Oh, hey you guys.

I’ve been busy getting in trouble. Ever since my parents visited and I got a pep talk from my mom, I’ve been out of control. The pep talk came after I told my mom about a meeting I had with Brady’s mother. She finally reached out to me and asked to take me to lunch. Her exact words were, “Hi Reese. I’m sure you’ve heard that we are not happy about your announcement. Although I think the reasoning for my disappointment is obvious, I’m quite happy to explain myself.”

So I agreed to have lunch with her. I didn’t tell Brady, but I’m not exactly sure why. I thought wearing something that displayed my belly was kind of rude, so for the lunch I wore a black belted sweater dress (slimming), a trench coat and booties. I made the Uber driver turn the AC on full blast on the way there because I was dying in the backseat because I was so hot.

Brady’s mom was sitting down at the table already waiting for me and didn’t get up to greet me.

“Hi, nice to see you, Reese. Please sit,” she said.

I sat.

“Thank you for meeting with me. I thought we should speak about what is going on.”

I nodded.

“My husband and I have always been clear about our concerns and you understood. You had no right to force someone into something they don’t want – especially something as serious as parenthood.”

Excuse me?

“I’m not forcing anyone into anything. Brady is just as culpable as I am,” I began, but Brady’s mom put her hand up to stop me.

“Well, Brady knows better. Brady fell into temptation and that’s unfortunate. He’s going to have to deal with the consequences of that, isn’t he? But I’ve already spoken to Brady. And he knows how disappointing this all is.”

“I actually don’t think it’s that disappointing and I think it’s a bit rude for you to say that,” I said, very politely.

“It’s not rude, Reese. Brady was not ready to marry you any time soon and you know that. You were careless and manipulative.”

“I think that’s unfair. I may have been careless, but so was Brady.” I, for some reason, was still being super polite to this lady.

She shook her head. “I would like to discuss a few things with you and decide how to proceed from here. Obviously it’s too late to do anything to change the situation and we need to prepare for the inevitable.”

I didn’t say anything.

“I don’t want you to think you can profit from this. Brady cares about you and will be doing his part in taking care of your child together. However, you will not take advantage of his generosity. You’ve chosen to have a baby despite not being married and you, too, must deal with whatever consequences ensue.”

I felt my eye twitch.

“I’m confident Brady would like to marry you…eventually. I think we can all agree that at this time, we must focus on making sure you have a healthy baby. I’d like you to see our family physician in Massachusetts. I understand you’ve seen a doctor, but a second opinion would not hurt as this is a potentially risky pregnancy.”

“Okay,” I said, knowing I would not be going all the way to Massachusetts when Dr. Sabrina is wonderful. And how in the world in my pregnancy at all risky? Dr. Sabrina let me know that everything is progressing perfectly.

“I think carrying on some sort of texting and picture exchange relationship with Hunter is quite unbecoming. That will end. Brady and Dominique are both aware of it and I trust I won’t hear anything about it again.”

“I-” Wait, what? I was so stunned that she went there that I didn’t know what to say. “Okay.”

“I’m also happy to sit down with you to go over your finances. Brady mentioned that you still have a lengthy list of supplies you need and while we are willing to help in some ways, this is your responsibility and I expect that you will contribute.”

I actually felt like I might cry. It was like she’d pushed me down and then kicked me continuously. After her lecture, she touched my arm with her cold, bony hand and wanted to know how I’m doing and feeling. It’s like I was just fine until I met her for lunch.

When I told my mom what happened, she was furious.

“Don’t you ever let someone speak to you like that. That woman is out of her mind. I don’t know why she thinks you come from poverty, but they aren’t the only ones who have money. Don’t you dare accept anything from her. The only thing you need to worry about is yourself and that baby,” she said.

And that last sentence was all I really needed to hear. My mom wanted to meet with Brady’s mom while she was here, but she was so fired up that I told her it wasn’t a good idea. They’ve been emailing though. Brady’s mom reached out to me a few times since our lunch.

“Would you like to join us for church this Sunday in the city?” she texted me one day.

I replied, “No.”

And another time she said, “I’m checking to see if you are available this Saturday to come to Massachusetts to see our doctor. After the appointment, we can drive into the city to browse some of the shops and pick up some of the things you need.”

I replied, “I’m not available.”

One day at work, I made a minor mistake on a spreadsheet (and the fix involved copy and pasting a formula) and Mike was annoyed.

“Where is your head?” he said, rolling his eyes at me. I’m super organized at work and hardly make mistakes so I’m sure that’s why Mike was so annoyed. He knows he can trust me, but I was letting him down.

“Well, I’m sorry I didn’t catch one small error. I’m just growing another human inside me so forgive me if my head isn’t on quite straight,” I said.

Mike glared at me and I smiled sweetly before running away.

Another time, I was talking to Kristina after getting back from an hour long lunch with Brendan. We hadn’t been talking for even one minute before Mike walked past.

“I trust that you have everything ready for our 2:00,” he said.

“If not, I guess we’re both screwed,” I couldn’t help saying.

