6: A Slap To The Face

Friday morning I woke up with the body pillow that was separating Brooks and I on the ground. His butt was pressed up against my hip, and when I went to roll onto my side I nearly fell off the bed. He once again managed to take up the whole bed. I put my hand on his back and pushed him away from me, giving me some room to stretch out and maybe get a few more minutes of shut eye.

“UGH!” He groaned, rolling onto his stomach to give me a few inches to work with. I glanced at the clock quickly to see it was just past 7 AM. I hated that I could never sleep in, the only way I could is if I had been drinking the night before. Just as I closed my eyes, I felt his arm fall over my waist. I grabbed on to the comforter that had fallen off of me at some point and brought it up around my neck and fell back asleep.

When I woke up again, Brooks was spooning me, with his arm tightly wrapped around my waist. I found comfort in the position I was in, but knew that we needed to get up, it was after 9 AM. I slipped out from his grip and grabbed my bathroom bag before leaving our room and headed to the bathroom. After combing my hair and brushing my teeth I headed out to the common area of our hotel room just as Mike was walking out of the kitchen in just his boxers with a platter of breakfast goodness. A thought quickly crossed my mind that he should be the one on the platter, not the bagels and muffins.

"Morning," he smiled as he set the platter down on the table and sat down next to me, giving me a quick kiss on the lips. "Brooks still sleeping?"

"Yeah, hogging the bed as usual."

"You know, you can sleep with me, I don't hog."

I rolled the offer around in my head, knowing that if I took him up on it, there was no way I would keep my hands to myself. "No, that's alright, thanks for the offer though." I grabbed a muffin and began to pull it apart as we sat on the couch in silence. I knew that we had to start getting ready soon, as the tattoo artist would be coming around 11 or so. "I'm gonna go wake him up," I smiled as I went to get up from the couch, but Mike's hand on my arm stopped me. I turned to look at him, and he kissed we sweetly on the lips before letting me go. "Today we act girlfriend," he laughed as he got up as well and headed for his room.

I snuck my way back in to the room to see Brooks laying on his back with his arms and legs sprawled out everywhere. I shut the door behind me and climbed on the bed and over him, straddling his lap. I grabbed his hands and held them above his head with one hand. With my free hand I began my assault on his most ticklish areas, right around his nipples. He squirmed at first before waking up fully, and easily flopped me over on to my back, with him laying on top of me. "Now why can't I wake up like this every morning?" He asked with a sly smile before crawling off of me and pulling basketball shorts on over his boxers.

"Time to get ready and face the family Brooksie."

"Don't call me that." I laughed as I walked out of the room and frowned upon seeing Mike fully dressed.

"Did you wake him up?"

"Yup, are you mentally prepared for this family?"

"As best as I can be."





Dressed in my favorite yellow summer dress, Brooks, Mike and myself headed down to the beach where the family was gathering. My eyes immediately landed on Steve with his arm draped around a blond girl. Mike laced his fingers with mine and I smiled at him. I had no doubt in my mind that we wouldn't convince these people that we were together, we just looked at each other with lust in our eyes. Or at least I was looking at him lustfully. I wanted to pounce him earlier in his lime green boxers.

"Veronica!" I looked over my shoulder to see Kelly making her way toward me. She looked down at my hand linked with Mike's quickly before engulfing me in a hug. "It's so good to see you dear." We broke the hug and Mike reclaimed his spot in my hand.

"It's good to see you too. How are you?"

"I'm doing good. So, um, who is this?" She asked laughing and I turned and smiled at Mike.

"This is Mike, my boyfriend. Mike this is Kelly. She's Brooks' aunt, sister of his mom," I explained and he nodded his head before offering his hand toward her. She pushed it away and pulled him in to a hug as well. That was just how Kelly was. She didn't care who you are, but if you were apart of this family somehow, you get a hug.

After she walked away to greet more people I mumbled to Mike that that was Steve's mom.

"And you're that friendly with her?"

"Well yeah, she became a second mom to me. It's amazing, when I left Steve she was on my side. She helped me out a lot."

"Speaking of the devil here he comes, quick kiss." He leaned down and pecked me on the lips quickly and I looked up just in time to see Steve standing in front of us with his blond.

"Veronica."

"Hi Steve, I'd like you to meet my boyfriend, Mike-"

"Mike Green. I know who he is. You didn't tell me you were dating a hockey player."

"I'm not dating a hockey player, I'm dating Mike. He just happens to play hockey," I snapped a little too sharply remembering a comment he made toward me once about being a puck bunny. I forced a smile on my face and smiled at the blond. "Hi, I'm Veronica."

"Ashley, it's nice to meet you. I've heard so much about you from Steve's family."

"Oh good things I hope. I know how those boys are, always twisting things," I laughed which got her to laugh as well.

"Babe, I think Brooks is looking for us," Mike announced.

"You hate being called babe," Steve laughed and it took everything in me to not shout out that it was actually him I hate. He was right though, I hated being called babe or baby, but I allowed it to slide.

Mike and I made our way toward Brooks, and Mike was instantly snatched up by Brooks' mom, Jane. I turned back around to see an all too familiar face in front of me. "Jordan!" I shrieked as I jumped in to the arms of Brooks' younger brother.

"Hey Niko, how are you?"

"I'm doing really well actually, better than I thought I would be here. So how are you?"

"Kind of shocked to see you with Greener, actually, I always though you'd end up wi-"

"Don't finish that sentence."

"Um, yeah sure, okay."

"Where's Jodi?" I asked of their older sister.

"She won't be here till tomorrow. She's been asking too you know."

"Stop."





Mike looked at me with wide eyes as we made our way in to the hotel to meet the tattoo artist. "This family loves you. Like no joke, they are in love with you," he laughed, sliding his hand in to mine.

"Can you understand why this whole thing with Steve has been so hard now? Because I love this family just as much."

"Yeah, I can now. Well let's go get some ink."

A few of us gathered in our hotel room, and Mike was the first to go under the needle. He was getting a sailor inspired number '52' on his back. I laughed at his originality, but still didn't know what I wanted to get.

I was sitting on the kitchen counter talking with Jordan when Steve walked in to the room. "Hey, Veronica, can I talk to you?" Brooks shot me that knowing look. That look that told me whatever Steve had to say was probably just a bunch of B.S. and to not fall in his trap. I hopped off the counter and followed Steve out in to the hallway.

"I'm happy you came."

"You knew I was coming though. I never backed out of coming."

"I know. Look, I guess I just wanted to tell you that I'm still in love with you and I wish things were different." I looked down at my feet and thought of Brooks and how he would slap me across the face at this point.  When I looked back up Steve was closer to me than I remembered. With a blink of the eyes, his lips were on mine and I froze in place. He pulled away a moment later and looked me in the eye. "Oh how I wish things were different."