Falling for the Fire

Chapter 46

*Brooklyn's POV

"Ari hold on," I pleaded with her, but it was too late.

I stood there and watched as she got into her car and slammed the door shut behind her.

"God damnit," I mumbled to myself.

I knew that I shouldn't have been spending as much time with Ari as I had been lately. I knew this was going to become a problem.

I got into my own car and sat there for a moment, unsure if I was angry, sad, relieved, or all of the above.

I should've just explained everything to her before it was too late, and I was mad at myself for letting it get this far.

The truth was that I did really like her, but I couldn't make myself do anything about it. I still wasn't ready for that yet.

I knew that I should've just cut this whole thing off the second that I started having feelings for her, but now we were well past that point.

I drove out of the parking lot and towards my house, and the anger that was bubbling inside of me had taken over any other emotion that I'd been feeling. I was a fucking idiot.

I got inside and dropped my bag on the floor, slamming the door shut behind me.

"Fuck," I shouted to myself.

Why had I let myself do this to her? Now she wasn't going to want anything to do with me.

The only person that I wanted to talk to about this right now was the one that I had fucked things up with. I didn't know how I could make it better.

I slammed my hands down on the kitchen counter as I let out an exasperated breath. This was a disaster.

***

The next morning when I got to work, I briefly looked in the conference room before going straight back to Ari's office. I'd seen her car in the parking lot, so I knew that she was here somewhere.

I saw her sitting at her desk and I quickly stepped inside and shut the door behind me, not giving her a chance to protest.

"Brooklyn, what are you doing?" She asked.

She looked tired, and she looked sad, and I knew that a lot of that was probably my fault.

"I'm sorry," I said to her, "I feel terrible about how all of this happened."

"No," she shook her head, "I'm not having this conversation again, especially not here."

"Ari," I sighed, "you know that I didn't mean to hurt you, I just -"

"Then maybe you shouldn't have acted like you cared about me so much," she cut in, "then I wouldn't have assumed that you felt the same way that I did."

"That's not - I wasn't acting," I said.

"Brooklyn I said I don't want to do this again," she responded, "you don't need to make me feel like even more of an idiot than I already do."

I tried to say something else, but she continued on before I could.

"We'll work together to make sure the event goes well and that's all we need to do, it's fine."

"Please don't feel like an idiot," I said quietly, "you're not."

"Can you please leave now?" She asked as she looked back towards her computer, "I'll be out there in a few minutes."

I sighed again before I grabbed on to the door handle and pulled it open. I knew that this wasn't a battle that I was going to win today.

I walked out to the conference room and took my usual seat at the table, and I saw Eliana give me a suspicious look.

"What's wrong with you?" She asked.

"What? Nothing, I'm fine," I quickly said.

"Whatever you say," she shrugged.

I just fucked up my chances with the first woman that I've genuinely liked in over a year, that's what's wrong. No big deal.

When Ari did come out and sit down next to me, she was silent. It was killing me.

Once everyone started working, we obviously had to discuss what we were doing, but that was about it.

She was cold towards me all day, and I didn't blame her one bit.

At one point during the day, Eliana called me over for help again, and this time I gladly obliged.

"Do you mind if I...?" I questioned as I pointed towards the other end of the table.

"Nope," she said, "please do."

Of course she was going to say that, I deserved it.

The other few people that Elle had been working with were off doing something else, and she immediately started talking in a quiet voice when I came over.

"Trouble in paradise, or what?" She asked, "why aren't you telling me what's going on?"

"What are you even talking about?" I questioned.

"With you and Ari," she said, nodding in her direction, "she's looked like she kind of wants to kill you all day."

"Elle," I started, "I still cannot figure out why you're so damn concerned with her and I, what is it?"

"No I'm - I'm just curious, what's going on, you know," she stammered.

"Uhh huh," I said slowly.

"Do you really still think that Owen is checking her out? Or were you just saying that?" She blurted out.

I glanced over at Ari, trying to make sure that she wasn't hearing any of our conversation before I answered her.

"I mean," I started, "I've seen him give her a once over a time or two...but there's no chance in hell she'd ever take him back so I'm pretty sure that you don't have anything to worry about."

"Well I know she wouldn't," Elle responded, "but I still don't like that he's doing that...if he is."

"He is known to be a cheater Eliana," I said, "you knew what you were signing up for."

"Don't say that," she said under her breath.

"Well it's true," I shrugged, "now do you actually need my help with anything or did you just want to bug me about this?"

"Jesus Brooklyn," she said, "no...that was all."

"Right," I responded as I pushed my chair away from the table, "I'm going to go back to work then."

"God damn she is too much," I muttered as I sat back down next to Ari, "still wants to question me about you and I and about Owen."

"Brooklyn," she said bluntly, "I just want to finish this stuff and be done for the day. I don't really want to hear about anything else right now."

"Oh, yeah," I said, "sorry."

Fuck this was not going to be fun.

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