Loud: The Complete Series (A Bad Boy Alpha Male Romance) (13 page)

“Alright,” he agreed. “I've got a lot to get done,
too, so, let's go.”

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

Emerson

It was almost like I’d flipped channels with a remote
control. One minute, the conversation was easy and fun and we seemed to be
hitting it off. The next, I saw
something
wash over her beautiful face,
and just like that, the mask returned, the armor was back on, and the walls
were erect.

But for a few moments, I got to see something
more.
The
real
Brooke. The girl hiding inside that suit of armor. And I
have to say, I liked her. I liked her a lot. Which might have been the problem.

I think she sensed that. And not only did she sense
it, but she felt it, too. That’s why she put the walls back up so abruptly.
There was no doubt about it, Brooke was afraid of letting someone in. I don’t
know how the asshole was, but someone had done a number on her in the past.
She’d apparently been hurt pretty bad and her number one concern had become
protecting herself. I had to give her credit, she was doing a bang up job of
that.

I wasn't sure what to do next or even what to say. The
reality of it all was this: I was attracted to Brooke.
Really
attracted
to her. In a way I hadn't felt before. She was incredibly different from every
other girl I knew, especially Melissa. Somehow, I think she knew how I was
feeling and wasn’t ready for it. Maybe all she saw when she looked at me was
this guy she could really connect with, who also wanted to truly connect with
her. And that only made her want to reinforce those walls around her heart with
even more steel and concrete.

So, as I walked into Patak's behind her, I tried to
decide how the next hour might play out. I wondered if I should keep things
light or address the elephant in the room and try to actually have a serious
discussion with her about how I felt. How
she
felt. Because no matter how she tried to deny it, she felt it, too. I could see
it on her face, hear it in the tremble of her voice, feel it in the magnetism
between us.

I was walking a razor's edge. If I told her how I felt
about her, she might shut me out completely
 
— and permanently. Was that a risk I was
willing to take?

I didn't know. And not knowing was my answer. So, I
decided to keep it light. Do exactly the opposite of what I had told Brooke
only moments earlier. I decided to play it safe.

Mr. Patak, the owner of the restaurant and my friend's
dad, was walking out of the kitchen as we entered. He immediately greeted us.

“Emerson!” he called to me, his voice colored with a
heavy Indian accent. “So good to see you, my boy!”

“Good evening, Mr. Patak,” I replied.

He walked over to us with a large grin pasted across
his face and extended a hand to me. I took it, and he shook my hand vigorously,
grinning all the while.

“How are you? And, who is this lovely young lady? Is
this your girlfriend?”

He extended a hand to Brooke and shook her hand gently.

“No, no,” I insisted, maybe a bit too hastily. “She's
my neighbor. Brooke, this is Mr. Patak, owner of this fine establishment.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you, a real pleasure!” he
said. “Such a beauty! Why are you and Emerson not girlfriend and boyfriend? You
two are both so good looking. You could have such lovely-looking children.”

We both laughed, albeit somewhat uncomfortably, and I
could see Brooke blushing.

“Oh, I'm just too busy for a boyfriend,” she said, her
cheeks still glowing red.

He shook his head and held up his forefinger, as if he
was about to make a profound point.

“No, no, no. Nobody should be too busy for love! Love,
young lady, that is what life is all about. Without it, well, life is like
eating only bowls of plain white rice. Yes, it will keep you alive, but life
will be so bland and boring and flavorless that you will wonder if you're
really doing anything beyond merely existing and surviving. Love, young lady,
that is the spice, the herbs, the exotic dishes and flavors and aromas that
make life worth living! Don't make yourself too busy with merely
surviving
.
One has to
live,
as well.”

She smiled at his words of wisdom. They were delivered
with such charm and sweet sincerity that all she could do was beam a smile at
him. Hell, even I felt a bit warm and fuzzy inside after hearing it.

I knew, though, that once Mr. Patak started talking,
he wouldn't stop, so I gently steered Brooke in the direction of the nearest
table.

“Can we sit here, Mr. Patak?” I asked.

“Of course, of course.”

“Sorry, we're just in a bit of a rush. We're both in
the same chemistry class, and we've got a lot of work to get done over the weekend.”

“I see, I see. Well, then, I won't take up any more of
your time. I'll send a waiter over with some menus right now. I must get back
to the kitchen anyway; we have new staff, and I have to be strict with them to
make sure they get things right. You know how I, how do you say, run a tight
ship?”

“That's right, Mr. Patak. And you run the best ship in
town!”

“Oh, thank you, my boy, thank you! Oh, and I must tell
Sanjay that you came by.”

“Yeah, please do. I was chatting with him on Facebook
just the other day. Seems like he's enjoying medical school.”

“Oh, he is! And, he is doing so well! His mother and I
are so proud of him. Anyway, off with me! I'll send a waiter over.”

With that, Mr. Patak hurried off and shortly after a
waiter arrived with menus.

“You know him pretty well, huh?” Brooke remarked.

“Yeah, like I said, I went to school with Sanjay, his
son.”

“He seems like a really nice man.”

“Oh yeah, but he'll talk your ear off if you let him.”

She chuckled and I hoped that meant the walls might be
coming down a bit.

“I can see that,” she replied, the smile fading as
quickly as it had appeared.

Back to business, it seemed.

“So, what do you recommend?” she asked. “They don't
take too long to prepare the meals, do they?”

“Nah, Mr. P will get them done quickly because I just
told him we're in a hurry. Um, man, there are so many great dishes here, it's
kinda hard to pick a single one to recommend. I'd say the korma curry or the
dhal makhani. Those are my go-to dishes. With garlic naan bread or butter naan.
And maybe some samosas on the side, too. They make to die for samosas.”

