Under My Skin
eleven
The morning rain has thrown Brooklyn’s plan to go for a run out the window. She’s looking forward to it and now she’s stuck in her room with her mind that refuses to stop replaying every detail of yesterday. The mortification that she felt last night has slowly dissipated, but she knows it’ll make an appearance at work tomorrow. But for now, she’s going to enjoy some peace and quiet before the storm.
Suki’s text messages remain unanswered since last night and she figures now’s the right time to type her responses. It’s still fairly early so she’s surprised when she sees the three dots appearing on the screen as soon as she clicks send.
Brooklyn tells her friend that yesterday was fun, that Niall charmed almost everyone and that she had a good day. She left out the major event of the evening because she’s still trying to process it all. She can’t believe she did that. Can’t believe that she did something that she normally wouldn’t do: wear her heart on her sleeves.
So are you like in love with him already??
Brooklyn can’t tell if her friend is teasing her or if that is a genuine question – there’s no way of telling when it’s in the form of a text message. So instead of answering it, she tells Suki that she’ll talk to her at work tomorrow. After receiving three thumbs up emojis, Brooklyn puts down her phone and leaves her room to go to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face.
Beck stumbles into the flat a few minutes later. He must have not expected Brooklyn to be awake because when he walks into the kitchen and sees her leaning against one of the counters, he gets the shock of his life. Hand clutching his chest, he lets out a breath when he realises that it’s just his sister.
“Jesus, Bee, I thought you’re still asleep.”
Brooklyn takes a sip of her coffee, suddenly feeling like a mother who’s about to chastise his son for not coming home last night. “Where were you?”
Beck arches an eyebrow at her. She reciprocates it. “I stayed at a friend’s,” he answers as he takes out a cup and pours freshly brewed coffee into it.
His answer isn’t convincing enough. Considering that he went on a date last night, it’s possible that he spent the night at the girl’s house. It shouldn’t bother her because his sex life is his to keep. God knows she wouldn’t like it if Beck starts questioning her about it. So she decides to cool it with the questions.
“Where were you last night?” Beck asks after he’s taken a sip of his morning coffee. He’s fashioning a suspicious expression, which makes Brooklyn confused.
“I was here,” she says matter-of-factly.
Beck doesn’t look convinced. “How do I know you didn’t spend the night at Niall’s?”
“What’re you talking about, Beck?”
“Rick saw you and Niall at the wedding.” Of course he did. He was there – Brooklyn almost forgot about that. It’s easy to forget about everyone else when she’s with Niall. Wriggling his eyebrows, then, he adds, “Said you two seemed cosy.”
“Just because someone saw us, Beck, that doesn’t mean I was gonna spend the night with him.” Brooklyn lets out a scoff. What kind of logic is that?
“He thought you two were a couple.”
Brooklyn rolls her eyes at that. She’s not surprised that Rick thought she and Niall were a couple. Almost everyone at the wedding thought so too. Brooklyn had to tell them a lot of times that they weren’t until eventually she gave up. She didn’t know why she bothered with that. It’s not like she’s going to see them again.
“Well, he thought wrong.” Brooklyn finishes her coffee and washes her cup in the sink. Before she can leave the kitchen, Beck’s question halts her in her tracks.
“Did something happen between you and Niall?”
“No,” she answers as she turns around to face Beck. “Nothing happened. We went to the wedding together, talked to some people, danced a little and that’s it. Unless you consider that as something, then something definitely happened between us.”
Beck is silent as he lets her word sink in. He used to think Brooklyn’s the observant one, but now he’s starting to think that he is. Or maybe Brooklyn’s observance has rubbed off on him since he’s been living with her. Whatever it is, he notices that something’s not quite right with his sister.
The way she’s behaving at the moment reminds him of when they’re younger and she did something she was embarrassed to admit.
“Did you think about what I said?”
Brooklyn’s face contorts with confusion. “Huh?”
“That you still like Niall,” he reminds her of the brief talk they had yesterday before she left. “Have you thought about that?”
His words were the reason she confessed to Niall so to say that she thought about it would be an understatement. What he said got under her skin to the point that she wasn’t able to stop thinking about it. Sure, she can push it to the back of her mind but it’s still there, never leaving her alone.
Beck’s eyes are fixed on Brooklyn’s face as he waits for her to respond to his question. The silence leads him to believe that she has thought about it, but he needs a verbal confirmation.
“I think you know the answer to that, Beck,” Brooklyn admits with a sigh. She’s rubbing off on him, she thinks, because she can’t remember him being this observant before.
“And?”
“And I told him that maybe I still like him,” Brooklyn tells Beck. There’s no point in hiding it from him, anyway. “He didn’t say anything back so I told him to forget everything I said.”
“Oh.”
Beck is stumped. He must have not expected Niall to react that way because he was so sure that he likes his sister. He’s seen the way he looks at Brooklyn and whilst he wouldn’t say he’s an expert in relationships or love in general, he was in a relationship for two years. He knows how a guy looks like when he likes someone – Beck was one of those people back then.
“Maybe he was in shock.” That’s the only explanation he can think of.
“Maybe,” Brooklyn agrees. “But enough about that. How was your date?”
At that, his cheeks turn red and a sheepish smile touches his lips. The look on his face takes Brooklyn back to when they’re fifteen and he just told his crush that he liked her. The girl, Libby, happened to like him as well and Brooklyn remembers how he couldn’t stop smiling that day. Each time someone teased him about it, his cheeks would turn red and the smile that he’s wearing right now would make an appearance.
“It was great,” he answers with a nod and a huge smile on his face. She’s happy to hear that, she really is. He deserves to be happy especially after the rough breakup he went through. “I had loads of fun with her.”
“So, there’ll be a second date soon?” She asks.
“I hope so,” he crosses his fingers as he says that, worry lilting his voice. “We haven’t talked about that yet.”
“Did she tell you she had a good time with you?” He nods. “Then, I’d say there’s an 80% chance of a second date happening.”
“You think so?” Beck looks so hopeful that his entire face lights up.
“80%,” Brooklyn repeats. Whilst she thinks her brother will score a second date, she doesn’t want to be responsible for his sadness if it doesn’t happen so she adds, “There’s still a 20% chance of it not happening so don’t get your hopes up, loverboy. Best to be safe.”
Beck frowns. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“Anything for you, Beck,” Brooklyn grins.
Shaking his head, Beck puts his empty cup in the sink. Brooklyn glares at him when he leaves it unwashed. “I’ll wash it later, I promise,” he tells her. “I’m gonna go back to bed.”
It baffles her how someone can go to sleep after drinking a cup of coffee. But then again, Beck is one of those people who can fall asleep easily so even with caffeine running through his veins, he can still sleep. Brooklyn, on the other hand, always feels the need to do something after drinking coffee.
“Hey, Bee,” Beck calls out when he’s halfway to his room. Brooklyn steps out of the kitchen and hums her response. “Don’t worry too much about Niall. If he doesn’t feel the same way, which I doubt, it’s his loss. But if he does feel the same way, you can thank me later.”
On Monday, Brooklyn is a bundle of nerves.
She doesn’t skip her breakfast and coffee like she did on her first day of work but she does feel like her heart is in her throat when she steps into the lift. The only thing that keeps her from losing her cool is knowing that Niall has probably not arrived yet so she can have a few minutes alone at her desk.
However, when she steps out of the lift, she finds that Niall is already at his desk. Instinctively, she checks on her wristwatch. She’s not late.
Her pace is slow and calculated as she tries to think of what to say when she reaches her desk. Hi? Hello? Good morning? Wow, you’re early? The last one is what she would normally say but given what happened between them, she’s not sure teasing him is the right way to start the day. So she decides to just keep her mouth shut.
Brooklyn is about to take a seat when she sees a cup of coffee on her desk. There’s a small note under the cup and she picks it up to read it: you win. She recognises that handwriting. “What’s this for?” She asks Niall. “What’d I win?”
He looks up and a nervous smile approaches his lips. “You won the bet,” he tells her as he takes off his glasses and puts it down on his desk, next to his mobile phone.
Brooklyn stares at Niall blankly for a few seconds, entirely confused. The pucker between her eyebrows materialises as she frowns, “No I didn’t.”
The wedding date happened, didn’t it, because she was positive that wasn’t a dream. She was positive that she humiliated herself in front of him because that’s the reason why she’s so anxious this morning.
