Animate Me

by Ruth Clampett

  “Take me home,” she whispers, soft and unsure. I can tell she doesn’t trust herself….trust her need for me.

  “Are you sure?” I ask, lowering her feet to the ground and standing up against her.

  “Yes, but I’m scared I’ll get too emotional. This has all been too much for me,” she admits. “Less than a week ago we were on top of the world, and then it all came crashing down. Honestly, I’m still a mess from all of this drama.”

  “A mess?” I ask gently. She does seem so fragile. I wish I could make her see how strong she has been despite everything.

  “I know you hate it that I blame myself for all of this, Nathan, but I still feel raw from all the devastation and humiliation. I’m afraid if we make love I’ll end up sobbing or losing it from all my pent up emotion. I can’t bear to hurt you any more than I already have.”

  Oh, Brooke

  “I’ll go slow, so slow,” I offer. “I just need to hold you and talk this out. That can be enough for now.”

  “Really?” she asks, unsteady.

  “We have a thousand days and more for the rest, Brooke. I’ve waited a long time for you…a little longer is no big deal.”

  “You’re unbelievable,” she says, shaking her head.

  “This is our beginning.” My hand tightens around her waist. “Just never, ever leave me again.”

  “But…”

  “No. I can’t go through that again. Whatever you were going through, and whatever you will go through…we can go through it together.”

  Her head drops for a moment and then lifts up as she faces me. It’s as if she’s searching in my eyes to understand the source of my strength so that she can learn to build her own resolve.

  “Together? Okay, I promise.”

  She reaches for her cup as I step away from the table and toward our cars. I walk several paces, but turn back when I realize that she hasn’t joined me. She’s paused, and is gazing at her cup again with new regard. Her resulting joy makes me smile.

  I reach out for her, my hand beckoning. “Come on, B-Girl,” I tease. “Your presence is greatly anticipated at the house of woo.”

  She grins and steps forward, until our hands meet and fold together.

  “Ready?” I ask.

  She nods. Her cheeks are flushed, her eyes bright.

  We are wounded soldiers finally reunited from our separate battles. We move slowly and with purpose, knowing that each step away from our past takes us closer to our future…together.

  Animate Me / Chapter Thirty / Making Magic

  Hey, Sulley, I’m baring my soul here. The least you can do is pay attention! ~Mike Wazowskixxix

  Once we arrive at my house, we wander around trying to figure out where to sit and talk. It’s becoming abundantly clear that it was a bad decision not to have a couch.

  “Why don’t we sit on the bed?” I suggest. “We can angle the back up.”

  She looks at me with raised eyebrows.

  “I promise, I won’t try anything…just talk.” I’m relieved when she agrees.

  After I adjust the bed with the remote, Brooke climbs on and holds one of the pillows in her lap like a security blanket. She still looks broken.

  While I wait for her to say something, I act casual, taking a long sip of my still-full cappuccino before setting it on the nightstand. I can tell by her expression that she still isn’t sure where to start.

  “Brooke?” I finally ask gently. “Can you tell me about the meeting with Arnold? What did you do to make him give up the fight?”

  She nervously smoothes the wrinkles of the bedspread out in front of her and takes a deep breath. I suddenly worry I shouldn’t have started there, but she surprises me with her first seemingly random question.

  “Do you remember Bob Emerson at Sketch Republic?”

  “Was he that executive that left last year?”

  “Yes, he was Chief Financial Officer and a great guy. He was kind of a father figure to me. He took me under his wing when we worked together, and taught me a lot about financing projects and how the industry ran.”

  I nod, actually feeling good for Brooke that she had someone besides Arnold teaching her things.

  “Well, after a period of time I could tell that he didn’t like that I was with Arnauld. He never said why, but I sensed that he had issues with him and thought I deserved much better.”

  “Good man,” I say quietly.

