Brady invited me to his dad’s party with him and I said yes because it’s basically a tradition at this point. And when he told his mom he was bringing me, she suggested we get a hotel. Hunter and his wife and kids would be staying at the house and she didn’t want us to disturb them. I was honored.

We booked a suite in this beautiful Victorian/French inspired hotel in the Back Bay Area of Boston. When we landed on Friday evening, we were too tired to even go out and drink, let alone go mingle with Brady’s uptight parents. So we checked into our room, ordered Chinese food and watched Mission Impossible. Brady’s mom planned a big breakfast for us all on Saturday morning so obviously we couldn’t miss that. She let Brady know that a car would be picking us up 7:45am and we woke up at 7:30. Well, Brady woke up and then woke me up. I was fast asleep and having a dream about al pastor tacos.

We took turns taking three minute showers and made it out the door at 8:01am. The really dumb and annoying thing is that Brady’s parents live almost an hour and a half away from Boston, but that gave me time make myself look presentable so I brought my entire makeup collection in my purse.

As we were arriving at Brady’s parent’s house, I suddenly got weirded out about being there. Like obviously he’d told them all we broke up, but here I was prancing my ass back in.

“Your parents know I’m coming, right?” I blurted out, now with a full face of makeup on.

“Of course. My mom is excited that you are coming,” Brady said.

And to my surprise, his mom actually greeted me warmly.

“Oh, hello dear! Good to see you,” she said and it sounded like she really meant it. We hugged.

Hunter and Dom were already inside. Brady’s dad was holding the baby girl and the little boy was running around screaming at the top of his lungs with a toy in his hand. Hunter and Dom just let him.

“Hey you!” Hunter said to me. I gave him a sassy look because I hadn’t seen him since he hooked up with Lexi. He stood up and hugged me and I turned to Dom to say hi. Even though I had absolutely nothing to do with it, I did feel guilty that Hunter cheated on her with one of my close friends. Especially since it’s a full on affair – they text all the time and he told her he loves her.

She had the nerve to give me a sympathetic look. “How are you?”

“I’m fantastic. How are you? Looks like you have your hands full,” I said.

“I do and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve never had a family and I always wanted one,” she said.

And that made me feel super bad about everything. So I decided to play nice and be friends with her for the weekend.

“I’m glad to hear that. You and Hunter are very lucky to have each other.”

Dom looked up at Hunter lovingly, but he was talking to Brady and not paying any attention to what we were talking about. She looked back at me and I realized that Dom is actually really, really beautiful. Like the kind of girl who doesn’t need any makeup and can get away with not grooming her eyebrows for years on end. If I tried that, I’d look like a homeless pet. She made tiny undereye bags look kind of cute. They were the result of her finally having a family right? It was sweet.

Brady’s mom hired someone to make breakfast which is no surprise since she needed to spend all her time worried about everyone else.

We all sat around the table cooing over the children and talking about their accomplishments. I was frantically looking around for wine or alcohol. Brady’s mom was  suggesting all the different activities the little boy could get involved like karate, swimming and rugby. Like the kid is two years old, let’s not have him breaking limbs before his fifth birthday.

“And Reese, it’s been so long, hasn’t it? How have you been?” Brady’s mom asked.

Finally, some attention on me.

“Honestly, things have been fabulous. I can’t really complain,” I replied.

Dom said, “Are you still drinking Brady out of house and home?”

Hunter and Brady’s dad laughed and after a moment, Dom started laughing too. This bitch.

“Actually yes,” I replied and everyone, including Brady and his mother started laughing.

“I don’t think Brady boy would have it any other way,” Hunter said.

Brady smiled at me and nodded which I thought was so cute.

The mom quickly changed the subject to something else, something about volunteering, and I saw Dom tap Hunter on the shoulder and whisper something in his ear while staring at me. Then Hunter looked up at me too. And when she saw me looking at her, she gave me a sort of evil smile. So much for being friends for the weekend.

By the time I gave her a bitchy look back, she’d turned away because breakfast was being served. Bagels, smoked salmon, frittatas, potatoes, an arugula salad and grapefruit juice. It was all so fucking good. I literally cleaned my plate and then sat there waiting for the second course.

After breakfast we migrated to the great room so Brady’s mom could start throwing her opinion out again. It was mostly toward Dom though about the kids. The little boy was cute and after breakfast he gave me a hug and then was attached to my hip after that. He sat in my lap and smiled/laughed with me and touched my face. Like it was so cute.