“Not that bet,” he replies before reminding her of the bet that they made not too long ago. “The Harry and Suki bet.”
“Oh?” She didn’t think he was serious about that one. But then again, that doesn’t sound like Niall. No matter how frivolous the bet is, he’ll always take it seriously – he’s so consistent.
Niall leans forward and looks around to make sure no one’s standing near their desks. Then, with lowered voice, he says, “Talked to Harry last night and he told me that he and Suki are taking things slow so… you win.”
“Oh.”
Brooklyn didn’t know that. All that she knows is that Suki and Harry are still talking to each other and they hang out every now and then. Not once has Suki mentioned that they’re taking things slow.
Clearing her throat, Brooklyn puts down her bag and takes a seat. She picks up the cup and see Niall’s name written on it along with a smiley face. “Thank you for this.”
He smiles at her. “I didn’t know what you wanted if you win the bet so I got you coffee.”
“It’s perfect,” she tells him after she’s taken a sip of the coffee.
The fact that he knows her order warms her heart, but she’s going to pretend that it’s the coffee that’s warming her up right now. She’s at work so she can’t afford to let her mind to be consumed by Niall. Which now that she’s thought about it is an impossible task because he’s sitting right in front of her.
Wearing her favourite colour, Brooklyn finds it hard to stop her eyes from wandering to him. Maybe he does it on purpose. Maybe he wants to torture her by looking so good. He’s got a haircut too, she notices.
“Hey, Brooklyn,” Niall calls out.
“Hmm?”
“Can we, uh, talk?”
“Now?”
“If you’re free, yeah.”
“I, yeah sure.”
“C’mon,” he gets up from his seat and leads Brooklyn to the break room. Surprisingly, no one’s in there. And as though he knows what’s going on in her mind, he answers her question. “Told Harry to make sure no one walks in.”
That explains it.
Glancing over her shoulder, she sees Harry standing nearby. When he catches her eyes, he shoots her a huge smile and gives her thumbs up. She wonders if he knows what Niall wants to talk about.
Once they’re seated, Niall fiddles with his fingers and Brooklyn bounces her knees up and down, up and down. No one can tell who’s more nervous. The tension in the room is so thick that anyone can cut it with a knife.
“So, I thought about what you said a lot,” Niall begins, sounding slightly less confident than he usually does. Those words are enough to make Brooklyn’s heart thump against her chest as she prepares herself for the worst. She doesn’t want to get her hopes up only to have them be crushed into tiny pieces. “I know you wanted me to forget it, but I don’t want to. I just… I’m so frustrated with myself for not saying anything back.”
“S’fine,” she tells him. “You were shocked.”
“I was, yeah,” he admits with a chuckle and a nod of his head. He takes a few deep breaths, then, and says, “I was also worried that you didn’t mean what you said because, uh, because of what just happened between you and Louis.”
“I meant it,” Brooklyn reassures him. She doesn’t know where the bravery comes from, but she kind of enjoys it. She’s used to biting her tongue so it’s nice to not do so this time. “Each and every word of it.”
Niall looks at her disbelievingly. His mouth opens and closes until eventually words do come out instead of just air. “I’m happy to hear that.” He admits. “Because I’m about to tell you that I do feel the same way. It may take me some time to get used to the idea that the girl of my dreams likes me back but I want- I need you to know that your feeling isn’t one sided.”
Brooklyn doesn’t say anything for approximately fifteen seconds. If someone were to drop a pin at that moment, they would’ve been able to hear it. His words weren’t exactly incomprehensible, but Brooklyn finds herself having a hard time processing them. But when they have sunk in, she feels her lips curving into a smile and her entire body relaxing as the tension drains out of her body.
The twenty seconds she spends thinking of the right words to say, she registers the anxiety painted across his entire face and the longing in his eyes for her to say something, anything. It’s then she comes to a conclusion that he must be thinking about this far too much. Niall doesn’t like to admit it but sometimes he can work himself into a state when he starts overthinking. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, he becomes a different person. Someone who’s a bit shy and unsure of himself – the complete opposite of the side of him that he shows to everyone.
So instead of torturing him for another ten seconds, she says, “You know, I started a list of good and bad possible conversations when you wanted to talk to me.”
“Was this on the good or bad list?” He asks.
“It’s… better than what I expected,” Brooklyn admits. Niall called her the girl of his dreams, for heaven’s sake, and on top of that, he told her that he feels the same way. She can’t possibly ask for more, can she?
He lets out a relieved sigh. “You have no idea how many times I practiced that in front of the mirror,” he admits with a chuckle. “It’s embarrassing.”
Brooklyn thinks it’s endearing, but she doesn’t say it out loud.
“So, what now?” She asks a few seconds later. If Niall were to say he doesn’t like her, she knows what’s next: she’ll just have to pretend that none of this ever happened. Much to her surprise, the scenario she created in her head doesn’t come true so now she’s at a loss. There’s a field of possibilities ahead of them.
Niall presses his lips together as he mulls over her question. “We can, uh, have dinner together tonight?” He suggests before quickly adding, “We don’t have to consider it as a date if that’ll make things weird.”
“Oh okay,” Brooklyn nods. She wouldn’t mind if they consider it as a date but maybe it would make him feel weird. “So, dinner?”
Niall nods. “I’ll pick you up at 8?”
“Sounds good.” Brooklyn concludes as she gets up from the chair. Hitching her thumb to the exit, she says, “I should get back.”
“Okay.”
Before she can leave the break room, Niall’s voice halts Brooklyn in her tracks. “It’s a date.” Those words rush out of his mouth like he’s afraid to say them out loud. He must have changed his mind in the very last minute.
Brooklyn feels a smile tugging at her lips. She didn’t realise how much she wanted it to be a date until he said that. With a nod, she repeats, “It’s a date.”
A few months ago, she’d do anything in her power to win the bet so she wouldn’t have to go on a date with Niall. But now she willingly agrees to have dinner with him. It’s crazy how much things can change within months because if someone were to tell her that someday she’d want to go on a date with her desk mate, she would have told that person that they’re mental.
The mere idea of her and Niall dating was enough to send shivers down her spine. It was something that she thought would never happen because one, she didn’t think she’d have the courage to tell him how she feels and two, she was fine with just having a crush on him. She didn’t want it to go any further, but now there’s a part of her that wants to see how things would be like if they were to be together.
“I knew it’d happen,” states Harry once Brooklyn has left the break room. “Call it-“
“-best mate’s intuition?” Brooklyn finishes the sentence for him. The shocked look on his face lasts for five seconds before it’s replaced with a pleased look.
“You remembered,” he points out.
“Of course,” she replies with a roll of her eyes. “When you said that I thought you’re crazy.”
A gasp leaves his mouth. “Crazy?”
“Yeah,” she confirms with a nod in case he thought he wasn’t hearing her right. She spent at least six months thinking that he’s out of his mind. He’s always trying to push her and Niall together until eventually he stopped. Maybe Niall told him to back off.
“That’s comforting,” Harry mumbles under his breath, his bottom lip jutting out into a pout. Brooklyn tries her hardest not to snicker but the sound escapes her throat anyway. “My best friend is dating someone who used to think I’m crazy.”
“Can’t blame me, Harry,” Brooklyn stops walking as she’s reached her desk. Patting her friend’s shoulder, she adds, “Next time don’t tell someone they’re gonna get along well and say it’s a best mate’s intuition.”
“First of all, your impersonation of me is rubbish,” he comments whilst crinkling his nose, to which she responds with a shrug and a small smile. She knows she’s bad at impersonations so she’s not the least offended. “And second of all, it didn’t matter cos I was right.”
With that being said, he walks away, head held high. Brooklyn simply shakes her head, though a smile is evident on her face. She’s afraid it’s not leaving her anytime soon and she’s fine with that even though it might seem weird to other people. She’s happy and she can’t stop herself from showing it.
Brooklyn knows exactly what she wants to wear for her dinner – date – tonight so as soon as she arrives home, she takes the wrap dress out of her closet and puts it on her bed before she jumps in the shower. Then halfway through shaving her legs, she realises that she just did it two days ago, but she has to keep going anyway because she doesn’t want her legs to look weird.
Her head is all over the place.
