the apartment across the hall

38

When they got back from the carriage ride, Brooklyn showed off her ring to her family. They were all pleasantly surprised, especially her mother.

"Congratulations, the ring is beautiful. I really didn't expect this so soon." Her mother said.

"I didn't want to risk losing her." Brian said.

"Well welcome to the family Brian." Her mother hugged him.

"Nice rock sis." Vinny said.

"You're just glad Brian's sticking around. You loooooove him." Brooklyn made teasing kissy faces.

"Oh fuck off." He laughed. "Are you guys coming to midnight mass?"

"No we have to leave early tomorrow."

"I'm going back to Italy in two weeks."

"Are you coming back for summer?"

"Are you?" Vinny asked.

"Not likely." She answered.

"Well I guess I'll have to go visit you in Florida. Who knows I might even move there, this is my last semester in Italy, I'll need somewhere to go."

"Absolutely not." She laughed.

"Right, I'll let you go hang out with your new fiancé." He made a mocking face.

After their celebration, everyone parted ways for the night. When Brooklyn and Brian got back to their room, Brian got a phone call.

"Manson, we really need to talk." Tony, Brian's manager said.

"What is it? Is everything okay?" He asked alarmed.

"South Florida's Rock Report has a story about you and Brooklyn. They know she's pregnant and you're engaged."

"Fuck. How could they know that?"

"Some anonymous source they won't give away. What do you want to do about it?"

"What's wrong?" Brooklyn asked.

"Rock Report knows we're pregnant and engaged.". Brian replied.

Brooklyn took the phone. "Kill the fucking story Tony. I'm not joking, kill the story."

"Do you have any idea how much it would cost to pay them off?"

"I don't care, kill the fucking story. And find out who told them." She demanded.

Brian took the phone back. "Keep me updated Tony, we'll be back in Florida tomorrow and this better be gone." He hung up.

"How could this get out? Rock Report is the biggest music magazine in Florida. If this gets back to my parents..."

"It won't. Trust me, the people at Rock Report don't want to be on my bad side. They won't run the story." Brian comforted her.

When they landed in Florida the next day, the story still hadn't run.  Brian was right, the magazine wanted to stay on his good side. He was one of the biggest rock stars to come from Florida and they wanted to keep positive relations for future interviews. Other smaller tabloids ran similar speculative stories but with their low credibility and smaller audience, it wasn't an issue for Brooklyn and Brian.

The engagement and pregnancy remained a secret until Brooklyn's ring and belly told on her. Even with her pregnancy becoming public knowledge around Florida, the word never made it up to New Jersey, which she was thankful for.