It seemed like forever that Brie chased Zak and when she finally caught up with him.
"Zak stop!" she demanded
"Go back to your boyfriend, Brie." he muttered under his breath and continued walking hastily and Brie fought to not lose her footing for her to not trip in her six inch heels.
"He's not... It's not what it looks like!" Brie exclaimed desperately
Zak stopped abruptly and threw the flowers he was holding with one hand somewhere.
"Then tell me what it looks like Brianna! Or is my eyes deceiving me?! I think I know what I saw!" He shouts drawing attention from a few people in the parking lot. Brie never saw him this mad. It scares her.
She just stared at him surprised by his outburst seemingly at loss for words.
"Yeah that's what I thought." he sneered before looking at her up and down and if Brie was right, it was a look of clear disgust.
Zak was seething. He can't believe Brie played him. A girl played him. How did this happen anyway? When did he let his guard down? When did he believed in love? Hearts and flowers?
He slammed the door of his hotel room and headed straight to the sofa.
He's in LA because the shoot at the New York location finished before they knew it would. They were scouting a few places in California. That's the reason why he was in town. He missed her that's why he made the effort to know where she was staying. He contacted Brie's sister and told her she was at this signing event and told him exactly where it was.
And he almost wished he hadn't come.
He dropped his head in his hands. He can't even explain what he was feeling which led him to thinking things over.
He knew that him and Brie wasn't that official. He meant that he knew they were more than friends but not almost a couple. They were taking things slow.
He was just waiting it to come from Brie.
He had the fear that she was never going to take it to the next level just like how he wanted it. He had the feeling that it was never coming at all. And damn he was right.
Before he knew it, he was very very close to tears. He wished for them to be a lot of things. He considered a lot of things for them.
What tears him apart the most is the fact that maybe Brie never took it to the next level because she hasn't truly moved on from that Randy guy.
He grabbed the phone and started ordering room service.
There was a timid knock on his hotel room door. Zak got up from his straining position at the sofa. How long has he been out? He threw a glance at the clock up on the far side of the wall. Almost 2 in the morning.
He managed to drag himself towards the door and flung it open as he adjusted his vision.
It was Brie.
She stared at him in shock of his appearance. No shirt on and barefoot just in jeans. Messed up hair and groggy from his sleep.
"Are you okay?" she said though she knew the answer clearly. "I-I had to finish some work then I came to find you." she's not really sure why she's saying this.
He gave a chuckle of disbelief before leaving the door open and went back to the couch. Brie followed shutting the door behind her. She surveyed the room.
An almost empty bottle of Jack Daniels, a pack of cigarettes, a full ashtray, different half-eaten plates of food, were all on the coffee table in front of him then her eyes found the man that she has been obsessed for a couple of weeks now. She's not sure if he's the same person.
"I didn't know you smoke." she said eyeing the pack of cigarettes and the full ashtray as she took a step towards him.
He lifted his eyes towards the table and snorted a laugh.
"I don't, I quit a long time ago." he says leaning back on the couch.
"What have you done to yourself?" she said dropping beside him and placing a hand on his cheek.
He jerked back when she did and Brie can't help feeling insulted like her touch hurt him.
"Don't touch me." he says
She can't help the tears started forming in her eyes. There's no question now that what she felt for him was stronger.
"Why are you even here?" Zak asked as he drops his head back on the back of the couch and stared at the ceiling.
"You can ask me anything but that." Brie says holding her tears back
Zak threw her a glare.
"Like what? Oh I know. Why did you play me Brie?" He asked sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"Stop it! It's not what it looks like! Okay! Randy is the last person that I want to be with! I'm here because I want to be here okay?! I want to be with you!" she exclaims.
Zak opens his mouth to respond.
"Now, before you want to act like a baby about this whole thing, can you please let me explain?" Zak looked a little taken a back with her outburst but she wasn't gonna let him talk.
"I was put in a storyline with Randy. A romantic one. It's not like I wanted to work with him. That man put me through hell the whole time we were together." if only she could tell him
"A storyline?" Zak furrowed his eyebrows clearly not familiar with the word
"It's a dramatization that we do to put story to our matches. You have watched WWE. You see the conversations that we do backstage and the fist fights and the drama that is aired. It's not really real. They're called storylines. Even our matches, they're scripted, just full of stunts."