She spent the whole day at work pretending as though she isn’t nervous about the date when she actually is. And that’s all because she didn’t want Niall to see it and because she knows he’s nervous too when she received a text from Suki. Her friend told her that she caught the screen of Niall’s computer and she saw that he was browsing through restaurants. He had a lot of tabs opened as he couldn’t decide which one’s the best – at least that’s what Suki told her.
So Brooklyn didn’t want to make it worse for him.
“Hey Bee, do you—Oh you’re going somewhere?” Beck asks as he walks in and sees his sister applying makeup on her face.
“Yeah,” she answers before she puts down her mascara and picks up her lipstick.
“Where are you going?” Brooklyn doesn’t answer his question. Even when he tries to catch her eyes through the reflection in the mirror, she avoids it. “Oh shit. Niall asked you out on a date, didn’t he? My man finally did it.”
It amazes her how Beck is able to figure that one out so easily. Has she been transparent around him?
“Do you, y’know, want me to not come home tonight so you and Niall could-”
Brooklyn has never whipped her head so fast to stop him from finishing his sentence. “No,” she tells him, horrified look written all over her face. That makes Beck laugh. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Are you sure?” Beck kinks an eyebrow at her. “Cos I don’t mind crashing at my friend’s place if you want some time alone with him.”
“Jesus, stop talking,” Brooklyn tells him. He’s not helping her feel any better if he keeps talking about that. “It’s just a dinner.”
“Right,” Beck replies dryly.
“Stop that,” Brooklyn throws her empty perfume box at him. It lands on his feet. Whilst the item being thrown doesn’t fulfil its purpose, Brooklyn’s glare that follows does. He presses his lips together to prevent words from leaving his mouth. “Niall and I are testing the waters so we don’t know where tonight’s gonna take us.”
Beck leans against the doorway and crosses his arms in front of his chest. “What do you want to happen?”
It’s a simple question but it has the power to silence her. Because the truth is, she hasn’t thought of that. She wanted tonight to go well, that’s a given, but at the same time, she doesn’t want to get her hopes up in case things will not go her way – that tends to happen.
“Do you want to be in a relationship with him?” Beck asks another question as he takes a seat on the edge of her bed.
“Maybe?” Brooklyn answers, hesitation evident in her voice. When Beck shoots her a ‘are you sure?’ look, she sits next to him. “I don’t know, Beck, I really don’t wanna get my hopes up.”
“You like him,” he points out as though she’s not aware of that, “and he obviously likes you too so what’s holding you back?”
“What if things get weird?” Brooklyn says the first thing that’s on her mind. “We’ve been friends for years and I don’t want… whatever this is to ruin our friendship.”
“Bee, there are friends out there who turned into lovers. You know that, yeah?” Beck quizzes. The sarcasm doesn’t fly over her head.
“Yeah but only like 50% of them work out,” Brooklyn mumbles. That’s not an accurate percentage but Beck doesn’t know that.
Beck lets out a sigh. Talking to his sister can get frustrating sometimes. Whilst he thinks it’s good that she takes everything into account when it comes to something serious such as a relationship, it displeases him when she only focuses on the bad sides. He can’t blame her, really, because their parents got divorced when they were young and something like that could change one’s perspective on life, let alone relationship. But he hates it when she turns herself away from something that could be good for her.
Beck knows without a trace of doubt that Niall is good for her and that’s saying a lot because he’s never been so sure of anything, but he is of that.
“Bee, listen to me,” Beck says as he turns to face her. “You can’t live your life being scared of the future. Screw the voices in your head. If you and Niall don’t work out, which I think is impossible, at least you wouldn’t spend the next fifteen years wondering what could’ve happened. Stop thinking too much about it and just give it a try.”
Brooklyn gapes at her brother. Everything he just said makes sense. She’s been worrying about things that haven’t even happened yet. “I-Okay.”
Shocked, Beck gets up from the bed and paces back and forth. He runs his fingers through his hair. “Did I just… I gave you a bloody relationship advice.”
“I know,” Brooklyn chuckles. “Look at you, a relationship expert. Who would’ve thought?”
“Not me,” he admits with a shake of his head. “But you got what I mean, right?”
“Surprisingly, yeah,” Brooklyn nods. Just as she gets up from her bed, she hears someone knocking on the door. Her heartbeats quicken knowing the person standing on the other side of the door is Niall. “Oh shit. How do I look?”
“You look great,” Beck answers, a sincere smile stretching his lips. “I’m positive Niall won’t be able to keep his eyes off of you.”
“Ridiculous,” Brooklyn shoots back whilst a flush of embarrassment spreads across her cheeks. “Alright, I’m gonna-“
“Go ahead.”
Eyes screwed shut, Brooklyn takes a few deep breaths and forces herself to calm down. Once she’s sure that she’s not going to humiliate herself in front of her date, she makes her way out of her room. Before she can reach the front door, Beck says, “If you want me to give you some privacy later tonight, let me know.”
His wink earns him a middle finger from his sister. His laughter is the last thing she hears before the door to his room is closed. Brooklyn takes another deep breath.
Niall has a bouquet of flowers in his hand – that’s the first thing she notices when she opens the door. His smile is the second thing that she notices. “Hi, sorry I’m a bit late,” he apologises, to which she responds with a dismissive wave of her hand. “You look…”
When he trails off, Brooklyn feels a rising sense of panic. “I’m overdressed, aren’t I?”
“No, no,” he denies quickly as he shakes his head. “You look perfect. I-“ Instead of finishing his sentence, he suddenly bends down.
Brooklyn steps back and looks at him confusingly. “What’re you doing?”
“Looking for my jaw,” he says in a rather serious tone. “Dropped it somewhere when you opened the door.”
His corny line makes her laugh. “You’re ridiculous,” she remarks. In her head, she can hear Beck’s voice saying I told you so. She ignores it. “Wait, did you just flirt with me?”
Niall lets out a laugh as he straightens up and hands her the flower. “Have been for the past few years, Cooper, but thank you for finally noticing.” Brooklyn rolls her eyes at him. “But seriously, Bee, you look perfect.”
“You’re clearly exaggerating-“
“-I’m not-”
“But thank you,” she says, slowly learning to accept a compliment that comes from a very attractive person. “You look great too.”
“Thank you.”
Sheepish smiles are exchanged between those two before Brooklyn excuses herself to put the flowers in a vase. Then when she returns to the front door, Niall slips his phone into his pocket and offers her his hand. “Our reservation is at 8.30 so-“
“I’m sorry, did you say 8.30?”
“Mhmm,” Niall nods. “Why?”
“Niall, you do realise that it’s already 8.15, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“God, we’re gonna be late, aren’t we?”
He seems unbothered by the fact that they only have 15 minutes to get there. What if the traffic is bad? What if their reserved table go to another couple? They might have to go somewhere else.
Niall stares at her in awe whilst she frowns at him.
“What?”
“You are so consistent,” he comments, shaking his head.
“Thanks.” She takes that as a compliment because consistency is good. “But we should really get going now.”
They arrive on time.
It turns out that she freaked out for nothing because the restaurant is near to her place. She didn’t know why Niall didn’t tell her that.
Once food and drinks have been ordered, Brooklyn looks around the restaurant. Businessmen and businesswomen surround them, probably about to close a very important deal because they all look intense. Not the kind of look you should wear in a restaurant.
“Have you been here before?” Niall asks. She shakes her head. “Same.”
Somehow, it’s a nice thought knowing that he’s never been here because that means he’s never taken his date to this restaurant before her. That realisation raises a question: “What happened to your date?”
“What?”
“I-I know now’s not the right time to ask you about this, but what happened to your date. The one that Harry set you up with.”
“Oh.” He scratches his jaw, buying himself some time. A part of Brooklyn is worried that he might tell her that he’s still seeing that girl. That’d be shitty of him, wouldn’t it? “I think she knew I wasn’t really interested in her.”
“I thought the first date went well?” She remembers how happy he looked when he came to work the next morning.
“Yeah it did,” he says. “Remember when I came to see you after Louis broke up with you?” Brooklyn nods. How could she forget? “She wasn’t too happy when I told her that I had to leave. Gave me an ultimatum. Either her or you. Obviously I was gonna choose you. I barely even knew her.”
“Oh.” Brooklyn feels bad for that girl. She must have felt awful when Niall didn’t choose her. “I’m sorry about that.”
