Chapter 48

Brian and Noelle stayed up late into the night talking about where their lives had taken them in the last year and stealing the kisses that they had missed. Brian had explained how the end of his marriage had finally come to pass and asked questions about how she had ended up in Los Angeles despite their formulated plans coming to an unforeseen halt.

By the end of the conversation, they realized that despite the fork that they’d taken in the road, they ended up where they were supposed to be all along. Together.

The next morning, the sun that shone through the slits in the bedroom curtains woke Noelle. The smile that she’d adopted the night before was still planted firmly on her face. She inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of the man who was in lying pressed against her back. His arm was tucked tightly underneath hers; their fingers were intertwined.

Slowly, Noelle turned around to face him. Brian stirred as she slipped her long leg between his and wrapped her arm around his waist. He opened his eyes as Noelle nuzzled her head into the nape of his neck.

“I was afraid I’d wake up and have dreamed last night up,” Brian joked, kissing her cheek softly.

“Nope,” Noelle replied with a smirk. “The nightmare is still real, Buddy. You’re stuck with me.”

Brian rolled over onto his back and took Noelle with him; her body spread out across the length of his own. “I think that I can handle that.”

Noelle reached out and ran her hands through the curls in his soft, blonde hair. She leaned down and kissed him slowly, then pulled away before it could go any further than that. She was playing by her own rules, but damning herself for making the rules in the first place.

“So, what do you have going on today?” she asked as she pulled away.

“I have to be at the studio around noon,” Brian replied as he glanced at the clock to make sure that he hadn’t actually slept his session away. Luckily, it was only 9 a.m. “Who knows how long that’s going to take? You?”

“I have class at 10:30 and 2 and a lab from 6 to 8,” Noelle answered. It looked like the first day that they were speaking again was going to be spent apart.

“We’re all recording together this afternoon. I’m sure we’ll be there late. You should come by now that you’re not afraid of running into me,” Brian joked, though there was truth in the humor of the situation.

“It wasn’t you, per se,” Noelle argued. “It was the situation… and the wife.  I didn’t want her to hit me again.”

Brian laughed throatily. “Leighanne would not have hit you. She feels really badly about that, by the way.”

Noelle nodded and laughed to herself. “I know and I’m really not concerned about it. I’m glad she’s okay, actually.”

“You two could probably be friends if—“ Noelle’s laughing cut Brian off. “What?”

“Let’s take things one step at a time, okay?” Noelle replied. She leaned down to kiss Brian again. If she was going to make it to her class, she needed to get up and start getting ready. When her lips touched Brian’s, however, it was dangerously hard to pull away.

Brian and Noelle both jumped when they heard her apartment door slam.

“What was that?” Brian asked, curiously wondering who would be treating Noelle’s apartment as their own. Last time Brian had slept over at Noelle’s apartment, he’d met Emily. He was intrigued by the new possibilities.

Noelle immediately knew that it was AJ. She hadn’t answered his calls last night—for obvious reasons—but he probably thought that she was either angry with him or dead. He would probably be willing to kill her once he busted into her bedroom and saw Brian lying there.

She jumped off of Brian and closed her eyes. She’d decided to play dead, instead. Or rather, fake sleeping. She’d let Brian take AJ’s initial shock at seeing him in his sister’s bed—again.

Brian looked down at Noelle with a playfully amused expression. “What are you doing?”

“3…” Noelle started with her eyes still closed. “2… 1.”

As she finished counting down, Brian saw AJ come flying in through Noelle’s bedroom door.

AJ stopped in the doorway. He looked at his friend who was sitting up in Noelle’s bed with an annoyed, but thoughtful look on his face. He looked at Noelle who was lying across the mattress, trying to pretend but be sleeping, but her stifled giggles were giving her away.

When AJ finally got his wits about him, he spoke. “What the fuck?”

