Denying the Inevitable

Brooklyn’s POV

I took the pink ice cream cone from Luke’s hand and shook my head at him. “What?!” He asked innocently. I rolled my eyes and turned my back on him and made my way to the table in the corner of the ice cream shop that was pretty much empty. “When was the last time you had bubble gum ice cream?” he asked as he sat across from me, leaning halfway across the small table.

“Uhm...probably back in Kelowna.” I told him with a laugh.

“Is it not your favourite anymore?” My eyes met his as my smile widened and he took my smile as an answer. “So if it is then why haven’t you had it in so long?”

“I don't know.” I shrugged. “Maybe because I'm not twelve years old.” I stated as I threw a sugar packet at him. He smirked at me, burning his eyes into mine until I broke our little staring contest. We sat there quietly eating our ice cream and I made a mental note that Luke, as per usual, had gotten vanilla. Not French vanilla...boring, ordinary vanilla. He liked to call it trusty and reliable, but those were just fancy words for uninteresting.

As I sat there discreetly taking Luke in, I realized that he hadn’t changed. He still rubbed the back of his neck when he was nervous. He still pulled at his hair when he was frustrated. He still walked with one hand in his pocket. We could still sit together without saying a word and be completely comfortable and his smile still made my knees weak. Luke had always known how to work me. He had gotten out of trouble a million and a half times by flashing me that smile. He knew I was a sucker for it and he used it to his advantage. “You should probably eat that before it melts.” Luke said, pulling me out of my daydreaming as he motioned to my ice cream. “I’ll still be here when you’re done. You can violate me with your eyes after.” He stated, showing me that smile. I felt my cheeks blush at the fact that he had caught me staring at him and focussed all of my attention on my ice cream cone, not once looking up.

After ice cream Luke took me for a drive along the Lakeshore. It was abnormally warm for a mid October day so there was a lot to look at. There were sailboats and speedboats littering the waters of Lake Ontario. There were people leisurely making their way around on rollerblades, bikes and skateboards and there were a lot of people out walking their dogs. This is the Toronto I knew that I would like. I had been here for weeks now and this is the first time I had actually seen the city. Any part of the city. Nathan was always busy with work. He always has research to do, games to watch, things to write, places to go...it’s actually really lonely. I've never been left on my own this much in my entire life. Back home there was always something for me to do and someone for me to do it with. Here...it’s just me and Nathan. Well...and Luke I guess.

Luke pulled onto my street and I immediately began to panic when I saw Nathan’s Avalanche in the driveway. “Keep going!” I ordered. Luke glanced at me questioningly and I pointed forward. “Keep driving! Don't pull in the drive way.” There was no way in hell I could pull into the driveway with Luke after what had happened last night. Nathan would lose it. He would completely fucking lose it. Luke pulled to the side of the road when we were out of view of the house.

“So we’re sneaking around, are we?” Luke asked with a smirk. I shot him a dirty look and he quickly tried to downplay the meaning of that statement. “Our friendship...I mean. We’re sneaking around behind your...oh never mind.” He trailed off.

“He doesn't need to know that I saw you today.” I told Luke. “He only just found out last night exactly who you are to me.”

“And who am I to you?” Luke asked me, his voice slightly husky as he angled himself towards me.

“Uhm...well..you’re..” I struggled to put into words what he was. The truth is I'm not sure I know what he is to me. “You're a friend.” I told him. His eyes lowered and he turned back towards the steering wheel as he let out a defeated breath. “Luke...we’re friends. That’s it.”

“Is that what you see when you look at me?” He questioned with a frustrated tone lingering in his voice.

“Yes! I mean...no. I don't know! When I look at you I see what we were. But the past is the past for a reason, Luke. We can’t be what we were. I don't even know if I would be satisfied being what we were anymore. But I do know one thing...if this comes up every time we go out for coffee, or ice cream or whatever then I don't think that we can even be friends. That's all we can be, Luke. Friends.” I could see in his eyes that my answer had wounded him but he forced a smile and nodded.

“Friends.” He repeated.

“I've got to go.” I told him as I took off my seat belt. “This was nice.” I commented before stepping out of the truck.

“I’ll give you a call.” He told me. “Bye Brooke.” With that he turned the key in the ignition and pulled off down the street. I stood there and watched his truck diminish in size until it was gone and then I finally took in the breath that I was holding. That wasn’t so bad. Maybe I could manage to have Luke and Nathan in my life.

I opened the front door of the house and slipped my short, dark brown uggs off my feet. I pulled my hoodie off and tossed it on the bench by the door. “Brooke?” Nathan called out from the living room.

“Yah baby.” I replied.

“Come in here.” He said. I walked up the few stairs and into the living room.

“Everything okay?” I questioned keeping my voice steady even though I had a sick, guilty feeling in my stomach. Nathan got up off the couch and made his way towards me. “Nate?” He stretched his arms out and wrapped them around me holding me tight to his body.

“I am so sorry about last night.” He whispered into me hair. “Brooke...this has been killing me all day! I feel like such a jerk! I came home early from work to talk to you about this and when you weren’t here...that’s when I realized how wrong I was. I overreacted. You’re MY fiancé. I know that you love me and no one else. I don't want you to think that I don't trust you.”

“Nate it’s okay! I..”

“No. It’s not. I was an asshole. I trust you babe! I do.” He told me, looking deep into my eyes.

“Good!” I replied.

“Now...I have some amazing news.” He told me, a huge smile spreading across his face. “The church is available in May!”

“The church?” I questioned.

“For the wedding.” He reminded me. Right. The wedding that I had forgotten all about with all the recent events in our lives.

“OH!” I shouted.

“The first weekend in May. I told them that we would take it and I gave them all the payment information. Now we just have to call up the..”

“Wait...you what?” I asked, hoping to god that I had heard him wrong.

“I booked the church for the first weekend in May.” My head fell into hands and he paused slightly. “Uhm...isn’t that what you wanted? The first weekend in May at..”

“You really should have talked to me about this first before you went ahead and booked it.”

“But Brooklyn we talked about this! That was the date! That was the church!” He was right. Why was I freaking out about this? We had planned on an early May wedding and it was about time that I actually started planning said wedding because May is seven months away.

“You’re right.” I told him. “You're right! I’m sorry, Nate. Thank you.” I told him as I went up on my toes to kiss him. “I'm going to get a shower.”

As I stood under the burning hot water it hit me. May was going to come fast.