Hurricane

May 2006

I woke the next morning feeing relaxed and happy. Brendon was already awake, staring at me with a small smile on his lips.

“Morning,” he said quietly. I just smiled at him and sat up in his bed, pulling the blanket up with me to cover my bare chest. He sat up too, sliding his hand underneath the blanket and placing his hand just under my breasts as he leaned in to kiss me softly.

“What are you thinking about?” he murmured when he pulled away.

“How nice this is,” I answered. “And how much I like you.”

“I like you as well,” Brendon said. “If it hasn’t been obvious before now.”

“I had an idea that you did,” I said. We smiled at each other. My smile faltered, though, when I thought about Pete.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.
I hesitated for a moment.

“It’s just…Pete…” I answered, unsure of how to explain it. Brendon nodded his head.

“I had a feeling this would be an issue,” he said.

“I just don’t want to hurt him,” I said. “And I want to be honest with you. There’s definitely still a lot of feelings between us, and a whole bunch of confusing emotions. He’s the most serious relationship I’ve ever been in and I hope you’ll understand that I can’t get over him easily.”

“I understand,” Brendon answered.

“I’d tell you we should take things slow, but I think it’s a little late for that,” I said, laughing lightly. Brendon smiled.

“Yeah, I guess so,” he said. I leaned over and kissed Brendon.

“I want to be with you,” I said. “But for now, it’ll just be our little secret.”

---

June 2006

A month had gone by and Brendon was just wonderful. He would sometimes take me to these cozy little restaurants that he somehow managed to find. I had started sleeping in Brendon’s room. I only used my other bedroom to store my clothes. Though sometimes when I was alone, I would lie in my bed and stare out of the window in there.

Pete had no idea about Brendon and me. Pete hadn’t tried to kiss me again, but I would catch him watching me as I worked and I knew he was thinking about things; thinking about us. He always seemed like he wanted to ask me something, but I had started to avoid him as much as possible, which was proving to be difficult seeing as I worked for him.

July 2006

“I think you should tell Pete about us,” Brendon said to me one night when we were in bed, ready for sleep.

“Why?” I asked tiredly.

“Because I love you,” he answered. “And I want everyone to know it.”

I rolled over so that I was facing Brendon, our eyes meeting.

“I love you too,” I said, leaning forward to kiss him. “I’ll tell Pete tomorrow.”

---

I knocked on Pete’s office door, feeling nervous. I couldn’t remember the last time I had felt like this. I was worried about Pete’s reaction when I told him about Brendon and me.

Pete opened the door a moment later and grinned when he saw me.

“Molly! I’m glad you’re here early,” he said. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“I actually need to talk to you as well,” I said.

“Okay,” he said. “I just need to show you something.”

I followed Pete to his desk.

“Come behind here so you can see the computer screen,” Pete said. I did as he said and looked at the computer, and was surprised to see my face there. At a closer inspection I realized these were the pictures taken at the Clandestine photo shoot we had done two months ago.

“You just got the pictures now?” I asked.

“Actually, I got them last month,” he said. “This is the website for Clandestine. I didn’t want you to see anything until it was all finished. So what do you think?”

“It looks great,” I said. “Can I see the other pictures?”

Pete clicked through them until he got to the last one which was of Pete and me.

“These are wonderful,” I said.

“I was hoping you’d like them,” he said. “I’m already working on the next line, so hopefully in a few months we can do another photo shoot.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That would be great.”

“So what did you want to talk to me about?” Pete asked. I hesitated. He was in such a good mood and I was afraid that what I wanted to tell him would hurt him. And even though Pete had hurt me, I didn’t want to hurt him.

“Nothing,” I said. “I forgot—but it wasn’t important, so don’t worry about it.”

“Okay,” he said, smiling at me. “Want to get some lunch in a little while?”

“That would be great,” I said, returning his smile.

It was then that I realized that even with my feelings for Brendon, those feelings I had for Pete were still lingering.