“What's a samosa?”

I gave her a mocking shocked glare. “What?” I teased.
“You don't eat Indian that often, do you?”

She allowed herself a smile.

“Not too often, I confess.”

“Samosas are awesome. They're like these little pastry
triangles filled with potato curry. But they’re like a hard, crispy kind of
pastry. Deep-fried. I guess they're not that healthy, but as a once-in-a-while
thing, they're a real treat.”

“I'm sold. Let's get some of those. And, I guess I'll
go with the veggie korma. It looks pretty amazing on the menu, at least.”

“You won't be disappointed. Everything they bring to
the table looks just like the pics in the menu and tastes just as good as you
imagine, too.”

“Cool. Let's do it then.”

I called the waiter over and ordered our meals. I knew
there would be a good twenty-minute wait before the food arrived. They were
fast, but not
that
fast. The question running through my head was how I
might pass the time if Brooke was avoiding eye contact and I was avoiding
spooking her even more than I seemed to have already.

That’s when fate stepped in.

A couple who appeared to be around our age walked in.
I didn't recognize either of them, but Brooke clearly did. Her eyes grew deer
in the headlights wide.

“Oh my God,” she gasped.

I cocked my head to the side and looked over at her.
“What is it? Everything okay?”

“No. Ben and Jess.”

“Uh, who?

She held the menu up to hide her face as they walked
past us.

“Did they see me?” she whispered from behind the menu.

“Umm, not that I could tell,” I replied. “They walked
past without even looking. Looks like they're going to sit at a table at the
back. You can come out now, they can't see you from there.”

She slowly lowered the menu and peered over the top
then sighed with relief.

“Whew. Thank goodness. So anyway, what about dessert? Is
there anything go-”

“Whoa, hold up, hold up, missy! You can't act like
you’re hiding from the cops and not tell me what that was about!” I cocked an
eyebrow at her curiously and narrowed my gaze. Waiting. I halfway expected her
to try to weasel her way out of explaining, but to my surprise, she obliged my
request.

“That's Ben Smout and his girlfriend Jessica Avery.
They were…”

She stopped as if trying to get her thoughts together
before she continued.

“Well, that guy, Ben, he's the best friend of my ex, Andrew.
I haven't seen him — Ben, I mean. Well, or Andrew — so, I haven't seen them
since the breakup. And, I don't
want to
see them. Ever.”

“Oh, I see,” I said uneasily.

The waiter walked by our table just in time to keep me
from having to think of something to say. Which was great because I didn’t have
a clue what to say in the situation. When the waiter continued to walk away, he
left us to the awkward silence.

“You know, uh,” I began, “you don't have to talk about
this if you don't want to. We can just forget those two are even here. Eat
quick and leave quick and they won't ever see you.”

She was silent for a moment. I imagined she was
struggling with whether she wanted to shut this whole thing down or not. After
a few moments, she looked me dead in the eyes, and did exactly the opposite of
what I had expected her to do. She opened up.

“Andrew was my first love. We started dating in high
school. I fell head over heels for him and he had me convinced he felt the same
way about me. I thought — and I know this is gonna sound stupid, but it’s just
how I felt — I thought he was going to be the guy I married, the guy I’d spend
the rest of my life with. He’s the reason I’m even here. I could've gone to a
better college. I'm talking Ivy League. I could have…but I didn't. I chose to
stay here, in this town, because of him. I couldn't bear the thought of being
away from him for weeks at a time.”

All I could do was nod sympathetically in response. I
was already certain this story wasn't going to end well. After all, she’d been
hiding behind a menu.

“So I made a big sacrifice for him, for
us
. I
gave up my chance to attend Dartmouth so I could be with the guy I thought was
my soulmate. I really thought that he was
The
One
.”

“And then, you found out he wasn't,” I stated softly.

Tears began to well up in her eyes. The sight of her
hurting gripped my heart and squeezed. “You don't have to tell me about this,”
I assured her. “Seriously, if it's painful to talk about, we can talk about
something else.”

“No,” she replied, dabbing at the corners of her eyes
with the edge of a sleeve from her sweater. “It’s okay. Les keeps telling me I
need to stop avoiding it, so, this is me not avoiding it.”

I nodded. “Alright.”

“So, last year, Andrew and that guy over there, Ben,
went on a fishing trip one weekend. Andrew picked up my tablet by mistake
thinking it was his, which meant he left his tablet in its place. And, he left
it unlocked. Normally, he was super strict about privacy and had everything
protected with passwords, so that was highly unusual. I guess that fact alone
should have clued me in that something was going on.”

“I see where this is going,” I murmured.

“Yeah, I'm sure you do. So, well, I kinda knew I
shouldn't do it, but because he was so crazy about privacy and never let me
even touch his tablet or computer or phone, I just had this burning curiosity.
And there his tablet sat…all mine for the weekend. I fought with myself over
it. So, I went into the settings and completely disabled the password, but then
I left it for the first day. I resisted the temptation to snoop. But there was
just something gnawing at me. This gut feeling. Like a knot in my stomach. The
next day, after I’d had some wine, I caved. I opened it and started looking
through the pictures. That’s when I found…” She paused, took a deep breath,
composed herself a little, but tears had already began to trickle down her
cheek. “I found
videos.
”

My forehead scrunched. “What? Like porn videos?”

“No. Well, yes. I suppose so. Videos of him.”

“Oh wow.”

“Videos of him having sex with other girls.”

“Wait.
Girls?
As in plural?”

She nodded. “Yes. He wasn't just cheating on me with
one girl. He'd been cheating on me with at least five other girls.”