Mike turned back like he wanted to say something else, but ended up just walking away. Kristina gasped and then burst into laughter.

Later on, Paige messaged me.

“You might want to be careful with the way you speak to Mike,” she warned.

And I’ve known Mike a lot longer than she has so this annoyed me. I can handle him. I replied, “Thx.”

But obviously I was a little concerned because the next day at lunch, I asked Brendan if Mike had mentioned anything about me.

He looked guilty for a moment then quickly recovered. “Now why would you want to know if he’s talking about you? It doesn’t matter,” he said playfully.

“Because Paige sent me this cryptic message so I need to know if I’m getting fired,” I said.

“Well, he knows we are friends so he doesn’t talk to me about you,” Brendan said.

I’m definitely getting fired.

Brendan really wants to work things out with his wife, but she is enjoying playing games with him. It’s pretty sad. Once, he let me read through their recent messages.

“Hi,” she texted after several weeks of only speaking through her parents.

“Hi,” he replied within a minute. And then she didn’t say anything back. Eight hours later, Brendan sent a single “?” and she still didn’t reply. Almost all of their interactions go like that. She calls him sometimes, he said, asking for stuff that she knows the answer to, like whose name the Nordstrom credit card is under. And when he tries to talk about anything other than what she needs, she will talk over him or quickly try to revert the conversation back. I guess her parents are still very mad at him (he still hasn’t told me why) and she pretends talking to him will her get in trouble or something.

“I shouldn’t be messaging you, but I can’t find my hot pink bikini and I’m going to Vegas tonight. Can you check to see if you can find it?” she will say. And then he will reply saying he has it and will never hear back from her.

Then she will post cute pictures of them on her Instagram story with a kissing or broken heart emoji as a caption.

One day, she texted Brendan while we were at lunch.

“Hi, I need a HUGE favor from you ❤️,” she said.

Brendan got excited, thinking the heart meant something. He loved that she needed a favor.

“Will you get the package that is being delivered to the house today? My dad will come and pick it up later in the week,” was all she wanted.

I could tell this is not what Brendan wanted to hear and the whole emoji thing was just an act to continue to play with him. And he’s my friend and I felt like I needed to stand up for him since he wasn’t going to do it himself.

“Can I text her back for you?” I asked.

Brendan shrugged and gestured that I could.

“Are you interested in working on our marriage or do you just want me to do things for you? I’m happy to help, but if you just want to play games then you should continue sending messages through your dad like you were before,” I typed.

“I think it’s a little soon for you to be asking to work on things, Brendan,” she said back.

He definitely cheated on her.

“Stop texting me then,” I replied.

Obviously she didn’t reply and I handed Brendan his phone back. Of course, a few days later, Brendan admitted that he told her I was the one who was messaging her and that got her even more mad. She’s since stopped texting him, but continues posting pictures of them on Instagram. I guess I didn’t help, but someone needed to say it.

Sydney came over the other day. She’s so annoying. She wanted Brady’s help with something work related (they don’t even work together anymore). She wouldn’t stop staring at me. Whenever I walked across the room I felt her beady little eyes following me. Have you never seen a pregnant bitch before? Eventually I retreated to the bedroom to watch TV in peace. After three episodes of Real Housewives, I went to check on them and could immediately tell that they were stoned. Sydney was sitting cross legged on the couch giggling while Brady sat back next to her with his eyes closed.

“Okay, I think it’s time for you to go home, Sydney,” I said, politely.

“I know, right?” she giggled, not moving.

“Now.”

She stood up quickly and packed her stuff before leaving. See how quickly I’m getting the hang of this parenting thing?

“That was a bit rude, don’t you think?” Brady said once she was gone.

So this started a fight. Obviously Brady has been getting the brunt of my wrath. Some of my phrases have been:

“I’m not eating a frozen pizza for dinner like a peasant. I want steak.”

“If you aren’t home in 20 minutes, Tucker and I will be staying at the W for the night.”

“If your mother wants to fight, we can fight.”

“No, I can’t turn the music down. The baby loves gangster rap.”

“I mean, even I’m smarter than Hunter.”

He’s certainly been coming home on time though. And slowly bringing home things from our list. Oh, and we looked at another place in Connecticut. This one was more convincing. It’s a new build with an all white kitchen (my dream), a massive living room with a fireplace, and the chicest modern light fixtures. I wouldn’t need to upgrade anything except all of our furniture. The master is also huge with a walk-in closet, but the other three bedrooms are pretty small. That doesn’t really bother me – there’s already a nursery next to the master. Plus all of the houses in the neighborhood have curb appeal and it’s within walking distance to the train that goes to NYC. I actually really, really liked it. The only issue is the place is significantly more expensive than the last place we looked at. For the price, we may as well get a 2 bedroom, 1,100 square foot apartment in the Upper East Side.

“Do you want to put in an offer on the house we looked at?” Brady asked me the next day.

And since I told him I wasn’t sure (I’m nervous!), he hasn’t brought it up again. I’ve been secretly checking it everyday though and it’s still available.