Chapter 7

I let Bruno in first and closed the door behind me.

He looked around. ‘’Simple, but I like it.’’

‘Good thing I cleaned up today...’

We walked to the kitchen. He jumped on the kitchen counter and sat down. I opened the refrigerator and took the milk out. I poured it in a cup. ‘’Want some too?’’ I asked him. ‘’No, I’m not thirsty.’’

I leaned against the counter, drinking relaxed. He played with my hair. ‘’You know, this hair really rocks the old one.’’

I threw my head in my neck, looking at an upside down Bruno. He came closer and kissed me gently on the lips. My neck started to hurt so I pulled back, rubbing my neck.

‘’You know, kissing in this position doesn’t really work.’’ I laughed. He massaged my neck for me and I relaxed.

He started humming. I slowly started drifting into sleep, trying hard to keep my eyes open. ‘’Bruno, stop that.’’ I murmed. ‘’Stop what?’’ he said, still humming. ‘’Stop humming, you’re making me sleepy.’’

I fought to keep my eyes open. He just laughed, finally stopped and jumped off the counter. ‘’Wow, you really are tired. Come on. Where’s your bedroom?’’

I walked out the kitchen, with him following me and holding my hand from behind. We walked upstairs, wich was hard ‘cause it was so dark. He had to hold my waist, in case I would fall.

As we entered my bedroom I let myself fall on my bed. ‘’In case you get bored, there’s the tv.’’ I pointed without even looking where. I heard him shuffle with his feet and then felt the bed shake. He practicly jumped on it.

I turned to him to see what he was doing. He was laying next to me, with his hands folded behind his head and his legs crossed, staring at the ceiling.

‘’Gonna kick your feet up and stare at the van, huh?’’ I joked. ‘’I thought you were about to sleep.’’ he said, still staring at the ceiling. ‘’I was about to, ‘till you bombed my bed.’’ I murmed. He smirked.

‘’What’re you thinking about?’’ I asked him. ‘’Tour, family, you.’’ At the last word he finally looked at me. ‘’Go to sleep, Bre. Don’t torture yourself.’’ he said, when he saw that I struggled with keeping my eyes open. I just groaned. He gently covered me with a blanket and kissed me.

He began to hum again. I tried to stop him, but instead I’d driften into sleep.

----

Next day I woke up by the sound of my phone. I groaned and reached out to the other side of the bed -noticing that Bruno wasn’t beside me anymore, probably already gone- to get it. I was to lazy to pick it up, so I pressed ‘speaker’.

‘’Hello?’’ I said, grumpy. ‘’Good morning, sunshine.’’ I heard Phil say. ‘’What do you want?’’ I said, hiding my face in my pillow. ‘’Clearly someone isn’t in a good mood. Spent too much time with Bruno, last night...Anyways, we need you here, in the studio.’’

Long pause.

‘’You still there?’’ he asked. ‘’Huh? Oh yeah. I’ll be there, right a way.’’ I said and hung up. I still laid there for a few seconds, but then I stood up.

I dragged myself to the shower, brushed my teeth, combed my hair and walked downstairs to the kitchen. I didn’t have time to eat my breakfast at home, so I took a sandwich and left the house, still eating, while holding a cab.

I decided to get some coffee first, so I gave the driver the adress to my favourite Starbucks café and we took off. I dropped out when we arrived, ordered a coffee and went straight back to the cab. This time we took off to the studio. ‘Good thing I remembered the adress...’  

As we stopped in front of the building I tipped the driver and went inside the studio, still with my coffee unfinished. I said ‘hi’ to Mindy, Matt’s secretary, and entered the elevator. Up to the second floor. I took another sip from my coffee and walked out the elevator. I entered the third room next to the elevator.

‘’You’re late.’’ Phil said, looking at his watch. They already started without me. ‘’Excuse me. I didn’t even get the chance to eat my breakfast relaxed.’’ I murmed and sat down.

Bruno was in the booth, not even noticing that I entered. I took a last sip and dumped my coffee in the trash can behind me.

Bruno finished his song, came out the booth and was surprised to see me. He gave me a quick kiss on the lips. I peeked at the other guys, looking if they were surprised, but they weren’t. ‘Phil probably already told them about us.’

And then we heard a soft knock on the door. Mindy entered. ‘’Mr Montgomery wants to speak to Bruno and Bre.’’ she said. I looked up when I heard my name. All the faces turned to Bruno and me. I looked at Bruno and he looked back at me.

‘’Now.’’ Mindy added. I stood up and followed her. Bruno threw a last confused look at the others and followed too.

The whole way to Matt’s office we kept silent. Mindy opened the door for us and we entered.

Matt was standing quietly by his desk. ‘’Thank you, Mindy.’’ he said. Mindy nodded and left the room. He gestured to us to sit, so we did.

‘’Any idea why you’re here?’’ he asked cold. Looked like he was trying to control himself. Bruno and I looked at each other and shook our heads. ‘’Well, I know. What is going on between you two?’’ Matt leaned forward to us.

Bruno was the one who answered. ‘’Nothing.’’ he said, barely moving his lips. Matt looked over at me and stared. Then he opened his drawer and took out some papers.

‘’Then what’s this?’’ He held up some pictures and I froze. ‘This isn’t good.’

On the pictures were me and Bruno, kissing each other at the steps of my front house. A flashback of yesterday night went through me.

Matt slammed the pictures on the desk and I came back to reality.

Oh man, he looked furious.

Bruno didn’t say anything and so did I. And then Matt began to yell.

‘’These pictures landed today in ‘Dirty Gossips’ Magazine! Bruno, how many times did I tell you not to do this!’’

Bruno clenched his teeth, still saying nothing.

‘’You know how this always ends! This leaves me with no other choice. I’m sorry, Bre. You’re fired.’’ Matt said, looking down at his desk.

My mouth dropped wide open. Not just a little, but as far as it could. It almost took a minute ‘till it really went through me.

I looked at Bruno, waiting ‘till he would protest against Matt, but instead he just looked down.

My face turned red, and dissapointed I stood up from the chair, flew the door open and ran out. Later Bruno followed me.

By the elevator he stopped me. ‘’Bre, wait.’’ ‘’No, Bruno. You know what he said. I’m fired and I have to deal with that. And clearly you knew what would happen if we would get into a relationship.’’ I turned to face him.

‘’I didn’t tell you ‘cause I love you. I didn’t want anything or anyone to come between us.’’ he explained. ‘’Well, you should of thought about that before I got fired. We never should’ve kissed.’’ I shook my head and looked away.

He forced me to look at him. ‘’See, if I told you we would never be together.’’ He took my hands. I had to fight back those tears in my eyes.

‘’And because of this we will never be together again. Can’t you see, Bruno?’’ I said, almost breaking down in tears. ‘’And you can’t do anything about it.’’ ‘’But Bre...’’

I interupted him. ‘’I know, business comes before relationship.’’

And that’s when the elevator doors opened and I let go of his hands. I turned around and stepped in the elevator. He just stood there, sad.

‘’Goodbye, Bruno.’’ A single tear escaped from my eye and then the elevator doors closed.

‘Goodbye’