  “In the months leading up to his departure he kept suggesting things, encouraging me to get another job, subtly suggesting distancing myself from Arnauld. Then one day we had a closed door meeting, and at the end, he suddenly gave me several files and flash drives and told me to keep them somewhere safe, just in case I ever needed them.”

  “Whoa.” Now we’re getting somewhere.

  “The next day, he resigned. He still checks up on me once in a while. I’m sure by now he’s heard on the news about the uprising that’s going on over there.”

  “You know about that?” I ask, surprised.

  “I found out today when we showed up for the meeting. Morgan met my lawyer and me outside before we headed in. She didn’t tell me about it yesterday when she gave me your sketchbook. I think she was worried how I’d handle the drama of it all. She knew I was on the edge and working so hard to get ready for this meeting with Arnauld and the lawyers.”

  “She cares about you so much, Brooke.”

  “I know. I’m so grateful. She’s been an incredible support to me. I knew she had my back, and I knew she was watching out for you, too.”

  “She is, and she did. She’s such a good friend.”

  “Yeah, today she gave my lawyer and I the lowdown before we went inside. She showed me the news clip.”

  I smile at her. “Pretty amazing, huh?”

  “Well, it helped explain why Arnauld was completely unglued when we showed up. He normally has a powerful game face. Anyway, thank God I took those files out Monday right after everything blew up and before they searched my office. I was an idiot not to take them home the day Bob gave them to me. Will I ever learn, Nathan?”

  “You’re trusting, Brooke. I understand why you wanted to believe in Arnold.”

  “I guess so. But I was such a fool.” She curls into her pillow looking defeated.

  I need her to stay focused. “Come on, tell me…what happened next?”

  She nods. “So when I finally picked myself up off the floor Monday afternoon, I called my lawyer, Erika. She’s another person like Bob, who I’ve looked up to and trusted. She’s been amazing. She actually insisted I stay at her house this week, even though that seems pretty unorthodox.”

  “I’m just so glad to know you weren’t alone in this.”

  “I don’t know what I would have done without her. You know, after Bob had given me the folders I checked them out, but the first part was financial spreadsheets that didn’t make sense to me so I just locked it away. Erika has this forensic accountant guy that went over everything for two long days, and believe me…it wasn’t pretty.”

  “What had Arnold done?”

  “All kinds of illegal kick-backs with the broadcasters, and skimming from profits into his personal accounts.”

  “He could go to jail,” I say, trying to contain my delight.

  “Well, Erika wanted me to turn him in, but that would’ve put your case with B-Girl into limbo for who knows how long.”

  “Oh, no,” I say, concerned.

  “And I couldn’t have that. All I wanted was to get B-Girl back to you, and for Arnauld to be out of my life.”

  “Oh, Brooke.”

  I look at her and my heart hurts for all she’s been through to try and help me. “So how did Arnold handle the news?”

  “Oh, it was as awful as I’d imagined. He wouldn’t look at me, but he yelled repeatedly at Erika. And man was she powerful…the louder he got, the quieter and more fierce looking she got. Ruiz had to keep barking at Arnauld to get him to calm down. He was wired and kept getting up and
pacing. I was a nervous wreck.”

  “Were you scared?”

  “Yes, but not as scared as I was earlier in the week. As I started to learn about his activities, I became afraid he would come after me to protect himself. I had a lot of crazy thoughts…I mean here’s a man I had naively trusted for years, and I couldn’t believe what he’d done. With his temper, who knows what he’s capable of?”

  I’m stunned into silence as I imagine how worried Brooke must have been. If only I could have been there to protect her and make her feel safe.

  “But more than that,” she continues. “I was really afraid that he’d do something to you if I’d gone to you after the meeting Monday. If he had, I couldn’t have lived with myself.”

  “Is that one of the reasons you disappeared and didn’t contact me?”

  “The only reason,” she says with a sad sigh. “I knew it kept you safe, and he would’ve done anything to find me, once he thought I wasn’t with you anymore.”

  “How could you even go back to Sketch Republic and see him knowing what you were up against? You must have been so freaked out.”

