- Brandon's POV -
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I smelled good.
I had put on an extra spray of cologne before coming to Taylor’s Starbucks, and I still didn’t know why--she was dating Henry, anyway. Makes me feel more confident, though, I thought as I sipped on my latte. I was early, but arriving before the agreed-upon time was my practice, and today was no exception.
As soon as I finished my thought about Henry, the punk walked through the door. I watched him from my table in the corner. He walked straight up to a table with two other men, one of whom pushed him an already ordered drink.
I watched them for a while. They all seemed to know each other, though one seemed to be more polite to Henry and the other man. Part of me wondered why they were there. So much of me, in fact, that I got up from my table to stop at the condiments station near their table. I pretended to pour a disgusting amount of sugar and cream into my coffee, eavesdropping as I did so.
“I can’t believe you actually managed to ask her out,” one of the men remarked. I can’t tell which one it is, I realized, because my back is turned. Dangit.
“Yup.” It was Henry’s voice, which I vaguely recognized. “We’ve been out a couple times now. She’s super into me. It won’t be long before…” He lowered his voice and said something I didn't catch, but all three guffawed loudly.
“Well, Mac, sounds like you won the bet after all.” The other man’s voice. “I guess you’ll have your deal.” There was a round of laughter, and the sound of handshakes. “Remember, it’ll last as long as their relationship. That’s how the bet went.”
“I remember,” the first man said. “Hey, I’m just an honest man trying to do a little business here.”
“Honest business, my foot. I can’t believe I signed on this.”
“To be fair, it isn’t that bad of a deal,” Henry offered.
“For you, it isn’t!” There was more laughter. I made my way back to my seat, mulling over what I just heard.
I tapped my finger on my drink. “It’s obvious that the ‘her’ is Taylor,” I confided in the napkins on my table. “Well, it’s pretty obvious. If it’s not, then Henry is cheating on her and we have a problem. But who could the other two be…?” As the three stood to leave, I pulled out my phone and snapped a picture of them. Just in case Taylor needs to know.
The trio exited Starbucks, and I was left waiting for Taylor. I’d brought my laptop, so that we could do research if we needed to. I glanced at the clock--2:33 pm. She should be here any minute.
As if I’d summoned her, she walked through the door at that second. Noticing me right away, she smiled and dropped her bag off at my table. “Lemme order something real quick.”
“Alrighty.” I grinned back at her. When she came back with an iced coffee, I opened up my laptop and clicked on one of my documents. “Okay. So. Let’s get to researching.”
“Wait a second.” Taylor placed her hand on mine. I looked up into her concerned green eyes. “Are you okay? After last night, I mean.”
“Oh.” I looked down. Her hand was still on mine. “Yeah. I’m fine. Usually I just shove it down. I never know when it’ll come back, though.”
“When--If it comes back,” Taylor corrected herself, “promise you’ll talk to me about it? Or someone else, someone who can help you?”
“I promise.”
She smiled gently. “Good.” Taking a sip of her coffee, she settled down to business. “Now. Any new ideas since we last met up?”
“Not really, honestly,” I admitted. “I bookmarked all the articles we’ve read, and documented every shared experience we’ve had, and then put them all into this document. I’ll let you give yourself access by email.” I turned the laptop to her.
“Perfect.” She paused her typing. “Hey! That papercut! So that was you!”
“Yeah, actually. I noticed that when I got it, it didn’t bleed. I was gonna mention it but forgot.”
“It bled on my side,” Taylor said, shaking her head. “It was the craziest thing--okay, not the craziest thing, but one of the craziest things.”
“Same here,” I said. We chatted about our psychic link, tossing around ideas for severing it. Taylor suggested getting struck by lightning again, which was both incredibly genius and incredibly stupid.
Finally, I decided to change the subject. “So, you look nice. Is the weather going to be cloudy with a chance of butterflies for me?”
She blushed and winced at the same time, a strange expression. “Yeah, sorry. Henry and I are getting coffee--oh no,” she said, looking at her coffee sadly, “we were gonna get coffee.”
“Guess you’ll have to get decaf on the next go round, huh?”
“I didn’t plan this very well,” she sighed.
“You’ll be okay.” Now is the perfect time to bring the incident up. “Actually, Henry was in here before you came.”
Taylor shot me a confused look. “Seriously? What time?”
“2:15 ish.”
“He said he had a meeting at that time, and might be late,” she mused. “If he was already here, why would he be late?”
“Now that’s strange.” I leaned forward, taking a sip of my latte. “He was with two other men, older than him. I overheard their conversation. Sounded kind of like a business deal, but…you were involved.”
“What?!”
“Yeah. Something about a bet, like if Henry could get you on a date then the other two guys would be business partners. And that the partnership would last as long as your relationship. I can’t really remember, but it sounded sketchy.”
