”, but he stood up anyway and allowed Mike to wrap his beefy arms around him.
Mike sighed and tried to push some good vibes into Brooks, who wasn’t hugging him back.
“Should we maybe stop?” He asked finally, trying to wriggle his way out of Mike’s grasp. “Ok yah, this is starting to get awkward.” Brooks huffed finally, pushing Mike away.
They both took a step back from each other and looked away uncomfortably before Mike cleared his throat and Brooks grabbed for the TV remote. “So how about them Wizards?” Mike said, forcing his voice down an octave, to which Brooks just rolled his eyes.
“Let’s just go to bed Mike…” He sighed, putting the remote back on the night stand and throwing back the covers of his bed.
Mike didn’t object, as they both began to strip down to their boxers, before climbing into their respective beds.
Mike was fast asleep and snoring lightly within minutes, to which Brooks was annoyed. He wished he could fall asleep that easily.
Instead he laid on his back as the lights of the city glowed in through the large plate glass windows. He had one hand under his head, the other thrown carelessly across his bare chest; the sheets covering him from the waist down, only.
He exhaled lightly and closed his eyes, trying to focus on anything that would help him fall asleep. He needed rest, he knew that; Cosmo would be up sometime through the night and he still needed to find some way to get 8 hours of sleep before the game tomorrow night.
He could already feel the exhaustion expanding through his body and the last thing he needed was to be out of it during the game. After the discussion he’d had with Boudreau earlier, he didn’t need anymore fuel for the flame.
After all, Boudreau’s words were still running rampant through his head.
“I respect what you’re trying to do Laich, but it’s just too much… I mean, enough is enough.” Boudreau was staring at him in a mock-authoritative way. Like the student teacher who can’t really tell you what to do, but they believe they can anyway.
“Sorry, not sure that I’m following you… enough is enough about what?”
Rolling his eyes Boudreau had answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “The kid! Get rid of it…” He exclaimed, exasperated. “Look Laich, I’m sure that somewhere down the road you wanna have kids, but that’s a woman’s job. You guys play hockey and your wives stay home with the kids… you don’t see any of the other guys bringing their kids on the road.
If you don’t have someone to take care of her for you, then you either hire someone, or find a family that can.
We’re winning the cup this year, and I can’t have you risking our success because you’ve got diaper duty at 4 in the morning. Comprende?”
There were so many things Brooks wanted to say in that moment, but his initial emotion of anger was held at bay by the fact that he was completely dumbfounded. “You’re talking about my daughter-“ He had finally managed to sputter, before he was cut off.
“A daughter you didn’t even know existed until a week ago.” He snorted. At those words, spoken in that accusing tone, Brooks finally found his backbone.
“You’re exactly right. I didn’t know she existed until a week ago… but that makes no difference in how I feel about her now. She’s mine and as long as I’m here, she will be too… if you have a problem with that, then it’s your fucking problem.
You want me gone, then you trade me… but don’t think for one second that if I had to chose between this team, or her, that you’d even stand a chance.” He’d growled, turning around and following one of the PR reps out onto the stage to take his place beside Ovechkin.
He could feel the heat of Boudreau’s stare on him through the whole interview, but he didn’t care. Any anger his coach was feeling was insignificant in comparison to the way he felt right now.
Brooks kicked the sheets away from his body. Even in the early October night, he could feel the California heat creeping in around him.
Finding a relaxing position, he rolled onto his side and closed his eyes as his consciousness began to drift away.
He wasn’t sure how long he was out before he woke to the sound of a muffled whine. Sitting up he glanced across to room to where Cosmo was standing, her hands clutched tightly to the top lip of the playpen-her grip being the only thing that was keeping her on her feet.
Giving her a tired grin, he pushed himself off the bed and moved across the room, lifting her out of the playpen and squeezing her against his chest.
He walked back over to his bed and laid her down in the middle, assembling the pillows until he was positive she couldn’t roll off the bed.
Dropping down beside her, he extended his a finger to meet her awaiting hand. She squeezed his large index finger and smiled up at him. “Dada…” she yawned happily, before her grip loosened and her eyes fluttered shut.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Holy Crap Batman
21 comments?! Ok... wow! That's never happened before lol.