  “What choice did I have? Yes, I was panicked, but that feeling was jumbled up with a whole bunch of emotions. I really just wanted to get it over with so I could get out of there for good. Once Erika finished laying it out and our conditions, Ruiz took Arnauld to his office to discuss what they were going to do.”

  “How long did you have to wait?”

  “About fifteen minutes. Luckily, Erika was confident enough for the two of us.”

  “That must have been the longest fifteen minutes of your life.”

  “You have no idea…besides the horror of facing Arnauld… I swore I would never go in that building again. Who knows how many people saw that tape with us half-naked in the conference room? It was hard to look anyone in the eye. I’m still so mortified that people would have watched something so intimate that was just between us.”

  “Oh, Brooke, I’m so sorry.”

  “Well, Arnauld was very subdued when they came back. It was as if Ruiz had tranquilized him. Thinking it over now, I am sure the uprising at Sketch Republic had really torn him apart. He had deluded himself into thinking he was popular with the staff. So he was coming from a place of weakness before we walked through his door.”

  “What’d they say?”

  “Ruiz stated that they would agree to drop the case and relinquish any claim to B-Girl, but it was under two conditions. The first, of course, was that we would agree to never disclose the information we had presented in our demands. The second was that Arnauld wanted to talk to me privately.”

  “No,” I insist, a little too forcefully. “Please tell me you didn’t agree to that.”

  “Erika didn’t like it either, but I just wanted to get it done and leave. Besides, part of me wanted to tell him face to face how much he had hurt me. So she and I stepped outside for a minute and came to an agreement.”

  “What was that?”

  “First, he had to sign the agreements she had brought with her. Secondly, the conversation had to be there in the conference room with the door open so she could view from the hall.”

  “Oh, I bet that infuriated him. Brooke, if I’d known about this ahead of time I wouldn’t have let him be alone with you.”

  “I know. But wait there’s more. As the final insult, Erika wanted his jacket removed.”

  “She knew he was a threat and wanted to make sure there were no weapons,” I think, out loud. “I like this woman. She’s damn smart.”

  “Yes, she is. He was so offended when she made him turn around after the jacket was off…he almost stormed out, but he knew I was willing to walk if he didn’t cooperate.”

  “So what did he say?” I try to keep my voice calm even though my heart is racing.

  “You won’t believe it.”

  I don’t like the sound of this. “What?”

  “He opened by saying that he was hurt that I was scared of him. All he ever wanted to do was make me happy,” she says with an edge to her voice.

  “Yeah, right,” I huff.

  “Then he went on to say that he wanted me to come back to him, and back to Sketch Republic. He said something about ‘letting the boy go play with his comics’ and we would run the studio and be partners in every way.”

  I just look at her, dumbstruck.

  “I know…can you believe it? He’s insane.”

  “What’d you say?”

  “Nothing at first. I think the look on my face was like yours just a moment ago. I think he finally understands that everything is crumbling and maybe he needs me more than he realized. He always thought it was me that needed him.”

  “Well considering how he treated you and everyone else, what did he expect?”

  “Maybe he thought I could rally the troops and get everyone to calm down. He isn’t stupid. I think he just didn’t expect the staff to turn on him. As I said earlier, he’d convinced himself he was well-liked and respected.”

  “Well, he’s beyond deluded,” I observe.

  “You know, for a moment, Nathan, I almost felt sorry for him. He just doesn’t get it and he looked like he was about to lose it. So for self-protection, I tried to be calm and not just go off on him. As much as I wanted to scream at him, I figured if I kept my cool it would be safer. So I bit my tongue and told him that even though I couldn’t work with him anymore, I really appreciated the opportunities he gave me, and all that I learned. The minute I softened, he started getting pushy, saying that I owed him another chance.”

  “You don’t owe him a damn thing.”

  “I know. So I got up to leave and that’s when things got ugly.”

  I can literally feel the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. “What did he do?”