Zak stared at Brie for a long long time and she could see the wheels turning in his head trying to process the information. Finally he kind of settled down.
"I don't know what to say," Zak said the first thing in his mind
"I don't expect you to say anything. I need you to trust me." Brie says
"Why? What are we Brie?" Zak was staring into an empty space.
For the first time, Brie has heard the question. She stared at his beautiful face not really knowing what she was trying to find in there but it was all blank. It's the first time that their status had come between them.
"I don't know Zak." She said truthfully and it was out of her mouth before she even thought of it.
Zak shook his head. He badly needed an answer but he didn't expect that one. He knows that that was the truth because he could feel how real it was when she said it and it hurts him to know that he would never have that space in Brie's life that she had given that Randy guy but never to him.
"I don't think that this is right." Zak murmured but Brie heard it.
"I don't want this Brianna." He said forcefully now finally looking up and having the courage to meet her eyes.
Brie felt her heart fell when she heard that. He doesn't want it. Any of it. She doesn't mean anything to him.
"I told you I wanted more." He said standing up.
Oh yeah that. She thought.
"I always wanted more with you." he said looking down at her
"Zak I know that I've always aked time but as bad as this sounds, I need more of that." she said looking down her hand gripping hard on her purse.
"Why can't you figure it all out? What's your deal? I don't get you. Is this not enough Brie? Am I not enough?" he was doing a lot of hand gestures again
"No." she said abruptly.
Zak's face fell.
"No, I mean you are more than enough. Too good for me actually and this is more." she says looking at the floor.
"This is already more for you? Will this be us forever? Are we only until here?" Zak ran both of his hands on his face and started pacing behind the couch.
Brie was silent cause she's scared that whatever she is going to say will just add more tension to the current situation. She didn't know that Zak was hiding so much emotion about them. She didn't know that he had all these questions in his head and how long has he been mentally asking them.
She's just not ready yet.
That's the truth. Even though how much it seems that she is but she knows that she is still broken. What she and Zak has, escalated so fast and it still scares her. That doesn't mean that what she feels for him is less stronger but she just knows that somewhere in her still needs fixing and healing and she can't just jump into something that might totally break her.
She had to protect herself for once.
She stood up and stood in front of Zak stopping his pacing mid tracks. She looks at him in the eye and puts both of her hands on the both sides of his face.
"I do feel something for you and it gets stronger every minute but every time we take steps forward, there's just a dark part of me that I still take with me and it could ruin me and what I have with you." she said the word as truthfully as she could without telling him what was really going on.
She's not sure when will she be ready to tell him but she is sure as hell that it wouldn't be now.
"I just need the time to figure it out." Brie says
"Then we need time off each other." Zak says and she's not sure if it's a good or bad thing.
Zak closes his eyes and sighs heavily.
"I can't do this this way Brianna. I just want it to be right and this is not the way to do it." Zak says heavily.
He wants it to be right in the sense that he wants to have a relationship with her and clearly, she can't give that to him now. Maybe it's time for a breather. Time off each other and if what they really have is something then maybe there will be a place for it sometime in the future.
He leans forward and kisses her and damn, it still feels so right and letting her go now is not really what he wants but he can't have her around without her really being someone that he could call his.
He did wish for them to be a lot of things and right now the only thing that got him believing in them is the little hope that Brie does feel something for him.
"I love you." he breathes out leaning his forehead on hers. He knows that it is to early to say but that is how he really feels. When he opened his eyes, Brie's eyes were brimming with tears.
"You should go." he said lightly pushing her away when what he really wanted is to grab her and hold her close
Brie reluctantly moved towards the door. She threw a glance over his shoulder and almost regretted when she did. She just saw how broken she made out of the man.
Right now, she can't give anything to him but this, whatever they have. It kills her too but she's just broken and she need to reclaim her self before she could truly love anyone again. As much as she hates to admit it, maybe he was right.
Maybe the time and space would do them good.