Shania Brooks

thomas-miller:

Thomas watched as Shania placed her hand on the table, palm facing upwards, almost like an invitation. He hesitated though as she started to speak, and he looked at her gone out for a moment before realising what assumption she’d made. “You think the lady was an ex girlfriend,” he said with a small quirk of his eyebrow. “It was an elderly lady. She had the same coat that my grandmother used to wear,” he explained, watching her closely. He’d heard that she’d been spending some time with another guy, and while it wasn’t upsetting so to speak, he was a little disappointed in all honesty that just as he’d been thinking about at least dipping his feet back into the world of dating that she had gotten past her crush. So, he watched, waiting to see if her reaction would give him any clue as to how she was feeling. 

As she glanced down at herself and told him what she’d actually been doing that morning, he couldn’t help but smile a little at her borderline disgusted reaction to running. They were definitely on the same page on that topic at least. “What sort of songs? Because if they play any Spice Girls, I might just have to sign up,” he replied with a quiet laugh, already starting to feel better now that Shania had taken his mind off of things and got him focused on a different subject. At that moment he took a chance and reached out and put his hand on top of hers, grateful for her being there and being kind enough to help him, despite the slightly uncomfortable situation they’d been in the last time they’d spoken, wanting to let her know that he was glad she was there. 

Shania was slightly relieved to hear about the real reason behind his reaction. Grandmother baggage sounded easier to deal with than ex-girlfriend baggage, especially since she would’ve been biased giving advice on the latter. She smiled for half a second then cleared her throat and made a straight face, nodding slowly. “Got it,” she muttered “How long has it been?” Grief was a foreign concept for her, she’d only ever lost her pets, and her grandfather, but she was too little to remember and he was too much of an asshole for her to care. Death in general suffocated her with fear for whatever the future held, so she could only imagine what it must feel like to actually have gone through it.

She looked down at their hands and allowed herself to actually smile this time around, placing her other one on top of his and meeting his gaze. “I’m glad you’re okay now.” She scrunched up her face at him and let out a short laugh, “I think Spice Girls might be a little too old for them, but they take requests. Have you ever heard of The Saturdays? I think they were on the same level as the Spice Girls, but the world never gave them a chance.”

thomas-miller:

Thomas was glad Shania had decided to sit down. Usually he liked to just get away from people after panic attacks, but right now he didn’t want to go home and be left alone with his thoughts. He nodded minutely as Shania asked if he was okay, wiping his eyes with his sleeve, not even aware that he’d been on the verge of tears until then. “Yeah, I’m okay,” he replied, voice quiet and still a little shaky, but he knew that would pass soon enough. “Thank you,” he said again, looking up and giving her a small smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I just- there was this lady that walked past. She reminded me of someone, that’s all,” he explained, keeping it as brief and vague as possible, wanting Shania to at least have some idea of what had set him off, but not wanting to really delve into the topic just yet. 

He watched as she dragged the half full coffee cup away from him and he couldn’t help but smirk slightly. He nodded lightly as she suggested ordering a tea instead, and he looked to see if there was a barista anywhere, quickly getting one’s attention and making a letter T with his fingers. The staff here knew him relatively well, so the girl he’d gestured to set about making him a tea as he looked back at Shania. He hadn’t really paid attention to what she looked like yet, but now he was calm again, he noted the frizzy hair and exercise clothes. “Have you been for a run or something?” he asked her, looking her up and down briefly before his eyes landed back on her face, a small smile playing on the corners of his lips. 

Shania had an inclination to walk over to his side of the table and hug him, but she didn’t know if they had reached that level of friendship yet. They hadn’t know each other for that long and some people didn’t like being touched. She placed her open palm on the table and left it there for him to do with it what he wanted. It would be his choice.“Oh,” she nodded in understanding “I get that. If I thought I saw my ex boyfriend, I’d probably react the same way." The thought of seeing him again made her shudder a little and she shook away the thought. “I take it it wasn’t really her, then? Or you probably wouldn’t still be sitting here.”

She looked down at her gym clothes and let out a breathy chuckle, she’d hoped he hadn’t noticed how messy she looked. “God, no,” she replied “You’ll never catch me running. SoulCycle, it’s the only exercise I ever do. We’ve got this cool instructor that makes us shriek along to top forty songs while we cycle. It’s fun.You should try it sometime. It releases endorphins, so it could help you.”

Unable to stop herself from rolling her eyes, Jay stepped inside of the house, closing the door behind her. She didn’t know what she had done to make Shania hate her. It wasn’t as if she happened to be an evil step-mother. She didn’t bark orders at her or anything of that sort. “There isn’t anything here that I would take.” Jay pointed out as she headed in the direction where Walker told her where her things would be. “I never used his money. You can ask him yourself. I had my own, he had his. Maybe don’t talk about things you know nothing about. It makes you look foolish.” 

Shania didn’t believe a single word that came out of the step-monster’s mouth. She knew the type of woman that preyed on her father, and she was no different. She simply scoffed at her words, stubbornly crossing her arms over her chest and pushing her lips into a pout. She hated being proven wrong, but nothing had changed. Her anger was unreasonable and unwavering. “What did you leave behind that’s so important anyway?” she muttered. “And why didn’t you send someone to get your stuff for you?”

thomas-miller:

He couldn’t make out the words that were being spoken to him but the soothing tone was cutting through the other overwhelming sounds, and the hand on his shoulder gave him something to focus on, grounding him. Slowly, his breathing began to even out and he could finally get a lungful of air into his body, but he was still shaking, heartbeat in the process of coming back down to a normal rate again as he got his breathing under control. It had been a long time since he’d had a panic attack as bad as that and he let out a long sigh, running a hand through his hair, noticing that his palms were a little clammy. 

