Bet Me (Finding My Way) (18 page)

“You okay honey?” she asks softly watching me chug the water.

“Tucker has issues with me being in the same room as
one
person that I have had sex with
one!
That’s how many other men I’ve been with apart from him and he doesn’t like it, yet I have to speak to and see, not forgetting the fact that I am best friends with
two
of the people he’s slept with and god knows how ever many more there are in here just tonight. I’ve had people come up to me in university and tell me all about it in details after they’d spent a night with him and he has a problem because of one fucking guy” 

“What are you going to do?”

I think over all the times in university when Tucker showed his possessive side and come to one conclusion. “Distract him” I grin at her and go into the staff toilet with adjoining locker room.

I keep a few spare dresses and things in my locker just in case I ever find myself missing clothing because of a bet again and I select the dress that I know will work best to my advantage.

As I walk into the bar again ignore the stares I’m getting and head back over to Jess, there is nothing revealing about my dress only the fact that it is fire engine red, fits me like a second skin and is only transparent lace in certain parts.

“Come be a groupie with me” I tug on her arm and pull her towards the front of the stage where Tucker and the rest of the band are in mid song. 

We start dancing along to the music and I hear Tucker stutter a few lyrics when I look up he is staring at me with unadulterated heat in his eyes, I do a little twirl for him and he shakes his head chuckling at me. I ignore him for the rest of the set and dance with Jess, screaming his name when everyone else does and even joining in with the pleas for him to take his top off much to his amusement. Jason and Nick join us and start dancing with us both, but Jess pulls me into her when Jason puts his hands on my hips, but he pulls me away from her.

“Are you coming home with me tonight?” he asks in my ear rather loudly getting straight to the point.

I shake my head at him, he pouts.

“Are you with someone?” he asks me not put off.

I nod at him against his cheek because he doesn’t move back from my ear this time.

“Who?” he leans back after he asks this time I point up to Tucker who’s watching us. “He can come too” he offers making me hold back my smirk but I don’t think I do it well enough, just the thought of suggesting that to Tucker makes me want to snort unbelievably.  

I shake my head at him furiously letting him know that isn’t an option.

“
Why not?” he persists

“I love him” I shrug and shout up at him. He looks back at Tucker and then to me then shakes his head smiling sweetly.

“He’s a lucky guy; you’re a very amazing woman Brooke. One of a kind” he says into my ear and kisses my cheek. I reach up and hug him quickly.

“Thank you, but I’m the lucky one” he laughs softly and walks off taking Nick with him.

I watch Jess watch Nick making his way through the crowd and shake my head at her laughing at the disappointment on her face.

“Who
was
that?” she demands.

“Jason is the one who was talking to me, he is getting married tomorrow I think ... and the other one was Nick”

“Please tell me that Jason is the guy you were referring to earlier that Tucker didn’t want you speaking to” She says hopefully. This is one of the reason I love Jess, she is a firm believer of the never sleep with a guy one of your girlfriends has and she obviously fancies Nick.

“No, it was Nick” I laugh as her face falls.

“Then what the hell are you doing with him?” she points up at Tucker.

“I only slept with Nick to try and forget about Tucker … it didn’t work” I shrug at her and wink at Tucker as the song ends and club cheers asking for more.

He turns to the band and says something to them then turn back to the crowd and holds up his mic.

The crowd goes quiet.

“I believe you and I have a bet we need to finish” he says into the mic looking directly at me. I climb up on to the stage as the band start playing my bar dance theme song ‘bad girlfriend’ I start dancing as soon as Tucker starts singing. Once the chorus starts I dance with Tucker, doing the same dance I used to do on the bar but change it so it includes him, he puts his free hand on my hips as I shake against his groin and put my hands above my head around his neck, he notices how some of the dancing is going with the words of the song so when he sings the lyrics ‘
I like to strip her down, she’s naughty ‘till the end’
he runs his hands up my leg lifting the bottom of my dress up teasingly then grabs my arm and spins me out and back into him as his sings how there’s no doubt I’m a bad, bad girlfriend. The crowd eat it up and go wild, screaming and whistling. As the song comes to an end we both take a bow. The crowd applaud but over it I hear Jess shouting “I hate you Tucker Lloyd!” I burst out laughing and Tucker just looks back and forth at us looking confused.  I shake my head at him, not able to talk through laughing; he wraps both arms around me pulling my back into his chest and kisses my cheek.

“Have I told you today that I love you?” he smiles against my ear.

I shrug “I could hear it again”

“I love you”

“Uh … good because I have something I need to tell you”

Tuckers whole body tenses behind me. “What is it?” he asks slowly.

I turn my head to look up at him and take a deep breath preparing myself.

“I’m pregnant”

His eyes roam my face for a few seconds and I hear the mic drop out of his hands and hit the floor. “How? Isn’t it a bit soon for you to know that..” he asks quietly.

“I … ah … it wasn’t … Tucker, I’m four months pregnant. I didn’t find out until a few days ago. I got pregnant way before I left, we didn’t … we weren’t safe the first two times ...” I trail off helplessly.

“You’re .. we’re … shit” he spins me around and crushes me against him.

“I need to breathe” I manage to get out, his hold on me loosens slightly.

“I need you” I say quietly in my ear and then picks me up and takes me home.

The next few weeks pass in a blur. Tucker and I have been near inseparable, we spend almost every night together, usually at my house – I still haven’t stepped foot in his. I’m not going to say that we have just fallen into the relationship and everything is easy and going good because we do have our moments and we clash on a lot of things. Tucker broke the news to the band and with a little pushing from Jess, I finally told Mel and Lucy. The only people we have left to tell are Matt and Sophie.

