Scorpio Eyes

Chapter 20: NYC

2 months later - Dec 21st

"Brooke, it's your mother. Are you coming to Florida to visit me and Lou for Christmas? I haven't seen you in almost a year. Anyway, call me when you get this."

"End of messages", the electronic voice said in her ear.

Brooke promptly deleted the voicemail and shoved her phone back in her purse. She was definitely NOT going to Florida over Christmas and she would have to tell her mother this at some point but right now was not the time. She'd call her back later.

She felt a strong rush of air blast through the platform which indicated the train was approaching. Brooke waited with the other people as the 3 train headed uptown came barreling into the Christopher street station and grinded to an abrupt halt. The doors opened and more people got on than off. The train was crowded but Brooke managed to snag a seat before a person dressed in a statue of liberty costume was able to get there.

The doors closed and the train pulled away. She noticed a bad odor immediately coming from a person sitting across the train from her that looked like they hadn't showered in weeks-- she began to feel nauseated. She pulled her shirt over her nose. Lately she'd become very sensitive to smells and the slightest unpleasant smell sent her running for the bathroom. She never used to have this issue, but lately, it seemed like everything made her feel sick. To take her mind off the smell, Brooke slipped her phone out from her bag. She had her airpods in and she found the mp3 file that was sent to her from the producer that had been working with her for the past several weeks on her new music. She opened the file and pressed play.

The music filled her ears and she closed her eyes. It was a slow melodic beat with deep bass and she heard her voice. She hadn't heard the song since it had been worked on by the engineers with the layers of background vocals added. It sounded good. The song was called "Love Affair" and was about her and Adam.

Most of the songs she had written for this new album were about him. When she got home from California she threw herself into her music. Partially because she needed something to keep her from contacting Adam and the other was therapy-- so she could process everything that happened between them. It was hard to believe that everything that transpired between them happened in a week's time. 7 days. That was all it took to be completely immersed in him... to fall for him.

"I wanna know... I wanna know how to feel, what to feel, what's right... I never know. Cause when it gets real, I just run away and hide from you... from you... from you..."

She heard the lyrics she wrote and sang-- blast through her airpods and she could feel herself getting emotional. She had not spoken to Adam since she left his house the day after his birthday and flew home to New York. She thought maybe he would try to contact her after a week but when he didn't, she knew he meant what he said about her figuring out what she wanted. He wasn't going to be the one to reach out first. He was very clear about how he felt and what he wanted. The ball was in her court and she had to decide how to proceed.

She didn't contact him because she still wasn't sure if what they had was real or if it was just some kind of vacation romance that wasn't meant to go anywhere. But damn if it didn't feel real, and deep in her heart she knew it was more than just some fling. She thought about texting him or calling him many times, but every time she went to do it, something stopped her. She blamed it on her desire to get this new album done and she didn't want the distraction, but the truth was she was scared.

Brooke shook her head and opened her eyes. They were already at the 103rd street station, only 3 more stops before she was at her stop. The music had stopped a while ago and she looked at her phone. She began to scroll through Instagram mindlessly when something made her stop in her tracks. She scrolled back to the post of the account "NYCGoss" -- that account had all the NY celebrity gossip and sightings around the city.