"I do!" Peyton stood beautifully cradling her baby bump in her petite hands.
"I do!" Lucas stood across from her at the altar.
Brooke shot up in her bed, gasping for air. She held her chest under her hands and settled her breathing down. She looked over at the empty spot in her bed. Brooke smiled sadly down at the spot Lucas was supposed to be.
"Good morning!" Lucas walked into the bedroom with two cups of coffee.
Brooke snapped out of her own thoughts, "Good morning handsome."
Several weeks had passed since Brooke's store opening. The store was slowly becoming a success after Brooke decided to design a more affordable line of clothing for the store.
Lucas had finished the script for the movie and was now in the process of looking for someone to help fund the movie since Lindsay's firm pulled out.
"You slept so long. You sure you feel okay?" Lucas handed Brooke her cup of coffee and place his hand on her forehead.
Brooke laughed, "Luke I'm fine! I promise."
"I think you should take a day off of working to get better." Lucas ignored her 'I'm fine,' as he sat down next to her in their bed.
Somehow Brooke managed to get Lucas to switch rooms with Juliet and now the couple was staying in his mother's old room. The room still freaked him out whenever he thought about whomever his mother had in the bed.
Brooke saw Lucas' struggle with the room so she offered to redecorate the room to erase any trace of Karen's old trysts. They had just gotten a new mattress and bed frame the day before.
"Luke is that your way of saying I work too much?" Brooke took a long sip of her coffee before sitting it down on their new brown night stand.
Lucas playfully looked around the room, "I don't know what you're talking about!"
Brooke laughed and pushed his arm, "Do you want me to stay home goof ball? I could always get Millie to run the store for the day. She has been begging me to let her do it."
A smile stretched across Lucas' face. "Well then let's show Millicent how much we believe in her by letting her run the store by herself."
"Okay let me call Millie and tell her I won't be in today." Brooke climbed out of bed and grabbed her phone to call her assistant and new best friend.
Lucas watched Brooke leave the bedroom and just as he was about to lay down his phone began to vibrate underneath his pillow. He checked the caller i.d and saw that is was Julian calling.
"Hello?" Lucas answered on the third ring.
"Hey man I have some bad news. Can I meet you at Tric in like half an hour?" Julian said through the other end of the phone.
Lucas hesitated to answer; he'd just told Brooke to stay home. He was hoping to get to spend some one on one time with Brooke before Juliet came from school.
"Sure I'll be there." Lucas hung up the phone frustrated.
Brooke walked back into the bedroom, "So Millie is excited…" She trailed off when she noticed the frustrated expression written all over Lucas' face. "Luke? What's wrong?"
She walked around the bed to his side and grabbed his face in her hands. Lucas looked at Brooke; he couldn't help but smile at how beautiful she looked in the morning with a fresh face.
"I have to go into Tric for a surprise meeting with Julian. He has some bad news for me." Lucas shrugged his shoulders.
Brooke smacked her lips together, "Aw! Luke I didn't want to spend my time off alone!"
Lucas frowned and pulled Brooke into his lap, "I know I'm so sorry. If I didn't have to go I wouldn't but Julian sounded worried and urgent."
Brooke sighed heavily and caressed Lucas' cheek. "It better be quick! Make this a quick meeting Lucas Scott so you can come home to me."
Lucas laughed and nodded once, "I promise to get the news and come straight home! I just want you to have a relaxing day today."
"I haven't had a day off in weeks!" Brooke kissed his lips. "Okay well the faster you get there the faster you'll get home!"
Lucas rolled over so Brooke so under him, "But I want my proper goodbye!"
Brooke squealed underneath him and giggled like a little girl.
xoxo
Lucas made it to Tric several minutes late. He'd got caught up at home with Brooke.
"That woman can be so damn tempting." Lucas thought to himself as he walked inside the dark club.
Julian was sitting the bar with his girlfriend, Peyton. One week after Brooke's store opening, Julian and Peyton made their relationship public. Much the couple's surprise everyone already knew about them.
"Lucas!" Julian looked up from his coke to spot Lucas walking towards him and Peyton.
Peyton's head shot up and she left the bar quickly. Lucas hadn't heard one word from Peyton and it didn't bother him at all. Peyton only brought complications to his life.
"Hey!" Lucas scooted into the bar stool next to Julian. "What is so important that I had to rush over here and leave my fiancée?"
Julian raised an eyebrow and checked the time, "It's not like you really rushed."
Lucas shot Julian a look and Julian cleared his throat and continued.
"Well that's not important. What's important is that my dad was threatening to pull the movie if we didn't find a director." Julian reminded Lucas. "At least he was threatening but now he is being serious. He pulled the plug on the movie."
Lucas felt as if someone had hit him in the stomach. "He did what?"
"I'm sorry man!" Julian patted Lucas' shoulder. "I'm just as bummed as you are. I know how much you put into this movie."
Lucas felt his head slowly began to sink down below his shoulders. "I need a drink."
Julian nodded in agreement. "Me too! But this new bartender isn't all that great so I'd stick to something simple."