“Did you see what the other men looked like?” Taylor’s face was slowly getting white. Oh dear. Not good.
“Yeah, one of them was…actually, I got a picture.” I showed her the picture of all three men. As soon as she saw it, two things happened: first, her face got officially white, and second, I was hit by all her emotions. I struggled to keep my hands steady as I felt shock, then anger.
“I’m guessing this is significantly surprising?” I asked, suppressing as much of the anger as I could.
She pointed at one of the men, the one who’d apparently won the bet. “That’s…That’s my dad.”
“And…that makes you angry?”
“You don’t understand.” Shaking her head, she breathed in and out, visibly trying to calm herself--to calm us--down. “He’s been…my parents are on the brink of divorce because of him. He’s been nothing but a jerk to my whole family, emotionally abusing my mom, ignoring me and my siblings, doing nothing for our family except providing income. I’m pretty sure even that won’t last for long.” Her eyes widened and I felt more of her surprise. “He’s been asking whether or not I have a boyfriend,” she whispered. “I knew something was up.”
“What about the business deal part?”
“I remember Henry mentioning that his dad owned a large business…my dad owns a couple of graphic design companies. I bet…” I felt her grow furious. “Dad must have bet that if Henry could take me out, then he’d allow Henry’s dad to partner with him at a discount. I can’t believe it. That--” She cursed, several times. I resisted the urge to join her. Not only was I feeling her anger, but also my own at the outrageousness of the situation. It was enough to make me want to flip the table.
Panic rose and I gritted my teeth as I came close to doing just that. “Listen, let’s take this outside, okay?” I pleaded. Taylor let me lead her out of the coffee shop. She felt shocked and angry. So did I. It was a bad combination.
I brought her over to my car and we leaned up against its side. It was a beautiful day, but it didn’t seem worth noticing. She hadn’t said a word. “Deep breaths,” I encouraged her. “Deep…breaths…” Before we talk this out, I thought, we’ve got to be in a condition to actually talk and not just scream. “Breathe in, breathe out.” I felt her struggle for control over her emotions, and I worked on shoving them down on my side of the bond.
After a minute, I turned to Taylor. She was staring wordlessly at the car next to me. “Hey,” I said. She looked at me, tears in her eyes.
“I thought he cared about me,” she whispered. “I thought he…actually…liked me. I thought he genuinely wanted me…”
She burst into tears.
I felt her sadness overpower her anger at her father. It took a lot for me not to cry as well. I reached over and wrapped her in my arms. She was stiff at first, just crying into my shoulder. Finally she relaxed, hugging me, still sobbing. I rubbed her back, trying my best to comfort her when I felt the exact same way she did. This connection is making things both easy, particularly for me to empathize with her, and hard, because right now we both feel pretty miserable. I tried to shove away her emotions from my own, and it helped a little. Maybe it’s easier to stifle her emotions because they’re not originally mine… I made a mental note to add that to the document, then turned my attention back to the crying girl in my arms.
Her sobbing had slowed and she was entering the post-breakdown stage, characterized by quick gasps and less tears. I held her, not wanting to let go. “It’s gonna be okay,” I whispered. “It’s gonna be okay.”
The anger slowly came back as she regained her composure. Pulling away, Taylor wiped her eyes and visibly steeled herself. Oh dear, I thought. Here’s the resolve. She’s gone into angry woman mode.
“You’re right,” she agreed shakily. Her voice was still low. “It’s gonna be okay.”
“Yes,” I said, relieved.
“It’s gonna be okay, because I’m going to show that son of a gun what a piece of--what a--I’m going to show him.” I kept my arms around her waist and she locked her eyes on mine. Her head was barely tilted up. We were nearly eye to eye. I realized that I was, in fact, not as tall as I thought.
“Henry was supposed to meet me here at, what, 3:30? It’s 3:13. I’m going to wait for him and we”--she grimaced; probably meant to be a smile--“are going to have a talk.”
I knew there was nothing I could do to deter her. You have to admit that you want Henry to get what he deserves too, a voice told me. For once, I agreed with it. “Alright,” I said. I pulled her close one more time, then let her go. “Give him hell. But do it quietly. I don’t want you to be arrested or anything.”
“I promise.” She held onto me for a brief moment. Stepping away, she smiled at me tiredly. “Thanks for…being here for me.”
“Any time.” I smiled. “Now go on. Kick his butt. Subtly.”
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(WOAH i'm sorry for not posting!! i have just learned that taking five college classes is not fun so i would not recommend it for anyone)
(also, keep living, folks. my world crashed in on me this weekend but i got back up and you can too. so don't give up. i love you all!!)
