A Window to the Past – Chapter 2
Brandon moves his few belongings into an apartment that the company had found for him. He looks out the third floor window down at the bustle of the city streets and smiles to himself.
'I think I'm going to like it here,' he says with his hands on his hips.
Brandon shows up for work the next morning and meets with his supervisor.
'Brandon, it's good to finally meet you,' Darryl says. 'I'm so glad that we worked it out for you to stay the entire semester. You're really going to learn a lot working here. Are you excited to get started?'
'Absolutely, just point me in the right direction,' Brandon says and follows Darryl through a sea of cubicles.
'This is where you'll be sitting for the duration of your stay with us. Right across from you is George and right next to you is Amy. You'll be on their team,' Darryl says.
Brandon shakes hands with George as Amy comes around the corner. Brandon looks up to see one of the most beautiful faces attached to one of the sexiest bodies he's ever seen. She flashes Brandon a smile and bites her lip slightly while shaking his hand.
'George has been with us for seven years and Amy joined the team just a few weeks ago. You will spend most of your time up on Capital Hill bringing in any stories we can get our hands on,' Darryl explains.
'Why don't you explain to Brandon what's going on and take him with you when you go meet the Senator this afternoon,' Darryl suggests to George.
'Sure, Darryl, no problem,' George says, 'Brandon, come have a seat and tell me all about yourself.'
Brandon gets home from his first day of work and drops down on the couch. He stares at the ceiling seeing images of Amy floating by.
'Damn,' he says out loud. 'How am I going to get through the day with that in front of me?'
The phone rings and Brandon slowly gets up off of the couch to answer it.
'Brandon! How's it hanging in the nation's capital?' he hears Steve's voice through the receiver.
'Hey, Steve, it's amazing so far. You are not going to believe what they have me doing and who they have me doing it with,' Brandon says with excitement.
'Oh, do tell,' he says.
Scotland
'Brenda, what's wrong? I thought the performance was great tonight,' one of her cast mates says to her.
They had gone out to a pub and were trying to wind down from the show. Brenda was unknowingly staring off into space and not really contributing to the conversations going on around her.
Brenda snaps out of her thoughts at the sound of her name.
'Oh, sorry, Glen, I was caught up in a daydream,' she says with a weak smile.
'Are you alright?' he asks her.
'Yeah, I'm just worried. I don't have my phone since the battery died and my brother was driving across the United States for a job in Washington, D.C. I guess I'm just distracted not knowing if he made it alright,' she tells him.
'Well, you and your brother must be pretty close for you to worry about him like that,' Glen says to her.
Brenda smiles for the first time in a long time. 'It's unavoidable, Glen, we're twins,' she says with a laugh.
'Ah,' he says smiling back, 'I see. I had no idea you were a twin. I know one set of twins and they are completely inseparable,' he says.
'Yeah, well, we were like that when we were younger, but we haven't felt like that since middle school,' she tells him.
'Well, I think it's different when you have a brother and sister set too. I can understand now why you're so worried. You must have that freaky twin connection, like astral lines crossed,' he says.
Brenda opens her eyes wider as he speaks. 'Astral lines? Okay, that's a little too weird for me,' she says with a laugh.
'Of course it is, but I got you to laugh, and that is enough for me,' he says holding up his drink.
She taps his glass with her own and takes a sip. She finishes her beer and looks around the table.
'It's time for me to take off, guys. Good show tonight, see you tomorrow,' Brenda says and goes back to the hotel.
She sits in her room at the desk with a piece of paper and a pen. 'Okay, Brenda, we're going old school here actually writing a letter with a pen,' she says smiling to herself.
She dates the top of the page and writes 'Dear Brandon'.
She continues to write for the better part of an hour and four pages later, stretches her hand and yawns. She puts the pen down and gets ready for bed.
Washington D.C.
Brandon works closely with George and Amy getting to know their contacts on the Hill and doing background research for the story that George is currently working on.
Amy decided that since he was new in town and had only been here once before that she would take him on the grand tour of the city.
'That right there is the best coffee shop in town. Make no mistake, there are many imposters out there, but that right there is the best, hands down,' she says smiling at him.
'I don't know about that, I may have to make that decision for myself,' he says.
'Okay, if I'm right, you have to do something for me,' she says playfully.
'Oh, yeah,' Brandon says smiling back at her, 'what would that be?'
'Go with me to the opening of the new art exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery tomorrow night,' she says.
Brandon starts to nod his head and says, 'You're on.'
The Beach Apartment
'Okay, so what are we doing tonight, Kelly?' Donna asks her.
'We are meeting up with Steve to talk about the fundraising event that KEG and the Alphas are throwing next week and then, I don't know,' she says, brushing her hair.
