Meant to Marry Me

It wasn't like Zach to raise his voice at all, so when Bree walked into the green room to see him so flustered, she could only imagine what Cat had said or done to make him that angry. "What's going on?" Bree asked. "Nothing," Cat said, getting up and storming out of the room, glaring over her shoulder at Zach as she went.

Bree obviously didn't believe that. "Are you okay, Zach?" she asked, taking the seat Cat had occupied a moment ago on a couch against the wall. Their other bandmates were talking about something else now, and she figured that was because they were all uncomfortable. Trent sat down in a chair, his phone in his hand, and she assumed he was pretending to be busy doing something rather than listening to her, though she couldn't blame him if he was eavesdropping. "I'm fine," Zach said. "She just doesn't know how to stay out of other people's business."

Knowing that to be true, Bree put her hand on his knee. "I'm sorry." She shook her head, tempted to tell him that there were other band members who were thinking about getting rid of the keyboardist. She decided against it, hoping it would just blow over. She wanted to have someone else on hand to take Cat's place before she just fired her, and she could see no good coming of talking about her behind her back. "Hey, what are your plans tomorrow?" Zach raised an eyebrow. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" Bree insisted, trying to make her face as innocent as possible.

"Bree--I know that look. What did you do?"

A small grin pulled up the corners of her mouth. "Nothing--I just thought... Shawna seems nice. And pretty....

"Bree--" he exclaimed, shaking his head.

"What? She likes you."

"Do I even want to know how you know that?" He folded his arms and continued to shake his head at her, but Bree could see amusement in his eyes as well.

"Look, I saw the way you two were talking to each other, and I figured you'd come up with a million excuses why you shouldn't ask her out, so I invited her to go out with us tomorrow." "With us? Aren't you and Trent going to be visiting the arch?"

'Yeah, well... I didn't tell her that. I figured she wouldn't be there to see me anyway. Or... the two of you could come with us and leave the rest of the band to whatever they're planning." "Or I could just take her to the zoo myself since I didn't go today."

"Exactly!" She figured he wasn't serious, but she wanted to encourage that sort of thinking.Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

Zach rolled his eyes. "And she's agreed to come with us?"

"Yep. I've got her number." She wagged her eyebrows at him. When his face turned pink, she couldn't help but smile. Her plan seemed to be working.

"You're awful, Bree. Talk about not knowing how to keep out of other people's business."

The last comment stung a little, but they both knew this was different. She was helping the situation, not hurting it like Cat. "I'm the best," Bree insisted, winking at him. "Whattaya say?"

"I say... hopefully I'll get a chance to talk to her some more this evening, and I'll let you know."

She grinned and poked him in the arm with her elbow. "But you do like her, right?"

"I don't know her!" he argued.

"But you think she's purty?"

His face reddened even more. "Yeah, I think she's purty."

Bree giggled and patted him on the shoulder, having heard everything she needed to. "Great. Now, I guess I better go find Cat...." She didn't want to, but they needed her, at least for now, until they could find someone to take her place....