by Max Hudson
“I’m trying!” she whisper-shouted at him. She frowned and her eyes widened. “Shit, something’s going down.”
Luca leaned forward. “What do you mean?”
“They’re arguing,” she said. “They don’t even have their food yet.”
“I can’t hear anything.”
“Yeah, neither can I,” she said. “They’re whispering to each other, and they keep getting more and more pissed off.”
“So? Is that his boyfriend?”
“I think so,” she said. “They’re very close to each other. Damn, he’s hot.”
“Right?”
“The boyfriend isn’t bad either.”
“Shut up,” Luca said, his cheeks red. He couldn’t believe how red his cheeks were, how jealous he was at a simple statement of fact. “I don’t want to hear about his boyfriend.”
Beth moved back. “I don’t think he’s his boyfriend anymore.”
“What?”
“Look,” Beth said. She moved back into the booth so that it didn’t look like she was spying on them, but it didn’t strike Luca as particularly discreet. She was giggling by the time that she was farther into the booth, but she was still looking up at the good-looking man that was leaving the restaurant without looking back at Brooklyn or at the two of them.
Luca watched him, his eyes wide. “He’s storming out.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Brooklyn looks upset. How about we go make him feel better?”
“What? No,” Luca said, his eyes wide.
“Come on,” she said. “He’s already here.”
She waited until his companion had left the restaurant and got out of the booth. Luca didn’t want to let her, but she had grabbed his hand and she was pulling him with a lot of force. He would have normally been able to resist her, but with the accident, it felt like his limbs were being torn apart.
He groaned and scooted over to where she was, though he didn’t do it without protesting. He wasn’t going to be quiet about this. If she was going to drag him like that, he was going to protest.
He hadn’t considered just how loud his protesting was, because before he could even get out of the booth, Brooklyn was there in front of them.
“Luca?”
“Hi,” Luca said. Beth let go of his wrist and smiled at both of them apologetically. “Sorry. I—we didn’t mean to disturb you.”
“We really didn’t,” Beth said.
“It's okay,” Brooklyn said, flashing them both a pained smile. “I was just about to leave.”
He said it seriously, like it was the only option that he had. He was clearly waiting for either one of them to say anything. Luca didn’t want to say anything. Instead, he nodded, because the last thing that he wanted to do was stop Brooklyn from leaving after a fight with his boyfriend. He knew exactly how that felt.
“Why don’t you join us instead?” Beth said. Luca glared at her.
Brooklyn smiled. “I mean, if I wouldn’t be imposing.”
“You absolutely wouldn’t be imposing,” she said. “We were just talking about… men.”
“I don’t even want to think about men,” Brooklyn said, the smile disappearing from his face instantly.
“Good,” Luca said. “Then join us. We’re happy to be of service.”
“Really?”
“Please,” Beth said. “We’re so done with our own drama.”
“Does that mean you want some of my drama?”
“Honestly, I don’t think it would upset either one of us,” Luca said. “I’ve had a very dramatic few days.”
Brooklyn looked at him and then twisted his lips. He cocked his head as he considered this then nodded. “If it’s not putting you out,” he replied. “Honestly, I would rather not go home.”
“Boy, do I know those feelings,” Luca said. “Yes, by all means, join us.”
Brooklyn didn’t take much convincing after that. He slid into the booth and smiled at both of them, glancing at their empty glasses. “What did you guys have? Because I think I need the word’s biggest milkshake to hold me through the day.”
Chapter Four
It turned out that talking to Brooklyn wasn’t too difficult. He was charming and articulate, and once he had gotten out of his funk a little bit, he was easy to talk to.
He didn’t seem to want to tell them what had just happened, and Luca didn’t want to push it. He would tell him when he felt up for it, if he ever felt up for it. He knew that he wasn’t entitled to the information.
Soon enough, Beth was excusing herself, telling them that she had an early morning the next day. Luca knew that it wasn’t true but part of him did want to spend some alone time with Brooklyn, so he didn’t protest when she said that she had to go.
Even if this was the only time that he had alone with Brooklyn, Luca wanted it. For some reason, it seemed much more important than finding out what had happened with Derek. He still needed to know what had happened, of course, but something about Brooklyn made him feel like he was living in the present, something that didn’t happen when he was thinking about Derek.
Once they both watched Beth leave in something of a rush, Brooklyn turned back to face him. “Your friend is nice,” he said, a smile on his face.
“She’s fine,” Luca replied, rolling his eyes with a smile on his face. “She thinks she’s playing Cupid all the time.”
Brooklyn bit his lips in response. “Is that what she thinks is happening between us?”
“I don’t know what she thinks is happening between us,” he said with a smile. “I know she wants me to be happy.”
“She is nice,” Brooklyn said, tutting. “Not fine, nice.”
“Okay, fine, she’s nice. I’m lucky to have friends like her. What about you?”
“What about me?”
“What is happening between us?” Luca said, staring right at Brooklyn’s face. He wanted to read the entirety of his expression. He wanted to know if Brooklyn wanted anything to happen between them. He knew that it was inappropriate, because after all, Brooklyn had just been in a fight with someone that might have been his boyfriend.
