Work and A Lunch

I stared at the phone on the table not taking my eyes off it. I didn’t even blink. I kept my hands together on my lap that was shaking up and down. My mind was picking up the phone and dialing numbers and forming words. My hands were doing nothing. I tried picking up and dialing through my mind long enough that all I was accomplishing is getting a headache. I sighed and got up to go to work.

I grabbed my keys and closed the door and walked down the hallway. The whole way to work, I was trying to ignore the thoughts that ran through my head. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. That’s what was eating away inside me.
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“Hey,” Peyton greeted.

“Hey,” I said back taking my seat at my desk across from her.

“How are you doing?”

I shrugged taking a drink from my coffee. “Alright I guess.”

She nodded. “Max told me Sidney went over there.”

I nodded back. “He did. I spoke to him. About everything,” I told her.

She leaned back in surprise, staring at me. “Are….are you serious?”

“Yeah. You were always telling me I needed to trust someone and open up. And I felt like I could do that with him. I felt comfortable around him. I thought he deserved to know. I know it seems fast but-”

“No, it’s ok. I know you and you never do anything rash. You have to think. About everything,” she pointed out. “If you say you trust him, I trust you.”

I smiled. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” She stared at her computer screen intently scrolling through a page with her mouse.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

I raised my eyebrow. “Uh huh, sure.”

She sighed. “I’m looking at the girlfriend forums.”

I made a face. “Why?”

“To see if any girls out there are talking about me,” she pointed out. “For all I know they can be saying mean things about me.”

“And if they are, what are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t know, but I’d at least like to know who is talking about me,” she argued. “They better not be saying anything bad about me. Wait, how dare they!”

I looked back up at her. “What?”

“They did write something about me. Look.”

I got up from my chair and walked over to her desk. I leaned down the read what she had her mouse over. “Wow,” I said. “Someone sure has opinions about you.”

“I can’t believe they wrote this! It says if I weren’t so focused on my looks and hair, I’d probably be a better person. The appearance of my hair is enough to know how much hairspray I use. My dressing to way to provocative for the rink and I couldn’t seem less interested in being there. And they called me mean, fat, and conceited. And they think I’m too tall for him, seriously?”

I tried to hold back the laughter. “It’s ok, whoever wrote this probably has no life.”

“Still, how could they think I’m too tall for him?”

“Really? Out of all the things they said, this is what you’re focusing on?”

“Yeah, I mean come on. How tall do they want me to be, your height?”

“Ok, I’m going back to my chair now,” I said sitting down and pushing my chair in.

“I mean if you want to call me tall, that’s fine I get it. But saying I’m too tall for him? That’s a little much. He’s tall enough as it is,” she said. “Like I could be taller than him, please.”

I shook my head smiling at her. I went through my emails and eventually started to organize my already clean desk since there was nothing to do. I was going through some paper work when I decided to get coffee. I pushed my chair back and walked to the lounge. The whole office was quiet with a few people walking around and some quiet personal phone calls going on. I finally reached the lounge, grabbed a cup and poured some coffee.

I walked back outside to suddenly find people pacing and running around with papers in their hand. Phones were going off and the office seemed more alive. I eyed everyone slowly walking back to my desk.

“Brooke!” Carl called from behind.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“I love you!” he shouted picking me up and spun me around.

“Uh, thanks?”

“That piece you gave me for my article was genius! Boss loved it and so did everyone else.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “They’ve been waiting to see that article because they were actually really interested since you know hockey is such a big deal around here. And when they read it, they told me how much they liked it,” he explained.

“That’s really great,” I told him.

He smiled putting me down. “You know, I wasn’t going to take all the credit for myself. I told them that you basically told me what to write. They all thought you were amazing. And I mean they know how much you know about hockey and that my opinions aren’t that strong,” he joked.

“Well thank you. You didn’t have to do that. You could’ve taken credit,” I said.

He shook his head. “No, people deserve to know how great you are. I got to go but I’ll talk to you later,” he said walking off. “I love you Brooke Parker!”

I laughed to myself making my way back to my desk. I was greeted with more people complimenting on the article, which I’ll admit, put me in a better mood.

“Hey Brooke, great opinion on that article. I loved it!” another co-worker said walking past me.

“Well I do my best,” I answered looking back.

Yet another person, Lisa, walked past me shouting. “Brooke! Amazing opinions. It sounded great and we all know Carl isn’t the best with words.”

I laughed. “When has he ever been?”

Adam came up to me next. “Brooke, when will you stop being so great? I swear I read that article and felt like I was talking to you,” he said.

Just as he finished someone I had never seen came up to me. “Are you Brooke?”

“I am. How may I help you?”

“I’m new. I’m an intern and I’ve heard people talking about how you helped someone write the opinion piece on hockey, is that true?”

