Chapter Ten
Dominic
Every group dinner was more awkward than the last. Austin seemed to enjoy shoving it in my face that he had Brooke now. It shouldn't bother me—I had Talia—but it really fucking did. The bastard liked to win. If he kept acting like such an asshole, the girls were going to catch on, and the last thing I wanted was for Talia to think she was my replacement for Brooke.
I glared across the table at Drew as he suggested we all go out dancing. With any luck I could convince Talia to go out to dinner with me—or better yet, let me cook her dinner—instead of going out with my friends. Again. I didn't want to go out drinking and come home plastered out of my mind for a third time this week. Drew was going through something—he had to be—because this wasn't like him to want to go out every night either.
Find a trick, sure. He’d asked my opinion about guys on Grindr way more often than I’d like. But to go out clubbing each night? Never.
"Is everything okay?"
He gave me a funny look. "Yeah, why?"
It was just the two of us here in the kitchen, but we could be interrupted at any time. "You aren't the partying type."
He shrugged. "Maybe I don't want to sit around and watch all you couples," he practically spat the word, "all over each other. It's not exactly hopping for a gay guy in South Padre. Excuse me for trying to make it fun."
I frowned. This wasn't my friend. We both knew Texas wasn't exactly the hot bed of homosexual activity or inclusion. Fuck, I didn't care who he screwed, but there were some people narrow-minded enough to make his life a living hell. I wondered if he'd found some of those while we were here.
"Do you want to hang out tonight just you and me? We haven't done that since before finals. I could take the night off. Talia mentioned wanting to watch some show they’re always screaming at each other in."
The corner of his mouth tipped up in a smile. "She was talking about The Real Housewives of Dallas. Apparently there's a marathon. We were talking about it the other day."
I smirked at him. "Would you rather stay in with Talia?"
"Shut up, asshole." He finally grinned back at me. "Fine. I'll let you take me out. Just remember I don't put out on the first date."
“I thought I wasn’t your type?”
He laughed and flipped me off as I left the kitchen to go find Talia and tell her she got to stay in tonight. Honestly, I wished I was staying in tonight too. All I wanted to do was sit down and sketch. It had been a few weeks since I'd been able to just draw. My brain was starting to overflow with ideas and if it didn't happen soon, I’d probably go crazy. I just hoped Drew’s version of hanging out tonight didn’t include a lot more male anatomy than I wanted to see.
***
We decided on burgers at Padre Island Burger Company, one of our places on the island so far. Somehow we snagged a table on the patio and were enjoying the evening air and good beer. Aside from a few comments about my First Date Burger and Drew's Mr. Beckham, we were settled in and actually having a decent conversation—until Drew brought up Brooke. My food soured in my stomach as he started to gossip about how cute she looked with Austin, how perfect they were as a couple. From the glances he kept taking over his beer, he knew exactly what he was doing.
"Why are you pushing this?" I finally asked.
Drew gave me a knowing look. "Why won't you admit you hate them together? Since they started dating, all you do is brood and try to change the topic anytime anyone brings them up. We all hate Austin too. Josh is the only one who tolerates him, and between you and me, I think the guys are about ready to kick him out. Jared told me that before he started dating Brooke, they'd had a house meeting to discuss how to get him out of there."
"Really?" I was surprised. Everything always seemed good between the guys. "Josh never said anything."
"You know how he is. He hates drama and kicking Austin out of the apartment is drama."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, he's the exact opposite of his sister. She fucking thrives on it."
He frowned. "No, she doesn't. Seriously, you need to get the fuck over whatever's going on in that head of yours. You keep taking cheap shots at her, and it’s pissing me off. I wish you two would just kiss and make up already. Everyone else agrees."
"Nice to know you guys have been talking behind our backs."
Drew pinned me with a look. "Every time you talk to Brooke, it's only one step slightly less than hostile. You've been a dick to her. Did you tell her how you felt and she said no or something?"
I winced. "Not exactly."
"Whatever it was, you need to talk it out. Josh is probably going to freak out and kick your ass the next time you snap at his sister, and no one is going to stop him. I'm surprised he's lasted this long. He can be as much of an asshole as he wants with his little sister, but someone else treating her that way is another story. I think the only reason he's let it go on for this long is because of how close you and Brooke were."
Were.
Past tense.
I ran a hand down my face. "I'm just not ready to forgive her."
"You're with Talia now."
"What's your point?"
"You're with Talia now," he said slowly. "Why are you still punishing Brooke when you're with another woman? Unless you think this thing with Talia is short-term."
I scoffed. "Of course not."
He leaned back in his chair and studied me. "Then forgive her already. Even if you aren't ready to do that, quit biting her head off if she even looks in your direction. It's getting old, Dom."