“Are you seriously mad, Dude?” Brian asked. AJ was the one who had told him that Noelle lived in the area. He was the one who had her waiting in the coffee shop for him for hours when he’d known that he wasn’t going to be able to get out of the studio to meet her, but was too much of a chicken to cancel on her again.

“Am I mad that you’re boning my sister again before you’re even divorced thus putting you in the exact same position that you were in a year ago?” AJ asked ironically. “No, not at all.”

“Come on!” Brian shot back, unable to drop the grin plastered onto his face. “This isn’t even like that and you know it.”

With that, Noelle shot up in bed. “First of all, nothing happened. Secondly, what the hell are you doing busting in here? I thought we talked about this? What if there was someone here?”

Brian shot her a look. Jealousy creeped up on him, but he pushed it aside. “There is someone here.”

Noelle waved him off without looking at him. “You know what I mean.”

“I was coming to take you to breakfast and apologize for leaving you hanging last night. I guess you really didn’t mind after all though, did you?” AJ snapped back.

“Whatever, Alex,” Noelle replied. “I don’t have time anyway. I have to go to school, but you and Brian have fun.”

Brian laughed. “First you play dead, now you’re feeding me to the sharks? That’s nice, Elle.”

Noelle leaned over and kissed him softly. “Sorry, Bud. Academia waits.”

Noelle jumped out of bed, grabbed some clean clothes and took off toward the shower, leaving AJ and Brian alone in her room. As soon as he heard the water start running, AJ shook his head slowly from side to side. A chuckle escaped his lips.

“All it took was for you two to run into each other in some coffee shop, huh?” AJ asked. He couldn’t hide his smirk as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Brian narrowed his eyes at AJ. “You were behind this?”

“You stop at that coffee shop every night, Dude. I don’t even know how you sleep,” AJ shot back. “I took a shot. I guess it worked. I didn’t really expect to see you still here this morning though.”

“You’re lucky I’m clothed,” Brian snapped back.

“Okay, we didn’t really have to go there,” AJ replied. “But dude, did you happen to think? Do you know the chances of being photographed sometime between here, your house and the studio wearing the same clothes you were wearing yesterday? That’s the ultimate walk of shame.”

“Nothing happened,” Brian reiterated.

“Maybe I know that and you know that, but the paparazzi? They don’t know that,” AJ answered.

Brian laid back against Noelle’s mattress. “Okay, that settles that. I’ll just stay here until someone brings me some clothing. Or you trade me what you’re wearing.”

“You want me to wear your dirty clothes? No way, Dude!” AJ replied, slightly disgusted. “Hang on.”

AJ disappeared into Noelle’s closet. He remembered Emily telling him something about Noelle taking one of Brian’s shirts home. It was a girl-thing, apparently. AJ didn’t want to go through all of Noelle’s things; he hoped that the shirt was either folded or hanging up in plain sight. Luckily for him, it was. He recognized the shirt easily. It was bright-ass green and had been in the photos that AJ had seen in the tabloids. He grabbed Brian’s shirt and tossed it to him.

Brian held up the shirt, confused. “Where did you--?”

Just then, Noelle walked back in. She looked at the shirt that Brian was holding and then glanced at AJ. “You went in my closet?”

“You’re the one who stole his shirt!” AJ argued.

Brian laughed. “That’s what I call thinking ahead.”

“That’s what I call being a stalker,” AJ muttered.

Noelle glared at him and then walked over to Brian. “I’ve got to go or else I’m going to be late. Alex, lock up or give Brian the key to lock up, please.”

She walked over and kissed Brian softly one more time. “Give me a call when you’ve some time later.”

Brian nodded. “I will. I love you.”

Noelle smiled. “I love you too.”

“I don’t guess you saw that coming yesterday, did you?” AJ said to Brian as Noelle left the room again.

Brian smiled and shook his head. “I sure didn’t, but thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” AJ said. “Hurry up and get dressed. I really wanted to get some breakfast.”