Adam put his arm around me. “Sure is. Why?” he asked eyeing him.

"I read it and I thought you really gave the writer the direction of what to write. It was real good.”

“Thank you so much.”

“That’s just Brooke. She’s that good,” Adam piped in grinning at me.

I rolled my eyes. “Thank you for saying so.”

“You’re welcome. I have to make these copies. I should get going,” he said holding up papers.

“So soon?”

“What?”

Adam and I both laughed. “She’s just screwing with your mind kid.”

“It was very nice to meet you. I hope to see you around.” He smiled and walked away as Adam and I laughed again.

“I’ll see you around and again, that article was really good. I don’t think Carl could’ve done it without you. Your hockey knowledge still amazes me. Plus, you’re really pretty,” he smiled.

“Thanks,” I told him as he walked away.

Rachel, a photographer came up to me grinning. “Hey, girly. Finally you put your two cents in Carl’s piece. About time it seemed he knew what he was talking about even if he doesn’t,” she joked.

I took a sip of my coffee. “Well, he’s Carl, what are you going to do with him?”

She laughed calling back to me. “Guess you’re right. See you later,” she said.

All of these comments had only taken up a few minutes. I was approaching my desk when I noticed Max and Sidney standing and smiling at me. “What are you doing here?”

“We came by to see if you guys wanted to go to lunch,” Max said. “Separately though.”

Sidney smiled at me. “Hey people sure seem to like you. Even that intern guy.”

I waved my hand. “Oh, no they don’t. They were just talking to me about something.”

He gave me a tiny smile waving off my comment. “So, do you want to go to lunch?”

“You guys finished practice already?” I asked sitting down in my chair.

He nodded. “Yeah, we had an earlier practice. I thought I might come and see if you’re hungry.”

I smiled. “That’s very sweet of you. I don’t really have much work today so I can go now,” I told him already grabbing my purse.

“Well Max and Peyton already left,” he said frowning looking at them walking away. “So guess it’s just us.”

“Guess it is.”

“You know,” he began as he walked. “People were staring at Max and I when we came up here.”

“Understandable. I mean it’s not everyday we get hockey superstars in here,” I smirked.

He opened the door for me leading to the parking lot as we made our way to his car. “Still, they seemed really nice. I tried to be nice back.”

“Aren’t you quite the charmer,” I joked.

He laughed opening the door for me leaning down quickly to kiss me on the cheek and went over to his side. Once he got in he was starting the car when I placed my hand on his arm and leaned over to do the same. “Hey,” I smiled. He smiled back backing the car out of the parking lot.
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“You know,” Sidney said taking a bite out of his pasta. “People really seem to like you at your work. And I didn’t realize how charming and funny you were.”

I gave him a confused look. “What?”

“I was watching you when everyone was coming up and talking to you and everything you said was funny. Especially to that one intern guy. You really are something else.”

“I’m going to choose to take that as a compliment,” I said taking a drink from my water.

He went back to his food staying silent for a few minutes. He had been thinking about something but I had no idea what it was. I decided to ignore it until he finally spoke. “Uhm Brooke?”

“Yes?”

“I know this is probably none of my business,” he said. “But I was wondering if you had decided what you were going to do about your father?”

I stopped chewing and slowly looked up at him. I had thought about it, way too much. I just didn’t know what I wanted to do. I cleared my throat. “I haven’t decided, no. I, I don’t know what I want to do.”

He nodded. “Oh, well I’m here for you. If there’s anything you need, just let me know.”

I smiled. “Thank you.”

He chewed on his pasta and opened his mouth to say something. “Brooke? Would you mind if I said something about this?”

I put my fork down and folded my hands on the table. “Sure.”

He sighed. “I think you should call your father. I think you should see him.”

“Why?”

“You haven’t seen him in years. I don’t know him but he seems to really be making an effort to try and fix your relationship.”

“You’re right. You don’t know him,” I pointed out. “He always tries to make the effort and ends up backing out or messing something up and just forgets about me.”

He frowned looking down at his plate. “I think you should still hear him out. If you don’t, you’ll be wondering what could’ve happened.”

I chewed on my lip, contemplating what I would say next. “I want to. I just don’t know what I would say.” I glanced at him. “If I called him, would you be there with me?”

“Of course I would. Don’t worry Brooke, I’ll be there with you. It’ll be all right. I promise,” he said reaching over to grab my hand.

I took in a deep breath. “Ok. I think I will call him. At least to hear him out,” I decided.

“Good,” he smiled.

I was thankful for Sidney and how sweet and understanding he was. I was thankful that I could talk to him about this. I was also thankful for having him in my life. That and the piece of chocolate cake now in front of me.