Blooming Passion •• Ryan Tedder {1}

Like The Waves

With this, Brent looked away from the TVs beyond the glass and down at his feet in thought. He couldn't comprehend what he'd just heard. The U.K. turning against us? No, we're allies, they wouldn't just do this out of nowhere, it doesn't make sense...

The people surrounding Brent slowly began to file away from the crowd and go their separate ways as Adriana Fierro talked about her committee. Brent, too, backed away from the glass and kept walking where he was. He took his phone out again to text Drew, to see if he already knew about it. There was a good chance he did.

On the other hand, as Brent pulled his contacts up, he got a call from Addie. He answered it almost immediately, getting out of the aftershock of the news.

As Brent greeted her, he smiled because he knew well that he was interested in Addie, and was ready to admit it. They'd been talking quite a bit over just a few days, and gotten to know each other well. But not enough. Brent thought.

"Hey!" Addie replied to his greeting.

"What's up?"

"I was, um, wondering if..."

She trailed off. Brent got curious, but hoped it was the answer he was thinking of.

"If?"

"If you'd like to get lunch today?"

Brent got butterflies, which was something he wasn't prepared to admit as much.

"Yeah, of course." He answered, which was probably said far too quick.

"Oh, well, cool! How about we meet up somewhere?" Addie sounded surprised. Brent let this go, "Yeah. I'm already in L.A. so anything works for me."

"Okay. I'll text you a place."

After this, it was an awkward silence. For a second, Brent wondered if she hung up on him, but looked to see that she hadn't.

"So...what's new?"

"Huh? Um, I'm just, uh, getting my shoes on, I'll text you the place in a second, sorry," Addie muttered. Brent almost laughed at her silliness and let her continue, "But something crazy happened yesterday, you wouldn't believe..."

"I wouldn't believe it, huh?"

"Well, last night Ramona left Shawn and she and Ryan are actually a thing!" Addie exclaimed, her voice becoming clearer. This hit Brent with a slight shock, but more so because they should've already been "a thing" by the sounds of it.

"That's pretty awesome. She finally left that douche?"

"Yes! It was so satisfying to see that dick go, you don't even know..." Addie replied. Brent laughed at this, then Addie said, "Well, I gotta go, I'll text you the place. See you in a bit, Brent!"

"See you." Brent responded just before they hung up the phone. Addie texted him the place, a small cafe just a few blocks away from where he was now, and half an hour later Brent waited outside and soon saw her getting out of a taxi just down the sidewalk. He was stunned by her huge smile. She waved enthusiastically at him and he waved back.

As they greeted each other another time when face-to-face, they headed inside the cafe. At the large group of people inside and the long line, though, they looked at each other. Brent tried to not get lost in her eyes.

"You wanna go somewhere else?"  Addie tore him from his daydream in the beautiful green surrounding her pupils.

"Yeah. We don't have to eat anywhere fancy." Brent shrugged, finding himself smile a bit. Then he saw Addie glance down at his mouth a second, the corners of her lips turning up as well. Then she looked away and Brent felt her hand grabbing his right as she led him back outside. To his minor dismay, she let go of it as they headed back out on the sidewalk.