Niall frowns at her. “What’re you apologising for?”
“For ruining your shot with her.”
“Jesus,” he chuckles to himself. “I never even wanted to go on that date, Bee.”
“But why’d you go?”
Niall doesn’t answer her question straightaway as the waiter returns with their food and drinks. They both thank him for his service, to which he responds with a tired smile. It’s when he’s walked away that Niall finally answers it. “Dunno,” he says with a shrug. “I just… I thought I’ve lost my shot with you so I should get myself out there, you know?”
Brooklyn doesn’t know what to say. Although what he says is not much, it takes her a while to wrap her head around the idea that Niall has liked her since, well, she doesn’t know since when but the way he says it, she assumes that he’s liked her for as long as she’s liked him.
“So, does Beck know we’re going on a date?” Niall asks, smoothly changing the subject before he takes a bite out of his food.
“He does,” Brooklyn replies. “I assume Harry knows too?”
“Yeah, he’s been pestering me all day about it.”
“Said you owe him, didn’t he?”
Niall nods. “Did he say the same thing to you?”
“Something like that, yeah.” Brooklyn says once she’s swallowed her food. “Beck did tell me I have to thank him if you feel the same way so I guess I owe him that.”
Laughter escapes Niall’s throat as he shakes his head at the absurdity of Harry and Beck. But then again, they were the ones who helped Niall and Brooklyn realise that they still have feelings for each other so maybe they do deserve a ‘thank you’. Brooklyn reminds herself to thank her brother later when she gets home – that is if he’s around. Beck might be joking about leaving the house to give her some privacy, but she has a feeling that he will actually do it.
Brooklyn is surprised to find out that her brother and Harry make a good conversation starter because as soon as they move past that topic, the conversation flows effortlessly. She doesn’t feel awkward, not even for a second, which is a huge relief because the one thing she’s really scared of is that things would get weird between them.
So far so good.
People were right when they say that time flies when you’re having fun because before Brooklyn knows it they’ve finished their meals and Niall has just paid for it. Heaviness sits on her chest knowing that it’s time to go home. Brooklyn has only felt like this once and that’s when she had her first date with her first boyfriend. She was so upset that the night was over and she had to be home soon because of curfew.
She doesn’t have a curfew now but when Niall leads her to the exit, she knows the date is ending even though she doesn’t want it to end yet.
“Do you have somewhere to go after this?” Niall asks before they get into his car.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Great,” he lets out a breath of relief. “Because I bought a dvd for us to watch.”
“You did?” He nods. “What movie?”
“Okay so I was obviously appalled when you told me that you’ve never watched Grease so I thought we should watch it. Together.”
Brooklyn wants to let a groan because the thought of watching Grease doesn’t appeal to her but she can’t exactly say no to Niall. Besides, she’s happy that the date is not over yet.
After begrudgingly agreeing to watch Grease with him, they get into his car and he takes her to his flat. It isn’t until he’s struggling with his key that it dawns on her that she’s never been to his place before. They’ve known each other for years and not once has she stepped foot in his home. She’s been to Harry’s a couple of times to celebrate Niall’s birthday and she’s been to Suki’s, but not Niall’s. So she’s actually pretty excited to see how his flat looks like.
“Okay before you get in, I should warn you that my place is a lot smaller than yours,” Niall tells her. She doesn’t know why he feels the need to tell her that because she truly doesn’t mind about the size of his home. She’s just happy that she finally gets to see it.
Stepping aside, Niall lets Brooklyn walk in first. When he takes off his shoes, she does the same and places it next to his. The front door leads her to the living room and the open kitchen. Niall points at the couch and tells her to make herself comfortable. Even though she’s itching to walk around and inspect the pictures he has in the living room, she remains seated until he returns with a bottled water and two beers.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d want to drink beer or water so I got you both,” he says as he places it on the coffee table. He picks up the Grease dvd, a grin on his lips, before he puts it into the dvd player.
“Is it that good?” Brooklyn quizzes. She has the tendency to dislike movies that everyone else loves so she has a feeling the same thing will happen to this movie. She doesn’t want to disappoint Niall because he seems to really love Grease.
“I think it is,” Niall answers. He takes a seat next to her, leaving a small space between them. Upon noticing the slight frown on her face, he says, “You know I have loads of other movies we can watch.”
“No, no, Grease is fine.”
“You sure?”
“I don’t know, but just put it on.”
Niall presses the play button and the movie begins. She can feel his eyes on the side of her face, anticipating her reaction every now and then and she can feel his excitement. He wants her to like the movie so badly so she’s going to give it a shot.
Brooklyn didn’t even realise she fell asleep until she opens her eyes and hears Niall’s laughter coming from next to her. She lolls her head to the side, her eyes immediately meeting Niall’s as he’s already looking at her. Disoriented, she takes a few seconds to realise that she fell asleep whilst watching a movie.
“Shit,” she mumbles as she runs a hand down her face. “I’m so sorry.”
“S’fine,” Niall pats her knee. “You’re tired.”
Brooklyn wants to tell him that she’s not tired but her yawn gives it away. Niall lets out a chuckle.
Getting up from the couch, he offers her his hand, “C’mon let’s get you home.”
Brooklyn places her hand in his and he helps her stand on her feet. After switching off the television and fishing his car key from the fruit bowl, Niall leads her to the front door.
“I really am sorry for falling asleep,” Brooklyn apologises once they’ve gotten in his car.
“It’s okay,” Niall reassures her with a smile.
“No, it’s not. It’s embarrassing,” Brooklyn groans. She’s pretty sure she’s the only person on this earth who fell asleep during a date. “Why didn’t you wake me?”
“Can’t,” he says. Brooklyn kinks an eyebrow at him. “You looked so peaceful. Didn’t have it in me to wake you up.”
She can’t lie and say that wasn’t one of the best naps she’s ever had. Maybe it has something to do with his couch or maybe it has something to do with the company. Either way, falling asleep isn’t the best way to end a date.
So when Niall walks her up to her flat, she lingers at the door, unsure if she should do what she wants to do next. The voice in her head – it sounds a lot like Beck’s voice – tells her that she needs to stop thinking too much. That she needs to just do it.
“So, uh, thank you for tonight,” Brooklyn says as she takes a tentative step forward, her eyes locked on Niall’s. “I had a really good time.”
“Me too.” Niall smiles. There’s a hint of nervousness in his voice as though he knows what’s about to happen.
In the next moment, Brooklyn listens to the voice in her head and closes the distance. She puts a hand on Niall’s shoulder whilst the other wraps around his neck, bringing his lips to hers. He responds almost immediately, his arms enveloping her as his lips meet hers in a fervent kiss.
Brooklyn has thought about the kiss a number of times, has even dreamt of it but they’re nothing compared to this kiss. It’s better, so much so that she feels her head spinning when he holds her close, his heat warming her from head to toe.
“You beat me to it,” is the first thing Niall says when she pulls away, breathless. His forehead pressed against hers, he whispers, “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”
“Think I have some ideas,” Brooklyn replies as the corners of her mouth curve upwards. If he’s wanted to kiss her for as long as she’s wanted to do it, then she knows.
He reaches for her hand and squeezes it affectionately before releasing. He doesn’t say anything for a while and Brooklyn thinks he must be processing everything that has just happened. She’s doing the same thing.
Twenty-four hours ago, she thought Niall didn’t feel the same way but now they’re out here catching their breaths after sharing a kiss that made their heads dizzy.
“I can’t believe we just kissed.” Niall says, being the first one to break the silence between them.
“I know.” Brooklyn has to bring her fingers up to her lips to make sure that it really did happen.
“I-Shit, Bee, you made me speechless.”
Niall admitting that makes her speechless. Not once in her life has she ever thought she’d be the girl who could make someone speechless, let alone someone like Niall. It’s insane and honestly, it doesn’t sound realistic. This must be a dream – that’s the only way to explain this. But the slight pain she feels at the spot where she just pinched herself begs to differ. This is real.
“I should… I should go.”
“Okay.” Brooklyn can’t hide the disappointment in her voice.
“I’m really happy we did that date thing,” Niall says with a smile as he strokes her face gently with his thumb. When her eyes flutter close, Niall finds himself leaning down and he crashes his lips onto hers. This kiss isn’t as heated as the first one but it’s just as good. Brooklyn’s head still spins when he pulls away to catch a breath. “That… That was for research purposes.”
