A New Start

Chapter 4: I Don’t Kiss and Tell

I woke the next morning and opened my eyes and saw that I was in my very bare bedroom. Alone. I hated being alone, but even after the kiss with Don I, I was glad that I was alone. It was too early for a relationship of any kind except friendship. Another thing I don’t sleep around. I’m a one guy kinda girl. I looked over at the clock and started to panic.

~Shit! 10:00 I’m gonna be late. Mac’s gonna be pissed.~ I thought until I sat up. ~Wait.~
I had forgotten that Mac gave the day off today to get everything settled into my apartment. I laid back into my pillows, planning on sleeping for at least another hour. I could feel a headache coming on from the night before. Of course as soon as my head hit the pillows there was a knock at my door.

~Wonder who that is?~ I thought pushing back the covers, I stood up and the headache I had felt coming on blew to full force. I hadn’t even drank that much last night. I heard the person knock on the door once more.

“Just a minute!” I yelled. Stomping through the living room I stubbed my toe on my coffee table. “OW! FUCK!” I yelled before adding a few more expletives to my sentence. I half stomped and half limped to the door flinging it open to reveal Stella with her eyebrows raised.

“Stella?”

“Brooklynn.”

“Why are you here?” I asked confused. “Not that I don’t want you here but I thought that you had to work today.”

“Well, I did but Lindsey knew that we lived in the same building and that you just moved here and she offered to cover my shift for me. I wanted to come and help you do whatever today.” She said walking past me into my apartment. ~Come on in.~ I thought.

“Okay lets pretend that I believe what your telling me.” I smiled at her as she tried looking innocent. I rolled my eyes. I turned and walked into the kitchen and grabbed some Tylenol and water. “Spill what’s the real reason you’re here.”

“Okay, so helping you isn’t my only reason for coming here.” She sighed and sat down on the couch. “I got a little curious when I heard that you went out with Danny and Flack last night.” She lifted a dark eyebrow at me.

“Nothing happened. They were going out for drinks anyway and Don invited me to tag along, so I did. We had a few drinks, some of us more than others. Danny got completely plastered I had to help Don take him back to his apartment. Lindsey didn’t look to happy, or I assumed it was Lindsey. I got a little tipsy, I don’t like to drink too much. Don, well I couldn’t really tell about Don, but I think he was more that a little tipsy. That’s it.” I said leaving out the tid-bit about Don walking me back to my apartment and kissing me in the hallway.

“I heard Don kissed you.” Stella stated. If I had been looking at her I would have known that my friend was baiting me.

“Who told you?” I said quickly looking at her again.

“Ha! So you did kiss.” Stella pointed at me with a huge grin on her face.

“Uggg…you tricked me. Fine, yes he kissed me. After dropping Danny off he walked me back here. I thought he would only walk me to the front of the building, but no he walked all the way up to my door. I was gonna say good-bye when I caught him staring at me. Next thing I know he’s telling me I’m beautiful and kissing me.” I took a breath and looked at Stella.

“You like it right.”

“Of course I liked it. It’s not everyday that I have a very handsome, sexy Detective from the NYPD kiss me out of nowhere. The only problem is, is that I just met him yesterday briefly and then almost got drunk with him. I mean, I don’ know him at all. I don’t know what that kiss meant. Is it supposed mean that he likes me or was it just a drunken good night kiss. I just don’t know and I hate being confused.” I said all this in a rush and finally I took another deep breath. I hated when I got myself all worked up over the simplest things.

“Well, when I was at the lab this morning, I overheard him and Danny talking. He likes you but he’s unsure of why exactly he kissed you last night. He’s attracted to you definitely but like you said you don’t know each other. I think he’s just about as confused as you are.” Stella fell silent for a minute as she looked at me. “I can tell you one thing though Don doesn’t sleep around. He used to but he’s grown up since then and he is more of a one woman kind of guy now. I don’t know if that helps you any. But he likes you. At least that’s what I gathered from everything that I overheard.” She then stood up and walked over to a box sitting on the floor and opened it. “Okay where do you want me to start?”

**********Meanwhile….at the lab***********************************

“I still can’t get over the fact that you kissed her. I thought old Don Flack quit going around and kissing random women.” Danny looked at me. I was beginning to think it was a mistake to tell my best friend anything.

