Love Is a Losing Game

Sunlight streamed through the window interrupting Angie's dreams. She stirred, stretching her limbs with a groan, gently opening her eyes with a yawn. She lay in bed for a few minutes before deciding to get up. She walked over to the window and pulled back the drapes allowing more sunlight in. As she glanced out at the ocean, she spotted Brian sat in his back yard, his hat pulled down low over his eyes as he smoked a cigarette. She watched him for a long moment, before turning to pick up her cell off her night stand.

Turning back to face the window she dialled Brian's number and watched as he took his cell out of his pocket.

"I'm about to put the coffee machine on if you want one?" she said watching with a smile as he turned around to look for her.

"That sounds good to me." he replied with a smile as his eyes found hers through the window.

"I'll be over in two." he added before hanging up. Angie smiled as she turned to go to the kitchen. As she was taking two mugs out of the cupboard Brian walked in through the door.

"I wasn't sure if you'd want to see me after last night.'' he said as he took a seat at the breakfast bar. Angie turned to face him with a look of confusion.

"And what exactly happened last night?" she replied with a sly smile.
Brian hesitated for a moment, a look of confusion covering his own face. "I um, I kissed you." he said hesitantly.

"You did?" she replied with a smirk and an obvious wink. Brian stared at her for a moment before a smile of his own appeared.

"Apparently not.'' he replied with a smirk.

"Ok, so as head of security, I'm guessing your going to be at this meeting later.'' she said passing him his coffee as she sat opposite him with her own mug.

"Yeah me Zack and Matt tend to take it in turns going, I've drawn the short straw this time. Do you want to share a ride in?'' he replied.

"Exactly what I was going to suggest, we'll take your car.'' she replied with a smug grin.
They were both silent for a moment as they drank their coffee, both of them lighting a cigarette.

"You know that thing that never happened last night?'' Brian asked breaking the silence.

"What of it?" Angie replied with a raised eyebrow.

"I only would have regretted it if you had.'' he replied his cheeks turning a slight shade of pink.

"Bri, last night wasn't the right time, I didn't want you to wake up this morning feeling like you'd made a mistake. It would have ruined our friendship.'' Angie replied quietly with a sympathetic smile.

"Do you think there will be a right time?'' he asked, his cheeks deepening in colour.

"I don't know Bri, maybe, part of me hopes so." she replied quietly.

"What about the other part?'' he asked his eyes meeting hers.

She sighed but smiled. "I'll put it this way, it's the biggest part of me that hopes so, but you also need to give yourself some time."

Brian nodded with a large smile as he picked his mug back up to his lips.

"You know you could make it easier for me and cover up a bit.'' He said with sly smirk as his eyes roamed over her body.

"Perv!" Angie yelled as she immediately grabbed the hoodie off the back of the stool next to her pulling it over her head.

"Well what else do you expect me to do?'' Brian defended as he finished off his coffee, getting up and placing the mug in the sink.

"Right, I'll be back in an hour to go to that meeting.'' he said before placing a quick kiss on the top of her head and heading back through the back door.

Almost exactly an hour later Angie walked into her kitchen to find Brian sat at the counter talking to Stuart. "I thought I heard voices." she said grabbing the bottle of water from Stuarts grasp and taking a sip. "Good work out?" she asked Stuart. An ear to ear grin quickly worked its way onto his face as he nodded.

"Very much so yeah, you should have seen the tight blue shorts he was wearing today, they didn't leave much for my imagination to do.''

"You go to the gym to perv?'' Brian asked incredulously, his eyes widening.

"What better place is there? Although the beach is always good I guess.'' he replied.

"Bri, you should know Stu by now, perving on half naked men is what he was put on this planet to do.'' Angie replied.

"Amen to that!" Stuart exclaimed.

"Fair enough, are there any hot women at this gym, cos quite frankly they seem to be lacking at my gym.'' Brian replied. "And apparently I'm not allowed to perv on Angie.'' he added with a wink.