We were in our own little world for a while and then he jumped down so he could get a running start to jump back on my lap.

“Oh!” Brady’s mom said laughing. “It looks like someone likes you!”

Dom laughed too, but then stood up and took the little angel out of my lap. Okay.

The rest of the afternoon was really boring besides the expensive bottle of wine Brady’s mom opened. I was super relieved when it was time to go back to the city so we could get ready for the party. Dom had been deliberately making me feel stupid and like silly about things.

“He’s just a baby, Reese,” she’d said. But I’m not the one trying to get him signed up for rugby!

In the car on the way back to our hotel, I said to Brady, “Is it me or was Dom an even more uptight bitch than she normally is?”

“Whoa, do you think that’s a bit harsh?” he replied.

“No! She’s evil,” I said back.

Brady rolled his eyes at me and I realized that I  was being mean and probably annoying which I’m trying to grow out of. So I dropped it.

The best thing about our trip was that I got a new outfit out of it. The moment I found out we were going, I ordered a little black dress and statement earrings and then splurged on new shoes because I’ve been so good about not shopping lately.

We all arrived and said our hellos then Brady and I hit up the open bar. Hunter and Dom stuck with the parents because Brady’s mom still needed to introduce the happy couple to people. Because I know y’all are dying to know: Dom wore a tea length emerald dress that made her look pregnant (is she? Can you image?) and gold heels. She had her dreadlocks pulled into an adorable little braid.

“Is Anna here?” I asked Brady, raising my eyebrows suggestively.

I don’t think I told y’all, but Anna wrote Brady a poem. In 2017, y’all! I didn’t tell Brady that I knew about it because I found it when his emailed was pulled up on his laptop. There was no explanation or words or anything, just the poem in the body of the email, so I’m not even sure if it was to him or if she just needed a proofreader. The subject did say, “for Brady,” though.

“No. She’s in Malaysia,” Brady answered.

“In Malaysia writing poetry,” I said.

Brady gave me a blank stare, but then Hunter appeared.

“T minus one hour and forty minutes,” he said and then he saw me watching so he explained, “Until it’s time to ditch this place and go to the bar.”

“Is your little wife coming?” I asked sweetly.

“Fuck no,” Hunter said.

I was thinking, “Oh, thank God,” but I wasn’t about to say that.

The party went on for a little while longer – boring, not enough wine – and then Hunter came and found us again. Brady and I had been holding up the bar planning the big Thanksgiving rager we wanted to have.

“Let’s go,” Hunter said and nodded toward the door. Brady followed him without hesitation and so I followed too.

I was thinking, “Okay..? I guess we don’t have to say goodbye to anyone.”

But we were only down one flight of stairs when the door swung open and tiny little Dom stormed out in her tiny gold heels.

“Are you seriously leaving?” she asked.

“Relax, honey,” Hunter said, not even turning to acknowledge her. “I won’t be out long.”

“Hunter, if you walk out of here, don’t bother coming back tonight,” Dom threatened.

And Hunter just waved her off and kept stomping down the stairs. Can you imagine? If I were Dom I would’ve chased him down the stairs and ripped his fucking ponytail out. How disrespectful. But not my issue.

We got outside and Hunter suggested a bar we could walk to.

“I just need a break,” he explained.

And I just needed a drink. Have I ever mentioned that Boston people are rude? Like so rude. After a couple drinks I was obviously feeling friendly and started chatting up this guy who was standing on the other side of me at the bar. I was telling him all about my life and career goals and baby names. And then his friend leaned over and said, “Dude, stop talking to her. She’s just trying to get you to buy her a drink.”

And I thought he would laugh at his lame joke, but he didn’t and he was serious.

“Ew. I don’t even let my own boyfriend buy me drinks, what makes you think I need one from some random loser in Boston?” I said.

They walked away.

And at another bar, the place was busy and the bartender man was serving a ton of people at once. He sat a drink down that kind of looked like it could be mine, but I wasn’t sure.

“Patron with lime?” I asked him as he flew past me.

“That’s what you ordered, isn’t it?” he hollered over his shoulder.

Excuse me? There goes your tip dude. But I still ended up leaving a couple of dollars out of habit.

In the final bar, I was completely over it and ready to go back to the chateau with Brady. He and Hunter had had about a dozen beers each and probably needed to go home anyway. I was drunk and standing there glaring at everyone. All of a sudden I heard Hunter say, “Man, fuck off or we can take this outside.”