  Her head falls, and her cheeks get red. I try not to freak out. “He brought up the conference room.”

  “What did he say?” I ask tersely, between gritted teeth.

  “That we may have had an open relationship, but that he couldn’t believe I would act like such a whore under his own roof.”

  “I’m going to kill him.”

  “You don’t need to, Nathan…I already did. I told him that I wasn’t a whore, I was a woman madly in love with a man he couldn’t hold a candle to.”

  I realize that my fists are clenched so tightly that they’re losing feeling. With her words, they begin to loosen.

  “And I told him he could trash me all over the industry, that I didn’t give a damn. I’d give everything up for you without a second thought.”

  “Brooke,” I whisper.

  “That killed him. It’s like he finally realized I’m completely in love with you, and there’s nothing he can do to change it. He freaked out. The next thing I knew he grabbed me by the shoulders and held onto me so forcefully I thought I’d break. He was mumbling incoherently and trying to kiss me. Oh God, it was awful.”

  “What?” I growl. I can feel the fire explode right under my skin. I want to tear his fucking limbs off.

  “I was trying to shove him off of me while I cried out for help, but really it was only a matter of seconds before Erika and Ruiz rushed in and peeled him off. Erika hissed something to them both about a restraining order and we were in the elevator heading down by the time I’d fully caught my breath.”

  “Mother fucker. Thank God Erika was right there with the door open.”

  “Damn, he’s insane.”

  “Yeah, he’s completely insane.”

  She nods. “You know, Arnauld just never believed I’d be willing to walk away from him and my career. But that’s who he is…it’s all that really matters to him. But that’s not me. I know that because of you, Nathan.”

  I reach out and take her hand. It’s cold and shaky, so I scoot over and pull her into my arms. We sit together silently, trying to calm down. She’s been through so much. I run my hands up and down her arms, over and over, until I feel her settle against me. “Things are going to be okay,
Brooke. Let me take care of you,” I whisper against her cheek. My need to protect her is overwhelming.

  There’s a long pause. I can tell something else is weighing on her mind. After the longest minute of my life she finally turns to me.

  “I know you want to take care of me, and I love you for that, but that’s the point isn’t it? I need to stop relying on men to take care of me. I need to carve my own path.”

  “A path away from me?” I ask, intent on being strong no matter what her answer.

  “No, a path alongside yours. Rather than getting another corporate job, I’m thinking about starting my own business. I could start out consulting on projects and hopefully develop shows eventually. It’s going to be hard, but I want to figure it out.”

  “So you’ll consult on other people’s projects, but still be my girl?” I’m teasing, but there’s truth there too. I wish she’d work with me, but I know enough not to suggest that right now. It’s hard because the inevitable changes in our lives ahead unsettle me.

  “Of course. I’ll always be your girl,” she says, smiling at me. “I know you’ll be supportive through the challenges. I just have lots of work to do as I learn to stand on my own two feet.”

  “Of course I’ll be supportive.” I smile back, proud to be with a woman who is strong and able. “Whatever you need from me…just ask.”

  She sighs and seems to relax before a smile lights up her face. “How about a kiss?”

  Yeah, enough with the talking.

  I gaze into her eyes before I kiss her tenderly. I hope she feels everything that’s in my heart. “I have so much love to give you.”

  “And I want it all,” she whispers.

  “You’re so demanding, you and your new path,” I tease.

  “Kiss me again,” she insists.

  I feel her hands weave through my hair while she pulls me to her. Her lips are soft yet insistent as they move over mine. I surrender to the feeling, and don’t hold back. We’re intoxicated with sheer desire pent up from our endless days apart.

  We kiss and kiss, my body electrified just to have her pressed against me. My hand moves toward her breasts and I ache to touch her, but I stop myself. She pulls my hair and moans in protest. Seriously…how much longer does this woman think I can resist her? It takes all I have not to press her down over the mattress and show her exactly how much I want her. “You’re making this going slow thing difficult,” I warn her.