“Would you drop it already. It just happened. Right now all I can do is blame the alcohol that I drank for my actions.” I said still trying to understand why I just up and kissed her like that. I probably freaked her out. I mean I know I’m attracted to her and I think she’s attracted to me but I still shouldn’t have done that.

~I’m an idiot.~ I thought as I rubbed my face with my hands.

“Yeah, whatever Donnie, you can’t fool me. You liked kissing her, you’re too attracted to her not to have liked it.” Danny smiled as I glared at him. I stood up and walked over and got me another cup of coffee when Mac walked in.

“Don’t you two girls have work to do instead of standing in here and gossiping all day.” Mac said scowling before walking away.

“What’s his problem today?” Danny looked at me and shrugged.

“Oh well, see you later Messer.”

“Later Flack.” With that we both left the break room and went in opposite directions. I had a bunch of paperwork laying on my desk.

********Brooklynn’s apartment***********************************

“Wow, this is definitely an improvement. This actually looks like a living room, not just a room with couches. I would say lets start on the kitchen but I’m getting hungry. I’m going to go get dressed and then we will go out to eat lunch somewhere. Sound good?” I looked at Stella.

“Sure.”

“Then afterward I want to stop by the lab…” I cut off at Stella’s look. “What? I want to check in with Mac about the case we’ve been working on. No other reason.” I walked away into my bedroom.

“Uh huh.” Was Stella’s only reply, I could hear the laughter in her voice telling me she didn’t believe me. I got dressed and put my long dark curly hair into a ponytail. Slipping on my sandals, I grabbed my purse and I was ready to go.

“Ready Stell?” I asked walking into my living room to find Stella unpacking some to the kitchen boxes.

“You didn’t have to start on those. They can wait.” I said.

“I know, but I didn’t know how long you would be so I decided to be productive.” She smiled at me. “I’m ready.”
We walked out of my apartment and down to the street. “Where do you want to eat.” I looked at Stella.

“Well there is a small café across the street from the lab. They have good food and even better coffee.” I nodded and we started to walk the two blocks to the café. The city was always busy it never seemed to sleep but today it seemed even busier. I know that before we reached the café that at least two creepy guys had tried to grab my ass. Not cool. Finally we reached the café and we sat down and quickly ordered our food and drinks.

“Okay, I’m curious and you have to tell me. Why did you move from Missouri and Kansas to New York besides the obvious reason of the ex-boyfriend.” Stella asked looking at me with her green eyes.

“Well the main reason is to find my parents.” I let that sentence sink in.

“Wait! What? I thought you said your parents were living back in Missouri.” Stella stated looking at me shocked.

“Well, for all intents and purposes they are my parents…my adoptive parents.” I saw that Stella had yet to lose her shocked expression. “ They ah…adopted me when I was 17 years old. I never understood why and I still don’t. I mean it was only one year and I would have been out of the system forever. I didn’t want to go at first but they won me over. All my brothers are adopted as well, I guess my father adopted two boys after he got a divorce with his first wife and my mother had adopted two boys while she was with her first husband. After they divorced her husband wanted nothing to do with the boys. So when my mother met my father they had four kids already. The youngest boy is 10 years older than me. I never understood why they waited to adopt another child.” I paused and took a drink of water. “My mother told me once that they had seriously decided not to adopt anymore children but they wanted to go and look. She said that even though I was already grown up she felt that pull at her heart and she just had to adopt me. It meant a lot to me. Even after that I still didn’t understand. Anyway, I decided when I turned 21 that I wanted to find my real parents and surprisingly enough my parents supported me on the decision. My boyfriend didn’t. I found out about him and then I think that him cheating really made the decision a concrete idea in my head.”

“Wow.” Stella breathed.

“Yeah so I told everyone that I was going to come up here for two weeks to see if I could find anything. I was here for about a week when I was at the library and I saw that the crime lab had an opening for an investigator. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so the next day I made an appointment with Mac for an interview. I mean since I graduated college at 18 I hadn’t had any experience working out in the field, but I wasn’t going to let this go. I mean it has always been my dream to be a crime scene investigator. I figured I could make that dream come true and maybe find my parents in the process.”