There was a guy in a Virginia Tech hoodie standing there looking like a drunk mess and like he was taunting Hunter. The kid walked away and I thought nothing of it. We tabbed out and headed outside. While we were waiting for our Uber though, the dude in the hoodie came outside.

“All right, Macho Man, what you got?” Hoodie Boy slurred. He was small, like Brady’s size.

It all happened really fast – Hoodie pushed Hunter, Hunter turned and grabbed the kid by his hoodie, almost lifting him off his feet. The guy literally spit in Hunter’s face (EW!) and Hunter started shaking him and Brady got in his face also. I was standing there with my mouth wide open. Like what? Who spits?

The door guy ran over and shouted, “Get out of here or I’m calling the cops!”

The guys didn’t seem to hear him and Hunter just kept shaking him and threatening to kill him.

“Do y’all want to go to jail over this loser?” I finally shouted.

They both ignored me and finally, I grabbed Brady’s shoulder and jerked him away. One second later two of the bouncer guys ran over and pulled the little guy away from Hunter.

“What the fuck, Brady? Are you crazy?” I demanded.

He seemed to realize how ridiculous it all was and started pacing. The bouncers were trying to calm Hunter down – he still looked like he was ready to eat the other guy.

After we calmed Hunter down and booked a room for him in our hotel, I came to a conclusion.

“Your brother is drama,” I told Brady.

“He’s not normally like this. He has a lot going on at home,” Brady explained.

“And the way he treated Dom earlier…so disrespectful,” I continued.

“Yeah, but we don’t know what goes on day to day with them, you know?”

And I don’t really care what goes on in their day to day life – Hunter has some serious issues he should work on.

I had dinner with Lexi when we got back and told her what happened.

“Oh my gosh, poor guy,” she said. “I wish I was there with my man.”

I rolled my eyes. Really, Lexi? She started off dinner telling me about a guy she’d met on Bumble and gave head to on their first date. And now Hunter was her man. K.

Brady and I decided not to have the Thanksgiving rager, but we did have people over. I encouraged him to invite all of his friends from work. Sydney has made a habit of calling Brady at the most inconvenient times like Saturday nights when we are getting ready to go out and during dinner times. And Brady made it a habit of going in the bedroom or bathroom to talk to her and making sure the door was shut and locked. She called the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving and Brady hopped up from where were sitting on the couch to speak to her.

“Really?” I said, rolling my eyes.

He gestured that he would be right back, but I got up and followed him so I could eavesdrop. He was using words like “fluid levels” and “dosage” so it did sound like they were probably talking about work, but why did he always have to do hide to talk to her? And he kept laughing.

When I’d finally had enough, I banged on the door and said, “Should I start on the steak?”

Brady actually groaned out loud and said, “Hang on a second,” to Sydney. Then to me he shouted, “Yeah, if you want!”

I stormed off.

So I was hoping Brady would invite Sydney over for Thanksgiving. I told him to invite all of his work friends. I put a huge emphasis on all. I’d invited Lexi, Ava and her boyfriend because everyone else was out of town. Brady made most of the food and I made what people really wanted: queso, egg rolls, and crostinis with dates, bacon and goat cheese.

The first person to arrive was Brady’s friend, Alex. And he brought a girl with him! She was cute and tall and blonde with fabulous knee high boots. When I saw them walk in together, I made a, “Wow, good work,” face at Alex.

He introduced her as Emily and the three of us chatted for a few minutes. Alex went to find Brady and say hello and I said I’d show Emily where to find a drink.

“Soo, how do you know Alex?” I asked her as I poured her a glass of my special Thanksgiving sangria.

“We met at the gym,” she said excitedly.

Well, how fucking cute. Like, I work out and I met a cute guy at the gym. We chatted for a little while and I liked her because she was sweet and humble. Such a good catch for Alex! When we met back up with the group, I nudged Alex and gave him a knowing look. He shrugged like he didn’t know what I meant.

“I must say, I’m proud. She’s a good catch,” I said so no one could hear us.

“Oh, no! It’s not like that. She’s just a friend, that’s it,” Alex responded.

“Are you in any position to friendzone someone?” I asked.

“Just because I’m single doesn’t mean I have to settle with someone I don’t want,” Alex said and that made me feel bad for assuming his being single wasn’t a choice.

So I just shut my ass up after that.

Carly and Chris came over a little later. She’s still tiny and just barely showing and it was so adorable.

“I just want to eat everything,” she told me. “I had half a pound of mac and cheese at Chris’s parents’ house.”