Brooklyn smothers a laugh into Niall’s shoulder, making him laugh as well. At that exact moment, she’s sure that she’s never been happier.
Suki’s text messages remain unanswered since last night and she figures now’s the right time to type her responses. It’s still fairly early so she’s surprised when she sees the three dots appearing on the screen as soon as she clicks send.
Brooklyn tells her friend that yesterday was fun, that Niall charmed almost everyone and that she had a good day. She left out the major event of the evening because she’s still trying to process it all. She can’t believe she did that. Can’t believe that she did something that she normally wouldn’t do: wear her heart on her sleeves.
So are you like in love with him already??
Brooklyn can’t tell if her friend is teasing her or if that is a genuine question – there’s no way of telling when it’s in the form of a text message. So instead of answering it, she tells Suki that she’ll talk to her at work tomorrow. After receiving three thumbs up emojis, Brooklyn puts down her phone and leaves her room to go to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face.
Beck stumbles into the flat a few minutes later. He must have not expected Brooklyn to be awake because when he walks into the kitchen and sees her leaning against one of the counters, he gets the shock of his life. Hand clutching his chest, he lets out a breath when he realises that it’s just his sister.
“Jesus, Bee, I thought you’re still asleep.”
Brooklyn takes a sip of her coffee, suddenly feeling like a mother who’s about to chastise his son for not coming home last night. “Where were you?”
Beck arches an eyebrow at her. She reciprocates it. “I stayed at a friend’s,” he answers as he takes out a cup and pours freshly brewed coffee into it.
His answer isn’t convincing enough. Considering that he went on a date last night, it’s possible that he spent the night at the girl’s house. It shouldn’t bother her because his sex life is his to keep. God knows she wouldn’t like it if Beck starts questioning her about it. So she decides to cool it with the questions.
“Where were you last night?” Beck asks after he’s taken a sip of his morning coffee. He’s fashioning a suspicious expression, which makes Brooklyn confused.
“I was here,” she says matter-of-factly.
Beck doesn’t look convinced. “How do I know you didn’t spend the night at Niall’s?”
“What’re you talking about, Beck?”
“Rick saw you and Niall at the wedding.” Of course he did. He was there – Brooklyn almost forgot about that. It’s easy to forget about everyone else when she’s with Niall. Wriggling his eyebrows, then, he adds, “Said you two seemed cosy.”
“Just because someone saw us, Beck, that doesn’t mean I was gonna spend the night with him.” Brooklyn lets out a scoff. What kind of logic is that?
“He thought you two were a couple.”
Brooklyn rolls her eyes at that. She’s not surprised that Rick thought she and Niall were a couple. Almost everyone at the wedding thought so too. Brooklyn had to tell them a lot of times that they weren’t until eventually she gave up. She didn’t know why she bothered with that. It’s not like she’s going to see them again.
“Well, he thought wrong.” Brooklyn finishes her coffee and washes her cup in the sink. Before she can leave the kitchen, Beck’s question halts her in her tracks.
“Did something happen between you and Niall?”
“No,” she answers as she turns around to face Beck. “Nothing happened. We went to the wedding together, talked to some people, danced a little and that’s it. Unless you consider that as something, then something definitely happened between us.”
Beck is silent as he lets her word sink in. He used to think Brooklyn’s the observant one, but now he’s starting to think that he is. Or maybe Brooklyn’s observance has rubbed off on him since he’s been living with her. Whatever it is, he notices that something’s not quite right with his sister.
The way she’s behaving at the moment reminds him of when they’re younger and she did something she was embarrassed to admit.
“Did you think about what I said?”
Brooklyn’s face contorts with confusion. “Huh?”
“That you still like Niall,” he reminds her of the brief talk they had yesterday before she left. “Have you thought about that?”
His words were the reason she confessed to Niall so to say that she thought about it would be an understatement. What he said got under her skin to the point that she wasn’t able to stop thinking about it. Sure, she can push it to the back of her mind but it’s still there, never leaving her alone.
Beck’s eyes are fixed on Brooklyn’s face as he waits for her to respond to his question. The silence leads him to believe that she has thought about it, but he needs a verbal confirmation.
“I think you know the answer to that, Beck,” Brooklyn admits with a sigh. She’s rubbing off on him, she thinks, because she can’t remember him being this observant before.
“And?”
“And I told him that maybe I still like him,” Brooklyn tells Beck. There’s no point in hiding it from him, anyway. “He didn’t say anything back so I told him to forget everything I said.”
“Oh.”
Beck is stumped. He must have not expected Niall to react that way because he was so sure that he likes his sister. He’s seen the way he looks at Brooklyn and whilst he wouldn’t say he’s an expert in relationships or love in general, he was in a relationship for two years. He knows how a guy looks like when he likes someone – Beck was one of those people back then.
“Maybe he was in shock.” That’s the only explanation he can think of.
“Maybe,” Brooklyn agrees. “But enough about that. How was your date?”
At that, his cheeks turn red and a sheepish smile touches his lips. The look on his face takes Brooklyn back to when they’re fifteen and he just told his crush that he liked her. The girl, Libby, happened to like him as well and Brooklyn remembers how he couldn’t stop smiling that day. Each time someone teased him about it, his cheeks would turn red and the smile that he’s wearing right now would make an appearance.
“It was great,” he answers with a nod and a huge smile on his face. She’s happy to hear that, she really is. He deserves to be happy especially after the rough breakup he went through. “I had loads of fun with her.”
“So, there’ll be a second date soon?” She asks.
“I hope so,” he crosses his fingers as he says that, worry lilting his voice. “We haven’t talked about that yet.”
“Did she tell you she had a good time with you?” He nods. “Then, I’d say there’s an 80% chance of a second date happening.”
“You think so?” Beck looks so hopeful that his entire face lights up.
“80%,” Brooklyn repeats. Whilst she thinks her brother will score a second date, she doesn’t want to be responsible for his sadness if it doesn’t happen so she adds, “There’s still a 20% chance of it not happening so don’t get your hopes up, loverboy. Best to be safe.”
Beck frowns. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“Anything for you, Beck,” Brooklyn grins.
Shaking his head, Beck puts his empty cup in the sink. Brooklyn glares at him when he leaves it unwashed. “I’ll wash it later, I promise,” he tells her. “I’m gonna go back to bed.”
It baffles her how someone can go to sleep after drinking a cup of coffee. But then again, Beck is one of those people who can fall asleep easily so even with caffeine running through his veins, he can still sleep. Brooklyn, on the other hand, always feels the need to do something after drinking coffee.
“Hey, Bee,” Beck calls out when he’s halfway to his room. Brooklyn steps out of the kitchen and hums her response. “Don’t worry too much about Niall. If he doesn’t feel the same way, which I doubt, it’s his loss. But if he does feel the same way, you can thank me later.”
&&
On Monday, Brooklyn is a bundle of nerves.
She doesn’t skip her breakfast and coffee like she did on her first day of work but she does feel like her heart is in her throat when she steps into the lift. The only thing that keeps her from losing her cool is knowing that Niall has probably not arrived yet so she can have a few minutes alone at her desk.
However, when she steps out of the lift, she finds that Niall is already at his desk. Instinctively, she checks on her wristwatch. She’s not late.
Her pace is slow and calculated as she tries to think of what to say when she reaches her desk. Hi? Hello? Good morning? Wow, you’re early? The last one is what she would normally say but given what happened between them, she’s not sure teasing him is the right way to start the day. So she decides to just keep her mouth shut.
Brooklyn is about to take a seat when she sees a cup of coffee on her desk. There’s a small note under the cup and she picks it up to read it: you win. She recognises that handwriting. “What’s this for?” She asks Niall. “What’d I win?”
He looks up and a nervous smile approaches his lips. “You won the bet,” he tells her as he takes off his glasses and puts it down on his desk, next to his mobile phone.
Brooklyn stares at Niall blankly for a few seconds, entirely confused. The pucker between her eyebrows materialises as she frowns, “No I didn’t.”
The wedding date happened, didn’t it, because she was positive that wasn’t a dream. She was positive that she humiliated herself in front of him because that’s the reason why she’s so anxious this morning.
“Not that bet,” he replies before reminding her of the bet that they made not too long ago. “The Harry and Suki bet.”
