He reached across the table and let his hand rest on Brooke’s forearm, squeezing a few times.
Brooke smiled at his touch.“Thanks, Nick. You really are a standup guy.”
“I know.” He shook his hair back, as if to flip it. As it was, it was entirely too short for that. The effect was adorable either way.“Share her sometimes though, yeah?”
Brooke nodded vehemently.“Of course, Nick. Whenever you want.”
“See, then fine.” He smiled, this smile felt more real. Less sad, more conspiratorial.“So,” he began,“how are you going to ask her?”
The truth was that Brooke had never been good at moments like this. It’s why she had never mustered up the courage to ask Anna out for real in the first place. She always got in her own head. That damn fear of rejection, a lingering burn. She knew that Anna would say yes. She knew that the evening would be a happy one, no matter how Brooke asked. She knew that they would probably cry and then honestly probably fornicate to celebrate. She blushed at the thought. But gods, how she feared that moment after the question left her lips. Her shoulders had gone all tense, lifting with each passing second, hovering somewhere around her ears.
Nick beamed.“Brooke Kent, have you no plan?” His normally subtle accent was in full force, maybe slightly mimicking Brooke’s own.
“It’s not that I don’t know what I want to accomplish, it’s just the doing of the thing,” Brooke felt nauseous all of the sudden.
“You know she’s going to say yes.”
Brooke nodded.“Yeah. I've even talked to my therapist about why I might lock up over things like this.” She sighed and wiped her hand over her face.
“Well, personally, I think you should go big, bold, and cheesy.” He flashed her a dazzling smile.“Like an American teenager asking a girl to prom”
Brooke frowned.“That’s not exactly my style.”
Nick laughed.“No, it’s not. But Anna didn’t get asked to prom. And it isherstyle. Just this once. Not for your engagement, which you know I will happily help you plan.” At the comically terrified reaction Brooke made, Nick continued,“when you’re ready for it.”
“So, bold and cheesy?”
He nodded.“I think it could be cute. Fill your apartment with flowers, play romantic music, make a poster.”
Brooke couldn’t help but smile. He was right, that was absolutely not the vibe she would be going for for an engagement, but just this once, for this next step, it might kind of be perfect.“That’s not a horrible idea, Nick.”
“Of course it isn’t. I’m brilliant.”
When the day finally came to ask Anna to move in, Nick and Christine came over to help Brooke set up. Vivienne had a prior engagement, that both Nick and Christine speculated was with Allegra. Per Anna’s explicit demands, Brooke had to pay attention to any and all news about this development to report back. She also had to ask good follow up questions—specifically the types of questions that Anna would ask.
“So, Vivienneneversays who she has or hasn’t hooked up with,” Christine said, stating a fairly well known Vivienne fact.
“Not even to the two of you?” Nick stopped what he was doing to dramatically put his hands on his hips.
Brooke knew she should be participating. After their celebration tonight, she knew Anna would ask if there’d been any new tea. And Brooke, for someone who loved actual tea so much, sure could get better at getting it, learning it, and sharing it. Anna’s words, absolutely not her own. At the same time, she was nervous, and they had gotten started a little later than she had wanted on account of the pizza arriving later than she had requested.
“Can we do the rose petals,andgossip about our friends?” She asked, trying to keep her voice light. Even she could hear the nerves curling around the edges of her words.
Christine scoffed,“we’re not gossiping, we’re exchanging information.” She did go back to spreading rose petals all over Brooke’s living room floor, though.
“And I happen to know that they have fucked,” Nick said, quite pleased with this juicy morsel.“That’s just a fact. It’s not gossip.”
That stopped Brooke in her tracks.“And you know that, how?”
“Allegra doesn’t act like some British super-spy who can’t divulge their affairs. I got coffee with her a week ago and she said they had absolutely fucked a few weeks prior to that.” Nick grinned. His smile seemed triumphant.
Brooke was unaware that spilling the best tea was a game one could win, but here she was, wishing Anna was here to help.“Did she say if they were dating?” Anna would be proud of her for that.
She waited for the answer while she continued working on her ridiculous poster. She still wasn’t sure this was the best plan, but Nick and Christine were both fairly certain that Anna would love it.
“They’re definitely not. Or if they are dating, it’s new. They weren’t a week ago,” Nick said, pointedly showing Brooke his work as he spread his own bag of rose petals on her floor.
Christine stopped what she was doing to tap at her chin.“Vivienne is definitely on the aromantic scale. In the ten years that I’ve known the two of you, she’s never once had an official partner, male or female.”
