Brooke's stomach flipped. God she was so obvious, Christine was calling her on it. Her thoughts drifted to the night before, to the sounds of Anna’s laughter filling the apartment.
“Honey-B, relax,” Anna had laughed, slowly lowering herself to sit on the very edge of Brooke’s couch, giving Brooke ample time to whisk her off to look at something else. But Brooke had run out of things to show her. Anna smiled at her shyly.“Can I make a guess?” Anna had asked, an edge to her voice, riding that line of teasing and flirting that Brooke had a very hard time discerning.
Brooke nodded reluctantly.“Sure.”
“You don’t take many pictures of yourself?” Anna raised an eyebrow.
Brooke frowned and sighed heavily, sitting down on the couch on the farthest possible cushion away from Anna.“No, I guess I don’t.”
Anna blushed and looked down at the coffee table in front of them.“I tried to stalk you on Insta.”
Brooke let out a rough laugh. She knew her instagram game was‘hella weak,’as the youths would say. Or would they? She let her thoughts wonder about what the youths would say about her instagram profile, fully aware that any train of thought that could distract her from the way that Anna was tucking her mismatched socks up under her legs and pivoting her body so that she was pointedly staring at Brooke’s profile, was a welcome one.
“I see,” Brooke regarded, unsure of how to respond to that. Had she stalked Anna on social media? No, she had searched for her name more than once and found her instagram profile, but she had never let herself scroll. She wanted to learn Anna from Anna, not through carefully curated and publicly shared moments. She wanted to know about the breaths in between. She wanted to learn the parts that weren’t pretty enough to post.
Brooke’s own instagram were photos from her trips. She had never made it private because there had been some small sliver of hope in her heart that her family would see it and know that she had traveled and had seen places in the world they never would. Her favorite pictures to post, and all of her favorite places had been places that her mother and father would have looked down on. Her privacy settings were set as such that no one could comment on the images or send her messages though. She wanted her family to look, but she never wanted to know if they actually had. It would hurt too much to have the confirmation that they had never even bothered.
“You could be a photographer,” Anna said, complimenting Brooke with ease.
Brooke wasn’t used to compliments, let alone stunning women giving them to her so freely. She cleared her throat uncomfortably, suddenly more nervous than she had been for their dinner at Charlies the night before.“Thank you,” she replied, softly. She forced herself to turn her attention to Anna. Anna Fourchette was truly something to behold, even in her house clothes.
“You could also be a model,” Anna teased, a wry smile curling the edges of her mouth.
Brooke threw her head back in a laugh, grateful for the break in tension settling in around them.“Thank you,” she said again, choosing to interpret Anna’s words as a joke, the concept of Anna actually meaning it would top the chart of her Anna-isms list that was growing quicker than the night was passing.
Anna didn’t press it. Instead, she pointed at the tv.“Want to watch Schitt’s Creek?”
“Sure. I’ve never seen it,” Brooke said with a shrug, handing Anna her two remotes.
“You never seen it?” Anna sounded offended.“Well, this is gonna change your life. You’re welcome, by the way.” Anna laughed triumphantly as she clicked on the first episode, starting the show.
Brooke let out a small giggle. Anna was delightful. Brooke slowly relaxed as Anna navigated her television with ease. She avoided any thoughts about how natural this felt, the teasing between them, how comfortable Anna looked all curled up on her couch in mismatched socks and in sweatpants. Brooke’s heart stopped beating, she wanted this to be real. She wanted Anna. Brooke didn’t need to watch the show, her life had already been changed.
Brooke shook the memory from her mind.“It’s not though, Chris. It’s not okay at all.”
“But it is,” Christine urged.“It’s beautiful and it’s scary, I know. But she’s lovely and she makes you happy.”
Brooke felt the lining in her heart thicken as if fortifying itself for the inevitable.“She is. And she does,” Brooke said, her voice shaky.“But it’s not real, Chris. Not to her. She’s doing me a favor as a friend.”
“B”— Christine started, her tone clearly indicating that she felt otherwise, but Brooke shook her head, cutting her off.
—“No, Chris. I can’t take it.” Brooke swallowed painfully.“I can’t let myself fall, knowing full well that she’s not going to catch me.”
“I still can’t believe you’ve never seen Schitt’s Creek,” Vivienne said, breaking the severity of Brooke’s conversation with Christine. Vivienne gracefully set their three wine glasses down on the coffee table without spilling a drop despite nearly overflowing them. She flopped down on the couch on the other side of Brooke with a surprising lack of grace for Vivienne.“How far have you made it?”
Brooke blushed.“Season three.”
“Nice, we should watch some. You and Todd watched it, right Chris?”
Christine nodded, finally turning her attention away from Brooke.“Yeah, it’s a phenomenal show from start to finish. I’m glad they finally got the recognition they deserved.”
Brooke pulled up the show, but before she could press play, Christine spoke again.
“You know what, though. Before we start, we should take a group photo. Looking through Brooke's camera roll made me realize we don’t do that enough.”
It was a good point, and a thought that Brooke had had the night before. She shrugged.“Sure.”
Vivienne didn’t seem to mind, either. So, for the first time, probably in the entirety of their friendship, they snapped a few group photos and shared them amongst themselves in their group chat.
