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Post by Amber Jacobs on Aug 17, 2015 14:13:43 GMT
The ride back to the Penthouse had been fairly quiet. Ten years ago, it might have been because Amber was being petulant and was ignoring him on purpose. But this time, instead, she stayed tucked against him in the town car, her head on his shoulder and her hand in his. It wasn’t that she wasn’t speaking to him on purpose it was that she wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to say.
This realization amused her greatly, because imagined a version of them ten years ago screaming over this. Granted, that would have happened because ten years ago, Liv’s intrusion would have resulted in some more scathing words and possibly at least one drink tossed in the direction of someone else. How far they’d come.
When they finally were back in the Penthouse, she toed out of her shoes with an audible sigh of relief. “We need better friends,” she finally said with a small laugh.
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Post by Brandon Finn on Aug 17, 2015 14:37:04 GMT
He had held her hand in his throughout the entirety of the car ride, feeling as though if he didn't have some way to anchor her down beside him then she might have lashed out at him. They had always been great at fighting, he recalled, thinking back to the countless arguments that they had had with each other for reasons which he couldn't even remember. Most of it might have been fighting over who was more right about a topic for all that he could remember, but it was the making up that continued to be one of his fondest memories.
Liv's involvement in the party, and in his life, continued to be something he dwelled over, however. Even as they rode the elevator to the Penthouse, he couldn't get the sinking feeling out of the pit of his stomach. It was one thing to make stupid decisions as a teenager, it was another thing entirely to keep making the same stupid decisions as an adult.
Loosening his tie and kicking off his own shoes, he looked over at Amber, still amazed at how calm she seemed to be. "I wouldn't necessarily call them friends," he commented. "At least not certain people."
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Aug 17, 2015 15:42:06 GMT
Amber glanced at Brandon for a moment and thought about what he'd just said. When it came down to it, neither of them had really been in the business of making friends when they were younger. She'd been close with Erin, but that had fallen apart quickly and messily during high school. She'd only become friends with Cooper years later after she'd already been in California, and then she'd had Cassidy and a few of the girls at work. But who had Brandon really had when she'd left? Models? Ex-fiancees? Olivia Warren?
"We should make some real friends," she said with a small nod. "Because if we try to hide here all of the time, I'll drive you stir crazy. I'm a lot to handle," she teased. She dropped onto the couch looking up at him. "You know ever since earlier, you've been looking at me like I have a bomb strapped to my chest and you're not sure when it's going to go off," she added. Leaning forward sighed thoughtfully. "Do you want to talk about what happened with Olivia back there? Because we don't have to. She's miserable so she loves to make people miserable and I don't like her, but it's not my business what happened with her while I was gone."
Sure, Amber had to admit it had bothered her. There was a nagging voice in the back of her mind that wanted to know why it had so often been Liv that he called when things went south with them. "Although, you should possibly warn me if there's anything in here that she's touched, and then you should not be surprised if I ask you to burn it."
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Post by Brandon Finn on Aug 17, 2015 16:11:18 GMT
He hadn't realized he had been making it so obvious that he was staring at her. It had been well-intentioned, waiting to see if she was the one who wanted to talk about what had just happened, but he supposed it wasn't fair to her when he was the responsible party here. It was probably a conversation they should have had when they first started figuring out what their new roles were in each other's lives, but he hadn't been sure where to begin. It wasn't the sort of thing that a person generally liked to bring up. Especially when they already had so much baggage to unpack.
Shaking his head, he leaned against the wall across from her. It was too tempting to forget all about the conversation if he sat down beside her. "No, she's never been here." It probably wasn't an appropriate time to mention that he had always made a point of going over to her apartment because he couldn't stomach the thought of her being in his own personal space.
"If you want to talk about it - we can." She had dismissed the topic but he felt as though this probably wasn't something that they could brush under the rug forever. Better to get it out now and have no secrets, he supposed. "If you want to ask me something about it I promise to give you my honest answer."
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Aug 17, 2015 16:59:16 GMT
Amber took a deep breath, pushing her hair out of her face and looking at him. “I don’t know how much room I actually have to ask you a question, Brandon,” she admitted. “Liv was right about one thing, I left.” She fidgeted with her hands for a moment, looking down at her lap. “I mean, I knew – I read the gossip columns, I knew that you two had gotten together. And as much as I can’t stand her – I was the one to leave first. And every time it popped up, I would think ‘If I’d stayed, he wouldn’t be with her.’”
Frowning, she looked away. “We spent so much time getting even with each other. Purposefully picking people that the other hated, and she was yours. Maybe that’s why it bothers me so much, because she was the way to hurt me.”
“And I know that you didn’t do it on purpose when I was gone. I know that we’re past that, but she’s not. I really don’t believe that she is. The other women, I could get over. Because they were here and then they were gone. But she’s this constant and I can’t help it…I hate her. Because she’s where you went when you and I couldn’t make it work. And it’s selfish because I just came back and I have no room to judge or delude myself into thinking that you’d just have been waiting for ten years, but – her?” she asked, brow crinkling slightly. “Why her? I could fire a hundred models from photoshoots, I couldn’t have her deported.”