'Another fundraiser? Is it going to be boring like the last one?' Donna whines.
'Of course not, they put Steve in charge. I think they're going to let us do the Greek Olympic Games,' Kelly says with a smile.
'Oh, well, that should be interesting. How many drinking contests will there be at these Olympic Games?' Donna asks laughing.
Kelly laughs along with her and puts her brush back into the bathroom.
'Come on, we're going to be late,' she says grabbing Donna's hand and pulling her off of the couch.
They drive down to the Peach Pit and meet Steve for dinner.
'Oh my God, he actually looks prepared,' Kelly says when they walk in and see Steve sitting at one of the tables with a notebook and a folder full of papers.
'Hey Steve, what is all of this stuff?' Donna asks him.
'Oh, Donna, I have been waiting for the okay to go ahead with this for the last year. I can't even tell you how excited I am,' he says and starts pulling papers from the folder.
'Did you draw these yourself, Steve?' Kelly asks him, holding up several drawings of what looked like different kinds of games.
'Of course I did, Kelly,' he says with a straight face. After a few seconds of silence, they all start to laugh at the same time.
'No way, I had a freshman do it,' he says. 'Okay, so I'm thinking Olympics meets Carnivale.'
'Oh God,' Kelly says out loud.
'Hear me out Kel, it's a good idea,' Steve says preparing his papers to convince Kelly.
They talk for a few hours about Steve's idea for the Greek Games fundraiser.
'Okay, I wasn't too keen on the idea in the beginning, but I think the way you have this set up that it could actually work,' Kelly says.
'Yeah, you put a lot of thought into this, Steve,' Donna says.
'Thanks, guys, I knew you'd come around,' he says with a beaming smile.
Washington D.C.
Brandon spends the next few days running around the city doing research during the day and seeing the sights with Amy at night.
He gets home on Friday night after going to a club with her and sits on the couch. He smiles to himself at how easy this relationship is and how much he's enjoying his time with her.
It had been a while since he was actually able to put his flirting skills to some use and he was enjoying the chase.
Scotland
After an exhausting final performance, Brenda changes her clothes and helps the crew take the set down. They load all of the props, costumes, and set pieces onto the bus and start the long trek back to London.
She finally gets to her house on Sunday afternoon after helping to unload the van and saying goodbye to everyone.
She drops all of her bags right by the front door and sighs.
'Wow, it's good to be home,' she says out loud, looking around her apartment. She goes immediately to her computer to see if Brandon happened to contact her while she was away.
She opens her inbox and sees the email from Dylan from two weeks ago. She smiles at his concern for her safety and then starts to think about Beau. She hadn't seen or heard from him since the night of the performance before she and Iris left London to go back to California.
She had met up with Paige, Brent, and Wyatt when she got back to London and she realizes now that they didn't mention him at all.
She hits reply on Dylan's message and starts to type. She tells him that she hasn't actually seen him at all and that she was perfectly fine when she hears a loud, persistent knock on her front door.
She jumps a little at the sound and slowly moves to the door to answer it. She pulls it open and gasps out loud when she sees a very panicked Dylan standing in front of her.
She opens her mouth to say something, but doesn't get the chance when he steps forward and pulls her tightly into his body. He drops his bag on the floor and wraps both arms around her.
Brenda starts to laugh at his reaction completely confused as to why he was now standing in her apartment.
'Dylan, what are you doing here?' she asks him when he finally lets go.
'Bren, you didn't answer me when I asked about Beau. No phone calls, no emails, no nothing,' he says quickly.
'Dylan, I just got back from touring like fifteen minutes ago,' she says pointing to her bags by the front door.
Dylan turns his head slightly to see a pile of luggage by the door. She takes his hand and walks him over to the computer to show him the response she was in the middle of writing.
Dylan starts to laugh at himself and squeezes her hand.
'Why didn't you call me or something? My outgoing message says that I'm on tour,' she tells him.
Dylan sighs and smiles as he looks at her. 'Sorry,' he says and shrugs his shoulders.
Brenda laughs and says, 'I can't believe you came all the way from Hawaii because of an email.'
Dylan doesn't want to tell her that the email wasn't the only reason he came to see her. 'I guess it was a momentary lapse,' he says.
Brenda narrows her eyes at him, knowing that he's not telling her the truth. She walks over to the couch with him and sits down.
She folds her arms across her lap and waits for him to tell her the real story.
'Look, Iris and I were talking about the entire Marchette thing from the beginning and we got to the part where you and I left to let her work out one of the crazy notes. Remember when we ran into Beau in Hyde Park?' he asks her.
Brenda nods her head, thinking back to that moment in time. She thinks about Beau for a few seconds and then flashes of them on the park bench become very clear in her mind.