So I was MIA this weekend due to the fact that I just got back together with my highschool sweetheart (if that's what you wanna call him lol), and you have my apologise for that.
I felt bad enough not updating again ASAP, but then when I came online and saw all the feedback for the last one... well... now I feel horrible; but also very happy and flattered at the same time!
I was having a bit of trouble with the next post (just a filler so, it's a bit annoying to write... I still want it to be interesting... /sigh). Anyway, after seeing all that feedback there's no way I CANNOT update tomorrow... so, I'll do it as soon as I'm out of class.
Sorry again and THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all the feedback! I love hearing what you guys think =)
So I was MIA this weekend due to the fact that I just got back together with my highschool sweetheart (if that's what you wanna call him lol), and you have my apologise for that.
I felt bad enough not updating again ASAP, but then when I came online and saw all the feedback for the last one... well... now I feel horrible; but also very happy and flattered at the same time!
I was having a bit of trouble with the next post (just a filler so, it's a bit annoying to write... I still want it to be interesting... /sigh). Anyway, after seeing all that feedback there's no way I CANNOT update tomorrow... so, I'll do it as soon as I'm out of class.
Sorry again and THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all the feedback! I love hearing what you guys think =)
Monday, May 10, 2010
9. Boobs
So first off... thank you guys so much for all the feedback on the last update! I seriously love getting all your kind words and knowing what you guys think about this. When I checked today and say how many comments there were, it put a firecracker under my butt to get this one up for you guys tonight.
Also, if there are ever any questions, things you'd like to see, or issues that you feel should be addressed in this story... let me know. I don't think you guys have any idea how much investment I put into your feed back.
Thanks to you, some things have been changed in this story because of ideas that have been sparked by things I've read in comments... so keep them coming =)!
Thanks again and... hope you enjoy!
Girl Next Door - Saving Jane
The look on Mike’s face should have prepared Emily for what was about to come through the door, but it didn’t. Of course she had assumed that somewhere along the way, they’d stumble across an attractive girl, but she didn’t think that they’d end up with… well… this.
She watched the girl now as she giggled next to Mike, stroking a well-manicured finger down his bicep, as he smiled back at her. He was clenching his body in an odd manner; trying to make his arms appear more muscular, while hiding the fact that he was flexing to do so.
Kaley was her name, and she had already won over the boys. Of course, she’d been here now for over thirty minutes and hadn’t asked a thing about Cosmo - or even looked in her direction, for that matter - but for some reason she was still here.
Well, there were actually two reasons she was still here, and both of those were wrapped in a red lace, double-d cup, that was clearly showing beneath the tight, white shirt she was wearing.
Emily was sitting in the far corner of the room, having ostracized herself from everyone else, with the exception of Cosmo. The little girl was yawning softly as Emily nestled her against her chest, rocking her slightly in the black leather, lazy-boy chair that she was occupying.
In a normal situation she knew that she’d be more concerned with the child; wondering how two ‘men’, like Brooks and Mike, could ever raise a child… but she found that now so was more interested in the line of sight Brooks was taking in.
His eyes hadn’t left Kaley’s chest since she got there, and Emily wished he’d just look up at her face for two seconds.
So, she had big boobs and was tanned, but she wasn’t pretty at all. She had the type of teeth that only made an appearance in movies like Deliverance or the Hills Have Eyes, and her complexion was horrid, even more so when it was covered in a thick layer of icing-like makeup; which it was now.
She couldn’t even get annoyed at the boys for the way they were acting. Even she had noticed Kaley’s chest when she came in; having offered them up in a low-cut shirt like they were on a silver platter.
If anything, she should have been angry that they would objectify a woman like that, but she couldn’t bring herself to think that way. Mike and Brooks just weren’t like that. Sure, they had their completely retarted moments and a relationship with each other that went well beyond the realm of ‘questionable’, but all in all they were good guys.
What bothered her even more was the part of her that wished Brooks would objectify her at some point; but that wouldn’t happen. He always looked at her like she had two heads and a penis, and she had already made up her mind as far as men were concerned.