Behind the bar stood a young black haired kid. He wasn't very tall but his smile was always wide. He seemed to love his job despite being so bad at mixing drinks. He was working behind the bar to fill in for his friend whom was now in rehab.
Lucas walked around the bar and grabbed the new bottle of Jack Daniels.
"I can pour that for you Mr. Scott!" Chase, the new bartender, called out to Lucas.
Lucas held the bottle above his head, "Nope I got it."
Lucas took the bottle of Jack Daniels up to his office above the club. He normally wasn't a big drinker but Lucas had already spent his entire savings from his new book The Comet and from the club on this movie. He'd already bought filming equipment for Julian to film and he'd already paid the staff they hired for the movie but now he had no movie. He didn't want to bother Brooke with his problems because today was supposed to be her day of relaxing.
Several hours later Peyton entered Lucas' old dusty office. "Hey Luke."
Lucas looked up from the now empty bottle of Jack Daniels. "Go away Peyton."
Peyton held up another bottle of Jack Daniels, "I thought I'd come join your pity party."
Lucas eyed Peyton suspiciously but took the opened bottle. He drunk right from the bottle.
"What are you sad about anyways?" Lucas asked her.
Peyton sat down on Lucas' new black wooden desk, a gift from Brooke. "Julian is going back to California to film a movie and I can't join him because I have to be here for my company and he doesn't understand that so we're basically over."
Lucas tuned out Peyton's voice by drinking. After several long swigs from the bottle Lucas began to feel weird.
"I feel funny." Lucas began to slur his words.
Peyton caught him as he began to tumble forward. "Whoa okay well c'mon let's lie down here."
There was a small cot in the corner of Lucas' office. Before Brooke came back into town, Lucas spent many nights in his office. He'd only go home to sleep if his back had began to hurt from the old mattress.
Lucas complied with Peyton and lied down on the rusty old cot. His head began to spin when it hit the pillow. He put down the bottle and held his head in his hands. "Goodness!"
Peyton laughed at the look on Lucas' face. "I'm sorry Luke. You must have had too much to drink." But in reality Peyton spiked Lucas' bottle of Jack Daniels. She was regretting it and decided against doing anything with Lucas.
Peyton began to take off Lucas' shoes for him. When she began to take off his button down, Lucas pulled her closer.
"You look beautiful Peyton." Lucas whispered the slurred words into her ear.
She couldn't help but blush at his compliment. "Finally something that isn't an insult." She thought to herself as she pulled Lucas' button down off of his shoulders. Peyton left on his white tank.
Lucas lied his head back onto the pillow once his shirt was off. His head began to spin again. When his head stopped spinning he saw Peyton leaning down into his face. Peyton's face was getting closer and closer. He was too drunk to react when Peyton kissed his lips.
"Peyton…" Lucas tried to stop her but she placed her index finger over his lips.
"Shh…" Peyton kissed him again, "I know you want this."
xoxo
Lucas woke up and he was lying in his own bed back at his house. He looked around and saw Brooke and Peyton talking at the end of the bed.
"I found him in his office passed out drunk." Peyton explained to Brooke.
Brooke looked back at Lucas and realized he was awake. "Luke! Oh Luke why did you do that to yourself?" She rushed over to his side. "You should have come to me."
Lucas tried to speak but his mouth was too dry so the only sound that came out was a croak.
"I'll go get you some water." Brooke scurried out of the room and into the kitchen.
"I'm just gonna go." Peyton called out to Brooke. As Peyton turned to leave the room, Lucas called out for her. She stopped and turned to him.
"I hate you." Lucas spat the words out at her and he plopped back down in the bed. He stared angrily at the orange walls of his mother's bedroom.
Peyton frowned and left his house, his words cutting into her.
Brooke walked back into the room with a tall glass of water. "Here drink this Luke."
She gently touched his hot forehead and frowned down at him.
"Why didn't you come to me Luke?" Brooke asked in a gentle tone.
Lucas took a long sip of water before answering her, "I just didn't want to disturb your peaceful day, and you've had enough bad news to deal with for a lifetime."
Brooke kissed his forehead, "I love you for that but next time just come to me Luke." She tussled her fingers through his wet hair.
"Why is my hair wet?" Lucas asked.
She laughed, "You had this god awful Mohawk! Peyton and I helped you wash it out. But of course we had to take pictures first."
Lucas groaned loudly and lied back down.
"Get some sleep!" Brooke laughed and turned off the lights before leaving the room.
Lucas couldn't go back to sleep. He struggled to sleep because he knew he would have to tell Brooke what happened between him and Peyton. Throughout the night whenever he closed his eyes he'd get a flashback of his tryst with Peyton. By the end of night Lucas had gotten no sleep and he just keep banging his head into his soft silky pillow.
He looked over at Brooke. She was sleeping peacefully with a soft grin upon her face. "If only she knew." Lucas thought to himself as he got out of bed and went to turn on the TV in the living room. He knew he wouldn't get any sleep until he told her.