The Men Next Door

Ch 12 - Luca

"Alright, what the hell, man?" I said as me and Brooks' random, lighthearted conversation fizzled into silence for the fourth time. He'd been tiptoeing around me ever since that three-way dinner from hell, and I was getting really fucking tired of his weird evasiveness. "Say what you want to say. I see the wheels turning."

"Everything I want to say is something we agreed not to talk about," he answered plainly.

"Well, we also agreed not to let this whole... situation... come between us," I said, gesturing vaguely in the air as I referred to our love triangle. "So spit it out. Fuck the rules."

He sighed and rubbed his brow. A slight frown appeared on his face. "I can't stop thinking about what the two of you might've done when you were alone together. I know it's none of my fucking business, but I'm jealous, Luca. I want to be the one making her giggle in the goddamn hallway on a Saturday night. And instead I have to listen to you laughing alongside her."

My jaw tensed. "You think I feel any different after she mentioned 'hanging out with you one-one-one?' I know what that meant for me, and I sure as hell hope our alone time wasn't anything like yours."

Brooks stood up and leaned against the kitchen counter, arms crossed tightly in front of his chest. His nostrils flared when he met my eyes again. "I didn't need to hear that, Luca. We agreed that whatever happens in private is fair game. Don't ask, don't tell. What happened to that?"

I let out a sharp breath through my nose. "It's not fucking working, Brooks — that's what happened. We can't all three spend time together. I would've needed a hacksaw to cut through the tension in that room last weekend."

"Because you brought her fucking flowers, Luca! What did you think that was going to achieve?"

I don't think I'd ever heard Brooks raise his voice until that moment. In fact, I don't think we'd ever been the slightest bit angry at each other until Campbell showed up. Maybe she was a sign of the times. The beginning of the end of our friendship.

Either way, his tone immediately ignited a fire in me.

"Oh, my bad! I didn't know trying to make some fucking progress was off limits," I said, rolling my eyes for good measure. "She'd been distant as hell, and I needed to get her attention somehow. Don't get all pissy because you didn't think of it first."

Brooks sighed and held the bridge of his nose tightly between his fingers. "You knew I was going to be there too. You could've knocked on her door with a bouquet any other day of the fucking week, but you waited to do it in front of me. That was purposeful, Luca. It wasn't a sweet gesture for Campbell. It was a metaphorical middle finger to me."

I bit my tongue. As much as I wanted to deny it, the fucker had a point. I did want to one-up him, and what better opportunity was I going to have than when we were all together? I knew he was a stickler who wouldn't break our self-imposed rules, so there was practically zero chance he'd do anything more than chat her up while I was around.

And the truth was, while Brooks was jealous of my time with Bella, I was jealous of... him. Jenkins subtly called me out on it when I told him about my crush, and the thought had been buzzing around in the back of my mind like a pesky fly ever since.

How could I not be jealous? I'd have to be blind to miss the way that Brooks beat me in just about everything. He was older, wiser, and more composed. A better cook, more organized, more creative. Hell, he was even stronger on a good day.

Meanwhile, I had what? A better sense of humor, more energy, and more fun? Real fucking useful, if I was a Zumba instructor. But instead, my best traits just made me feel like an incompetent kid.