Next chapter is here! See? I am updating more often now! \o/ As always, thank you for the reviews, I hope you like it.

For those of you who didn't see it and who are interested, I posted a little oneshot I wrote this week, of Quinn and Rachel from Glee, called I'll Be There. Check it out if you like the fandom!

Oh, and Happy Holidays everyone! I will probably post something before New Year's, but if something comes up and I don't, I hope you have a great one with lots of celebration and parties and hot guys or girls, whatever rocks your boat! =D Thank you so much for sticking with this story for one more year, I promise I will finish it in 2010! LOL!

Chapter 25 – Meetings

I held the phone nervously and waited for him to pick up. I still had the whole day, since my flight was only the next morning. When he did, I gulped and spoke. "Hey… I guess you know who it is, huh? I was wondering if we could meet, somewhere. I mean, you can't be far… it's fine, I'll go meet you. Thanks."

Just one more problem I absolutely needed to solve before going to New York. I took the car and rushed to the place we were meeting, going over everything I needed to tell him in my head.

The place was a small cafe right outside the town, a nice place that reminded me of Karen's. There were only a few clients, making it easy for me to spot him.

"Brooke", his voice was so much different than all the other times he had called my name. I used to feel so much love and appreciation, now he addressed me almost as if I was a stranger. I expected no more than that, in fact, I was relieved he'd even agreed to see me and talk.

"Hi…" I said quietly, sitting down across from him and trying to get comfortable, something that seemed almost impossible given the situation. "Peyton told me you left, and I just…"

"I thought my daughter wasn't talking to you."

"Well, she's not. Not really", I looked down, and hated to see he seemed relieved by that. "Larry, look, you've always been like a dad to me, too…"

"Brooke, don't, please", his tone softened a bit.

"I know you don't like the idea of Peyton and me. And that is completely understandable, you get here and suddenly someone springs that in you, you need time to get used to it. But your daughter needs you. I get it that it's hard to stay, but she's been attacked. She shouldn't be alone. She needs her dad."

"I love Peyton", he stated, as if he needed to make sure I believed him.

"I know you do", I said calmly.

"You obviously love her too, otherwise you wouldn't have come to talk to me."

"She's had enough people walking out of her life, she shouldn't go through something like that again", I whispered.

It took him a while to say something else. "I just can't deal with it… you two, together."

"I won't be around this week, I have something else to do. And don't get me wrong, Peyton can deal with this on her own, she's one of the strongest people I know. It's not even just about the attack, she misses you so much…"

"I'm sorry, Brooke, I can't", I sighed in defeat as he stood up to go. He turned back, looked at me, and I kept waiting for him to say something. "Could you do me a favor and… not mention to her that we met?"

I smiled sadly, "I wasn't planning to."

Turning on his back again, with a quick nod, he left.

X – X – X

"So Miss Davies, besides the designs we've seen, what else do you think you can offer the company?"

It was a bit intimidating at first, the huge office building, the executives waiting for the meeting. But as soon as I sat down, they made me feel comfortable, and everything was going smoothly, it became easy to talk to them. So far, they seemed impressed. Good thing I had been rehearsing the answer to a bunch of their questions, so I was hardly caught by surprise. It usually came down to showing interest, knowing what you wanted and why you wanted to work there, and being confident in your own work. I answered the latest question with something along those lines.

"I think that's all we needed to know for now", the youngest woman in the room, that couldn't be much more than thirty, spoke and smiled at me, "We'll call you in a couple of days and let you know about our decision, ok? If all goes well, we'll have some more meetings to determine the exact terms of the contract. But let's not jump the track here, right?"

"Right", I smiled back and shook her hand when she reached hers to me, doing the same to the other three people in the room, "Thank you so much for the opportunity. You can be sure I will work hard and prove I'm worthy of what you're offering, if you give me that chance." With one final nod, I left the room, feeling pretty confident I had conquered something there.

I decided to walk back to my hotel. It was five blocks away, and I didn't mind walking around New York. It still wasn't late night, some people were leaving work, some were heading for dinner somewhere, some seemed to be simply walking to clear their minds, like me.

It was overwhelming, being here. The city made me feel alive, somehow. The light on the streets, the park, the energy seemed to emerge from the sidewalks. As soon as I landed and checked into the hotel, I went for a walk in Central Park. It was perfect, and it amazed me how the city noises disappeared if you went far enough. I was still in the middle of Manhattan and could only hear the people around me. No traffic noises whatsoever.

As I expected, my first instinct when I settled in the hotel was to call a certain fake blonde best friend of mine. I didn't, figuring she would appreciate the space. And trusting she would let me know if she needed me. But less than a day had passed by since I'd last seen her and I already missed her. As I walked through the park, I realized that maybe she had a point, when she said we needed this time to ourselves. Alone. It was important that we found ourselves without the other one first, so that we could have a healthy relationship, not a co-dependant one. After I decided I would make the most of my trip, by myself, I still missed her, but I convinced myself that was normal. I just wouldn't let it make me miserable. After all, I knew she would be ok. I had to trust her, too, to be alone on her own. The conversation with Larry replayed over and over in my head, and I kept thinking if there was something else I could have said or done, to make him stay in Tree Hill. In some ways, I felt like I was intruding something, I mean, who was I to tell him what to do about his daughter? But I had to try. It didn't work, but at least I tried. And at least I knew he didn't want to kill me or anything like that. He was simply lost.

