Frozen

Chapter 7)

Brianna

I saw Hazel and Hawk walking into Barney's office shortly after I left, and Hazel's reaction to seeing me in Barney's office came back to me. The way she had been immediately pissed off, then with one small sentence she was friendly.

"Not with this one, Hazel," he had said

Not with this one.

What the fuck does that mean? Less than five minutes later, Hazel walked out of the office, but Hawk didn't follow her. Perfect opportunity.

I caught up to her a few feet away from the entrance and stopped her with a hand on her arm.

She turned around, a pretty scowl ready on her face, but when she saw it was me, she smiled.

"Hey, Brianna, what's up?" she asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Umm, is Hawk still talking to Barney?" I stalled.

"Yeah, guy talk," she said with a roll of her eyes.

"Right," I chuckled nervously, "so, uh, something Barney said earlier kind of...stuck with me and I was hoping you could translate."

Her eyes immediately were guarded, though the smile on her face never left.

"Yeah?" she said in way of prompting me

"When you walked in on us- Not walked in on us, you know, like that, but when you saw us...shit, I mean-"

"When I walked in on an important moment, continue," she said with a smile.

"Right, well, you were kind of pissed," I said.

Her eyes lightened again and she laughed.

"Oh, that, no I wasn't really mad, but whenever I used to walk into Barney's office when he was, uh, interacting with a girl, he would have me pretend to be his girlfriend," she semi-explained.

I was silent for a few seconds, waiting for her to elaborate, but when she didn't I raised my eyebrows a fraction.

"Why?"

"So they would leave," she shrugged as if it was obvious.

"Oh," I said, still confused. But then it hit me and my eyes widened. "Oh."

She chuckled.

"Yeah, oh. He normally just wants a one-nighter, no strings, no emotional bullshit. Even though he's very open about his intentions , girls tend to have short term memory loss the morning after. Sometimes, they follow him to his job and he's a pretty nice guy if you don't push him so he doesn't like telling them to fuck off."

That makes sense. Everything makes sense now. I had been confused as to why he would want me, me, with all my baggage and issues, but now I get it. He doesn't want me, he just wants one night with me.

It shouldn't, but that hurts like a motherfucker.

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Barney

Barney stared at Hawk unblinkingly, waiting for his best friend's reaction. Hawk was scrubbing his palm over his rough jaw thoughtfully, intense eyes on Barney.

"Dude, I don't know what to say," Hawk confessed. Barney's mouth twitched.

"How about sorry?" Barney semi-joked.

"Well, fuck, man, aren't you happy about it? You finally like a girl. Like, like like a girl. Not just 'want-to-bang-her' like her."

Barney sighed and ran a hand through his messy blonde hair.