“Oh?” She didn’t think he was serious about that one. But then again, that doesn’t sound like Niall. No matter how frivolous the bet is, he’ll always take it seriously – he’s so consistent.
Niall leans forward and looks around to make sure no one’s standing near their desks. Then, with lowered voice, he says, “Talked to Harry last night and he told me that he and Suki are taking things slow so… you win.”
“Oh.”
Brooklyn didn’t know that. All that she knows is that Suki and Harry are still talking to each other and they hang out every now and then. Not once has Suki mentioned that they’re taking things slow.
Clearing her throat, Brooklyn puts down her bag and takes a seat. She picks up the cup and see Niall’s name written on it along with a smiley face. “Thank you for this.”
He smiles at her. “I didn’t know what you wanted if you win the bet so I got you coffee.”
“It’s perfect,” she tells him after she’s taken a sip of the coffee.
The fact that he knows her order warms her heart, but she’s going to pretend that it’s the coffee that’s warming her up right now. She’s at work so she can’t afford to let her mind to be consumed by Niall. Which now that she’s thought about it is an impossible task because he’s sitting right in front of her.
Wearing her favourite colour, Brooklyn finds it hard to stop her eyes from wandering to him. Maybe he does it on purpose. Maybe he wants to torture her by looking so good. He’s got a haircut too, she notices.
“Hey, Brooklyn,” Niall calls out.
“Hmm?”
“Can we, uh, talk?”
“Now?”
“If you’re free, yeah.”
“I, yeah sure.”
“C’mon,” he gets up from his seat and leads Brooklyn to the break room. Surprisingly, no one’s in there. And as though he knows what’s going on in her mind, he answers her question. “Told Harry to make sure no one walks in.”
That explains it.
Glancing over her shoulder, she sees Harry standing nearby. When he catches her eyes, he shoots her a huge smile and gives her thumbs up. She wonders if he knows what Niall wants to talk about.
Once they’re seated, Niall fiddles with his fingers and Brooklyn bounces her knees up and down, up and down. No one can tell who’s more nervous. The tension in the room is so thick that anyone can cut it with a knife.
“So, I thought about what you said a lot,” Niall begins, sounding slightly less confident than he usually does. Those words are enough to make Brooklyn’s heart thump against her chest as she prepares herself for the worst. She doesn’t want to get her hopes up only to have them be crushed into tiny pieces. “I know you wanted me to forget it, but I don’t want to. I just… I’m so frustrated with myself for not saying anything back.”
“S’fine,” she tells him. “You were shocked.”
“I was, yeah,” he admits with a chuckle and a nod of his head. He takes a few deep breaths, then, and says, “I was also worried that you didn’t mean what you said because, uh, because of what just happened between you and Louis.”
“I meant it,” Brooklyn reassures him. She doesn’t know where the bravery comes from, but she kind of enjoys it. She’s used to biting her tongue so it’s nice to not do so this time. “Each and every word of it.”
Niall looks at her disbelievingly. His mouth opens and closes until eventually words do come out instead of just air. “I’m happy to hear that.” He admits. “Because I’m about to tell you that I do feel the same way. It may take me some time to get used to the idea that the girl of my dreams likes me back but I want- I need you to know that your feeling isn’t one sided.”
Brooklyn doesn’t say anything for approximately fifteen seconds. If someone were to drop a pin at that moment, they would’ve been able to hear it. His words weren’t exactly incomprehensible, but Brooklyn finds herself having a hard time processing them. But when they have sunk in, she feels her lips curving into a smile and her entire body relaxing as the tension drains out of her body.
The twenty seconds she spends thinking of the right words to say, she registers the anxiety painted across his entire face and the longing in his eyes for her to say something, anything. It’s then she comes to a conclusion that he must be thinking about this far too much. Niall doesn’t like to admit it but sometimes he can work himself into a state when he starts overthinking. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, he becomes a different person. Someone who’s a bit shy and unsure of himself – the complete opposite of the side of him that he shows to everyone.
So instead of torturing him for another ten seconds, she says, “You know, I started a list of good and bad possible conversations when you wanted to talk to me.”
“Was this on the good or bad list?” He asks.
“It’s… better than what I expected,” Brooklyn admits. Niall called her the girl of his dreams, for heaven’s sake, and on top of that, he told her that he feels the same way. She can’t possibly ask for more, can she?
He lets out a relieved sigh. “You have no idea how many times I practiced that in front of the mirror,” he admits with a chuckle. “It’s embarrassing.”
Brooklyn thinks it’s endearing, but she doesn’t say it out loud.
“So, what now?” She asks a few seconds later. If Niall were to say he doesn’t like her, she knows what’s next: she’ll just have to pretend that none of this ever happened. Much to her surprise, the scenario she created in her head doesn’t come true so now she’s at a loss. There’s a field of possibilities ahead of them.
Niall presses his lips together as he mulls over her question. “We can, uh, have dinner together tonight?” He suggests before quickly adding, “We don’t have to consider it as a date if that’ll make things weird.”
“Oh okay,” Brooklyn nods. She wouldn’t mind if they consider it as a date but maybe it would make him feel weird. “So, dinner?”
Niall nods. “I’ll pick you up at 8?”
“Sounds good.” Brooklyn concludes as she gets up from the chair. Hitching her thumb to the exit, she says, “I should get back.”
“Okay.”
Before she can leave the break room, Niall’s voice halts Brooklyn in her tracks. “It’s a date.” Those words rush out of his mouth like he’s afraid to say them out loud. He must have changed his mind in the very last minute.
Brooklyn feels a smile tugging at her lips. She didn’t realise how much she wanted it to be a date until he said that. With a nod, she repeats, “It’s a date.”
A few months ago, she’d do anything in her power to win the bet so she wouldn’t have to go on a date with Niall. But now she willingly agrees to have dinner with him. It’s crazy how much things can change within months because if someone were to tell her that someday she’d want to go on a date with her desk mate, she would have told that person that they’re mental.
The mere idea of her and Niall dating was enough to send shivers down her spine. It was something that she thought would never happen because one, she didn’t think she’d have the courage to tell him how she feels and two, she was fine with just having a crush on him. She didn’t want it to go any further, but now there’s a part of her that wants to see how things would be like if they were to be together.
“I knew it’d happen,” states Harry once Brooklyn has left the break room. “Call it-“
“-best mate’s intuition?” Brooklyn finishes the sentence for him. The shocked look on his face lasts for five seconds before it’s replaced with a pleased look.
“You remembered,” he points out.
“Of course,” she replies with a roll of her eyes. “When you said that I thought you’re crazy.”
A gasp leaves his mouth. “Crazy?”
“Yeah,” she confirms with a nod in case he thought he wasn’t hearing her right. She spent at least six months thinking that he’s out of his mind. He’s always trying to push her and Niall together until eventually he stopped. Maybe Niall told him to back off.
“That’s comforting,” Harry mumbles under his breath, his bottom lip jutting out into a pout. Brooklyn tries her hardest not to snicker but the sound escapes her throat anyway. “My best friend is dating someone who used to think I’m crazy.”
“Can’t blame me, Harry,” Brooklyn stops walking as she’s reached her desk. Patting her friend’s shoulder, she adds, “Next time don’t tell someone they’re gonna get along well and say it’s a best mate’s intuition.”
“First of all, your impersonation of me is rubbish,” he comments whilst crinkling his nose, to which she responds with a shrug and a small smile. She knows she’s bad at impersonations so she’s not the least offended. “And second of all, it didn’t matter cos I was right.”
With that being said, he walks away, head held high. Brooklyn simply shakes her head, though a smile is evident on her face. She’s afraid it’s not leaving her anytime soon and she’s fine with that even though it might seem weird to other people. She’s happy and she can’t stop herself from showing it.
&&
Brooklyn knows exactly what she wants to wear for her dinner – date – tonight so as soon as she arrives home, she takes the wrap dress out of her closet and puts it on her bed before she jumps in the shower. Then halfway through shaving her legs, she realises that she just did it two days ago, but she has to keep going anyway because she doesn’t want her legs to look weird.
Her head is all over the place.
She spent the whole day at work pretending as though she isn’t nervous about the date when she actually is. And that’s all because she didn’t want Niall to see it and because she knows he’s nervous too when she received a text from Suki. Her friend told her that she caught the screen of Niall’s computer and she saw that he was browsing through restaurants. He had a lot of tabs opened as he couldn’t decide which one’s the best – at least that’s what Suki told her.