I glared down at my beer. He was right. I was lucky Josh hadn’t kicked my ass. And I was being antagonistic toward Brooke.
"Can we talk about something else?"
He frowned. "I'm glad to see I didn't get through to you at all."
"I...I just need more time."
He held my gaze for a few seconds. "Okay. Just remember the more time you take, the more time she has to move on."
"Move on?"
He plastered on a smile. "So do you want to hear about my pathetic dating life? I've hit on two straight guys since we got here. Luckily they both took it pretty well and didn't threaten to kick my ass."
"Hold up. You said move on."
"I meant move on from your friendship. You wanted to drop it, so we're dropping it."
I didn't believe him, but I wasn't going to push the issue. He was obviously taking one for the team by telling me all this. If I really wanted to know what he meant by move on I could just go talk to Brooke. I wondered again about how her anxiety attacks were. Hopefully, she hadn't had any more of them. I knew how debilitating they were for her.
"Earth to Dom." Drew waved his hands in front of my face. "I lost you there for a second."
"Sorry. I'm all over the place tonight. I really need to spend some time sketching. It's been weeks since I've even picked up a pencil."
"Anyone in particular you’ll be sketching?" he asked innocently.
I pinned him with a look. "No, I’ll probably draw the beach. In fact, I'll probably bring my stuff along tomorrow so I can do that."
Drew smirked. "I would think you’d want to draw the most beautiful girl on the beach tomorrow, not a bunch of sand and water."
I wasn't taking the bait. Drew was an awesome friend, but he liked drama a little bit too much. At least he'd given me a heads-up about Josh, even if it meant I had to hear about how much I actually missed having Brooke around.
It took me a few minutes, but I finally looked up to meet his eyes. "I'll try."
Drew immediately got it. "That's all we ask, Dom."
***
The water felt amazing. Sand gathered between my fingers as I ran them over and through it. It was calming, and since I was the only one on the beach, I was able to spend my time sketching and lounging in the sand. Talia had gone to lunch with the girls, and the rest of the guys were all hungover from going out last night.
I was thankful for the opportunity to spend the day thinking. After my 'date' with Drew, I felt uncomfortable, like my skin was too tight for my body. He was right when he said I was with Talia and that I didn't really have a right to be mad with Brooke anymore. As hard as it was, it was time for me to let go of my anger. Eventually Brooke and I would need to talk, but for right now, I needed to take a few baby steps to see how things went. She'd told me she didn't actually know how I felt before that conversation. Do I believe her or not?
Knowing Brooke, she'd probably spoken without thinking. If something was on her mind, it was word vomit when it came out unless she really took the time to consider how to bring things up. That was a huge problem with her a lot of the time. Not only that, but the almost kiss a few days before had blurred the lines. I should've just kissed her then. Maybe things would’ve been different. It's possible we’d be together now if I'd just grown a pair and actually kissed her.
As I walked up and down the water, I thought about why I was so angry with her. Was it because I felt everything that could've been had gone up in smoke? Or was it because I thought she truly knew and was mocking me for it? Fuck. As soon as I realized I was into her, I should've asked her out. Screw Josh and his stupid comments. Drew had said last night that she would move on if I didn't talk to her soon. I didn't believe him when he said it was about our friendship. Did he mean she has feelings for me?
I glanced up from my sketch and studied the horizon. My mind was wandering into dangerous territory. If she did, would I be willing to let my relationship with Talia go to find out? I had to consider this carefully. It wasn't just me I had to think about. If I talked to Brooke and she said she did feel the same way, we both were in relationships. Austin was a dick, but he seemed to really like Brooke. Everything was starting to fuck with my head. If I were in my room back at the apartment, I’d probably have a hole in my wall by now.
I rolled my tight shoulders a few times. The only thing I knew was that I needed to talk to Brooke.
But would she talk to me? I'd been pretty fucking awful to her lately. Yes, she'd pissed me off, but she didn't deserve how I'd acted. She had also tried to apologize and explain what happened several times, but I’d blown her off. The scene in the student union came to mind. Something about that day stood out. It was time. I just hoped she still wanted to. Otherwise all of this anger wasn't worth anything—our friendship wasn't worth anything.
Loving Brooke had been my dirty little secret. It was one everyone knew except her. I never owned up to it because she couldn’t possibly feel the same way I did. For one brief moment I thought she might, but that changed the second Austin finally showed interest in her. It made me wary if he did it just to get under my skin. Salvaging my friendship with Brooke was the only thing I wanted right now. I could give up any hope for ever being in a relationship with Brooke if she just forgave me.