Laughing into Love

Chapter 26: Mistakes

"Brent?" Melanie asks out loud, "what are you doing here?"

He pushes his way past her and inside, "you texted me" He says matter of factly.

"Uhh, no I didn't." She shakes her head, thinking through her drunk haze to a time in the night she texted him.

Brent already starts taking his shoes off as Melanie grabs her phone to look through it, "shit, no. I didn't mean to text you that."

"Huh?" Brent catches that and eyes her, "well, that sucks but I'm here now so whattdaya say?" He raises his eyebrows.

"Uh, no. Look I'm sorry but you should go." She tries to say it nicely, not wanting to piss him off.

"So, what? Did you mean to text that old guy from the bar? Pfft, come on. I'm sure he can only last 5 minutes in the sack." He spits out, insulting Brian, "I'll show you real pleasure, no one even has to know."

Melanie stands up straighter, "just leave, Brent." She insists further, gripping her phone tighter "don't make yourself look stupid."

He slips his shoes back on, walking closer to her now, "last chance baby, you sure?" He smirks. Before she could say no he moves in and forces his lips onto hers.

She quickly and forcefully pushes him away but he manages to bite her lip, "ahh" she moves her hand towards it, "asshole, get out before I call the police!"

"Your loss" he shrugs with a grimace smirk and leaves. Melanie slams the door behind him and moves to the kitchen to rinse off her lip. She crawls into bed and falls asleep almost instantly. When she wakes up on Sunday her lip is cut but not bruised, it's a bit swollen so she puts a bit of make up over it and heads to church.

Sal brings Melanie her coffee in the morning on Monday and they catch up, "how was Atlanta? Thanks."

"It was good, the crowd was awesome. Felt really good to be back out as a troupe." He responds, taking a seat.

They weren't touring for a few months, focusing on filming the show. Now that the busy summer season is going to slow down, it's time for more tour dates. The next one is in three weeks in Boston. "Great, and everything was good getting back home?" She asks, wanting to make sure all the arrangements she made went well.

"All was good. How was your weekend?" He asks her.

She nods as she thinks of how to answer, having an interesting weekend, "it was good, went out with some friends." She decided to leave out details.

"Great, did I get any emails or calls?" He asks next, moving along.

She opens her notebook, "yes, actually" and the two of them go over everything she got over the weekend for him.

The guys are filming a shoot in the park today so most of the crew is already setting up and the offices are relatively empty. Sal and Murray are the only two jokers to come the offices as Joe and Brian drive together straight to set. "So, what ended up happening Saturday? You and Murray had those chicks over after the show?" Joe asks his friend as he drives them to set.

Brian answers, "well, Murray had them over. It was chill, just hung out."

"Are you going to tell Melanie?" He asks.

Brian gives him a look, "tell her what? Not like I hooked up with anyone there."

Joe responds, "right but there was some bumping and grinding, no?" Brian tells Joe to elaborate further on what he means so he does "dude, Murray sent me this video." He passes his phone over to his friend after pulling up the clip via messages.

Brian goes to the text message between Joe and Murray and finds it. He sees Murray making out with a chick on video, but in the background of the video he see's himself, drink in hand, letting a chick give him a lap dance, his eyes moving up and down as she does, he returns "she was wasted, wanted to give me a lap dance. I didn't do anything with her, just trying to let Murr have some time with her friend." Brian defends himself.

"I mean, sure. Just was wondering if that's something she'd be cool with." Joe answers with a one shoulder shrug.

Brian responds, getting a bit annoyed with everyone thinking the two of them are together, "we're not dating so she can't even like, get mad at something like that

"Whatever dude" Joe says with obvious sarcasm.

"Come on Joe, spit it out." Brian pushes his friend.

Joe might not be older then Brian but the way he acts, he feels like he's the big brother, "I just feel like you're fighting this thing with Melanie because you're scared of getting hurt."

"I'm not fighting anything" Brian answers defensively.

Joe lets it go though, knowing he won't get Brian to admit to anything within the last 10 minutes of their car ride, "Alright, fine."

On set, the guys have to interview people for their YouTube channel. If they can't get someone to answer their totally inappropriate questions on camera, they lose. Sal goes first, successful enough for a win. When his turn is finished and they wait for the park to clear up with new patrons he texts Melanie asking for a coffee. Melanie gets him a coffee and a sandwich from a nearby deli and brings it over to him, "hey Brian, how was Atlanta? Looked like fun!" She says after handing Sal drink and food.

"Huh? What?" Brian asks, worried she saw the video.

Melanie says back, a smile on her face, "Atlanta, was it good?"

"We're ready for you Q!" Someone calls out to him.

Melanie wishes him luck and he walks off to film his turn. Brian ends up losing his round, his brain easily getting distracted with thoughts of Melanie being upset with what she saw. Just because he's single and it shouldn't matter to her doesn't mean he wouldn't feel bad if she saw it. When the producers work on getting signed releases for patrons in the park, he goes to find her. "Hey Mel, Atlanta was good. Sorry, I just got distracted when you came by."

"Aw, no worries. I'm glad it was good." She answers back, taking a bite out of her salad after.

He can't tell if she saw the video or not based on her answer so he keeps talking, "how was your weekend?"

"It was interesting to say the least, but good." She tells him.

He decides to ask, "what happened to your lip?"

Melanie touches where her lip is swollen and cut and just realizes her eating probably wiped off the makeup she had covering it. "Oh, something stupid happened. It was nothing." She waves it off, not wanting to embarrass herself by admitting she was trying to text him but texted the wrong person.

"Alright, well do you want to get dinner with me on Wednesday?" He asks, knowing he has to film his podcast in Jersey tomorrow.

"Yea, I'd like that a lot." She agrees. Brian tells her he will text her the details later and heads back to the set. He feels better now, figuring she wouldn't want to hang out with him if she saw that video.