Finally, after dazing off for another fifteen minutes while they chitchatted, she cleared her throat loudly, trying to draw the attention of everyone in the room. When Brooks and Mike finally looked over at her, she motioned towards the kitchen; indicating that they should discuss this.
Both boys went, reluctantly. Following after Emily and Cosmo as she rounded the corner and stood with her back against the fridge. “So… I’m thinking that maybe-”
“She’s awesome?” Mike asked, the sound of a laugh playing in his voice as he glanced over his shoulder towards the living room.
“- I was thinking more like-” Emily began again, but was cut off quickly by Brooks.
“It’s a tit bit nipply out there?” He joked, earning a grin of approval from Mike, who was quick to retort with his own remark.
“Well if anyone has the tit-ifications for the job… I think it’s her…” Mike sighed, almost dream like as he leaned across the counter, dropping his chin into the palms of his hand, staring at her.
“She is the chest for the job, I’ll give you that…” Brooks added with another grin of his own.
“Clearly a full cup-size above the rest…”
Emily stiffened and felt her face begin to heat as the boys continued to ogle over the girl in the other room. Biting her lip, Emily took a deep breath before she continued. “Ok… now you’re just being ridiculous. Could we maybe… oh I don’t know… talk about your child?!”
“Geesh Emily, take a chill pill…” Brooks laughed, turning around to face her. She felt embarrassed and slightly annoyed at the way he watched her now; any lust or appreciation gone from his gaze. “We’re just kidding around.”
“Yah, well maybe some of us have things they could be doing. I said that I’d help you with this, because you know nothing about children… but if you’re going to stand here and act like retarded, chauvinistic pigs, then you can forget about it.”
She felt instantly foolish as Mike turned around to look at her. Both boys glanced sheepishly between each other, but their eyes were still lit with a hint of humour, something that made her feel like she was over reacting. “Anyway, “ she continued, wanting to change the subject, “I think maybe you should ask why she’s qualified for this job.”
Shrugging, Brooks went back into the living room. “So… ah… do you know anything about kids?”
“Umm… not really. Like… I have a little sister but she’s oober annoying so I don’t really spend time with her. Oh, and I can’t change a diaper… that’s gross. And if it spits up or anything like that… I can’t watch it while it eats. When anything pukes… it makes me puke.” She drawled in her high-pitched southern tone.
Emily was smug, to say the least, as she listened to the answer. It wasn’t that she was surprised; in fact she had assumed that this girl probably knew nothing about babies and just wanted to work for hockey players… but she’d expected her to at least lie. Maybe, pretend that she knew something.
Of course Emily’s sense of satisfaction only lasted for a brief moment before she realized that Brooks had heard absolutely nothing she said; his eyes locked on the abundance of breast popping out of her shirt. “Oh… cool…” He said absently, blinking a few times and looking away once he realized that she had stopped talking.
He glanced back over his shoulder at Emily, as if to say ‘there, see? I asked’; but Emily turned away quickly, feeling tears of anger well up in her eyes.
Brooks cleared his throat and looked back at Kaley, using all his willpower to keep his eyes away from her chest and focused on her face. “Well I’m not sure that’s going to work for us… we’re looking for someone with a bit more… baby… knowledge.” He finished, earning a gasp of disbelief from Mike.
“Woah, woah… I mean… let’s not be too hasty here. She can learn like… you have to start somewhere and what better place than here.
So, maybe she’s not the breast… ah… best person for the job but-“
“It was nice to meet you Kaley, thanks for coming… and good luck finding work.” Brooks pressed on over Mike, reaching out to lead a flabbergasted Kaley towards the door.
He opened it and showed her out, closing the door in front of her as she opened her mouth to say something.
Brooks didn’t wait, clicking the chain and turning around to make eye contact with Emily. He felt like he should apologize, but then thought better of it, giving her a weak smile instead and hoping she understood the meaning.
It wasn’t even normally like him to be so taken in by a girl – or part of a girl, anyway – he was usually the ‘good’ one. He couldn’t really even explain why it had happened, but now he felt guilty for letting it.
