BRIGHT LIGHTS

Anticipation

Brooke tapped her pen absent-mindedly against the leather covering of her glass desk. She stared out her office window, across the busy boulevard her building was situated on, into another giant skyscraper. It was a beautiful day, the sky was shining brightly, and the blue of the sky glowed. Brooke sighed and dropped her pen on her desk. It landed with a soft thud on the stack of papers that she was supposed to be working on, but couldn't. Brooke pushed the side of her desk with her hand, making the desk chair spin.

Brooke laughed giddily as the spinning made her dizzy. Everything around her was all smeared into one giant blur.

A knock at the door scared Brooke. She stopped the chair mid-spin and fell onto the ground.

"Fuck!" Brooke cursed as pain went through her body.

A hesitant small brunette wearing glasses peeked her head through the door. "Your two-o-clock is here." She saw Brooke lying on the floor in a jumbled position. "I'm, so sorry Ms. Davis. . . I'll co-com-come back later." She quickly shut the door.

"I'm not doing anything illegal! Come back here!" Brooke shouted, pissed at the panicky intern. For god's sake, Brooke was only 23 and the intern was probably 20 years old, she didn't need to be scared of her. But maybe all this frustration and yelling wasn't helping the intern feel any more situated. "What are you doing standing there?" She screamed again.

"Um, yes. . . Ms. Davis." The intern bowed out. The door closed, but opened again as a tall dark haired man stepped into the office.

His ruffled hair was jet-black and he had the sweetest brown eyes. He was dressed down with a grey vintage t-shirt and faded blue jeans and looked comfortable as he rolled back his shoulders. "Well, it's nice to meet you again, Brooke." He held out his hand.

Nice to meet again? What the hell was this guy talking about?

Brooke stared at him blankly. He was incredibly handsome and his arms were so tan with bulging biceps . . . and his hair. . .

"Brooke?"

Brooke jerked back in attention in surprise. "Do I know you?"

The man nodded and dropped his outstretched hands and took a seat in one of the cube leather armchairs. "I'm Jay. We met when Lucas introduced us."

Lucas.

It was six months ago. Brooke had started to get over the heartbreak. But it felt like she was stabbed again. Brooke managed to force out a smile. "Oh, of course. . . nice to meet you. Again."

Jay leaned back into his chair and stretched his hands out in back of him. "You don't need to lie Brooke. You're not happy to see me."

Brooke kept her forced smile. Her dimples burned deeply into her face. "That's not true. I just met you. I don't know you."

Jay sat back up again. He looked across the desk at the smiling Brooke. "Your eyes lit up when you saw me first. Well, that's because I'm a handsome guy. But when I said we met because of Lucas, you're expression changed. And I know it's not because I'm bad looking."

Brooke tried hard not to slap him. This guy was so damn arrogant. Where did he get off like this? "Um." She tried to keep her demeanor professional. She smoothed down her pencil grey skirt as she sat down on her tall black leather desk chair. "Sit down-."

She stopped mid-sentence when she saw that Jay had already settled himself comfortably in the chair in front of her. "Okay. . .This is going to be very interesting." She muttered to herself. But she couldn't help but notice his gorgeous eyes.

Brooke sat in her BMW convertible. The car wasn't on and the air stood stank and stale from lack of oxygen. The key was in the ignition, dangling limply as it waited for Brooke to simply turn it. She was so conflicted and confused. She hadn't talking to Haley and Nathan for a month now, and they're constant worried messages left on her machines continually went unanswered. Brooke still left them in the voicemail, wanting to remind herself that there were people that truly cared about her.

This past month had been amazing. Jay had helped her get over Lucas. He was so different from him, he was the bad guy out front, he didn't have to hide anything. He was rude, arrogant, vain, handsome, rich, successful, but with a heart of gold underneath it all.

He was exactly like Brooke.

When Brooke had first recounted her experience with Jay, Haley had desperately advised her not to get involved with a guy like him. Nathan even had something to say about it. His whole bad-guy-transformed-into-good-guy was a bunch of bullshit as far as Brooke was concerned. He probably still watched a whole bunch of porn. Brooke had seen his porn stash before. And it was huge. But all guys were like that, Brooke understood that, but she wasn't sure Haley did.

Brooke hoped that Haley never discovered that closet downstairs in the Rec room in the basement. . .

But more importantly at this moment was Jay.

They shared some really sweet walks on the sidewalks of the streets of New York, illuminated by the white lights circled around the trees. They had been on dates to exclusive restaurants, clubbing, watched movies, spent time at each other's homes.

And the sex was phenomenal. And they had a lot of it.