The five blocks went by so fast that when I realized it, I was already in front of the hotel. As an excuse not to go inside yet, I extended my way a little bit to get some food, something fat and delicious to celebrate the apparent success of my first meeting.

When I was still halfway through my cheeseburger, the phone rang. It was Rachel.

"Hey!" I answered, still with my mouth half full.

"God, Brooke, have some manners, will you?"

Her usual bitchy tone already brought a smile to my face. "Sorry", I said before I swallowed and went back to my normal voice, "What's up?"

"First, you tell me. Things didn't seem exactly perfect the last time we talked."

"Yeah… it's still a little messy, but I think we'll be ok, eventually. How about you, Rach?" I'd been talking so much about me that I hadn't asked her how she was in a while. And I remembered there were some times she sounded less than great on the phone.

She first replied with a sigh. "It's… kind of why I called. I think I'm going back to Tree Hill."

"What? Why? How about modeling?" I held the phone between my shoulder and my neck while I tried to get an extra bite of my food.

"It's not working so well. Apparently I don't have the discipline that it takes."

Of course. "What, you're getting late to work or something?"

"No, more along the lines that they pretty much want me to stop eating."

"Oh my god, what are they thinking?"

"They said my body is not right yet, but it has potential."

"If you lose like half your body weight? Rach, that's ridiculous." I looked at my cheeseburger and suddenly felt bad for her. "You're not doing what they want, are you?"

"I… I really wanted to do well and I would hate to go back to my parents and prove they were right about me. But I don't feel well lately, Brooke."

Hearing her talking about this suddenly gave me an idea for the next meeting with Victoria's Secret. Hopefully they liked the first impression they got of me, and they would call me back. And now I knew just what to say to impress them. I hoped so. If it didn't impress them, maybe I wouldn't want to work to these people.

"Whatever it is that you're doing, please stop, Rach. You're all alone there and I don't want you to get sick. Please, just take care of yourself. But… don't go back to Tree Hill yet."

"Go back? Why are you saying 'go back'? You're not in Tree Hill?"

"No", I paused to have a quick sip of my Sprite, "I'm in New York. And if everything goes according to my plan, you'll be here too in a couple of days."

"What are you talking about?"

"It's just a thought, but please please just… hang in there for one or two days. If this doesn't work, then you go back to Tree Hill and we'll figure something else out, alright?"

"Thanks, Brooke", she said sincerely, "Now are you gonna tell me what you're doing there?"

"Just a meeting", I didn't want to go around telling people about this until I had an answer first. "I'll be here for a week, max, and then I'm back."

"You're really not telling me, are you?" it sounded like she was feeling better now, until I heard the noise of a door slamming open and she changed her tone again, "Shit, gotta go, roommate's here, and she's wasted again. Bye Brooke, thanks again for everything."

"Take c…" There was no time to even say goodbye, she'd already hung up.

My mind was now filled with some new ideas, and I decided to work on them, I wanted to be ready in case they called, and it wasn't like I had much more to do at the moment.

X – X – X

Almost an entire day had gone by, I had spent almost all of it in my room, working on the new project. Every single time the phone rang, my heart raced. It did only twice during the day, Nathan once, to gloat about Jamie, as always, and some telemarketing person about some offer I couldn't miss. I listened to the first one carefully and sent Jamie kisses, and cut the second one short as soon as I found a chance.

I had just gotten out of the shower and was getting dressed to go eat something, when the phone rang for the third time. Not recognizing the number on the caller id, I took a deep breath before pressing the button and answering the call.

"Hello?" I was pretty sure my voice was shaky.

"Miss Brooke Davis?"

"Yes, that's her", I tried to steady my voice not to sound as nervous as I was.

"This is Dianna, from Victoria's Secret. I apologize for calling at this time", I took a quick look at the clock when I heard her, and was surprised to see it was almost 8. Way past working hours. And they were calling me one day earlier, I didn't see that as a very good sign. When decisions were made too fast, they usually were against change, not for it.

"No, it's no problem at all."

"I know we said we'd call you tomorrow, but we talked about it and decided we would be happy to have you working with us."

She was silent after the news, waiting for a reaction from me that didn't come instantly. "I… I don't even know what to say, thank you so much."

"We think you have a great future, Miss Davis, and we will be happy to help you with it. Can we meet again, tomorrow, at 2 o'clock?"

"Of course!" I realized I was now sounding a bit more enthusiastic than it should be professionally acceptable, so I tried to tone it down a bit. "Yes, sure, at the same place we met yesterday?"

"Yes, is it alright with you? We'll go over your ideas for the project and maybe some marketing strategies, too. So be ready for it."

"Actually, I'm already working on some things."

"Really?" that seemed to please her, "Well, we look forward to hearing about it, then. We'll see you tomorrow."

