Chapter Sixteen: Put Aside Your Past
The door of the room swung open and Nathan looked up as Haley entered, dressed in a black negligee. She sauntered in.
"Hey, you're back," he said.
"Couldn't keep away from you," she said softly.
"Course not," he joked. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, she pushed him back onto the bed and climbed astride him.
He stripped her off the black lace fabric, and began to trail kisses down her body.
"I can't believe this is happening…" he said.
"Believe it, superstar," she said.
Nathan woke with a start. Even his dreams were not free of her.
He arose from his bed and went to the window. Even at three in the morning it was wide awake. He loved it, but knew he'd have to leave it soon. In the triangle of him, his soon to be ex-wife and his brother, he was viewed as the victim. This would assuredly change if Haley came back, agreed to be with him. The entire city would see his daughter, calculate her age…
He knew he was in love with Haley, but he didn't know how it had come about. Back when they'd started, he'd found her very attractive. He was twelve years older than her but when she'd come into his office, he hadn't been able to resist her. Somewhere along the line she'd become something of an addiction to her. He'd try and stop, but find himself completely a slave to her. He'd tell himself it was wrong, that Brooke deserved more, and he'd end up calling Haley to his office. He told himself it was because Brooke had been unfaithful to him, but it was because of more than that. Haley had been away for five months already, he didn't know how much more he could last.
Nathan recalled the day he'd first met her. He'd been hesitant, to bring in an inexperienced woman only because she was a friend of his brother's, but he'd done so none the less. She was even younger than he'd expected, just twenty-two or twenty-three, barely out of school. He thought he'd been flattering himself by her apparent attraction to him, but it had turned out to be an honest one. Somehow, the twelve-year gap accounted for very little.
His thoughts turned to Brooke. How they'd met, both working as interns with the same lunch break. How their friendship had evolved. How they'd been so blissfully in love. Nathan wasn't one to lie to his past: they had been in love. Perhaps not as much as he loved Haley, but he'd loved Brooke truly for years. Part of him regretted that her child was not his. He wanted a child. It seemed as though he would never have Natalya as his daughter.
"Nathan?" came a voice. A deep male voice-not the one he was searching for.
"Luke?" said Nathan in response.
"Hey man," he said awkwardly. In a practiced gesture, they met in the middle of the room and shook hands.
"What do you want?" he asked.
"Uh, have you heard from Haley?"
"No, why, did you sleep with her too?" asked Nathan, pouring himself a glass of vodka.
"I'm sorry. I never meant for it to happen," said Lucas.
"So it was just the one time?" asked Nathan, raising his eyebrows. He knew the answer.
"She told me you guys were over."
"We were. We are. Is that all you came here to say?" asked Nathan.
"I do love her, Nate. It's not just sex," he said, looking down.
"Good to hear. Now get out," said Nathan.
"Get over it. You're not mad at me, you're mad at Haley. You're mad at airplanes. You're mad at the world, but you're sure as hell not mad at me. I'm some ways, you're grateful. If you were the one with the one year old and Brooke was an innocent, you'd be an asshole. Now you're the victim. You don't love Brooke, you haven't for years, you want her to be happy. You're full of crap," said Lucas. Nathan stared at him for a long time.
"You slept with my wife. If you didn't know I was with Haley, you sure as hell suspected it and you went with her anyway. While, may I say, you were still supposedly in love with Brooke. There was no way Haley could have gotten out of that without a broken heart," raged Nathan.
"Broken hearts? You know it's fairly easy to get a broken heart when the man you're sleeping with ignores you completely and then finally makes you fall in love with him, swears to be with you and then abandons you again for his wife," snarled Lucas.
"I never would have had to break my vow to Haley if you hadn't knocked up my wife!" yelled Nathan, thumping his glass down so hard on the bar that it smashed to pieces.
"Vow to Haley? What about your vow to Brooke? Did you even think of her when you were banging Haley on your desk every day for two years?" demanded Lucas. The inevitable came: Nathan's fist swung out and came into contact with Lucas's face. Lucas put his own hand up to his face to stop the bleeding, but didn't retaliate.
"It wasn't banging. I'm in love with Haley. I'm in love with our daughter. And the next time Brooke pours out her sob story, ask about the doorman and the handyman. She'll know what you're talking about," said Nathan.
"Brooke was unfaithful?" asked Lucas after an awkward, embarrassed pause.
"You mean, besides with you? Yeah. Fairly frequently," said Nathan.
"Why didn't you ever tell me?" asked Lucas.
"Because I loved her, and I didn't want anyone to think less of her. You should go," said Nathan coolly.
Nathan's phone rang as Lucas turned to go. Staring at his brother's back, he answered it.
"Nathan? Is Lucas there?" asked Brooke. Their ten years together had made Nathan able to recognize the panic evident in her voice. For a moment, their past fell away as his concern took over.
"Brooke? What's wrong?" he asked nervously. Lucas spun around and stared intently at his brother.
"I think I'm in labour," she said.
"You're only eight months along," said Nathan worriedly.
"Oh, I know, Nate. Trust me, I know," she said.
Nathan hung up the phone and turned to his brother.
"We have to get down to the hospital. Now," he demanded.
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