Brooke knew that her "talents" concerning sex were great, it could make the experience for a guy mind-blowing. She had taught Lucas what he knew now. But Jay was amazing in bed. She was pretty sure that he had learned by himself from experience. They had sex at least seven times a week, and at the most inopportune times. Some times, they would just surprise each other at work, close the door, and begin.

From high school, Brooke had a lot of sex and she could do it noncommittally. But whenever she was around Jay, she was starting to get butterflies in her stomach. Everything she started doing with him became meaningful. Brooke was thinking that she was starting to fall for him, but that scared her. She was just like him, and Brooke Davis wasn't really one for a relationship. Lucas was the exception, but maybe this could be an exception for Jay.

There was a knock on the glass window.

Brooke jumped up and looked out her window to see an impeccably dressed Jay standing there, waiting patiently. She quickly reached for her purse and pulled out her key from the ignition. Jay opened the door for her.

Brooke got out of the car and Jay slammed the door shut. Brooke winced at the loud sound.

"Sorry," Jay said as he saw the look on Brooke's face.

Brooke shrugged and slipped her arm into his leather jacket clad one. "It's okay. So what are we doing tonight?"

Jay smiled and looked down at Brooke. "It's a surprise. But first, we're going to go to your apartment."

They walked together towards the elevator of Brooke's apartment building. In the elevator, Brooke could feel his arm muscles through the jacket. She slipped her hand under his T-shirt and ran her hand over his abs.

"Brooke." Jay whispered so the old snobby white haired lady in front of them couldn't hear, "This is an elevator; there's a fucking camera in front of us." He hissed.

Brooke laughed loudly, but stifled it abruptly when the woman in front of them gave an annoyed glance. "So sorry. . ." Brooke told her.

The old woman just huffed and turned around.

Brooke bit her lip to keep from laughing. Jay looked with an amused smile playing on his lips. Jay looked at the elevator floor light up 5. Brooke's apartment was at the top and it was a good minute before they reached it. He bent down to kiss Brooke's neck.

Brooke giggled and started to make obscene moans. Every time Jay kissed her, she exaggerated the moans even more. They started grinding against each other. The old woman quickly glanced back, but then started staring.

"I want to fuck you so bad." Jay said loud enough to be overheard.

The old lady couldn't take it anymore and hurried out as soon as the elevator doors opened.

When the doors shut and the elevators moved up again, they moved apart from each other and burst out laughing.

"She's lives on the 13th floor and got out on the 10th!" Brooke said excitedly. "Try to imagine her walking up the stairs with that cane of hers. Maybe she'll fall down."

Jay sobered up. "Brooke that's terrible." He said sternly.

"You killed it!" Brooke punched him on the arm.

The elevator made a ringing sound and the doors slid open. They both walked out into the beautiful hallway of the apartment building. An oriental rug ran up and down the floor and the hallway was illuminated by chandeliers hanging from the high ceilings. Brooke inserted the key into the lock and twisted it. The white door with the golden 203 plaque swung opened.

Jay settled himself comfortably on the white couch across from the plasma TV hanging on the wall. He was careful to take of his shoes before fully throwing himself onto the couch. Brooke giggled and jumped on him. He groaned in pain.

She gave him a sweet kiss on the lips and inhaled his cologne. She pulled away from him and looked at him with a serious look on him face. The summer night light illuminated his face, exaggerating his features. Brooke reflected on what she spent agonizing nights in bed before drifting to sleep thinking about. It burned in her mind. "Are we going to fast?" She whispered, almost afraid of the answer.

The silence was deafening, Brooke hated this kind of quiet. The suspense was killing her. She looked at Jay who was under legs, lying flat out on the couch, his eyes were on the ceiling above her, deep in thought. Brooke sighed, she knew this was going to happen. A guy like Jay couldn't set down. He was too gorgeous and too much of a player to have a serious relationship. Brooke rolled off of Jay and started walking away.

A hand caught her arm and Brooke felt herself get pulled closer to Jay. He gave her a small kiss. "Brooke," He whispered. "You're the most perfect woman I've ever met. I love you."

Brooke giggled despite herself.

Jay reached into his back pocket and pulled out an envelope and outstretched it for Brooke. She took it and opened to find two first-class plane tickets to Los Angeles LAX.

"Oh my god! Jay." Brooke further inspected the ticket. "The plane leaves at 3 in the morning! It's 7 now! I have to go pack!" She squealed and jumped of Jay, ecstatic.

"Pack something formal!" Jay called out after her skipping figure. He grinned to himself, Brooke was amazing. He flipped open his cell phone.

Hello?

"Lucas, man, I've met an amazing girl. I'm taking her to the party."

Can't wait to meet her, man. Congrats.

Jay snapped his silver phone shut and walked to Brooke's bedroom.