"I never said you weren't allowed.'' she defended.

"Oh enough of the flirting you two, there's mail on the counter for you.'' Stuart said pointing at the pile of envelopes on the counter. Angie turned and started to flick through them.

Suddenly she stopped, the colour quickly draining from her cheeks. The pile off letters fell to the counter, some slipping to the floor as she grabbed her car keys off the counter in front of her.

"Hey, I thought we were taking my car?'' Brian called after her.

"Take Stuart.'' she called back.

"Any idea what that was about?'' Brian asked as Stuart gathered the letters up.

"This.'' he replied simply, the colour gone from his cheeks too as he passed an envelope to Brian.

"This is from him isn't it, her ex?'' he said as he stared at the handwritten envelope. Out of the corner of his eye he saw him nod. "There's no post mark Stu, you know that means he delivered this himself, he was right outside your house.'' Brian stated in almost a growl as Stuart slowly nodded his head. "What happened between them Stu?'' Brian demanded.

"That's not for me to tell you.'' Stuart replied shaking his head.

"How dangerous is he?'' he retorted.

"In the wrong frame of mind he could be very dangerous.'' he replied panic in his voice.

"Where would she go?'' Brian asked his voice low and fretful.

"I don't know. She could be heading anywhere. She could just be driving around. If she does stop anywhere it'll be somewhere she can hide in the crowd.'' he replied.

With a nod Brian stuffed the envelope into his pocket and walked out of the kitchen. "Do me a favour and try and get hold of Matt or Zack, ask one of them to go to that meeting for me.'' he said stopping in the doorway before disappearing out of the front door and heading to his Escalade parked in his driveway.

Angie had no idea where she was heading. All she knew was that she'd had to get out of the house. She hadn't been driving for long when her cell phone began to ring. For the first hour or so she ignored them. Then she decided she should really answer one of them, so she made the decision to answer the next call. She was driving for another seven minutes before her cell rang again. She leant across to the passenger seat and grabbed her cell and answered it.

"Angie where are you?'' Brian's voice floated through the phone as soon as she answered.

"On the Interstate, just past Santa Clarita. I kinda just drove off not really paying attention to where I was going.'' she replied.

"Are you planning on coming back anytime soon?'' he asked quietly.

"I'm going to turn around as soon as I can. Shouldn't you be at the meeting?'' she replied.

"I asked Stu to get hold of one of the guys, I wanted to make sure you were okay, I've been driving around looking for you for an hour.'' he replied. Angie suddenly felt guilty at the thought of him driving around aimlessly looking for her and all the while ignoring the phone calls off him.

"Bri I'm sorry, I just needed to...''

"Don't apologise, just come back yeah.'' he cut her off.

"Ok, meet me back at the house in about an hour.'' she replied. Brian agreed before hanging up.

As she got out of her car just over an hour later Brian emerged from his house and followed her into her house. "Bri, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have just gone off like that.'' she said stopping in the hallway and turning to face him as he shut the front door.

"It's okay, are you okay now?'' he asked. She slowly shook her head trying her best to fight back tears.

"Hey, come here.'' Brian replied taking a step forward to pull her into his arms. As her head rested on her chest she allowed the tears to fall. "I just want to be free of him, have a normal life without worrying about him.'' she said shakily into his chest.

"I won't let him hurt you.'' Brian whispered back as he ran his hand soothingly over her back.

"Don't promise anything please, Stuart did and I know he now lives with the guilt of letting me down, no matter how many times I tell him it wasn't his fault.'' she replied, lifting her head off his chest and looking up into his eyes.

Slowly Brian lifted his one hand to her cheek and gently brushed away the tears with his thumb. "What did he do to you?'' he whispered staring into her eyes.

"It’s a long story, come on, I've got some JD in the kitchen.'' she replied turning and heading through to the kitchen. Brian followed sitting down at the counter as she took out two glasses and the JD from the cupboard. She placed them on the breakfast bar between them and poured them both a large shot. She took a long sip before she began.