Falling for the Fire

Chapter 13

"Honestly might kill Brooklyn by the time this whole process is over with," I texted Avery as I got into my car.

My phone went off on the drive home, and I looked at it once I pulled into my driveway.

"She's that bad, huh?" Avery sent.

"Terrible...literally thinks she knows everything and can do no wrong," I responded.

"Soooo, you're over her is what you're saying :)"

I rolled my eyes at Avery's message as I walked into the house.

"That was never a thing, there was nothing to get over," I told her.

"I know, but still have to give you shit about that every once in a while," she responded.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, well she's annoying as hell," I said.

"You better learn to deal with it ;)" Avery sent back.

"Yeah unfortunately you're right, let's just hope this goes by fast so I can be done with her."

I tossed my phone on to the couch and went back to my room to change out of my work clothes. Once I was done, I went out to the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the fridge. I needed it after today.

I went and sat down next to my phone as I scrolled through it and tried to de-stress after the day that I'd just had.

                                      ***

A few days later, I got ready to go into work, preparing myself for the pain in the ass that was Brooklyn.

She had continued to be difficult, and no matter how hard I tried to ignore it, I just couldn't. I still felt like she was undermining me and purposely trying to get under my skin.

I could have been imagining it, but I was pretty sure that I wasn't.

When I walked into the office and towards the conference room, I could already hear Brooklyn and Eliana talking.

I paused momentarily and tried to listen in.

"She just doesn't seem like she knows what she's doing," Brooklyn said.

"Not at all," Eliana agreed, "I mean she's probably distressed over the whole boyfriend situation...but still."

I heard her let out a quiet laugh before the conversation was over.

"Morning," I said as I stepped into the hallway next to them.

They both gave each other a slightly panicked look before regaining their composure and saying hi back.

I took a steadying breath as I walked in to the conference room. It felt like that was something I was having to do far too often lately.

They came in shortly after me and sat down at the table, both of them staying quiet for once. I couldn't believe that this is what I had to deal with.

Brooklyn had continued to claim that she was only trying to help with the event, but then I overhear her saying that? It was seeming more and more like she was full of shit.

"Okay," I said a few minutes later as I stood at the front of the room, "we're going to divide up again today and pick up where we left off yesterday."

I knew that meant I had to deal with Brooklyn again, but I had kind of done that part on purpose.

"You sure about that?" She asked.

"Yes," I said as my gaze flickered over to meet hers.

She shrugged as everyone started to divide off into their groups and the quiet conversations started.

"I'm surprised you wanted to put yourself through this again," she said as we sat down.

"Brooklyn," I huffed, "can you just not be like this for once?"

"Sorry," she said under her breath, "I just know how this is going to go."

"Maybe it wouldn't go that way if you didn't start off our conversation like that," I shot back, "ever think of it that way?"

"Listen, I'm just calling it like I see it," she said, "I told you that you were going to have to deal with that."

"Well call it to yourself then or something, would you?" I asked.

She shook her head and quietly sighed to herself. I was never going to win with this girl.

We started to work on nailing different details down for each location, and unsurprisingly didn't agree on much. I didn't know how to deal with her without completely giving in and losing any say that I had.

I was trying to listen to what she had to say and make some compromises, but even that was pointless.

"Brooklyn," I finally said, "can you please at least try to work with me here?"

"I just don't know how I can do that when most of what you prefer is the wrong call," she responded.

"Look," I started, "I know you 'don't think I know what I'm doing,' you've made that very clear, but you have to work with me on this, and show me some damn respect."

She looked taken aback at first, but she eventually just leaned back in her chair and folded her arms over her chest. She was driving me crazy, and I needed a break.

I pushed back from the table and stood up as I narrowed my eyes at her.

"I need a minute," I said.

"Oh," I continued, "and maybe you should be careful about how loudly you're talking to people in my hallway."

Brooklyn opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but she decided against it. It might have been the first time I'd seen her speechless.

I walked down to my office and stood there in the doorway, taking a deep breath as I put my hands on my hips.

I closed my eyes and I could feel my heart pounding against my chest. I was letting her get me way too worked up.

"Ariana," I heard the voice behind me.

I turned around to see that Brooklyn had followed me back.

"No," I shook my head, "I said I needed a minute, that means a minute away from you."

"I know," she said, her tone softening, "I owe you an apology."

"You think?" I asked angrily.

"I'm trying to apologize," she snapped back, "you don't need to be so bitchy about it."

"Me? Bitchy?" I asked as I gave her a sarcastic laugh, "you've got to be kidding me Brooklyn."

                   —————————————