So Brooklyn didn’t want to make it worse for him.
“Hey Bee, do you—Oh you’re going somewhere?” Beck asks as he walks in and sees his sister applying makeup on her face.
“Yeah,” she answers before she puts down her mascara and picks up her lipstick.
“Where are you going?” Brooklyn doesn’t answer his question. Even when he tries to catch her eyes through the reflection in the mirror, she avoids it. “Oh shit. Niall asked you out on a date, didn’t he? My man finally did it.”
It amazes her how Beck is able to figure that one out so easily. Has she been transparent around him?
“Do you, y’know, want me to not come home tonight so you and Niall could-”
Brooklyn has never whipped her head so fast to stop him from finishing his sentence. “No,” she tells him, horrified look written all over her face. That makes Beck laugh. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Are you sure?” Beck kinks an eyebrow at her. “Cos I don’t mind crashing at my friend’s place if you want some time alone with him.”
“Jesus, stop talking,” Brooklyn tells him. He’s not helping her feel any better if he keeps talking about that. “It’s just a dinner.”
“Right,” Beck replies dryly.
“Stop that,” Brooklyn throws her empty perfume box at him. It lands on his feet. Whilst the item being thrown doesn’t fulfil its purpose, Brooklyn’s glare that follows does. He presses his lips together to prevent words from leaving his mouth. “Niall and I are testing the waters so we don’t know where tonight’s gonna take us.”
Beck leans against the doorway and crosses his arms in front of his chest. “What do you want to happen?”
It’s a simple question but it has the power to silence her. Because the truth is, she hasn’t thought of that. She wanted tonight to go well, that’s a given, but at the same time, she doesn’t want to get her hopes up in case things will not go her way – that tends to happen.
“Do you want to be in a relationship with him?” Beck asks another question as he takes a seat on the edge of her bed.
“Maybe?” Brooklyn answers, hesitation evident in her voice. When Beck shoots her a ‘are you sure?’ look, she sits next to him. “I don’t know, Beck, I really don’t wanna get my hopes up.”
“You like him,” he points out as though she’s not aware of that, “and he obviously likes you too so what’s holding you back?”
“What if things get weird?” Brooklyn says the first thing that’s on her mind. “We’ve been friends for years and I don’t want… whatever this is to ruin our friendship.”
“Bee, there are friends out there who turned into lovers. You know that, yeah?” Beck quizzes. The sarcasm doesn’t fly over her head.
“Yeah but only like 50% of them work out,” Brooklyn mumbles. That’s not an accurate percentage but Beck doesn’t know that.
Beck lets out a sigh. Talking to his sister can get frustrating sometimes. Whilst he thinks it’s good that she takes everything into account when it comes to something serious such as a relationship, it displeases him when she only focuses on the bad sides. He can’t blame her, really, because their parents got divorced when they were young and something like that could change one’s perspective on life, let alone relationship. But he hates it when she turns herself away from something that could be good for her.
Beck knows without a trace of doubt that Niall is good for her and that’s saying a lot because he’s never been so sure of anything, but he is of that.
“Bee, listen to me,” Beck says as he turns to face her. “You can’t live your life being scared of the future. Screw the voices in your head. If you and Niall don’t work out, which I think is impossible, at least you wouldn’t spend the next fifteen years wondering what could’ve happened. Stop thinking too much about it and just give it a try.”
Brooklyn gapes at her brother. Everything he just said makes sense. She’s been worrying about things that haven’t even happened yet. “I-Okay.”
Shocked, Beck gets up from the bed and paces back and forth. He runs his fingers through his hair. “Did I just… I gave you a bloody relationship advice.”
“I know,” Brooklyn chuckles. “Look at you, a relationship expert. Who would’ve thought?”
“Not me,” he admits with a shake of his head. “But you got what I mean, right?”
“Surprisingly, yeah,” Brooklyn nods. Just as she gets up from her bed, she hears someone knocking on the door. Her heartbeats quicken knowing the person standing on the other side of the door is Niall. “Oh shit. How do I look?”
“You look great,” Beck answers, a sincere smile stretching his lips. “I’m positive Niall won’t be able to keep his eyes off of you.”
“Ridiculous,” Brooklyn shoots back whilst a flush of embarrassment spreads across her cheeks. “Alright, I’m gonna-“
“Go ahead.”
Eyes screwed shut, Brooklyn takes a few deep breaths and forces herself to calm down. Once she’s sure that she’s not going to humiliate herself in front of her date, she makes her way out of her room. Before she can reach the front door, Beck says, “If you want me to give you some privacy later tonight, let me know.”
His wink earns him a middle finger from his sister. His laughter is the last thing she hears before the door to his room is closed. Brooklyn takes another deep breath.
Niall has a bouquet of flowers in his hand – that’s the first thing she notices when she opens the door. His smile is the second thing that she notices. “Hi, sorry I’m a bit late,” he apologises, to which she responds with a dismissive wave of her hand. “You look…”
When he trails off, Brooklyn feels a rising sense of panic. “I’m overdressed, aren’t I?”
“No, no,” he denies quickly as he shakes his head. “You look perfect. I-“ Instead of finishing his sentence, he suddenly bends down.
Brooklyn steps back and looks at him confusingly. “What’re you doing?”
“Looking for my jaw,” he says in a rather serious tone. “Dropped it somewhere when you opened the door.”
His corny line makes her laugh. “You’re ridiculous,” she remarks. In her head, she can hear Beck’s voice saying I told you so. She ignores it. “Wait, did you just flirt with me?”
Niall lets out a laugh as he straightens up and hands her the flower. “Have been for the past few years, Cooper, but thank you for finally noticing.” Brooklyn rolls her eyes at him. “But seriously, Bee, you look perfect.”
“You’re clearly exaggerating-“
“-I’m not-”
“But thank you,” she says, slowly learning to accept a compliment that comes from a very attractive person. “You look great too.”
“Thank you.”
Sheepish smiles are exchanged between those two before Brooklyn excuses herself to put the flowers in a vase. Then when she returns to the front door, Niall slips his phone into his pocket and offers her his hand. “Our reservation is at 8.30 so-“
“I’m sorry, did you say 8.30?”
“Mhmm,” Niall nods. “Why?”
“Niall, you do realise that it’s already 8.15, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“God, we’re gonna be late, aren’t we?”
He seems unbothered by the fact that they only have 15 minutes to get there. What if the traffic is bad? What if their reserved table go to another couple? They might have to go somewhere else.
Niall stares at her in awe whilst she frowns at him.
“What?”
“You are so consistent,” he comments, shaking his head.
“Thanks.” She takes that as a compliment because consistency is good. “But we should really get going now.”
&&
They arrive on time.
It turns out that she freaked out for nothing because the restaurant is near to her place. She didn’t know why Niall didn’t tell her that.
Once food and drinks have been ordered, Brooklyn looks around the restaurant. Businessmen and businesswomen surround them, probably about to close a very important deal because they all look intense. Not the kind of look you should wear in a restaurant.
“Have you been here before?” Niall asks. She shakes her head. “Same.”
Somehow, it’s a nice thought knowing that he’s never been here because that means he’s never taken his date to this restaurant before her. That realisation raises a question: “What happened to your date?”
“What?”
“I-I know now’s not the right time to ask you about this, but what happened to your date. The one that Harry set you up with.”
“Oh.” He scratches his jaw, buying himself some time. A part of Brooklyn is worried that he might tell her that he’s still seeing that girl. That’d be shitty of him, wouldn’t it? “I think she knew I wasn’t really interested in her.”
“I thought the first date went well?” She remembers how happy he looked when he came to work the next morning.
“Yeah it did,” he says. “Remember when I came to see you after Louis broke up with you?” Brooklyn nods. How could she forget? “She wasn’t too happy when I told her that I had to leave. Gave me an ultimatum. Either her or you. Obviously I was gonna choose you. I barely even knew her.”
“Oh.” Brooklyn feels bad for that girl. She must have felt awful when Niall didn’t choose her. “I’m sorry about that.”
Niall frowns at her. “What’re you apologising for?”
“For ruining your shot with her.”
“Jesus,” he chuckles to himself. “I never even wanted to go on that date, Bee.”
“But why’d you go?”