Realizing she was getting upset, she shook her head and forced herself to stop. “Though I don’t know that last part for sure because Cassidy never let me call INS to try.”
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Post by Brandon Finn on Aug 17, 2015 18:11:45 GMT
There hadn't been a good reason why he had first gone with Olivia. At least not a reason that he felt like was good enough to justify everything to Amber. He must have been in his senior year of college the first time that he found himself left alone to Olivia's devices. She was home on break from school and they had wound up attending some function together. It was probably the first time either of them had engaged in a societal function without the rest of their high school classmates nearby - and it was the first time that Brandon had to admit that Amber wasn't going to be walking in the door.
As had become his routine, he had consumed too many drinks and found himself flirting with Olivia in a way that he wouldn't have done under any other circumstances. One thing had led to another and he had taken off from her parents' apartment long before the sun had even risen. It should have been a one-time thing but there had been a sense of familiarity about having been able to reach out to her at his lowest of lows. After each failed engagement he had called her only to forget that the interaction had happened a few days later. And there had been a couple of nights in a row where he had called her after reading about Amber's marriage.
He wasn't proud of it, but he supposed that having her become associated with all of the negative experiences in his life must have accounted for something.
"She was here." Running his hand through his hair he sighed. "I'm sorry I don't have a better excuse - but that's what it was. She was constantly here. And I knew that no matter what happened, it would never be more than it was."
There was a time when he was prone to using Liv against Amber, doing everything within his power to make her jealous in a way that drove her right back to him. But it had been different after then. It was probably a mutual pity party, he tried to justify to himself. Two unhappy people trying to forget about being unhappy for a little while - it just had never worked out quite like planned.
He hesitated for a minute, trying to think of exactly what he wanted to say. "The bottom line is that Olivia wasn't complicated. Nobody expected it to be anything serious, and she didn't expect me to date her. But," he added. "That's not what I want anymore."
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Aug 17, 2015 19:48:57 GMT
Amber listened to Brandon's excuse and she thought for a moment before realizing she understood. After all, she'd done something far more serious that just take someone to bed. She'd gotten married. And not because she loved him, but because he'd been there - offering her what she thought she should have. She chewed on her lip before standing up and walking over to Brandon, she'd been well aware of the reason he was standing on the other side of the room, it was the same reason she hadn't moved to get changed. In many ways, they were still in their honeymoon phase - getting reacquainted with each other. In many ways, after ten years without him she missed his touch and craved his presence so much - it was exhilarating and terrifying when she stopped to think what would happen if something suddenly changed. But in order to have a conversation, they had to be able to sit down and talk. She figured that as they became more used to the fact that the other was now in their life for good, they'd be able to do that without putting a room between them.
When she stood in front of him. "I get it," she nodded slowly before reaching to wrap her arms around him, burying her face in his neck for a moment. "I don't love it, but I get it." She sighed and pulled back to meet his gaze before laughing softly. "Look at us, solving problems like adults."
"Like I said, as long as this is what you want, Brandon, that's what matters to me." She turned around slightly, sweeping her hair over her shoulder. "Unzip me?"
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Post by Brandon Finn on Aug 17, 2015 20:27:15 GMT
His hands easily found their way to her waist and he looked at her with a soft smile. "Who would have thought that it would have ever happened?"
There were hundreds of days where he still didn't think of himself as an adult. At least not in the way that he would have thought being an adult felt like. He thought it would have been something that he would become aware of, that some sort of switch would have been flipped and he would realize that he didn't care about the parties anymore. But it never happened. It was probably one of the reasons why he had gotten himself seriously involved with so many women. As he got older he kept assuming that was the switch - that now that he was another year older, he needed to start acting like an adult. It was the realization that he wasn't, and that he didn't even know how to be an adult yet, that had caused him to panic.
But he wasn't panicking with Amber. Maybe she had been the switch he had been waiting for.
With a smirk he unzipped her dress and trailed a hand down her spine, mimicing the zipper's movement. "So..." he began softly. "Still love me?"
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Aug 17, 2015 20:53:06 GMT
Amber hummed softly and let the corners of her mouth twitch into a grin as his fingertips dragged down her spine. She shivered slightly and glanced over her shoulder at him. She let her dress fall, pushing it past her hips until it pooled at her feet. Her eyebrow ticked up at his question. "Of course I still love you," she nodded before turning around and reaching down for his hand. "If you come to bed with me right now, I'll show you how much."
She giggled softly before taking a few steps towards the bedroom, tugging him along by the hand as she did so. She turned about half way there though and wrapped her arms around him, leaning up on tip toe to press her mouth to his. "It would take a lot more than Olivia Warren for me to stop loving you, you know. I think it might not even been entirely possible for me to stop. You know that, don't you?"
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Post by Brandon Finn on Aug 17, 2015 22:04:40 GMT
He grinned at her, laughing softly. "I just like being reminded."
No matter how many times they had fought and made up before, it had never been like this. There hadn't been a time where he felt like they had put the worst of it behind them and moved on stronger than before. But that's how it felt now, it felt as though they had both matured enough to see that despite their arguments, despite their past choices, despite everything that had caused them so long to reach this point, that they were finally able to just let themselves be happy.
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