Really though, it wasn’t like there was something wrong with him; there was no reason for Emily to stare at him like he was a pervert… after all, he hadn’t had sex in what…?
Well, the answer was cuddled in Emily’s arm.
God, had it really been that long? He was going to have to do something about that, even Mike was getting more play then him…
As if secretly listening in on Brooks’ inner turmoil, Mike piped up. “Well I hope you’re happy… fuck!” He groaned before spinning off and heading down the hallway. He disappeared around the corner and slammed his bedroom door shut, leaving Brooks and Emily looking at each other.
“Is he gonna be-?”
“Yah he’ll be fine.” Brooks said quickly, answering her question before she could get it out. “He's secretly afraid of boobs anyway... he’d just run if she tried to touch him. I promise he’s not missing out on anything.”
Emily tried to smile, but it came out more as a grimace. “I should probably get back anyway…” She said as she moved towards him, gently leaning forward so that he could remove Cosmo from her arms.
“Get going for what?” Brooks asked, his voice lowering as soon as he had Cosmo in his arms.
“I work tonight.” She replied softly, stretching up on her tip-toes to kiss the sleeping girl on the head. “See you later on…”
“Work? I didn’t know you worked…”
Snorting, Emily turned around. “You think I just live here for free? Trading goods and services for an apartment? No… some people have real jobs.” She quipped, giving Brooks a small smile before she unhooked the chain, opened the door, and disappeared into the hallway.
Brooks watched the door shut behind her and sighed. Now not only was he still short a sitter, but he was more confused then ever.
What did she want from him? Was she some kind of pro-woman activist and hated men… or was she jealous at him for looking at another girl?
He didn’t think she was a feminist, she had never given him that sort of attitude before, but then again, she looked liked she was going to cry…
Part of him thought maybe she did like him after all, but then he remembered that she had never made a pass at him, so he let the thought wilt and die.
Emily had lost all track of time. She was now frantically running through her nice, neat, conservative apartment, tossing a wide assortment of objects into a bag. It was fully to the brim before she was satisfied enough that she had everything she needed.
With a nod to herself she headed off down the hall towards her bed room, peeling of her clothing until she was standing in front of the mirror, completely naked.
She tugged on the tight bun at the back of her head and pulled it loose, allowing her long, dark, wavy hair to fall along her shoulders and onto her back. Turning to the side she ran a hand along her flat stomach, swiveling her hips in the hope of seeing something that wasn’t there.
With a sigh she brushed her hair away from her chest, inhaling sharply as a strand caught in one of her nipple rings. “Shit…” She sighed, carefully working the dark strand free before she continued looking for her work clothes.
A see through tank top, a pair of daisy duke shorts, and a some bloodred, high-heel stilettos later; Emily was blowing past Brooks’ room with confidence. Her large, stuffed back was secured tightly under her arm, and her heels clicked on the linoleum floor as she headed out into the night.
Also, if there are ever any questions, things you'd like to see, or issues that you feel should be addressed in this story... let me know. I don't think you guys have any idea how much investment I put into your feed back.
Thanks to you, some things have been changed in this story because of ideas that have been sparked by things I've read in comments... so keep them coming =)!
Thanks again and... hope you enjoy!
Girl Next Door - Saving Jane
The look on Mike’s face should have prepared Emily for what was about to come through the door, but it didn’t. Of course she had assumed that somewhere along the way, they’d stumble across an attractive girl, but she didn’t think that they’d end up with… well… this.
She watched the girl now as she giggled next to Mike, stroking a well-manicured finger down his bicep, as he smiled back at her. He was clenching his body in an odd manner; trying to make his arms appear more muscular, while hiding the fact that he was flexing to do so.
Kaley was her name, and she had already won over the boys. Of course, she’d been here now for over thirty minutes and hadn’t asked a thing about Cosmo - or even looked in her direction, for that matter - but for some reason she was still here.
Well, there were actually two reasons she was still here, and both of those were wrapped in a red lace, double-d cup, that was clearly showing beneath the tight, white shirt she was wearing.
Emily was sitting in the far corner of the room, having ostracized herself from everyone else, with the exception of Cosmo. The little girl was yawning softly as Emily nestled her against her chest, rocking her slightly in the black leather, lazy-boy chair that she was occupying.