I’d eaten half a pound of mac and cheese too and I’m not even pregnant. We caught up and she excitedly told me about the names they were thinking of (she is really hoping for a girl so she can name her Sloane) and her ideas for the nursery.

“Are you ready for your life to change that much?” I asked her, thinking I’d help her think of bigger picture things.

“I don’t have a choice, do I?” she snapped. “If Kendra can do it, so can I.”

Whatever.

And Sydney never showed up.

That weekend my mom and I went to Mexico for a mini vacation. Maybe I’m just paranoid, but it seemed like Brady was super excited for me to be gone. He kept asking me what day I was leaving and what time and then eagerly offered offered to take me to the airport on that Friday morning. Like aren’t you going to miss me?

My mom and I had an amazing time at our resort and she even met this hot business man from Dallas. She and my dad are talking a lot more and usually have dinner together every night, but she said she wants to keep her options open because she doesn’t want to be hurt again and honestly, I don’t blame her. So I encouraged her to flirt with him and they had dinner and drinks together one night and obviously exchanged numbers/emails.

I got back on Tuesday morning and since I didn’t have to be back at work until Tuesday, I dropped my things off at home then rushed to Brady’s to snoop. Since he didn’t know I’d stop by, he wouldn’t have had a chance to clean up any evidence. I thought maybe I’d find some strands of blonde hair or an earring back or thong, but everything was spotless and perfect as usual. So that annoyed me.

I’m sorry about being MIA. About a month ago, one of my LinkedIn connections messaged me about this really cool job. I had to prepare a lot for my interviews, analyzing numbers and coming up with campaigns. I even had to reach out to one of my former classmates for help. I’m on my sixth interview though so I guess it’s going well.

Around the same time the lady messaged me, Scott cornered me in the office.

“Hey you!” he greeted me.

“Hi. How are you?” I replied.

“Will you stop by my office after lunch? I just want to touch base and know what you want in your career,” he said.

The fuck? He knows what I want in my career. We’d talked about it several times. But still, I stopped by after lunch.

“So, why don’t you just tell me what you feel your next should be and where you want to be in the next few years?” Scott said, sounding really formal.

I wanted to give a sarcastic, bitchy answer back, but decided not to waste time doing that. I told him how I wanted to get more on the creative marketing side and away from sales. I feel like I can help elevate the company in other ways and Scott nodded excitedly the whole time I was speaking.

“A role just opened up that I’d like to consider you for. I don’t know if you heard, but our director of marketing is moving to France and her position is open,” he explained.

I had heard about the marketing director leaving, but the position was based in New York so I didn’t really think it was an option for me.

“Do you think I’m ready for that?” I asked.

“I do. I think you’re a highly viable and qualified candidate. We are considering both internal and externals candidates here in Chicago and also New York, but when I heard of the position being open, I immediately thought of you.”

“Oh, well thank you for thinking of me,” I said.

“Of course. Are you interested in interviewing?” Scott asked.

“I mean, sure. You can consider me.”

So I needed to prepare for that too. I interviewed with Scott and then some bigwigs and ended up not even getting the job.

Scott texted me after my rejection call and said, “Other opportunities will come and I want to help make sure you are ready. The team in New York had nothing but amazing things to say about you and we will find the perfect position for you. I know you are capable of doing much, much more.”

And I wasn’t exactly disappointed about not getting the job since I hadn’t even asked for it, but it kind of motivated me to try a little harder in my current role since apparently the New York people love me.

Brady and I had a really, really good drama free couple of weeks. We got invited to an ugly sweater party one of his friends was throwing and I bought matching sweaters for me, him and Tucker. Tucker obviously wasn’t going to the party, but I thought we could take super cute pictures in them.

The party was in Wicker Park and do you know who had the nerve to be there? Fucking Tia. It’s like she knew we were coming because she was one of the first people we saw. Like, did Brady text her and tell her we were on our way?

“Heyyy, you!” she said to Brady and reached out to hug him. Something about the way she was hugged him seemed sexual. Like she leaned into him with her hips and threw her arms around his neck. It was definitely not a normal, friendly hug.

When they pulled away, she turned to me and said, “Hi, Reese.”

Before I could eve say anything back, she turned to Brady and put her arm around him. “How have you been? I have so much to tell you.”

The fuck did she have to tell him? And more importantly, why was he even talking to this broad? Brady glanced at me and bit his top lip guiltily and all of a sudden it hit me: he totally fucked her. It was so obvious. Sometimes you can look at two people and you can tell by their chemistry that they’d seen each other naked. Ew.

