Count On Me - Sequel (Laughing into Love)

Chapter 37: Empty Evenings

2 days later and the first day of filming in Atlanta is wrapped up. Melanie and Lenny ended up telling enough people about their night out that it's a whole Jokers crew thing. At the end of the day, Brian and Sal are walking to the car to head out and Brian asks out loud with frustration, "so everyone's goin tonight, huh?"

Sal nods his head, "pretty much. Why? You don't feel like going" Sal eyes him.

Brian shrugs, "not really, but if Melanie's going I feel like I need to keep an eye on her."

"What do you mean?" Sal questions back, furrowing his brows.

Brian explains, "I just heard somethings, nothing to worry about."

"It's not nothing to worry about. She's not just my employee Quinn, she's my friend. What's going on?" Sal pushes further, wondering if these things Brian has heard have anything to do with her change in work ethic.

"I don't wanna say anything in case I'm wrong. Just trust me that I'll tell you if I need to, aight?" Brian tries to change the subject, "so, are you going?"

Sal sighs in frustrated agreement, "ya, I'm going for a bit."

Brian nods and tells him, "alright, I'll come too. Maybe I'll get to have some fun."

A few hours later a quarter past 11 and Brian walks into the crowded bar with Sal. His eyes scan across the venue for her but she's nowhere to be seen. He grabs a drink and joins a few sound and assistant guys at a table. 20 minutes after he arrived she walks in with Lenny and 2 guys she's never seen before. He tries not to only stare at her, but he can't help it. She looks beautiful. As he's watching her get her drink at the bar, Viv and Murray come walking over to take a seat at the newly open seats. "Hey Brian!" Viv smiles wide, "having fun?"

"Yea, this place is great." He flatly replies, but turns his attention to her. He notices how cute she looks so compliments her, "you look nice."

Viv smiles and teases, "such a flirt." She chuckles, "but thank you. You look not so bad yourself."

"Not so bad?" Brian puts his hand to his chest like he's offended "oof."

Him and Viv share a laugh and the two start to talk about nothing in particular. All the while, Melanie hangs at the bar with Dave and his friend Gage. Once their drinks arrive, they cheers to a fun night and down almost all of it. They start to chatter when Melanie spots Sal at the other end of the bar. Her stomach sinks a little, knowing her plans for the evening have changed. She brushes the disappoint off and turns her attention back to the men, "hey, where'd your friend go?" Dave asks.

Melanie questions and answers, "Lenny? I'm sure he's off getting to know the hottest guy in the bar."

"Wait. He's gay?" Gage asks.

"Is there a problem?" Melanie retorts back.

Gage shakes his head, "of course not, just didn't catch that vibe off him."

Melanie laughs at him, "I mean, not all gay men have to give off a vibe. They don't have to advertise themselves for anyone."

"Wow. Wow. Calm down." Gage puts his hand up in surrender, "I'm fine with it, iight?"

Dave leans in to whisper into her ear, "let's have some fun tonight?" He leans out slightly and shows her the bag of pills in his jacket pocket.

Melanie smirks but replies, "ugh, I wish I could but with my boss here I just can't."

"What you mean?" Dave pouts, "I thought your boss was chill."

Melanie nods, "he is but he's my boss. I don't want him to lose my respect or trust or whatever because he sees me high."

Dave offers, "then we can get outta here, go back to Gage's place and have some fun."

Melanie ponders the offer but decides to decline, "no, I can't. I got everyone at work to come out tonight. I'll just stick to drinking."

"Lame" Dave rolls his eyes, pops one pill quickly into his mouth and turns back to the bar to order them both another round.

Brian stays at the table the entire hour and a half here's there. People he works with rotate around and he has plenty of conversations through out the night but none with the person he's longing to have one with the most. Melanie looks like she's having a good time with whoever she came with and Brian's jealousy is getting the best of him. He decides to take a break from seeing it and heads to the front of the bar. As the warm humid summer air hits him, it actually cools him off. He steps to the side as a small group of people wanting to get in hover closer to the door and pulls out his phone. A few minutes go by when he hears a man say, "let's go girl, you're a mess."

He peaks over to his right and sees Melanie being carried out of the bar by two guys. He straighten up as they stumble with her, each man having an arm draped around them. The other voice says, "what the hell? She only had like 4 beers."

"Shut up, she's fine." The other retorts.

Brian takes 4 large steps and catches up to them? "Yoo, where are you going?"

"My friend here had way too many, where taking her home." The man on the right returns? Barely looking over to Brian.

"Home?" Brian keeps his pace and gets in front of him.

"Brian?" Melanie murmurs in a low voice.

"Yea, she's too drunk to be out; what's up bro?" That same man returns.

"You're not taking her home, I know where she's staying. I'll take her." Brian insists, moving to grab her from the two guys.

"Wow, wow. Who the fuck are you? We're not just going to give her to some random dude who claims to know her." The one pushes Brian back.

Brian takes a deep breath, not feeling good about how Melanie is stumbling and almost limp in their arms. He exhales out the anger and spits, "you heard her, I'm Brian, her fiancé."

"Oh, shit. You're her ex? The TV dude?" The one on the right finally looks to him and smiles, "shit, it is you!"

"You guys can head back in, I can take her home." Brian tries again to get Melanie away from the girl.

"No offense, but you guys aren't even together anymore. We can take care of this." Gage responds.

Brian has had enough of them stalling and says, "I know you said she only had 4 beers, and I know you do not want me to get the cops involved. Let me take her home, and you guys can just disappear."

"Brian, I'm tired." Melanie mumbles out.

"Fine, dude. Whatever." Dave shrugs Melanie's arms off from around his shoulder and Brian takes over.

The two men walk back towards the bar and Brian quietly says to her, "who are you hanging out with now, huh?"