Niall doesn’t answer her question straightaway as the waiter returns with their food and drinks. They both thank him for his service, to which he responds with a tired smile. It’s when he’s walked away that Niall finally answers it. “Dunno,” he says with a shrug. “I just… I thought I’ve lost my shot with you so I should get myself out there, you know?”
Brooklyn doesn’t know what to say. Although what he says is not much, it takes her a while to wrap her head around the idea that Niall has liked her since, well, she doesn’t know since when but the way he says it, she assumes that he’s liked her for as long as she’s liked him.
“So, does Beck know we’re going on a date?” Niall asks, smoothly changing the subject before he takes a bite out of his food.
“He does,” Brooklyn replies. “I assume Harry knows too?”
“Yeah, he’s been pestering me all day about it.”
“Said you owe him, didn’t he?”
Niall nods. “Did he say the same thing to you?”
“Something like that, yeah.” Brooklyn says once she’s swallowed her food. “Beck did tell me I have to thank him if you feel the same way so I guess I owe him that.”
Laughter escapes Niall’s throat as he shakes his head at the absurdity of Harry and Beck. But then again, they were the ones who helped Niall and Brooklyn realise that they still have feelings for each other so maybe they do deserve a ‘thank you’. Brooklyn reminds herself to thank her brother later when she gets home – that is if he’s around. Beck might be joking about leaving the house to give her some privacy, but she has a feeling that he will actually do it.
Brooklyn is surprised to find out that her brother and Harry make a good conversation starter because as soon as they move past that topic, the conversation flows effortlessly. She doesn’t feel awkward, not even for a second, which is a huge relief because the one thing she’s really scared of is that things would get weird between them.
So far so good.
People were right when they say that time flies when you’re having fun because before Brooklyn knows it they’ve finished their meals and Niall has just paid for it. Heaviness sits on her chest knowing that it’s time to go home. Brooklyn has only felt like this once and that’s when she had her first date with her first boyfriend. She was so upset that the night was over and she had to be home soon because of curfew.
She doesn’t have a curfew now but when Niall leads her to the exit, she knows the date is ending even though she doesn’t want it to end yet.
“Do you have somewhere to go after this?” Niall asks before they get into his car.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Great,” he lets out a breath of relief. “Because I bought a dvd for us to watch.”
“You did?” He nods. “What movie?”
“Okay so I was obviously appalled when you told me that you’ve never watched Grease so I thought we should watch it. Together.”
Brooklyn wants to let a groan because the thought of watching Grease doesn’t appeal to her but she can’t exactly say no to Niall. Besides, she’s happy that the date is not over yet.
After begrudgingly agreeing to watch Grease with him, they get into his car and he takes her to his flat. It isn’t until he’s struggling with his key that it dawns on her that she’s never been to his place before. They’ve known each other for years and not once has she stepped foot in his home. She’s been to Harry’s a couple of times to celebrate Niall’s birthday and she’s been to Suki’s, but not Niall’s. So she’s actually pretty excited to see how his flat looks like.
“Okay before you get in, I should warn you that my place is a lot smaller than yours,” Niall tells her. She doesn’t know why he feels the need to tell her that because she truly doesn’t mind about the size of his home. She’s just happy that she finally gets to see it.
Stepping aside, Niall lets Brooklyn walk in first. When he takes off his shoes, she does the same and places it next to his. The front door leads her to the living room and the open kitchen. Niall points at the couch and tells her to make herself comfortable. Even though she’s itching to walk around and inspect the pictures he has in the living room, she remains seated until he returns with a bottled water and two beers.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d want to drink beer or water so I got you both,” he says as he places it on the coffee table. He picks up the Grease dvd, a grin on his lips, before he puts it into the dvd player.
“Is it that good?” Brooklyn quizzes. She has the tendency to dislike movies that everyone else loves so she has a feeling the same thing will happen to this movie. She doesn’t want to disappoint Niall because he seems to really love Grease.
“I think it is,” Niall answers. He takes a seat next to her, leaving a small space between them. Upon noticing the slight frown on her face, he says, “You know I have loads of other movies we can watch.”
“No, no, Grease is fine.”
“You sure?”
“I don’t know, but just put it on.”
Niall presses the play button and the movie begins. She can feel his eyes on the side of her face, anticipating her reaction every now and then and she can feel his excitement. He wants her to like the movie so badly so she’s going to give it a shot.
&&
Brooklyn didn’t even realise she fell asleep until she opens her eyes and hears Niall’s laughter coming from next to her. She lolls her head to the side, her eyes immediately meeting Niall’s as he’s already looking at her. Disoriented, she takes a few seconds to realise that she fell asleep whilst watching a movie.
“Shit,” she mumbles as she runs a hand down her face. “I’m so sorry.”
“S’fine,” Niall pats her knee. “You’re tired.”
Brooklyn wants to tell him that she’s not tired but her yawn gives it away. Niall lets out a chuckle.
Getting up from the couch, he offers her his hand, “C’mon let’s get you home.”
Brooklyn places her hand in his and he helps her stand on her feet. After switching off the television and fishing his car key from the fruit bowl, Niall leads her to the front door.
“I really am sorry for falling asleep,” Brooklyn apologises once they’ve gotten in his car.
“It’s okay,” Niall reassures her with a smile.
“No, it’s not. It’s embarrassing,” Brooklyn groans. She’s pretty sure she’s the only person on this earth who fell asleep during a date. “Why didn’t you wake me?”
“Can’t,” he says. Brooklyn kinks an eyebrow at him. “You looked so peaceful. Didn’t have it in me to wake you up.”
She can’t lie and say that wasn’t one of the best naps she’s ever had. Maybe it has something to do with his couch or maybe it has something to do with the company. Either way, falling asleep isn’t the best way to end a date.
So when Niall walks her up to her flat, she lingers at the door, unsure if she should do what she wants to do next. The voice in her head – it sounds a lot like Beck’s voice – tells her that she needs to stop thinking too much. That she needs to just do it.
“So, uh, thank you for tonight,” Brooklyn says as she takes a tentative step forward, her eyes locked on Niall’s. “I had a really good time.”
“Me too.” Niall smiles. There’s a hint of nervousness in his voice as though he knows what’s about to happen.
In the next moment, Brooklyn listens to the voice in her head and closes the distance. She puts a hand on Niall’s shoulder whilst the other wraps around his neck, bringing his lips to hers. He responds almost immediately, his arms enveloping her as his lips meet hers in a fervent kiss.
Brooklyn has thought about the kiss a number of times, has even dreamt of it but they’re nothing compared to this kiss. It’s better, so much so that she feels her head spinning when he holds her close, his heat warming her from head to toe.
“You beat me to it,” is the first thing Niall says when she pulls away, breathless. His forehead pressed against hers, he whispers, “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”
“Think I have some ideas,” Brooklyn replies as the corners of her mouth curve upwards. If he’s wanted to kiss her for as long as she’s wanted to do it, then she knows.
He reaches for her hand and squeezes it affectionately before releasing. He doesn’t say anything for a while and Brooklyn thinks he must be processing everything that has just happened. She’s doing the same thing.
Twenty-four hours ago, she thought Niall didn’t feel the same way but now they’re out here catching their breaths after sharing a kiss that made their heads dizzy.
“I can’t believe we just kissed.” Niall says, being the first one to break the silence between them.
“I know.” Brooklyn has to bring her fingers up to her lips to make sure that it really did happen.
“I-Shit, Bee, you made me speechless.”
Niall admitting that makes her speechless. Not once in her life has she ever thought she’d be the girl who could make someone speechless, let alone someone like Niall. It’s insane and honestly, it doesn’t sound realistic. This must be a dream – that’s the only way to explain this. But the slight pain she feels at the spot where she just pinched herself begs to differ. This is real.
“I should… I should go.”
“Okay.” Brooklyn can’t hide the disappointment in her voice.
“I’m really happy we did that date thing,” Niall says with a smile as he strokes her face gently with his thumb. When her eyes flutter close, Niall finds himself leaning down and he crashes his lips onto hers. This kiss isn’t as heated as the first one but it’s just as good. Brooklyn’s head still spins when he pulls away to catch a breath. “That… That was for research purposes.”
Brooklyn smothers a laugh into Niall’s shoulder, making him laugh as well. At that exact moment, she’s sure that she’s never been happier.