She stayed and told Brady about work and her stupid dramatic life while I stood there glaring at him with my arms crossed.

“Anyway, I have to go find my friend. Catch up with me later though?” Tia finally said. “Good to see you, Reese.”

Once she walked away, I laid into him.

“I seriously cannot fucking believe you,” I said.

Brady looked bewildered. “What?”

“You had sex with her! It’s so obvious!” I said kind of loudly.

“Oh my God, don’t do this right now,” he said, rolling his eyes.

“I’m honestly so disgusted. She is trash, Brady. Sometimes I really think you have no standards,” I went on.

“I told you I didn’t have sex with her. I’m not going to argue you with you about this right now,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Okay, I guess I’ll leave then,” I said.

I thought Brady would stop me and tell me I’m being ridiculous, but he didn’t. He said, “All right. Have a good night,” and then he walked away.

I got out my phone to call an Uber. While I waited for five minutes for my driver to show up, I thought Brady would come find me and apologize and convince me to stay at the party with him. But he didn’t. So I went home and drank a bottle of wine and cried and downloaded Bumble.

When I woke up on Sunday morning, I had a missed call from my mom and several notifications from Bumble. Nothing from Brady. I deleted Bumble before calling my mom back. She wanted to tell me about her dilemma – she’d been talking on the phone to the man from Dallas almost every single night, but also seeing my dad and did she have to choose one?

I didn’t hear from Brady all day on Sunday and naturally I was thinking he’d spent all night with Tia and they were still together having sex all day. Gross. And I was so upset about it that I couldn’t get out of bed all day except to retrieve my food from UberEATS.

Brady finally texted me on Monday morning.

“Hey. You want to meet for lunch today?” he said.

And Brady never wants to meet for lunch – usually he doesn’t even take a lunch – so I figured he was breaking up with me. I thought about declining, but I was curious to see what would happen so I said yes. We decided on a place near my office – Brady said he’d come to me which was also a red flag. I stopped in the bathroom to put on red lipstick on my way out because no man can resist red lipstick.

Brady was waiting outside the restaurant wearing the All Saints jacket I bought him and he looked so fucking hot. And he reached out for a hug when he saw me.

“I’m shocked you could sneak out of the hospital to meet me,” I greeted him.

“I probably shouldn’t be away long, but I wanted to see you,” he said.

We got inside and sat down and started talking like nothing ever happened. We were talking about Hunter and Dom, my mom, work, Christmas, etc. We were having such a good time that I didn’t want to know what happened Saturday night and Sunday. I didn’t want to talk about it at all. As we were standing up from the table, Brady said, “I love you.” Like it was so random and cute. I kissed him and we walked out.

The restaurant has a narrow little host area that isn’t really that well lit and as we were leaving, I saw Zach standing there with a few people who looked like his coworkers. Y’all remember Zach? I honestly thought I’d vomit. I’ve done an amazing job not thinking of him at all and not ever having to see him or see any of his social media helped. I’m actually surprised I hadn’t run into more because our office are quite close to each other. He was wearing his thick wedding band.

“You ready?” Brady asked because I’d apparently stopped right in the middle of the walk way.

Zach had not seen me yet so I continued on walking making sure not to look at him. But then he saw me, out of the corner of my eye I saw his face light up.

“Hey you!” he said excitedly.

I ignored him and he touched my elbow and then grabbed it when I didn’t stop walking. “Reese?”

I snatched my elbow away from him dramatically. “Don’t fucking touch me.”

Zach stepped back like I’d slapped him and I continued walking. Even though my office was in walking distance, Brady offered to give me a ride back.

“I’m not even going to ask what that was all about,” he said as we buckled in.

“Thanks,” I replied.

I could tell he was still kind of curious (I know I would be), but didn’t mention it again.

When I got back to the office, Zach had texted me. I was surprised because I thought I blocked him.

“That was very childish and unnecessary. I wish you’d talk to me like an adult,” he said.

The nerve of him to even try to criticize me.

“You know what else is childish and unnecessary? Cheating on your wife and lying about leaving her. And for that reason I don’t need to talk to you at all,” I replied.

He didn’t say anything back.

Anyway, I’m still waiting to hear back from the job from LinkedIn. Obviously I hope I get it since I put in so much work and it pays more, but we will see. I’m mostly excited because Brady and I have a really cool trip planned next month. Can’t wait to tell y’all about it!