“So most of this all happened by chance?” Stella asked.

“Call it fate or maybe even destiny.” I said with a smile. “I always wanted to move here. When I was little and staying in the orphanage I would always ask Mona, the lady that ran it, if we could all move here. She always said no. It’s funny because even though it was an orphanage all the kids that lived there were happy. She let us call her mom. If I ever see her again that is probably what I would call her, she was always the nicest person. Out of all the place that I stayed and lived, she was the nicest and the one I loved the best. Until I was adopted anyway.”

Before Stella could ask another question our food arrived. We ate in silence until Stella couldn’t take it anymore.

“You know we have a lot more in common than I thought.”

“What?” I asked after I had taken another drink of water.

“I don’t know my real parents or family either.” She looked down at her plate. It was then that I saw her tough exterior soften.

“Are you ashamed of being an orphan Stella?” I asked. She looked up at me and slowly shook her head.

“Stell, its nothing to be ashamed of. I’m not ashamed. The ones that should be ashamed are the parents that left us. They’re to blame. Not us. We have nothing to be ashamed of. If I was still with my parents, where ever they are, my life would be totally different and I wouldn’t know the things I know. I wouldn’t have this job, that even though I’ve only worked one day, that I love. I have great new friends. I have you as a friend. I never would have met you, or Don, or Danny, or even Mac. I’m sure that I’ll be friends with the others as well but, the point is I may be 23. I may be young but I have no reason to feel ashamed for the things that make me,…me. I don’t regret the life that I have and neither should you.” I pushed back my chair and threw my napkin in my plate. “I need to use the bathroom.”

I hadn’t meant to get so upset or even angry at Stella. I just never met anyone except my adoptive family that understood everything that goes on in those places. Someone that understood somewhat of what I went through. Even though sometimes I had a hard time I would always stick by what I had told Stella, I don’t regret the life I have. I hadn’t realized that by now I was crying a little bit.

~Don’t be stupid…don’t cry…its not like she’ll be mad a you.~ I looked at myself in the mirror and saw my eyes were a little puffy. ~Great now everyone will be able to tell.~ I wiped my tears away once more before leaving the bathroom. I walked back to the table and as soon as I reached it I spoke.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get upset but I won’t take it back.” I half way apologized.

“Hey, don’t apologize to me. There’s no need for that.” Stella said putting up her hand to stop me from apologizing anymore. “Let’s go to the lab.”

We paid for our food and laid down a few bills for the waitress and left. Walking across the street a few people yelled at me and I was in no mood so I flipped them off. As we walked into the lobby I ran straight into someone. I started to fall backwards from the impact before I felt arms around my waist catching me.

“Couldn’t wait to see me.” I heard Don’s voice before I looked up into his face.

“Shit! Sorry Don. I wasn’t watching where I was going.” I started to blush.

“It’s okay I don’t mind catching you.” He started flirting with me.

“You’re such a flirt Detective.” I said smiling at him. He smiled back for a few moments just looking into my eyes when his smile faded a little.

“Have you been crying?” He asked quietly. At that moment I heard someone clear their throat. I looked over at Stell and realized that I was still in Don’s arms in the middle of the lobby where I worked. I slowly worked my way out of his arms.

“Uhhhh….sorry again, but I’ve gotta go talk to Mac.” I said getting out of his arms as quickly as possible. I practically ran to the elevator to escape. So busy was I in running away that I missed the look of hurt pass over Don’s handsome face.

***********************************************************************

I watched as Brooklynn practically ran away from me. I’ve never had anyone, except suspects, run away from me like that. It hurt and it must have shown on my face ‘cause next thing I knew Stella was standing next to me.

“Give her time, Don. She’ll come around.” Stella looked at me. “She told me some things about her today and I made a comment and it upset her. I really don’t think its you. Like I said just give her time.” Stella then turned to catch the next elevator.

I thought about what Stella had said and those statement from her confused me. Everything about Brooklynn confused me. One minute we’re flirting, the next she’s running away from me like I’m the plague. I’ve only known her a day and she has already begun to turn my world upside down.

Shaking my head I continued to make my way out of the precinct to find my way to the next crime scene. Yep, that woman has already turned my world upside down, from the moment I laid eyes on her I knew I was doomed.