1: The Plan: Act Happy

My eyes stayed on the blinking black vertical line in the white rectangle box. I was counting how many times it would blink until something would magically appear on the screen. When my eyes began to play tricks on me and I was somewhere around two hundred, my fingers began to move, words forming on the screen.

"No, no, no! You can't tell him that!" Brooks said from behind me as he pulled the desk chair away from the computer. He took a firm stance in front of the computer, hunching over the keyboard. I listened to him type away the fastest he could. A slow, rhythmic 'click . . . click . . . click', with a few stoppages here and there.

"What are you writing?" I asked impatiently trying to look over his broad shoulders. It was no use, he was blocking the whole computer.

"Sent," he declared as he turned around and flashed that million dollar smile at me. My face dropped and I pushed him aside as I scooted up to the computer. My hand gripped down tight on the mouse as I scanned over to my sent folder. I hesitated clicking on it at first, scared of what I would find. Brooks took it upon himself to push down on my pointer finger, opening the sent folder.

Is it okay if I bring my boyfriend?

"EXCUSE ME?! Who's my boyfriend!?" I asked him with wide eyes, spinning around so fast in the chair I kept going and smacked my knee on the desk.


"Mike," he answered like it was obvious. He bent down and lifted up the leg of my linen pants to inspect where I hit my knee. "That's gonna be a pretty bruise," he laughed running his fingers over the scrapped skin. I smacked his hand away and looked at him like he was crazy.

"Mike? Mike Green? Your boyfriend? You want me to use your boyfriend to act like mine? You're out of your mind!! Besides there's no way he would agree to come to your family reunion."

"Free alcohol. That will get him to go anywhere."

"I can't believe you. I can't even believe I had agreed to go to this. I mean it's his family's family reunion. I'm not family! Not anymore at least," I mumbled the last three words feeling that sinking feeling in my chest once again. I clicked out of my email and got up from the chair.

"Hey, I'll be there, and I am family so don't worry about it! You're my guest. Sure his mom invited you, but I did too. It'll be fun! If you act like Mike is your boyfriend and at least put this act on like you're happy, maybe seeing Steve with someone new won't be as hard."

"Spending three days with my ex-fiancé with his new girlfriend can't qualify as fun, more like torture! I can see where you're getting at with the whole boyfriend thing though, I just want to be happy, not act like I am." I walked past him and headed toward the stairs.

"Niko! Come on, smile baby."

"Don't call me baby Brooks!" I shouted over my shoulder as I continued up the stairs and in to the guest bedroom where I was calling home for a few days.

I was on vacation from my hell back in Seattle. I was on the verge of a mental breakdown just from everything in my life, so with a phone call and a last minute flight to Regina, Saskatchewan, I found myself in Brooks Laich's lakefront home in the middle of nowhere. Which was exactly where I wanted to be. Brooks and I had met when we were both seventeen and he was playing junior for Seattle's WHL hockey team. Nine years later we are still the best of friends, giving each other shit as often as we possible can. When it came to my ex-fiancé though, it was no laughing matter.

I met Steve at Brooks' family reunion when I was twenty-one, the two being cousins. We hit it off immediately and a relationship bloomed out of thin air. The first two years were amazing. Pure, raw love and emotions, amazing sex, and above all, we just got one another. Just everything one could look for in a relationship. Then things got iffy. Once he pulled out a ring and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him, and I said yes, I guess he figured he could treat me however he wanted then. He became verbally abusive, and not knowing anything else when it came to relationships I stuck it out. For another two years. It was shortly after our four year anniversary that I left his ass at a Jiffy Lube when he called me a bitch in front of strangers for not wearing the brand new diamond bracelet he bought me. Who wears diamonds to get their oil changed? This is where I admit I'm stupid though, I still love the guy. That's why I find myself in this dilemma. Why did I agree to go to his family reunion, the same one I had gone to every year for the past seven years? Especially when I know she'll be there. The new girlfriend.

"I could act like your boyfriend," Brooks stated as he walked in to the room and laid down on the bed next to me, thankfully pulling me out of my painful memories.

"That would cause anarchy, we can't do that to your family," I smiled looking over at him.

