Falling for the Fire

Chapter 14

Brooklyn's eyes had an angry fire in them that I hadn't seen before as she glared back at me.

"I know I can be difficult," she said, "but I'm trying to fucking apologize, what else do you want from me?"

Her voice was quiet but intense as she took a step closer.

"What do you think that I want?" I asked between gritted teeth, "I've repeatedly told you that I want you to show me some respect and stop acting like every single thing that I say is wrong."

"Jesus Ariana, I've been trying to tell you that I'm only particular and stubborn about these things because I know what's best for the event," she said in an exasperated voice.

"You're unbelievable," I snapped, "you can't possibly think that you're always right about all of this."

"I don't," she said intently, "but you -"

She trailed off and I raised my eyebrows at her expectantly. I took a small step forward, refusing to back down from her this time.

"I...what?" I asked, challenging Brooklyn to keep going.

I briefly looked down at her chest, seeing how heavily she was breathing from the intensity of the argument.

For a moment, neither of us spoke. We stood there locked in a stare, and I could feel the heat radiating between us in the close quarters of my office.

The silence that hung in the air seemed to go from anger to something more tense and electric.

Brooklyn's lips parted, but no words came out.

"What?" I repeated, leaning in towards her, "say it Brooklyn."

My jaw clenched tightly as I felt my cheeks flush red with anger. I had controlled my emotions up until now, but I couldn't do it anymore, not after the way she'd spoken to me today.

"You..." she trailed off again before continuing, "you drive me crazy."

There was a softer tone to her voice now, and I studied her expression as she took a small step back. The tension in her body seemed to lesson, but it was still there in between the two of us. It just felt different now.

"Good," I muttered, almost to myself, but I knew that she heard me.

My eyes stayed on hers for another minute before the moment passed. I blinked rapidly and turned around to face the inside of my office.

I knew that we couldn't continue to do this to each other, and that the arguments had to stop, or at least become less frequent.

I wasn't entirely sure what had just happened between us, but it was making me feel uneasy. I'd let my temper get the best of me, but for some reason this felt like more than a tense disagreement.

I couldn't even turn around and look at Brooklyn, I still needed the minute of peace and quiet that I'd come back here to get.

"I'm sorry," I heard her say from behind me, "for what I said this morning and - for all of this."

Her footsteps slowly faded away down the hallway, and I stepped further into my office.

I let my hands fall down to the desk in front of me as I let out a deep exhale. What the hell had gotten into me? I don't think I could recall another time where I'd gotten that worked up over something like this.

My head hung down and I rolled my neck back and forth, trying desperately to ease the immense amount of tension that I was carrying there.

I closed my eyes and tried to regain my focus on work. Arguing with Brooklyn was the last thing that I needed to be doing right now, and I had to remember that.

When I walked back out to the conference room a few minutes later, Brooklyn was sitting in the chair that she'd been in before, and she was flipping through a pile of papers.

I saw Eliana give me a look out of the corner of her eye as I sat back down, and I did my best to ignore it.

"Here you go," Brooklyn said as I settled in at the table, "I've added a few notes to these with what we talked about earlier."

She slid the papers over to me, and I looked through them without saying anything to her.

I cleared my throat as I finally glanced up and met her gaze.

"These are - they're helpful," I said, "thank you."

She nodded back at me as I continued to read, and for once, she didn't have anything to say. Maybe the argument was what we needed to be able to work together, or maybe she'd go back to her old self eventually.

Either way, something felt different between us.

                                       ***

Avery and I were hanging out at my house a couple of days later, and I realized that I had never told her what happened between Brooklyn and I earlier in the week.

"So I forgot to tell you," I started, "Brooklyn and I got into a um...pretty heated conversation a few days ago."

She stopped what she was doing and raised her eyebrows at me, clearly waiting for me to further explain.

"I overheard her and Eliana talking shit about me and how I didn't know what I was doing," I said, "and then she just - she kept pushing my buttons and I kind of lost it."

"Damn," Avery responded as her eyes widened, "was this in front of everyone?"

"No," I shook my head, "I went back to my office to try and take a minute to calm down, but she followed me back and tried to apologize...and I kind of went off on her."

"Good for you," Avery said with a nod, "it sounded like she deserved it."

"Yeah I don't - maybe," I shrugged, "the whole situation just felt weird."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"I don't know..." I trailed off, "it felt like - it was really tense between us or something, like different than usual."

"You mean like...sexual tension?" Avery grinned.

"Nooo," I groaned, "not like that...I don't think."

"You don't think?" She repeated.

"No I - I mean maybe that's what it was, but only because of what happened before," I admitted.

The sly grin remained on her face as she watched me respond.

"Has she been acting any differently since then?" She asked.

"Maybe a little bit," I shrugged, "but she's still being difficult."

"Seems like that part isn't really going to change," she said.

"Apparently not," I told her, "I just can't figure out exactly what's going on...and we have this stupid party this weekend that I have to go to."

"You think that any of this might have something to do with the fact that you two never really discussed what happened?" Avery asked me.

"I guess it could," I said, "but she basically refused to have a conversation about it."

"You could always try again," she suggested, "you never know."

"Maybe," I responded, "I just need to get through this party and we'll see what happens from there."

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