Brooklyn gave him a twisted smile. “I don’t know,” he said. “You tell me.”
“I don’t want to get between you and your boyfriend.”
“Whoa, you’re making a lot of assumptions there,” Brooklyn said.
Luca nodded. “Yes,” he said. “I know.”
“Well, for a start, that man is not my boyfriend.”
“He’s not.”
“We used to go out with each other,” he said. “But that was a long time ago.”
Luca didn’t say anything; he just continued to watch him. He wanted more of an explanation and it was taking all of his willpower to stop himself from asking him more questions. Brooklyn could provide answers, but only if he wanted to. Luca wasn’t going to force him to do anything that he didn’t want to do—if he wanted to explain his relationship status to him, Luca wanted to hear it, but he had already put all his feelers out there. It was clear that he was interested in Brooklyn.
He knew that it was probably an impossible dream and that it wasn’t as if he was in any condition to have a relationship. The accident had made him basically unable to date, because it wasn’t as if he had any time to go out with someone with how intensive his recovery was going to be.
In fact, the pain was starting to become more of a problem now. He had been drugged when he had first arrived and too distracted by Beth to really worry too much about it. Then he had been distracted by Brooklyn being all gorgeous in front of him. It was almost too much for him now that the pain seemed to be taking over his body, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do about it.
He wasn’t sure how to feel about it.
“Are you okay?” Brooklyn asked.
Luca clearly wasn’t doing that good of a job hiding what was going on, but he tried his best to smile at him.
“I’m fine,” he said. “I’ll be okay.”
“You’re f
ine or you’ll be okay? Because those two things are in direct competition with each other.”
“No, I—I mean, I’m still in pain,” he replied. “But all things considered, I’m okay.”
“You can tell me that you’re in pain. It’s okay.”
“I’m in pain,” Luca said with a thin smile. “But I’m trying to push through. Have a normal life, you know? That was something my doctors emphasized.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes,” Luca nodded. “My doctor said depression is really common when people are getting over an accident like mine.”
Brooklyn nodded. “That’s right. Who was your doctor?”
“Dr. Abigail Green was my primary.”
“She’s great,” he said. “You got lucky.”
“People keep saying that,” Luca said.
“She’s right, you know,” Brooklyn said. “It’s very common to get depressed when something like this happens.”
Luca looked him up and down. He didn’t think that he was going to get the chance to ask again, so now was the perfect time to ask him about the accident. It wasn’t like he could ask about Brooklyn’s relationship status, so this was the next best thing. “Is that what happened to you?”
Brooklyn narrowed his eyes. “Kind of,” he said. “It’s complicated.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“I don’t normally,” he said.
“You don’t have to.”
Brooklyn bit his lower lip. “I don’t know,” he said. “You might actually get it. Though the circumstances were different.”
“You can just tell me the parts that you want to tell me,” Luca said. “Or, honestly, you don’t have to tell me any parts. That works too.”
“I want to,” Brooklyn said, flashing him a sweet smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I think I just don’t know where to start.”
“That makes sense,” Luca said. “This all feels so overwhelming.”
“Tell me about it, brother,” Brooklyn said.
Luca wasn’t sure how he felt about that word. It seemed to put him right in the territory of friend, which wasn’t at all what he wanted. On the other hand, Brooklyn talking to him like a friend was fine. No, it wasn’t just fine; it was good. It was more than Luca had been expecting. “How long ago did it happen?”
“About four years ago? No, it has to be longer. Maybe like five years ago.”
“Oh. A car?”
“No,” Brooklyn said, shaking his head. “Not a car. Something much weirder.”
“What?” Luca said.
“A rollercoaster.”
“What?”
“Really,” Brooklyn said. “It was a freak accident.”
“You’re joking,” Luca replied, shaking his head.
“Oh, if only I were,” Brooklyn said. “Do you want to see the rest of the scars?”
Luca bit his lips. “I mean, you’ve seen mine,” he said. “Really, I suppose it’s only fair.”
“Exactly,” Brooklyn said. “Hey, I never pass up an opportunity to show off my scars. But I prefer not to do it in public.”
“Oh, sure,” Luca replied. “Sorry, shit. Let’s go back to my place?”
Brooklyn raised his eyebrows.
“Not in a pervy way,” Luca said. “I’m basically a rag doll that was recently put back together. I hardly think I could perform, even if I wanted to.”
Brooklyn quietly laughed at that. “Did you think I wanted you to perform?”
“What? No. No, I didn’t say that.”
“Kind of said that,” Brooklyn said.
“Look, just… come back to my place for a drink,” Luca said. “I have beer that I can’t consume, so…”
“So you want me to drink it?”
“Unless you have somewhere better to be?” Luca said, cocking his head.
“No,” Brooklyn replied. “Nowhere better to be. And you don’t have to get a car. I can drive us.”
“Good,” Luca said. “That sounds good.”
For some reason, his heart was going a million miles an hour. He couldn’t help but feel like this was the beginning of a date, even though it wasn’t. It was just a friendship. They had both made that clear. At least Luca had thought that he’d made it clear.