In a normal situation she knew that she’d be more concerned with the child; wondering how two ‘men’, like Brooks and Mike, could ever raise a child… but she found that now so was more interested in the line of sight Brooks was taking in.
His eyes hadn’t left Kaley’s chest since she got there, and Emily wished he’d just look up at her face for two seconds.
So, she had big boobs and was tanned, but she wasn’t pretty at all. She had the type of teeth that only made an appearance in movies like Deliverance or the Hills Have Eyes, and her complexion was horrid, even more so when it was covered in a thick layer of icing-like makeup; which it was now.
She couldn’t even get annoyed at the boys for the way they were acting. Even she had noticed Kaley’s chest when she came in; having offered them up in a low-cut shirt like they were on a silver platter.
If anything, she should have been angry that they would objectify a woman like that, but she couldn’t bring herself to think that way. Mike and Brooks just weren’t like that. Sure, they had their completely retarted moments and a relationship with each other that went well beyond the realm of ‘questionable’, but all in all they were good guys.
What bothered her even more was the part of her that wished Brooks would objectify her at some point; but that wouldn’t happen. He always looked at her like she had two heads and a penis, and she had already made up her mind as far as men were concerned.
Finally, after dazing off for another fifteen minutes while they chitchatted, she cleared her throat loudly, trying to draw the attention of everyone in the room. When Brooks and Mike finally looked over at her, she motioned towards the kitchen; indicating that they should discuss this.
Both boys went, reluctantly. Following after Emily and Cosmo as she rounded the corner and stood with her back against the fridge. “So… I’m thinking that maybe-”
“She’s awesome?” Mike asked, the sound of a laugh playing in his voice as he glanced over his shoulder towards the living room.
“- I was thinking more like-” Emily began again, but was cut off quickly by Brooks.
“It’s a tit bit nipply out there?” He joked, earning a grin of approval from Mike, who was quick to retort with his own remark.
“Well if anyone has the tit-ifications for the job… I think it’s her…” Mike sighed, almost dream like as he leaned across the counter, dropping his chin into the palms of his hand, staring at her.
“She is the chest for the job, I’ll give you that…” Brooks added with another grin of his own.
“Clearly a full cup-size above the rest…”
Emily stiffened and felt her face begin to heat as the boys continued to ogle over the girl in the other room. Biting her lip, Emily took a deep breath before she continued. “Ok… now you’re just being ridiculous. Could we maybe… oh I don’t know… talk about your child?!”
“Geesh Emily, take a chill pill…” Brooks laughed, turning around to face her. She felt embarrassed and slightly annoyed at the way he watched her now; any lust or appreciation gone from his gaze. “We’re just kidding around.”
“Yah, well maybe some of us have things they could be doing. I said that I’d help you with this, because you know nothing about children… but if you’re going to stand here and act like retarded, chauvinistic pigs, then you can forget about it.”
She felt instantly foolish as Mike turned around to look at her. Both boys glanced sheepishly between each other, but their eyes were still lit with a hint of humour, something that made her feel like she was over reacting. “Anyway, “ she continued, wanting to change the subject, “I think maybe you should ask why she’s qualified for this job.”
Shrugging, Brooks went back into the living room. “So… ah… do you know anything about kids?”
“Umm… not really. Like… I have a little sister but she’s oober annoying so I don’t really spend time with her. Oh, and I can’t change a diaper… that’s gross. And if it spits up or anything like that… I can’t watch it while it eats. When anything pukes… it makes me puke.” She drawled in her high-pitched southern tone.
Emily was smug, to say the least, as she listened to the answer. It wasn’t that she was surprised; in fact she had assumed that this girl probably knew nothing about babies and just wanted to work for hockey players… but she’d expected her to at least lie. Maybe, pretend that she knew something.
Of course Emily’s sense of satisfaction only lasted for a brief moment before she realized that Brooks had heard absolutely nothing she said; his eyes locked on the abundance of breast popping out of her shirt. “Oh… cool…” He said absently, blinking a few times and looking away once he realized that she had stopped talking.
