For What It's Worth

Chapter 7

As the alarm beside me began to chime away, I struggled to remember why I had set it so early in the first place. Ah yes, today was my first day at work. I sighed more heavily than I had intended, struggling to find a way out of Brooks’ iron grip. How I loved it when he snuggled in close to me and refused to let go for fear of losing his personal space heater. That’s the thing about Brooks though, he’s a tough guy on the ice but God does he love a good cuddle at the end of the day. It’s one of the many things that makes him so sweet and so easy to love.

On this particular morning, he had himself wound around my significantly smaller frame, his warm breath tickling the crook of my neck. It sent shivers up my spine, only I’m fairly certain that Brooks mistakenly understood them as recoil from the sound of the alarm chiming a second time. It was more than common for an alarm to frighten me awake, which in turn, usually resulted in Brooks having to reassure me that everything was fine. How many times in college a fire alarm in the middle of the night had reduced to tears…

I wiggled out of bed and made my way to the kitchen, leaving sleeping beauty to inhabit the rest of the bed. Which, I have to say, he did ever so gracelessly. As soon as I was out of bed, he flopped onto his back, spread eagle with his neck bent at an odd angle. I swear I saw a little drool too. Ahh, my prince charming.

I chuckled as I entered the kitchen and was startled when I walked in on the apparently private conversation that Alex and Mike were having. I say “apparently” because the pair of them looked at me with wide eyes as if I had just waltzed in on some sort of top secret C.I.A assassination plot. And they had waffles. What the hell.

“Morning sunshine!”

“Hiya Mikey,” I replied, fairly certain I had sent them home with full stomachs less than twelve hours ago.

“We made waffles.”

“I see that,” I replied, taking a large plate of half cooked batter from Alex.

“We wanted to wish you luck on your first day.”

I wasn’t sure whether I should have been more concerned about how they got into the house in the first place, or the fact they had obviously been raiding the kitchen for the past hour and neither Brooks nor I had noticed what must have involved a lot of pots banging together and unfathomable combinations of English and Russian profanities. I decided it would be better if I didn’t think about it, instead laughing slightly as I cut into a waffle. Normally, I don’t eat waffles that ooze batter when you cut into them, but Mike and Alex were staring at me so hopefully I just couldn’t say no.

“Oh my God! You totally just ate a half cooked waffle for us! It’s official, you’ve unknowingly taken the sacred vow of the coven of Mike and Alex.”

“That means you’re in our club,” Alex said triumphantly.

“Hmm. I didn’t realized sacred vows involved partially cooked breakfast treats,” I said with a laugh. “What does this club involve?”

“There’s this secret mission that we made up and you have to complete it or else.”

“Or else what?” I asked, slightly concerned.

The pair of them exchanged a mischevious look before launching into their non-sugar coated explanation.

“Or else you’ll have to spend the rest of your life watching Brooks be happy with some dumb girl who looks like you but isn’t nearly as lovely. And then they’ll get married and you’ll think about how that should be you, and then they’ll have little Brooksies and you’ll wish they were yours. And then they’ll say their first words-”

“Please Mike,” I said quietly. “I get it.” I could only stare at my plate. To say that I was shaken by our turn in conversation would be an understatement. I was utterly embarrassed that my silly little secret wasn’t actually a secret at all. That Mike and Alex had been watching me the entire time and probably thought that I was a pathetic little puck bunny just like the rest of them. As I thought about this, I felt the hot tears begin to trickle down my face. Great, and I was crying about it too.

“Julianna, we didn’t mean to make you cry,” Alex pleaded.

“No, it’s fine, really,” I said trying to force a smile. “Is is that obvious though?”

“Well kinda, but only because we’ve been watching.”

“That’s kind of creepy Mike,” I said with a laugh.

“Well, we thought about that but we were forced to take action 1) because you are pretty much the perfect girl for Brooks and he totally loves you and 2) Brooks is pretty much the perfect guy for you and you love him back.”

They made it sound so easy. But then again, maybe it was that simple. Really, what was stopping us besides our own fears? Ah yes, nothing. My worst fear? Rejection. Like I said, I’d rather have Brooks as my best friend than have him as nothing at all. But Brooks, well I wasn’t sure if he even had any worries because I was fairly certain that he had never thought of me as anything other than his best friend.

“Seriously Jules. Trust us, we know him almost as well as you do. He’s different now that you’re here.”

“Boys, you’re sweet but he’s never been interested in me like that. He’s just my best friend is all,” I said sadly.

“Julianna. You listen to me and you listen good. We are not going to stand by and watch you two pine away for each other and not do anything about it. We have our sources and we can confirm that Brooks is your penguin.”

“What does that even mean Mike?”

“Emperor penguins mate for life. They find their soul mate and no matter how long they’ve spent apart or how long they have to spend searching for one another after a long winter, they always they always come back to one another because no one else will do...and then they sing this song.”

“Mike, that is utterly profound, but it'll never happen.” I have no idea where that came from, but I suppose it made sense.

“Thanks. I saw it in the movie Happy Feet but then I googled it on the National Geographic site so I would be prepared for this moment.”

“So there. We used science.”

“But he’s has a girlfriend anyways Alex.” How i wished they'd give it a rest.

“Pshh, she’s stupid. She kinds looks a lot like you though, but she’s not as fun. Mostly she just flips her fair around a lot.”

“I see. I don’t know boys. It’s too early for all this. I have to get ready for work,” I said, completely exasperated. This was not how I planned to start my first morning at a new job.

"You'll see Jules. Trust us."

"I'll trust you to clean the batter off of my ceiling," i said, trying not to sound to sharp. I wasn't upset with the boys because i knew they were right. I just wasn't expecting to be ambushed. Mike didn't notice when his interior designer changed the colour of his bedroom from light blue to electric green. But this, he notices. They meant well I just didn't know if i could trust them. They'd been sneaking around me and making phone calls to people they didn't even know for weeks now. And they always had that clipboard with them, meticulously taking notes. It all made sense now. They were playing matchmaker.

As I passed the open door to Brooks’ room, I thought briefly about what Mike had said. I wasn’t sure I believed in all that nonsense about soulmates but when I looked at Brooks, innocently tangled in his sheets, I couldn’t help but wonder if the universe might have a strange, albeit twisted, way of working its magic.
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So sorry to keep you all waiting so long. Writer's block has not been kind to me.

Enjoy and don't forget to comment!