Things were still kind of icy between Brady and me. On Monday he got home late and then worked in the dining room for the entire night. It really annoyed me, but I guess he has a right to be a workaholic if he wants to be. When he finally got in bed I was half asleep and he didn’t even try to snuggle me.

When I woke up on Tuesday morning, Brady was up and ready to leave for work.

“Have a good day!” I called after him just as he was about to walk out the bedroom door.

He turned and looked at me. “Oh, I didn’t even know you were awake.” Brady seemed to debate with himself for a little bit before finally deciding to walk back over to the bed and kiss me.

I worked for a few hours that morning at the office then I went shopping on my lunch break. Doesn’t everyone do that? I’m currently looking high and low for the perfect pair of jeans so I decided to spend my break trying on jeans instead of eating. I walked into the store and immediately made eye contact with a beautiful biracial guy wearing a hooded fall jacket. I had to do a double take. He was like, ridiculously good looking. Out of habit, I smiled at him and he smiled back then I went on my jean hunt.

I took about a dozen pairs of jeans into the fitting room and only tried on two before I got annoyed and gave up. Trying on clothes (specifically jeans) is physically taxing. I walked out of the fitting room and the hot guy was standing in the waiting area, shirtless, checking himself out in the full length mirror. His body was banging and he had tattoos covering his biceps and chest. He kind of reminded me of my ex, but much prettier. We locked eyes in the mirror and I gave him a weird look.

“Sorry,” he said, looking sheepish.

“No need to apologize. Do whatever you want,” I said waving him away.

I walked around the store and continued shopping. I ended up finding a few things and got in line. Right behind my new bae. He turned around and saw me then started complaining about there not being enough cashiers working. Always down to complain, I began talking to him.

I found out that he’s a model (he modestly informed me of this at beginning of our conversation) and needed a nice pair of jeans for a shoot he’s doing. He told me I should model, only commercial though because I’m good looking, but I’m a little short. And then he said he wanted to pass me along to his agent because I have potential. Obviously I’m not about to ignore an opportunity to become the next Cindy Crawford so I gave him my number. His name is Jordan.

Someone wrote me on Twitter and said I should do something nice for Brady everyday and I loved that idea. I’ll admit that I don’t do enough to show him how much I love and appreciate him and I probably don’t say it enough either. So I decided to print off some pictures of us and make a cute little scrapbook with sweets notes and stuff. See? I’m crafty.

I printed out a few of my favorite pictures and cut them out. Then it was time to add the text. And I couldn’t think of a single thing to say. It’s so hard for me to put my feelings into words. Especially without being too sappy or cheesy. So I just stared at the pictures for like ten minutes. Then Luke walked in my office and we worked for the rest of the day.

When I got home, I made dinner and waited for Brady to get home. As soon as I heard the front door open I rushed to greet him.

“Hi!” I squealed, throwing my arms around him.

“Hey,” Brady said. He kissed me quickly then peeled me off and walked around me into the house.

“I made dinner. Do you want wine?” I said following him.

“I’m okay right now,” he called over his shoulder. Brady walked into the living room and sat on the couch then immediately started looking intently at his phone.

“How was your day?” I asked, sitting next to him.

“Okay. How was yours?”

“Fine.”

Brady didn’t respond and just kept looking at his phone. So I just sat there looking at him looking at his phone.

Suddenly I whined, “Do you even like me?”

“Hmm?” Brady seemed startled and put his phone down. “Of course I do. I love you.”

I pouted and felt my eyes actually filling up with tears. “You’ve said like four words to me in the past two days.”

“I’m sorry.” Brady grabbed me. “There are some changes going on at work so I’ve been a little bit distracted.”

“What kind of changes?” I wanted to know.

“Staffing and operational changes. It’s just going to take some getting used to. I’m sorry. I’m not trying to ignore you.”

“Okay,” I sniffled.

We went and had dinner and while we ate, I told Brady about the model I met.

“So, at 26 years old you think it’s time you began a career in modeling?” he said, taking a bite of food.

I laughed. “Not necessarily. I don’t know. But what if I get discovered and become a famous model? I could quit my job and do one campaign a month and be rich.”

“That’s extremely unrealistic,” Brady said.

“Because I’m ugly?”

“No. Because people spend years and years perfecting their craft. What makes you think you can just walk in and be good enough to make a career out of it immediately?”

“I could be a natural.”

“Do you think that guy really wants to help you get into modeling or do you think he just wanted an excuse to get your number?”

“I think he wants to help me.”

“You’re not that naive, Reese. Why do you act so stupid when it comes to male attention? You know what his intentions are.”

“Why do you think guys only think ‘sex’ when they meet me?”

“Because they do!” Brady exclaimed. My mouth dropped open. “I’m a man! I know how men think.”

“If I’m only good for sex then why are you even with me?” I asked, glaring at him.

“That’s not what I said,” Brady sighed.

“Just because you think that’s all I have to offer doesn’t mean every man agrees,” I said. “I know you’re used to dating girls who went to Harvard and don’t groom their eyebrows and enjoy boring missionary sex.”

“What are you talking about?”

I downed my glass of wine and ignored him.

“Reese, I don’t think that’s all you have to offer. I know you’re intelligent and creative and driven and funny. I’m just saying guys don’t necessarily care about that when they meet an attractive woman,” Brady said.

“That’s stupid,” I said.

“I know.”

We dropped the subject and a little while later, Jordan texted me. “Hey, it’s Jordan. I passed your information on to my agent. Are you free for a drink this week? I want to see you again.”

So maybe Brady was kind of right. I didn’t reply.

Brady must have felt bad about our little argument because on Wednesday night he came home with a bouquet of fall flowers and a bag full of fresh baked cookies from a bakery around here. It made me feel a little bit bad because I never even finished my little scrapbook.

“Aww, thank you boo,” I said hugging him. Then I proceeded to eat half a dozen cookies in lieu of dinner. It turned out to be not such a great idea though because I woke up really early this morning puking. Way too many pumpkin macadamia cookies.

Which reminds me, since I’m no longer living in my apartment where I had access to a nice ass gym, I need to get a gym membership so I don’t get huge. I actually miss working out. Maybe that’ll be my goal for the weekend.

Anyway, Lindsey will be here tomorrow night. She’s going to take over the spare room which I was using as storage so I had to move all my shit to make it habitable for her. I asked Brady how long he was expecting her to stay and he said just a few weeks until she finds a place of her own. And that I should help her find an apartment since I’m so familiar with the rental market. I already have like four places bookmarked.