Smith
Brooklyn is where I belong.This is where I put down roots when I came back to New York City. The energy here rivals Manhattan, but the pace is slower, the street art vibrant and the people here aren't all in a rush to run over each other to grab the brass ring.
Sure, competition is still a thing in the neighborhood I live in, but the mom and pop shops that line the streets are each unique in their own way. I should know. I've stopped to talk to hundreds of people who live and work here. A few of them will become the focus of an upcoming feature I'm doing on the show about the lives of Brooklynites.
"Smith?" Mrs. Denson, the woman who owns the bakery next door to my building, taps me on the shoulder as I walk into her shop. "I baked a half loaf of that wheat bread you love. You want it now, son?"
I smile as I lean down to kiss her cheek. "Pack that up and a couple of those sugar donuts Mavis loves."
"Mavis doesn't deserve you, you know that?" She drawls in her thick Brooklyn accent as she rounds the counter to get my order. "I told her yesterday that you're never going to propose. Do you know what she said to me?"
I laugh as I pull out a few bills from my wallet. "What?"
She carefully places two freshly made sugar donuts in a small brown paper bag. "She asked if I remembered Tommy from around the way."
"Tommy?" I perk a brow.
"Back in the day, Mavis and Tommy had a thing." She pats the top of my hand. "Years before you were born, dear."
"What happened to Tommy?"
She leans one elbow on the glass display case that's holding dozens of pastries baked in the cramped kitchen in the back. "Who knows? I told Mavis he'd never marry her but he popped the question and a month later, poof, he was gone."
"Gone?" I swallow hard. "He died?"
She throws her head back in laughter, the gray hair framing her face moving with the motion. "Nah, but I should have killed him myself for running off with Loretta Jansen. Last I heard he was living somewhere in Ohio."
I know I should take off, but Leona Denson's stories are too good to pass up.
"He broke Mavis's heart." She mimes cracking her own heart apart in front of her chest. "I'll never forgive him for that."
I rub my chest. "I won't break her heart."
"I know, son." She pushes the clear bag containing the half loaf of bread at me. "You love my sister almost as much as I do."
"You're right." I turn to leave. "Thanks for the bread and donuts. Keep the change."
She looks down at the bills on the counter. "You're too good to me, Smith. I'll see you the day after tomorrow."
She will. Just like clockwork, I bring Mavis a donut every two days. My elderly neighbor looks forward to it almost as much as I do.
"So we're goingto pretend like we don't know each other?" I swipe a white hand towel over my bare chest. "How long do you think you can ignore me, Brynn?"
She doesn't look my way. She completely disregards every word I just said and keeps up her pace on that damned treadmill she seems attached to. I had my eyes glued to it for the past hour. When she waltzed into the gym, dressed in a pair of bright red yoga shorts and a matching sports bra, I almost pounced on her. I didn't. I kept lifting, my eyes glued to her.
I watched as she stretched before starting on the treadmill. She worked her way up to a full run within minutes and hasn't slowed since.
Her high ponytail bounces as she keeps her gaze on a guy with a shaved head deadlifting little more than a hundred pounds. I could do that with one arm tied behind my back. I have, actually. I did just that on Rise and Shine on my second day on air. I know what hikes the ratings and me, shirtless, is one approach that works to drive the show's numbers up.
"Fine," I say on a huff. "Listen while I talk."
She keeps up the fast pace. Her flawless legs moving gracefully as she nears the five-mile mark.
"I don't have anything going on with Caprice." I decide to start there because I want her to know that I'm not a guy who kisses one woman when he's regularly fucking another. "We hooked up but I didn't make her any promises. I set her straightthe other day when we left the gym. Nothing's going to happen between the two of us again."
She straightens her shoulders, her back arching slightly.
I doubt like hell she even cares about Caprice. It's not like Brynn has given me a signal that she wants anything to do with me.