"The women would lose their minds if we showed up hand in hand," Brooks laughed, and I laughed along with him. "But . . . we can have that amazing sex we've been talking about, get the headboard moving."

"You're disgusting, you know that? So if Mike does come and does act like my 'boyfriend' wouldn't it be weird for me to be rooming with you and not him?"

"Does Mike honestly creep you out that much?" He asked laughing looking over at me. I kept the blank expression on my face, not wanting to answer the question. "Don't worry the room is a two bedroom suite, so the three of us could stay in there, and you can just shack up with me." I nodded my head and we fell in to a comfortable silence.

"So what do you want to do? I know Saskatchewan is just so exciting, so let's not overdo ourselves," he grinned after a few moments of rare silence between us.

"I don't know, I just want to hang out with you. I miss you. Now that you're this big NHL superstar I never get to see you anymore."

"And I told you we could fix that if you just move to DC with me. What's holding you back Veronica? You don't have an awesome job, your parents retired and moved away, your sister and brother both moved away. What's in Seattle that's keeping you there?" I looked at him with tears threatening to fall. What did I have? Nothing. On top of thinking about nothing, he called me Veronica. He hasn't called me that in years.

"I don't know," I whispered as he rolled over and pulled me in tight to his chest. Over the past years things just kind of fell apart. I felt abandoned. I broke off my engagement with Steve, my parents moved to Arizona, my sister and her husband to L.A., and then my brother and his wife to San Francisco. All within five months. I was stuck in my tiny apartment in the bad part of Seattle, with a low paying receptionist job at a dental clinic. What did I have? I inhaled deeply and took in Brooks' scent. Woodsy, yet sophisticated. I almost felt like I was living this double life. Life in Seattle, crappy and depressing and then life with Brooks, grand and exciting. There was nothing I loved more than last minute weekend trips to DC to party with Brooks and his boys, then return to work on Monday morning with a smile and a little secret about my personal life.

"If I move to DC though, I have to do it on my own, and I have to save enough money to make it while I find a job."

"You would have a job though, we talked about this Niko! You would work for me, I want to hire a chef, but I want to hire someone I know won't poison me. I can't eat at Olive Garden everyday for the rest of my life.

"Can we not talk about this anymore please? I came here to disappear, I just want to disappear," I pouted as I shoved my face in to his chest.

"Of course," he whispered as his grip around me tightened.



The ringing of my cell phone brought me out of my sleep and I went to sit up but heard grunting from below me. "Must you shove your knee in my groin?" Brooks groaned as he crawled out from underneath me. "Sorry." I got up from the bed and grabbed my cellphone off the nightstand.

"Hello?"

"Hey baby girl, you want me to be your boyfriend huh?" I rolled my eyes as I looked over at Brooks who was adjusting himself down the front of his basketball shorts. It amazed me how Brooks and Mike communicated and how quickly they did it. It was like wild fire.

"Brooks wants you to be my boyfriend, for three days, at his family reunion, I had no say in the matter."

"It'll be the best three days of your life, I'm telling you right now." I couldn't help but laugh, Mike could make the weekend a lot of fun. "I do have one question though."

"And what's that Mike?"

"Can we sleep together? You know go all out? Then you can brag to Steve how awesome I am in bed, the best you've ever had."

"You are disgusting! Absolutely not, I'm bringing my body pillow. It's settled." I looked over at Brooks who was now standing up, giving me a confused look. "Okay I'm hanging up now, bye Mike," I said quickly just as I snapped my phone shut. Brooks looked at me and opened his mouth a few times before biting his bottom lip. "You're not allowed to fall asleep on top of me anymore. I don't think I'll be able to have any children now."

"Poor baby, your girlfriends are going to have to work extra hard to get you up now, huh?"

"Want to help me find out?"

"You guys are disgusting. Men and sex, that's all you think about isn't it?"

"Sex, hockey . . . food and . . . video games!"

"Whatever. Am I cooking, or are you?" I asked as I began my trek toward his kitchen down the stairs.

"How about we go down to the store, grab a pizza, a bottle of whiskey, rent some movies and just get drunk."

"Best idea you've had by far."