He glanced back over his shoulder at Emily, as if to say ‘there, see? I asked’; but Emily turned away quickly, feeling tears of anger well up in her eyes.
Brooks cleared his throat and looked back at Kaley, using all his willpower to keep his eyes away from her chest and focused on her face. “Well I’m not sure that’s going to work for us… we’re looking for someone with a bit more… baby… knowledge.” He finished, earning a gasp of disbelief from Mike.
“Woah, woah… I mean… let’s not be too hasty here. She can learn like… you have to start somewhere and what better place than here.
So, maybe she’s not the breast… ah… best person for the job but-“
“It was nice to meet you Kaley, thanks for coming… and good luck finding work.” Brooks pressed on over Mike, reaching out to lead a flabbergasted Kaley towards the door.
He opened it and showed her out, closing the door in front of her as she opened her mouth to say something.
Brooks didn’t wait, clicking the chain and turning around to make eye contact with Emily. He felt like he should apologize, but then thought better of it, giving her a weak smile instead and hoping she understood the meaning.
It wasn’t even normally like him to be so taken in by a girl – or part of a girl, anyway – he was usually the ‘good’ one. He couldn’t really even explain why it had happened, but now he felt guilty for letting it.
Really though, it wasn’t like there was something wrong with him; there was no reason for Emily to stare at him like he was a pervert… after all, he hadn’t had sex in what…?
Well, the answer was cuddled in Emily’s arm.
God, had it really been that long? He was going to have to do something about that, even Mike was getting more play then him…
As if secretly listening in on Brooks’ inner turmoil, Mike piped up. “Well I hope you’re happy… fuck!” He groaned before spinning off and heading down the hallway. He disappeared around the corner and slammed his bedroom door shut, leaving Brooks and Emily looking at each other.
“Is he gonna be-?”
“Yah he’ll be fine.” Brooks said quickly, answering her question before she could get it out. “He's secretly afraid of boobs anyway... he’d just run if she tried to touch him. I promise he’s not missing out on anything.”
Emily tried to smile, but it came out more as a grimace. “I should probably get back anyway…” She said as she moved towards him, gently leaning forward so that he could remove Cosmo from her arms.
“Get going for what?” Brooks asked, his voice lowering as soon as he had Cosmo in his arms.
“I work tonight.” She replied softly, stretching up on her tip-toes to kiss the sleeping girl on the head. “See you later on…”
“Work? I didn’t know you worked…”
Snorting, Emily turned around. “You think I just live here for free? Trading goods and services for an apartment? No… some people have real jobs.” She quipped, giving Brooks a small smile before she unhooked the chain, opened the door, and disappeared into the hallway.
Brooks watched the door shut behind her and sighed. Now not only was he still short a sitter, but he was more confused then ever.
What did she want from him? Was she some kind of pro-woman activist and hated men… or was she jealous at him for looking at another girl?
He didn’t think she was a feminist, she had never given him that sort of attitude before, but then again, she looked liked she was going to cry…
Part of him thought maybe she did like him after all, but then he remembered that she had never made a pass at him, so he let the thought wilt and die.
Emily had lost all track of time. She was now frantically running through her nice, neat, conservative apartment, tossing a wide assortment of objects into a bag. It was fully to the brim before she was satisfied enough that she had everything she needed.
With a nod to herself she headed off down the hall towards her bed room, peeling of her clothing until she was standing in front of the mirror, completely naked.
She tugged on the tight bun at the back of her head and pulled it loose, allowing her long, dark, wavy hair to fall along her shoulders and onto her back. Turning to the side she ran a hand along her flat stomach, swiveling her hips in the hope of seeing something that wasn’t there.
With a sigh she brushed her hair away from her chest, inhaling sharply as a strand caught in one of her nipple rings. “Shit…” She sighed, carefully working the dark strand free before she continued looking for her work clothes.
A see through tank top, a pair of daisy duke shorts, and a some bloodred, high-heel stilettos later; Emily was blowing past Brooks’ room with confidence. Her large, stuffed back was secured tightly under her arm, and her heels clicked on the linoleum floor as she headed out into the night.
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