“Uh … Brooke, what are you doing?”

I look up at Jess’s amused expression.

“What? I frown at her.

We’re in the coffee shop and I’m drinking tea. Yes, I Brooke Daniels, the woman who literally salivates at the smell of coffee brewing is drinking tea.

“You’re dipping a muffin in your drink” her voice is full of humour but her expression is one of disbelief.

“It’s good,” I shrug at her and dip my blackberry muffin into my tea and wave it in her face before pushing it into my mouth. “You should try it”

“I’m okay thanks,” she smirks “So what’s with the outfit?”

I look down at myself, I’m wearing my old university hoodie that swallows me and a pair of sweats. Basically, I look like a homeless person. I screw my face up “You know, I used to dress like this to pretend I was overweight, now I’m dressing like this to hide the fact that I’m no longer in good shape”

“What are you talking about? You have a great body” she laughs at me.

I stand from the table and shake my head “I woke up this morning and I had this” I lift my hoodie up showing her my tight tee that hugs my small bump.

“Aww,” she cries and rubs her hand over it “Why are you hiding this? It’s so cute!”

“It is not!” I cover myself back up and sit down with a huff “I swear it was like someone inflated me while I was sleeping last night. I woke up this morning and it was just there. I’m hiding it from Tucker”

“No offense honey, but you go into the club dressed like that and he’s likely to strip you down to see what you’re hiding” her voice is once again full of humour.

Jess spends a lot of her time teasing Tucker on how he is around me since finding out I’m with child. It’s sweet, but annoying as hell.

“I’m not going to the club like this,” I sigh, collecting my bags “I’m going to wear a loose fitting dress and just hope he thinks it’s cute enough not to question”

“Good luck with that” She smirks at me.

We say our goodbyes and both head in separate directions to get ready for the night ahead of us.

Unfortunately, by the time I get to work that night, I’m a mess. I push my way through the crowds with my head down and avoid contact with everyone, making my way towards the bar.  A few people call out my name but I don’t acknowledge any of them. As soon as I reach the bar, I’m lifted off my feet and placed on top of it with a mic thrust into my hand.

“I’ve got a bet for you Brooke” Andrew calls into his mic but when he turns to me and see’s the tears silently running down my cheeks he lowers the mic and looks at me with concern. I lose it. I drop my mic, throw my arms around him and bury my head into his chest, I cry, great big howling sobs.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asks rubbing a soothing arm up and down my back.

I shake my head, still crying and not able to talk, even if I could I’m not sure what I would say.

Some part of me knows that I’m completely overreacting and being irrational but a bigger part of me just doesn’t care.

By the time Tucker has joined us on the bar and Andrew has passed me over to him I’m hyperventilating.

“Brooke, what’s wrong?” Tucker’s concern just makes me cry harder.

I lift my head and he moves the hair out of my face, searching my eyes for the answers that I can speak aloud.

“Can we get her a glass of water?” he asks someone over my shoulder.

I do a face plant into his chest and my crying starts all over again as I cling to his shirt as if my life depends on it. He doesn’t question my tight grip, he just rubs his hands up and down my arms and lets me hold onto him, absorbing some of his strength.

Someone passes him a glass of water and he holds it to my mouth while I drink as much of it as I can.

I look around and notice that everyone is watching me silently all with the same expression, bafflement.

“Brooke, what’s wrong?” Tucker asks again.

I shake my head “Nothing” I offer a weak smile but I know it won’t fool him.

He pulls his head down so his forehead is resting on mine while he holds me close.

“I’m fat and I’m hungry, so hungry but I want spicy chicken and I can’t find any” I whisper against his mouth, knowing that due to the complete silence of the club he can hear me.

“You’re not fat and we’ll find you some chicken, now tell me what’s really bothering you” he whispers back.

I step out of his arms and pull my dress behind my back so it’s tight on the front, his eyes drop down to my stomach and then back up to mine before they drop down again and the biggest grin known to man spreads across his face.

“Maybe we should all get down?” Tucker asks amused.

Andrew looks at the crowd still watching us and nods while jumping down, Tucker lifts me and places me into Andrews arms before he jumps down.

“You want me to go looking for the chicken, or do you want to come with me?” he asks, smirking at Andrews bemused expression.

“I’ll come with” I smile up at him.

Tucker takes my arm to guide me out of the club but the DJ puts on Shawn Desman’s
Shook
so I pull his arm and tug him to the dance floor, a few people move out of the way, giving us a wide berth as we find a quiet area. Tucker wastes no time pulling me against him but I turn my back to him and he moves his hands to my bump as we move our hips to the beat, I cover his hands with my own and everything around us melts away as I lean my head on his shoulder and get lost in those beautiful blue eyes of his that I hope more than anything our baby girl inherits.

Someone takes a picture of us and before long it appears on the various screens around the bar and on the walls surrounding us.

In these moments, I let the warmth and happiness that surrounds me, consume me and I know that no matter what happens, my baby will be loved and have a huge family. I didn’t have a great family growing up and loosing my dad at such a young age really affected me because I was a complete daddy’s girl.

As strange and unconventional as my life in the club has turned out. I know that each and every person here has my back and will welcome my baby with open arms, no questions asked, just like they did for me.

Unlike me, he or she will never miss out on anything in life and will be surrounded with everything and everyone that a person needs in their life, ultimately I couldn’t be happier for that.

Well maybe, if I could have a cup of coffee, I’d be a little bit happier.