Chapter 26

"How'd you meet Brian?" Promise inquired as the girls walked.

"It's not that romantic." Leighanne laughed. "I was in the video for As Long As You Love Me. Then I was also in I'll Never Break Your Heart as Brian's girl. And look how that worked out."

"I think that's romantic," Promise told her.

Leighanne shrugged. "I guess."

"You don't sound very sure."

"I guess I've always envisioned meeting my husband somewhere special, you

know? Like…not in a video shoot. But Brian's so cute…"

"Leigh? Can I ask you something?"

"Go right ahead."

"Do you love Brian?" Seeing the woman's shocked look, she hurried to explain. "I mean, I know you love him, like you love to shop. It's a fondness, am I right?" As she nodded, Promise searched how to go on. "But do you love him, like love him? Is it a passion that grows every minute, where you can't wait to be with him, and ever y single second that you're away from him, you feel as if you could just die? Brian is a person. And he needs love. Where he gets it is his choice. But the way I see love is different than most people."

"Go on," Leighanne said curiously.

"OK, you love pizza. Every time you eat it, your taste buds go all weak and you just want to eat more and more. Slice after slice. You call it your favorite food. Every Friday night…pizza night. That's love. You love something."

Leighanne nodded.

"The real love," Promise continued. "The human love. It's something God gave us as a gift. Something we take for granted. I mean, you don't love pizza the way you love your soul mate. Sometimes we mistake people for our pizza. That may sound ridiculous, but it's absolutely true. I love Nick. He's my best friend, besides Grace. But he's not my soul mate. He's my pizza. I love him and have a growing fondness for him. But I don't love him. I can go a day without him."

Promise desperately hoped that Leighanne was taking the hint, that Brian may just be her love as a friend. That you can say you love something but not love it as your other half.

"Love…is genuine. It never fails you. When you're in love, you can't find which way is up or down. You just know that what you're feeling, whatever it is, feels really good, and you don't ever want it to end. It wraps around your heart and brings tears to your eyes. This person…he'll know everything there is to know about you. He's your other half. All your life you've been waiting for him, and even when you don't know what he's doing, you're thinking about him. Brian is a cute guy, I give you that. Can you look into his eyes and immediately tell what he's thinking? Can you be somewhere completely different than where he's at, and feel his presence?"

Leighanne didn't say anything. She stared at the ground as they walked.

"Is Brian your human love?" Promise blinked back tears, shocked that she was so moved by what she had said. "Or is he pizza?"

"Promise, what are you trying to say?" Leighanne asked, looking up.

"Nothing, Leigh," Promise responded. "I don't want to see you marry into something that may not be complete. Think about your life. Is it complete when you think about being with Brian? I mean, I care about you. You're a nice person, and I respect you a lot, though I just met you. But this thing with Brian…I'm not sensing something big. Would you want to marry your hobby? Just like you love writing, or reading, or running, or acting, or whatever, you don't just waste the love you have saved for your soul mate on your hobby, you know?"

"I know," Leighanne said softly. Whether or not it made an impact, Promise couldn't tell. Leighanne was one of those people that hide their emotions and you can't tell what they're thinking or feeling.

~*~*~*~

"Brian, I love you."

"I love you, too, Lei…Lei…"

Nick threw up his hands in his defeat. Proud defeat.

"You can't say it. You can't say you love me."

"Maybe if your hair was a little longer and you had boobs…"

"Brian, I'm serious, you could not just say that you love Leighanne. Why is it so hard?"

"I can't look at you and say I love you, Leighanne?" Brian rolled his eyes.

"Gee, I wonder, Nick. Why can't I look at you and say I love you Leighanne?"

"Don't worry, Bri. This is good. It's good that you can't say I love you Leighanne." Nick lifted his foot and pushed Brian's leg. "If you can't say it to me, you can't say it to her."

"Nick, I hate to break it to you, but it's a tad bit different than if she were sitting right here. Pretending you're Leighanne is not helping."

"Okay." Nick shrugged. "Tell me you love Leighanne."

Brian opened his mouth, but nothing came up.

"Go on, " Nick prompted. "Tell me you love her."

"I love her."

"No you don't."

"I love her."

"Who's her?"

"Leighanne."

Nick smiled. He knew exactly what was going on. "Okay, now say you love her with her name in the same sentence."

"What?" Brian said, confused.

"Say, 'I love Leighanne.'"

"I love Leig…Lei…"

"Take your time," Nick urged. He sat back and watched Brian struggle. Sympathy was definitely there, but he squashed it flat and refused to let his best friend off the hook that easily. He'd get it out of him sooner or later.

"Nick, I can't do this!" Brian exclaimed, punching the couch frustratingly between his knees.

"All right, Frick, we'll try something else." Nick sat up eagerly. "We both know you love Faith. So what is the big deal? Explain it to me."

"Every time I go to end it with Leighanne, something won't let me. It's so hard. My mind goes into fast forward mode and I see Leighanne bursting into tears and running out of the house. I can't stand that picture, Nick."

"Man, you have to think of yourself sometimes, too," Nick reminded him. "Think of this: spending the rest of your life with Leighanne while you're pining away for Faith, or spending the rest of you life with Faith, who loves you like she loves Grace, her twin?"