AJ walked out of Noelle’s room and closed the door to give Brian some privacy. He smiled to himself, proud of his own work. He and Emily and conjured up the plan over a long phone conversation one night. AJ would make Noelle wait. Brian would eventually go over there and either awkwardness or an amazing reconciliation would ensue. Luckily for everyone involved, it was the latter.

The realization had hit AJ yesterday when he hadn’t heard back from Noelle. He’d not only helped his sister and his best friend to be happy again, he’d probably gained a brother in the process. And AJ was completely okay with that.

***

After Brian got dressed, he agreed to follow AJ to a breakfast place near the recording studio. As expected in Los Angeles, they were stuck in morning traffic. Brian took the time to take out his cell phone and make a call.

While he got dressed, he thought about what AJ had said about the paparazzi taking photos. The last time that he and Noelle had been together, Leighanne had found out from the tabloids. This time, whether it mattered or not, Brian didn’t want Leighanne to be blind-sided.

“Hey Brian,” Leighanne answered in a chipper tone. Now that she and Brian weren’t trying to be married, they’d become pretty good friends again.

“Hey Leigh,” Brian replied. “What’s going on?”

“Not much,” Leighanne said. “I’m just getting some fabric together for that line of handbags I wanted to start. Suzanne and I are teaming up and coming up with some really great ideas.”

“That’s really great, Leigh,” Brian replied honestly. He was glad that she was doing something for herself. “Listen, I need to talk to you about something, though.”

“What’s up?” Leighanne shot back easily.

“I just wanted to tell you that I met up with Noelle yesterday,” Brian started, but he was cut off when Leighanne started to speak.

“Brian, you really don’t have to do this,” she said with a sigh. It didn’t hurt to hear about Noelle anymore, but that didn’t mean that Leighanne wanted all of the details either.

“I handled things badly the first time,” Brian replied. “I just wanted you to hear it from me this time. Not a tabloid or website or something.”

“I appreciate that,” Leighanne sighed. “You deserve to be happy. She makes you happy. I honestly hope that one day, things won’t be weird. In another life, Noelle and I might actually be friends. Is she going to come with you to Atlanta next month?”

Brian chuckled softly. “No. And technically we’re not back together yet. We’re waiting until everything’s final.”

“I really am happy for you, Brian. And I’m glad that we can still be friends and talk. I think if things would have ended the way they were ending before, we never would have gotten here,” Leighanne replied honestly. She was lucky to have Brian as a part of her life. He wasn’t meant to be her husband, but he’d always be her friend.

“I’m glad too, Leigh. I need to go. I’m meeting AJ for breakfast. I’ll see you in a couple of weeks. Maybe we can hit divorce court and then have lunch,” Brian joked with a small chuckle.

“I don’t know,” Leighanne joked back. “I don’t date men with girlfriends.”

“Good,” Brian continued with a laugh, “that means that you can pay for your own lunch.”

Leighanne laughed with him and then they said their goodbyes. Brian liked that their relationship was so easy, and he agreed with both Leighanne and Noelle. He hoped that they could all become friends, but he knew that they’d have to take things one step at a time.

Brian parked his car in front of the pancake restaurant that AJ had insisted that they try. He glanced at the clock. It was just after 10:30; Noelle’s first class was just starting.

Brian took out his cell phone and decided to shoot Noelle a quick text message.

Just wanted to tell you that I love you. Forever. Thank you for being my parachute.

Brian grabbed his things, locked the car and hurried to meet AJ inside of the restaurant. He stopped when his phone buzzed in his hand. It was a text message from Noelle. Apparently, she wasn’t paying much attention in class.

As Brian read her message, his smile stretched further across his face.

Thank you for pulling the chord. I love you too. Always.

With an extra spring in his step, Brian stuck his phone back into his pocket.

Once upon a time, a sad boy met a beautiful girl in a far away land. She gave him his heart and he returned the favor without missing a beat. She became the song that played on repeat in his head. She was his melody. She was his everything. She was both his once upon a time and his happily ever after.