Finally, he lifted his head up to the person stood by his side and met Shania’s gaze. His first thought was ‘thank god’, because there was nothing worse than having to explain to a stranger what they’d just witnessed. And by the look on her face and the way she’d handled it, he wasn’t going to have to explain it. “Thank you,” he said, his voice quiet as he reached back and placed a hand on top of hers, that was still firmly placed on his shoulder. He let it linger for a few seconds before moving it back into his lap, instinctively making himself small. He always found it embarrassing to have panic attacks in public, and he hated that it had happened in a busy place. He could feel people looking and mumbling between themselves as they watched him closely. He blocked them all out though, and instead looked back up at Shania. “Did you want to sit?” he asked meekly. They hadn’t seen or spoken to each other since the conversation in her office, and he was a little unsure of what was going on or if she even wanted to speak to him, but regardless, he was glad she had happened to be here.

The original plan was to be quick and cordial, say hello and leave, but Shania couldn’t leave after what happened. She needed to stay and make sure he would be okay. Her gaze dropped to his hand over hers and her cheeks turned slightly pink as she gulped. She breathed out when he pulled the hand away and nodded. She hung her bag on the chair and sat opposite to him. “Are you okay now?” she asked quietly. She didn’t know if he would be comfortable talking about it with her, but she couldn’t help but worry. It was difficult showing care without prying.

She lightened up a little as she noticed the coffee that sat on the table and dragged the mug to her side. “I think I’ll keep this, you should probably order a chamomile tea or something. Or some water, do you want me to go grab you one?”

the question catches him off guard, his brows knitting together in thought. his free hand runs along his chin as they walk, gaze looking everywhere but her. ‘’i’m single because i haven’t had the time to invest in a relationship. it’s.. just, i spent.. a lot of time in the field for work, and i choose not to get attached.. or– well.. do really much of anything outside of work.’’ making a face, he finally turns to her with a casual shrug of his shoulders. ‘’how come you’re single?’’

with a bit of hesitance again, he brings their hands up and presses a slow kiss to her palm– nodding. ‘’i think the city is nice because it led me to meet you. and the food part, you can totally order food anytime anywhere down in texas. we need to get you out more.’’

shania had been part of the nyc dating life long enough to know choosing not to get attached was code for only wanting to fool around. she didn’t judge-- live and let live, but she wanted more than a hook up. “i’m single because i trusted the wrong guy with my heart and i didn’t want to date again until i felt i was ready.” she deadpanned, then shrugged, “i think i’m ready now.”

Walker rolled his eyes at his daughter’s teasing. She had no filter sometimes, and he was mostly to blame for it. “Ha, ha. Very funny. I hate to break it to you, but you don’t have any siblings out there wondering who we are. It’s just you and me, kid.” He followed her into the dining room with the rest of the dinner, setting it down on the table before taking a seat. It had been a while since he had last spoken to her mother, mainly due to him dropping off the grid for the past few weeks. There were a lot of unanswered text messages in his phone right now. “No, I haven’t spoken to her recently. Is she on board with this? Did you speak to her about it?” Walker questioned as he reached for a plate. 

Shania was slightly disappointed by the odds of there being long lost siblings out there not being so great, but she chose to stay optimistic. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but you also didn’t know I existed for the longest time, so there is a chance, right?” she said matter-of-factly. She followed her old man’s lead and took a sea at the tablet, checking her phone one last time before putting it away for good-- she had manners after all. “She’s incapable of saying no to me, so yes, she’s totally on board with this. And everything’s set up, all I need is your credit card and we’re good to go. I’m thinking first class is best, flying coach makes my ankles swollen.” She grabbed herself a plate and put some salad on it, shooting her dad a questioning look. “I take it that the bar is doing well?”

“Good thing I didn’t come to see him.” jay had no intention on trying to be nice to the younger female. She tried enough when she was married to walker. Jay gave up when she knew that Shania wasn’t going to like her and knew she had been a reason why the divorce happened. “He texted me to let me know there were a few things of mine still here. Unless you found them and set fire to them already.” 

The woman standing before her could have fooled her father for years, but she never fooled Shania. She knew exactly the type of person she was and she was glad she was out of their lives for good. “Right. Like forgetting things at a guy’s place isn’t the oldest excuse in the book,” she let out an exasperated sigh and stepped to the side, gesturing for her to come inside. “Fine. You can come in. But I’ll be watching you to make sure you don’t take anything that isn’t yours. Life must be hard without daddy’s country star money to pay for everything.”

@jaytillson​

I think I do, but I don’t think it’s mutual.

‘‘You just.. You.. y–you’re nice.’‘ It’s all he can muster up, stumbling over his words because damn it she caught him off guard again. What he wouldn’t give to take his glasses back and hide his face again for the duration of their walk. His lips purse into a straight line, dark eyes remaining forward for a little bit before they cast over to her again. ‘‘I don’t act like I’m better than anyone. Its how I am.’‘ Matias grumbles out to her, shaking his head some as he looks away again trying to fight the urge to smile. 

He hesitates for a moment, unsure of his next move– but he decides to say fuck it. So his hand slowly comes down to take her hand, entwining their fingers together– his lips curling this time. ‘’I mean.. yeah, sure. I like.. the beautiful view of the city.’’ He murmurs, shoulder bumping lightly against her own. 

Shania never knows what to say to nice, it’s a compliment that could mean a million different things. She pauses, gives the man a one-over and nods. “Thank you, so are you.” She says in the sake of honesty. He’s one of the sweeter men she has met in the city, and those are rare these days. “How come you’re single, then?”

She looks down at their hands and smiles to herself, giving him a reassuring squeeze. “It’s also nice that you could order food at any time. Sometimes I’ll have kebab at four in the mourning. You can’t do that in a small town.”