He might have been interested in more, if his circumstances hadn’t been so very weird. He still didn’t even know what had happened with his ex-boyfriend. Maybe if there was some way that he could find out or… but he was just letting his mind wander. He was letting this man get into his brain and he was letting his brain take off with daydreams that made very little sense.
There was something about him. He wanted to make sure that Brooklyn knew that he was interested, just not yet. But it wouldn’t have been fair to ask him for that either, because it wasn’t like the two of them had met and then decided to date each other.
They had met in a hospital, when Luca was seriously hurt. That wasn’t really the start of a romance story, at least not as far as Luca was concerned.
Maybe later. When things had changed between them. If things did ever manage to change between them. Luca knew they weren’t likely to, but that was what he wanted.
Brooklyn’s car was a small thing and Luca was a little marveled that Brooklyn could fit in there. He was a big guy and he seemed to fit in there pretty easily.
“I know,” Brooklyn said when he caught him staring. “But it’s a good car. Affordable, too.”
“Good,” Luca said.
“I inherited it from my sister,” Brooklyn said.
Luca watched him, his eyes wide.
Brooklyn laughed, throwing his head back. “Oh, she didn’t—she didn’t die, though things were pretty touch-and-go there for a little while.”
Luca cocked his head. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Oh, no, don’t be,” Brooklyn said. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. It sucked when it happened.”
He watched him, wondering if he was going to say anything else. Brooklyn put the car into reverse and Luca noticed that it was a manual. He wondered what else he didn’t know about Brooklyn, and he assumed that the list of the things he didn’t know could have easily filled a book.
He would have loved to find out more about him. He watched him, waiting for him to say something else.
“In the rollercoaster,” Brooklyn said as he merged into traffic. “She was with me. It was our family vacation. We were celebrating her graduation from high school. We were trying to break free from our parents a little bit, because they were both overprotective.”
“Were?”
“They haven’t gotten any better,” Brooklyn said with a dry smile. “But in truth, they have good reason to be paranoid now. They didn’t before.”
“Because of the rollercoaster thing?”
“Exactly,” Brooklyn said. He took a deep breath. “Where do you live again?”
“Just go down this road then take your first left at the light.”
“Okay,” Brooklyn said. “Yeah, so, before the accident, my parents were a little paranoid. After the accident, their paranoia became full-blown and completely unmanageable.”
“That sounds hard.”
“Well, it’s hard now,” he said. “At the time, it just made sense. It’s the kind of thing where it’s good to have people looking after you. Especially with my sister.”
“What happened?” he asked. “If you want to talk about it. You don’t have to talk about it.”
“I don’t mind talking about it,” Brooklyn said. “I mean, I don’t want to put you off rollercoasters. They’re really safe rides and you’re more likely to get hurt on the way to a theme park than you are in a theme park.”
“Yeah, that sounds comforting,” Luca said.
Brooklyn smiled. “It’s fine,” he said. “Seriously. I mean, I’ll never go on a rollercoaster again, but other than that, it’s totally fine.”
“Still,” Luca said. “I think you’re convincing me not to go on one of t
hem again.”
“That is not my intention,” Brooklyn said. “You’re seriously more likely to get struck by lightning than to be hurt when you go on a rollercoaster.”
“What happened?”
“We were in this rollercoaster,” he said. “It was a famous one, and we had just arrived back to the bit where you embark and disembark. The ride technician told us that we were going to have to go for another ride because the carts had arrived at the stop misaligned.”
“Right.”
Brooklyn took a deep breath before he continued. He had stopped at a red light. There was a ton of traffic, so it wasn’t as if he could just escape from Luca. But he didn’t have to answer him either and Luca wanted to make it clear that he wasn’t trying to overstep by asking questions. The question of what happened seemed like a big one.
He wondered how he would have reacted if it had been Brooklyn asking him that, but that was different. Brooklyn already knew exactly what had happened to him, but Luca wondered if he would talk about it if Brooklyn had been the one in Luca’s current position.
He doubted it. He didn’t feel brave and he didn’t feel like the accident made him interesting. If anything, he didn’t want to think about it. It was too much. It was all too much, and part of him just didn’t want to deal with it at all.
“You don’t have to tell me,” Luca offered, his voice quiet.
“I know I don’t,” Brooklyn replied. “But I want to. It’s a little hard to remember, but most of the time, it feels like I’m telling a story about someone else’s life. Not my own. Somehow, even though it’s my experience, it feels very removed from my experience. Does that make sense?”
Luca nodded. “Sure,” he said. “It makes sense to me.”
“Good,” Brooklyn said. “I’m glad. See, I knew I could share it with you. I knew that you would get it.”
“Kind of,” Luca said. “I don’t want to pretend I get it more than I do.”
“The fact that you get it even a little bit is honestly enough for me. There aren’t that many people that do.”
“I thought you were surrounded by people who had been in accidents.”
Brooklyn turned to him and smiled. “Even then,” he said. “Anyway, so he asked us if we wanted to continue the ride. We all said yes. It would have been a pain to get out because they had to stagger the little cars as they arrived. People were mad because there were long lines but there was nothing to be done. It was a safety feature and the technician was going to stick to it.”