'He made me really uncomfortable and I had completely forgotten about him until that moment when I was talking to Iris. I just wasn't okay with you being here by yourself and not knowing where that crazy guy is,' he tells her.
'Dylan,' Brenda says putting her hand on his arm, 'I've been taking care of myself for a long time without any help from anyone. I think I can handle Beau,' she says.
'I know you can, Bren, but I guess I just wanted to be sure,' he says.
She smiles at him and says, 'Thank you for your concern. You must have been really freaked out to fly all the way here from Hawaii, Dylan. That's a long flight to have this conversation,' she says.
'Well, while I'm here, maybe we should revisit this whole situation,' he says with hope.
'Dylan, we talked about this already and decided it was best if we just went back to the way things were before this whole Marchette thing happened,' Brenda says with sadness in her voice.
'Yeah, I know, but maybe we should go back a little further,' he says raising his eyebrows at her.
'How much further?' she asks staring into his eyes.
They look at each other without moving a muscle as they had done so many times before. As they start to inch toward each other ever so slightly, they are interrupted by the phone ringing loudly.
Brenda smiles to herself, shakes her head a little, and gets up quickly to answer it.
'Hello?' she says into the receiver.
Dylan feels a pang in his chest as she stands in front of him with the phone to her ear.
'Oh, hi, of course,' Brenda says looking over at Dylan, 'he got here just fine, Iris.'
Dylan lets out a breath and sits back on the couch.
'Brenda, I tried to talk him out of it, but there was nothing I could say to change his mind,' Iris says.
'Yeah, well, Iris, we both know that all too well,' she says. 'I actually just got back this afternoon from a two week tour.'
'Well, doesn't he have impeccable timing?' Iris laughs. 'Listen, I just wanted to say that I love both of you and just keep an open mind, okay?'
'What are you talking about?' Brenda asks her.
'I know that you two have been through a lot in a very short amount of time, but I do believe that some good will come out of this, even if it was a rash decision on his part,' Iris says.
Brenda looks over at Dylan, who is staring at the floor waiting for Brenda to get off of the phone.
'I do too, Iris, thanks,' she says and hangs up.
'So,' she says to him, sitting back down on the couch, 'you just left your poor mother all alone, huh?'
Dylan finally looks up and smiles at her. 'She can take care of herself too, Bren,' he says.
They smile at each other and lock eyes again for a few seconds until the phone rings for a second time.
'Wow, I am one popular person today,' she says, reaching for the phone.
'Hello?' she says as Dylan watches her face turn whiter than it already was, 'oh, hi Beau.'
Dylan hearts starts to race when he hears her say his name. He immediately grabs her hand and holds onto it tightly as she talks to him.
'You know, I just got back from a tour, I'm kind of tired and not really in the mood to go out. Maybe another night, okay?' she says. 'Okay, talk to you soon.'
'Are you kidding me? I can't believe that just happened,' he says and gets up off of the couch as Brenda puts the phone down slowly.
'He probably heard from Paige or someone that I was coming back today,' she says to him.
Dylan starts pacing around her living room with his hand to his forehead.
'Bren, there is something wrong with that guy, I just know it. He's involved in this somehow and it pisses me off that I haven't been able to figure it out yet.'
'Dylan, just calm down,' she says.
'Calm down? No way,' he says and kneels down on the floor in front of where she is sitting on the couch. He takes both of her hands in his and gives her a pleading look.
'Please, Bren, please, come back with me. I can't bear to think about you being here alone with that guy out there somewhere.'
Brenda searches his eyes and is taken aback by the fear she sees written all over his face.
'Listen, this is my home, Dylan,' she says freeing herself from him and walking to the other side of the room.
'I don't need you to watch over me,' she says firmly.
Dylan drops his head and sighs. He knows that stubborn attitude and knows that he's not going to get anywhere in this conversation, so he decides to let it go for now.
'Look, I'm going to eat something and go to bed. I'm exhausted from the tour and just need some sleep. You know where everything is,' she says grabbing an apple from the refrigerator.
She walks over to the front door and drags her bags into her bedroom.
Brenda sits on her bed after changing her clothes and looks toward the door. She smiles to herself at the incredible feeling she had seeing Dylan standing on the other side of her door.
He was so worried about her and it left her wondering if that was the only reason he came to London.
She turns the light out and falls into a deep sleep, her body sinking into the mattress after a long grueling tour away from home.
Dylan walks around her apartment for a little while trying to figure out what to do next. He hadn't thought this far ahead in his plan to come and rescue her and he wasn't sure what he next move would be. He decides that he's too tired to think about it and grabs his bag.
He walks down the hallway, stares at Brenda's closed door for a few seconds, and then goes into the spare room to sleep.