Huge tears welled up in Brian's eyes, and when Nick offered a brotherly hug, Brian pushed him away. He stood up and paced the room. "This is the rest of my life we're talking about!" he muttered.

"Yeah, Brian."

"And I love Faith."

"Then tell me what you're going to do!" Nick felt like a football coach, prepping his team before the big game.

"I'm going to…I'm gonna…" Brian balled his fists. "Damnit!"

Nick laughed. "Brian, at least you figured it out. We'll work on the broken engagement later."

^~^~^~^~^~^

"So what kind of acting do you do?" Promise asked.

"I model, I act, I make movies, whatever my agent finds for me."

"I'm thinking I've seen you before, though."

"Oh you probably have." Leighanne shrugged. "I have the lead in Silk Stalkings."

"I haven't heard of it," Promise remarked. Leighanne looked at her in amazement.

"I'm surprised you haven't." Promise thought that was conceited but refrained form saying so.

"It must be a big show then."

"It is. It's on USA after midnight, usually."

Usually after midnight, nothing good is on TV, Promise thought. Aloud she said, "About that whole speech before…"

"Yeah, what was that?" Leighanne laughed nervously.

"Just something to think about. Something I needed to let out. But still, think about it, k?"

"Sure."

'*'*'*'*'*'

"Is that better?"

"Oh. My."

"Brian I asked you a question. Is this better?"

"Nick, maybe you should take those out before someone sees you."

"No way. You said you couldn't concentrate unless I had boobs, so."

"I didn't particularly mean you should stuff."

"Hey, this is actually pretty cool-"

"Nick!"

"Man, I am helping you out, and all you do is complain…"

"You are not helping any."

"Do I look too big?"

"Man, c'mon!"

"I'm serious!"

"I think Leighanne already wore those socks…"

"Oh, gross."

*^*^*^*

"So, there I am, all ready to go to my senior prom, and my brother Mike says, 'Grandpa had a heart attack.' I just about lost it."

"That bites," Leighanne said sympathetically.

"I missed my senior prom and went to the hospital. My grandpa didn't even recognize me. I was devastated. Two days later he died, and I cried for a week. But, skip back a little, to the day after the prom. I had to let down my boyfriend at the time, Josh, that I wasn't going to the prom, and he had rented a tux, made reservations at the most expensive restaurant in the area…I felt pretty bad. He didn't even mind though."

"Let me guess…"

"That night, he came to the hospital with a dozen roses and sat with me beside my grandpa's bed…"

"I knew it! What a sweetie."

"We stayed up until three in the morning, just talking, and he talked to my  grandpa like he was his grandpa too. That's when I knew I was in love…"

"Where is he now?"

"I don't know. But I'll always love him. He was like, the perfect guy, and then we graduated, and we lost touch. I got a letter in the mail from his best friend a couple of months ago, and he's having a party. Maybe Josh will be there."

"That would be great wouldn't it?"

"Yeah."

"There's always that one guy in high school that you just loved."

Leighanne looked distant, and Promise wondered if she was thinking of a certain guy in her school days.

"So, you and Nick are real close, huh?"

"Yeah, I only met him when I came here, but we just clicked, you know?"

"That's awesome. Brian and I were like that when we first met."

Promise wanted to point out that maybe they were supposed to be like her and Nick, but she didn't want Leighanne to notice anything and become suspicious. She might think that she was pushing it. So she remained silent.

*~*~*~*~*

"OK, so tell me what you like about Leighanne."

After Brian had persuaded Nick to remove the socks, Nick had become serious once again.

"What I like? I guess it's cool that she's so social…"

"What else?"

"Uh…"

"Okay, we'll get back to that." Nick stood up and walked into the kitchen, where he grabbed a can of pop. "What do you not like about her?"

"How she always has to look perfect," Brian responded immediately. "And how she wants to…you know…before we're married."

"And you don't like that, I know."

"No way."

"Anything else?"

"Well, sometimes she whines," Brian muttered. "And she can get kinda clingy, you know?"

"She can," Nick agreed.

"Like how she came all the way here just because she missed me? She could have just called me on my cell phone or something, she didn't need to come all the way to Maui. Jeez. And why does she insist on always watching Silk Stalkings? I don't need to see the show, I have her right there. Now that I'm letting this go, she barely eats anything. She knows she's not fat, so why does she insist on getting like, a pea, every time we go out to eat? It drives me nuts. Then she always has to go to the bathroom to powder her nose, or whatever she does in there, cuz I know she's not peeing, and always come out looking exactly the same as when she went in."

"Brian."

"I can't stand how she dresses sometimes, Nick. It's almost like she's going to a dirty club…every day…and when I want to be alone, she's always there.

Like a little puppy. And she didn't seem to like Litty Leigh that much. She  liked her when I first gave her to her, but then maybe she was just excited

because I proposed…"

"Brian, slow down. In fact, stop." Nick chuckled. "Wow."

"Sorry," Brian mumbled.

"Don't be sorry. This is helping you. So you've come to the conclusion that you don't want to marry Leighanne. You want Faith."

Brian nodded vigorously. He wanted Faith desperately.

"You know what you have to do, bud."

Faith had said the exact same thing. Now Nick. Brian knew what he had to do, and he was going to do it…as soon as he got the chance.

"And if you don't…" Nick warned. "I'll kick your butt."

If I don't, I'll kick my own butt, Brian thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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