"Ok, thank you, again, so much. Goodbye."

Hanging up the phone, I felt like skipping around the room, or the entire hotel, for that matter. I was confident, and expecting they would like me, but it was still hard to believe something so amazing was really happening. I changed to go out, as picked up the phone again as soon as I had my foot out the door.

"Rachel! Look, I just got the call, and I got it! I got it, I'm gonna work with Victoria's Secret, can you believe that?"

"Wow, Brooke, that's great!" she wasn't as happy as she was trying to make herself sound.

"You know what the best part is? Now all I have to do is show them my project and I think I can find a way to get you here."

"What are you up to?"

"Trust me, ok? I have a meeting tomorrow, at 2. As soon as it's over, I'll be calling you and letting you know. Wish me luck! Cause if it works for me, it works for you!"

"You convinced me! Good luck then. Bye."

"Bye", I hung up right when I left the hotel, and headed to a nice restaurant a few blocks away. Eating alone was never a problem for me, it actually gave me a chance to enjoy the food without having to make small talk during the meal. I ordered a salad and noticed a guy glancing at me from a few tables away. He was with a large, loud group. He was really cute, but I smiled at the realization that I wasn't really interested in anyone other than Peyton. Unfortunately, he saw the smile and confused it for some sort of invitation. He got up and came to where I was.

"Mind if I join you?" Dark spiky hair, green eyes, really tall. Not bad at all. And still, didn't do anything for me.

I shifted on my chair uncomfortably. "Actually… I'd rather you didn't."

He was taken aback. "Oh, I'm sorry, you're waiting for someone?"

"Not really… but I am seeing someone, so…" I shrugged in hopes he would understand.

Luckily, he did. "That's ok. But whoever he is, he's not very smart. I mean, if I were the lucky guy, there's no way I'd leave you alone to have dinner."

He wasn't bothering me, and he was talking in a sweet way, so I decided to humor him for a while, until my food came. "I'm in the city for business, for a few days. I came alone." I gave him the best professional voice I could, and felt very important saying the words.

"Wow, sounds very… official."

"It is", I nodded, containing a giggle, "I'm about to sign a contract with Victoria's Secret."

"I knew it, you're a model, aren't you?"

"Nope, I'm a designer."

He was genuinely impressed by that. "Can I ask your name?" he grinned.

"You will know, when my clothes are on sale and you see me on some magazine one day", I grinned back, and, as if on cue, my salad was there.

"Mystery, I like that", I imagined he wasn't much older than me, he sure acted like it sometimes, and it was absolutely adorable. "Oh well, not that you asked or anything, but… I'm Greg. If you ever get tired of, you know, eating by yourself, you should give me a call."

"Thank you Greg, but eating alone was never a problem for me", he didn't give me a phone number, and I never asked for it. I grabbed the fork and lifted it with some food, in a sign that I was eating now.

"I can get a hint. You take care."

"You too, Greg", I rolled my eyes and giggled as soon as he turned his back. New York could be funny. And the bright side was that I was feeling good, like I hadn't in a long time, about myself. I realized I missed Peyton, so much, and I wanted her here, but I didn't need her here. It made me happy, like I was finally achieving that independent stage so that our relationship could be better. That's how I wanted to be with her, and maybe it was why I had screwed up before. Because I felt like we couldn't stay apart anymore. Like we were one single person, with one life. If this was going to work, I needed to be a whole person, and so did she. Completing each other, sure, making the other one better, happier, but as two separate individuals. I suddenly felt like I finally understood, and I could do this. I only hoped she did, too. Based on the fact that she wanted to be alone and deal with her ghosts by herself, I guessed she had come to the same conclusion, before I even came to New York.

I ate without any rush and walked back, enjoying the cool breeze. When I got to my room, I sat to organize all the ideas better, and draw some sketches to go with them. I wasn't going to sleep until I had everything ready.

X – X – X

I woke up later than I had planned, with papers all around me. I had gotten most of the stuff ready, just needed to finish up a few details, which I did while eating the breakfast I had ordered. Room service in this place was heaven.

After taking a quick shower, I decided to give myself some time off and just relax. I had done too much in too little time, and my mind was on overdrive. So I took the remote and browsed through the channels on tv. I had a couple of hours until I had to get ready and go. Some decent show popped up on the screen and got me distracted. Way too soon for my taste, it was already time to get up and get ready.

"Damn it, where did I put that jacket?" I mumbled to myself while I threw some clothes around. Suddenly, the doorbell rang. It couldn't be lunch, I hadn't asked for anything. It's just the maid, probably, I dismissed it, just opening the door quickly, and stopped in shock.

She was getting good at those surprise visits. Too good. Because now that I was looking at her, I half wished I could call and postpone the damn meeting.

Hope you're liking it. I wanted to get Rachel's storyline a bit more solid before going back to Brooke and Peyton. Also, that little scene at the restaurant was just for fun! :p So don't worry about the dude. I was writing and suddenly the whole thing kind of started writing itself! I'm serious! Just harmless fun, hehehe! Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it!