Breaking free (GxG)

Chapter 31 - Surprise

Brooklyn’s POV

“Well, hello there!”, Ellen exclaimed excitedly as soon as I opened her car door.

“Hi! I’m so happy to see you!”, I squealed and reached over her to give her a big hug.

December 26. Today was a bit special. I had two last-minute professional meetings. The first one was a kind of carpool interview with Ellen for a Christmas edition. We’d chit chat while she drove me to my photoshoot for Elle magazine.

Given the tensions at home, I figured that it would do me good to get out of the house and dedicate some time and energy to something other than arguing with Taylor and trying to convince her that we could still exchange Christmas presents even though we were on a disagreement stage. This time away from her would give me the opportunity to breathe.

“Oh my, I don’t even know what to tell you first”, she said chuckling as we backed away from the embrace.

“Merry Christmas maybe”, I said shrugging lightly and glanced at the camera that was placed on the dashboard.

“Yeah, that’s a good start. How was your Christmas?”, she asked as she started to drive slowly, probably to buy time.

It was barely 8 so she’d certainly drive around until I needed to be at the studio for 9:30.

“Pretty nice. I spent it with my mom and Taylor’s family”, I answered with as much enthusiasm as I could. I didn’t want to expose anything to be honest. “What about you? Did you get many presents?”, I asked to reverse the situation a little and bring the attention to her instead of me.

“Too many. My wife is just very generous, and I love that about her, but she can go a little overboard sometimes”, Ellen said amusedly and made a funny face to which I reacted to with a small laugh.

“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to spoil your beloved”, I said as my laughter faded.

“Did Taylor spoil you?”, Ellen asked enthusiastically.

“To tell you the truth, we haven’t exchanged presents yet. But it’s full of boxes under the tree so I’m sure she went all crazy on the gifts.”

“Did you? Go crazy on the gifts, I mean?”, she asked nicely.

“No, I think I remained pretty reasonable and down to earth on this one. Unlike some other people”, I mumbled the last part and lifted my eyebrows in shock as I remembered the moment I opened the envelope from my mother.

I wondered how she'd gotten that idea and why she actually went with it. I mean, I understood that one's main goal in life was to make their children happy and shower them with expensive gifts if they could afford them but there were some limits. Bags, shoes, cars, travels, all of that was acceptable and somehow reasonable. In some occasions you could go as far as a condo for example. But I got more than that.

I got an island.

“What other people?”, Ellen asked a bit loudly, making me groan in annoyance. Of course she heard me.

“My mom, for instance”, I simply answered with a small shrug to dismiss the topic.

“Knowing Laurence and how much she loves you there is no doubt she outdid herself.”

“Well, she did”, I confirmed between amused giggles.

“What do you say if we stop by a drive through to get some coffee and breakfast?”, she asked enthusiastically.

“That’s a nice idea. You can choose though because I don’t know my way around.”

“Oh, it’s true that you only moved here. How's L.A treating you so far? Do you enjoy it? I bet Taylor must be ecstatic to have you”, she reeled off passionately.