Status: All finished! :)

One More Night

Chapter 8

Bree woke up the next morning feeling like she was on Cloud 9. Even though Marc had to leave, knowing that he was leaving to spend time with his parents brought a grin to her face every time she thought about it. Marc was absolutely adorable, and she could tell as soon as he’d realized his phone was going off that he felt bad about cutting their time short. Bree was sure that the fact they’d slept together had a lot to do with how he felt about it all, but even the fact that he’d been reluctant to go had butterflies in her stomach. Never before had a guy had such an effect on her.

When she was making her coffee Bree found herself humming, and blushed even though nobody was home to witness it. Everything she did was with a hop in her step or a smile on her face, all because of the incredibly cute redhead.

It wasn’t until three days later that she ran into Marc next; once again, downtown, except this time she was on her lunch break when he spotted her and jogged to catch up to her on the street. Bree had been on her way to the deli down the street from the newspaper office to get herself a sandwich when she’d heard her name being called. She looked around, not seeing anyone before continuing on her way. Again, she heard her name, and this time turned behind her, seeing Marc jogging toward her. A smile broke out across her face, and it stayed there as Marc matched pace with her, obviously intent on visiting or spending some time with her.

After explaining about being on her dinner break, Marc insisted on taking her out for lunch. They went to the deli she often frequented, the two of them taking a seat near the back. She was nearly late going back to work because they sat and talked, joked, and had such a great time she forgot all about having to go to work. Marc had apologized and even offered to drive her back. Bree of course refused, being just a block and a half away, and hugged Marc before quickly leaving. The rest of the day spent at the office flew by; the cute text from Marc apologizing once more for possibly making her late had a smile on her face and her head in the clouds.

Marc was in the same state. He found a bounce in his step that hadn’t been there since he and Robyn had first started dating; for the first time in a long time he felt truly happy. Bree treated him like he was the only man she’d ever had eyes for, and Marc reveled in the attention. He started to make excuses to run into town, hoping that he’d run into her somewhere; he didn’t like texting as much. Not that it wasn’t great to still have the conversations, but he loved the sound of her voice and watching her facial expressions change as she spoke, which was lacking in texts.

After the first few run-ins – a few of which Marc felt awful about because he’d undoubtedly made her late to work – Marc realized that going and meeting Bree in public might not be the best idea. Marc and Robyn knew a lot of people in Thunder Bay, and a hell of a lot of people knew Marc. The realization was disheartening, because even though he’d only been with Bree a few times he knew she was the kind of girl you didn’t hide away. She was beautiful, smart, funny, thoughtful, logical; everything Marc had accounted to being his ‘perfect’ woman. He had the perfect woman in his life, and he knew it. The only problem was the fact that she wasn’t his. He had absolutely no right to consider her his, not when he wasn’t technically hers. It was something that hard started to bother Marc as soon as he’d thought about it.

He returned home from another lunch with Bree – this time he’d planned ahead, ordering food for them and meeting her outside of her office; driving her the few blocks to her apartment so they could eat there – to find Jared waiting for him. That sent a shiver down Marc’s spine, and he tried to dim the smile that Bree always managed to put on his face as he got out of his truck.

“Hey Jay… what’s up?” he asked, and Jared shrugged.

“Not much… what about you? Where you been?” the question was so nonchalant it would’ve been easy for anybody else to think Jared was just genuinely curious. But Marc could see the way Jared’s eyes were a darker green, the slight tension in his neck and shoulders as he held his arms crossed in front of his chest, leaning casually against the porch.

“Just ran into town; met some friends for lunch,” the lie rolled easily off of Marc’s tongue, causing more guilt. When it had started to become easier for him to lie, he wasn’t sure. Humans adapt to survive, and Marc figured that with so desperately wanting Bree in his life he was adapting to keeping her a secret.

“Cool,” Jared nodded, but didn’t move from his spot to go inside, as he would have had it been just a casual question. Marc was scared as hell that Jared knew, or one of his friends had seen him with Bree and asked Jared about it… anything that would give him away to his little brother.

“Yeah. So what’re you up to? Thought you’d be with Nessa,” Marc asked, starting to walk inside. Passing by Jared’s scrutinizing gaze he unlocked the front door, not surprised to find his home empty. Robyn hardly seemed to spend any time at their house anymore, and it drove Marc crazy to stay there by himself.

“Nah, she’s with the girls – they went into town to get their nails done, some shit like that,” Jared replied, finally following Marc inside. They sat down in the living room, Marc flipping on the TV and lowering the volume, knowing Jared wanted to talk.

“Figures… doesn’t Eric want to take Tanya out to that cabaret this weekend?” Marc asked, and Jared nodded, staying silent. It unnerved Marc, but he decided he’d wait for Jared to ask rather than bring anything up himself.

“So, uh… who were you having lunch with?” Jared asked, and Marc’s blood did run cold. He stuttered and stumbled, watching Jared’s brow furrow as he did so.

“You weren’t with any of the guys… were you?”

Finally Marc shook his head, and saw Jared pale ever so slightly. “Who the hell were you with then Marc?”

“Look, you’re going to think I’m crazy,” Marc started, and then swallowed hard. He was going to tell Jared about Bree, but realized he couldn’t. It would cause too much of a mess, and that was far too big a burden to place on his youngest brother.

“Really Marc? Try me. Nessa texted me and asked why she saw you meeting up with some chick downtown. Who wasn’t Robyn,” the question came out as more of a barking accusation, and Marc winced.

“It was Bree,”

Jared’s eyes widened, his jaw dropped, and he nearly fell out of his chair.

“What?”

“Look, she… when she let me stay at her place we talked a lot, okay? She had a pretty messy situation before she moved here and she just needed somebody to talk to. She texted me the other day and asked if she could talk to me, because things were getting hectic and she really didn’t feel comfortable unloading it all on Anna. I said yes, met her for lunch today, end of story,” the words came easily once Marc started, feeling more and more like he was going to vomit as he blatantly lied to Jared.

“Really?”

“Yeah, Jay, really. I’m married, remember?” Marc asked as if it was a stupid question, and after a moment Jared let out an awkward laugh.

“I’m sorry Marc, it’s just… you know, with you having stayed there and everything, I didn’t know what to think. Especially when things with you and Robyn are… you know,” Jared apologized, and Marc nodded.

“Not a problem Jay; I never even thought of how it would look. I didn’t tell anybody because as far as everybody else knows I crashed at Danny’s place, so it wouldn’t make sense to try and explain how I even know her,” another lie, another weight sitting on his already heavy conscience.

“No, I get it. I’ll tell Nessa that I talked to you though, that she’s just a good friend of yours. She lived in Toronto, right? You could’ve easily met her through hockey,” Jared waved it off, thinking he was doing Marc a favor. In reality though, he was only making Marc feel worse. He knew this was all going to blow up in his face, and now he basically had Jared lying for him. It was going to be the death of him yet.

“Yeah,” he nodded, and after a minute they turned their attention to the TV. Jared fell asleep in minutes, as he was prone to doing, and partway through some DIY show Marc wasn’t paying attention to his cell went off. He dug it out of his pocket, his dark mood instantly disappearing as he saw the name and number the text came from.

‘Just wanted to say thanks again for lunch – it was lovely! –B’

Something that quick and simple put a smile back on Marc’s face as he quickly replied to her.

‘Not a problem. We’ll have to do it again sometime –M’

It was digging himself a deeper hole, but as far as Marc was concerned, wherever Bree was involved it was worth it.