Turns out, Miguel is engaged and his fiancée is this gorgeous gorgeous fitness model named Jasmine. So this was absolutely not going to be a problem and I truly needed to get over myself. He talks about her non-stop and refers to her as “mi amor,” so that’s cute. The three of us met up with her one Summer Friday and stayed drinking wine at the bar for four hours. Jasmine and I initially bonded over having the same pair of Gucci sunglasses, but then she told me how she and Miguel met (a one night hookup from Tinder) and we could not stop talking. Honestly, you could put a pineapple in front of me and I’d find something to talk to it about.

But anyway, I love Jasmine! And at one point she gestured towards Miguel and said, “You’ll have to keep an eye on this one for me,” hinting that maybe he misbehaves at work. Miguel turned to me and winked. Uh, I’ll gladly keep an eye!

Eventually I needed to go pick up Winnie, but they wanted to meet back up for pizza later. I was on the fence about it because I really needed to stay home with my child. I knew Jasmine had been sort of on the fence too so I asked her if she wanted to go.

“I’ll follow you to the ends of the Earth, girl so I’ll go if you go,” she said.

So needless to say, Jasmine and I hit it off.

On Saturday, Brendan came over in the afternoon for a sleepover. I was excited to spend the majority of the weekend with him since typically he’s so busy that we can only hang out a few hours at a time. And I don’t know if this is a weird or unnecessary observation, but Brendan and I don’t have sex that often. Probably just as often as before I had my own place and it’s almost always a marathon. Brady and I had sex all the time (and clearly got carried away — hi Winnie!) so it’s just different I guess. Like sex is not the most important element of our relationship.

We spent the night watching TV and eating takeout and he filled me in on what his family and Danielle have been up to (I did not ask). And then we gossiped about Kendall because he’s gone all in with Cassidy — apparently he was hooking up with two other girls previously, news to me! Then Brendan told me he was taking a little Maine trip with his uncle in a couple weeks and did I want to come? There wouldn’t be a ton for me to do, but it’s really pretty and it would be nice to get out of the city and… I really didn’t need that much convincing.

The next morning, we woke up with no plans, but then Lola texted me wanting to go to brunch.

“Can I bring my boy toy?” I asked her.

“Yes, I’m dying to meet him,” Lola said. That was about as much enthusiasm as I’ve heard her have for a man.

I got dressed in vegan leather shorts, an oversized button down and high top Nike Blazers while I briefed Brendan on Lola. She definitely requires a bit of a warning.

“She’s really abrasive, but she doesn’t mean any harm,” I explained. “And she hates all men, not just you.”

“Oh. Great,” Brendan said.

We met Lola in Greenwich Village at a place she’d found with bottomless brunch. The two of us ordered bottomless mimosas and avo toast and Brendan ordered an entree and one Bloody Mary. Lola pounced immediately.

“One Bloody? What are you, twelve?” she said.

“Pacing myself,” he said.

“Brendan is like, not a big drinker,” I chimed in. “So he will probably get tipsy from this one drink.”

“Not a big drinker? I can’t imagine what you guys have in common then,” Lola said.

I mean, true. But I think it’s kind of adorable that Brendan doesn’t drink much. It definitely keeps me in check — can’t be trashed all the time by myself!

“We have plenty in common,” I said.

“Like what?” Lola demanded.

“Like…” Wait, why couldn’t I think of a single thing we had in common? It’s like, he enjoys working out and the wilderness and traveling and I spend all my time eating and drinking and stalking people I don’t know on Instagram. Maybe Lola had found a major fault in our relationship.

But then Brendan — who apparently wasn’t having a mini stroke like I was — let Lola know all the things we like to do together.

“Sounds boring, but I dig it,” Lola said.

She told us that she and Kellen are over once again and she’s seeing a new guy. One she describes as “flawless” which is such a bold and reckless statement, especially coming from Lola.

“So I’m just waiting for it all to come crumbling down,” she said.

“Aw, I’m sure it’s not,” Brendan said and offered her some encouragement in his positive Brendan sort of way.

After a while, the mimosas were setting in and Lola and I were screaming and probably being really annoying. Brendan needed to get going anyway because he was meeting up with his sister so he kissed me on the cheek and left us.

“Ugh, don’t you love him!” I couldn’t help squealing.

“Big golden retriever energy. I’ve literally never seen it personified so vividly, oh my god,” Lola said.

“Lola! Don’t compare him to a dog!” I exclaimed.

“What? It’s not bad. He’s adorable. I can see why you like him,” she said.

The next weekend, I got to keep Winnie and Brendan hung out with us all weekend again. On Saturday night, after we put her to sleep, we were laying on the bed talking. He was telling me about the progress on his new apartment (they were finally able to get stuff done after delays getting approval from the association) and a bachelor party he has coming up and etc.

And then, out of nowhere, Brendan mentioned that his stepmom told him that he should take things slow with me and not get into anything serious. You can always rely on Brendan to overshare! Why would he tell me that? And I thought Margot was supposed to be my girl so what the fuck?

“Why would she say that?” I asked.

“Because of the divorce and everything. She doesn’t think it’s a good idea for me to get into another relationship. Like I should be alone or something,” he explained.

“Right, but why does she think we aren’t taking things slow? Did you tell her we’re serious?” I asked.

“No, just how much time we are spending together I guess. And she knows how I feel about you.”

I was ready to strangle him. What was the purpose of telling me this? I was about to freak out.

“Maybe Margot is right,” I said calmly.

“Really?” Brendan said.

“Yeah. I don’t know. What do you want? I can’t imagine you’d even be ready for a serious relationship anytime soon anyway.”

He looked kind of taken aback and then said, “Are we not serious?”

“I don’t know!” I wasn’t about to admit that I already have Pinterest boards dedicated to our wedding, babies, and new apartment. “I haven’t really thought about it.”

“I have pretty serious feelings for you. I think you know that,” Brendan said.

“Yeah, but like, do you even want to get married again? Do you want to be alone for a while? We can cool things off if that’s what you need.” I was spiraling.

“Of course I want to get married again. I mean, not now—”

“Obviously!” I screamed.

Apparently all of this was hilarious because Brendan started laughing. I was about to kill him and his big mouth.

“What is literally so funny?” I demanded.

Brendan pulled me close, still laughing. “You mean everything to me.”

I was agitated. Brendan and I were in a fight which I always hate (and I was mad at him because why would he just storm out like that?) plus I never wanted to go back to work again because I was afraid everyone was gossiping about us.

Luckily, Brady was on his way to drop my baby off and since I’d be working from home, I would be able to spend the day with her.

Winnie squealed and immediately began talking a mile a minute about everything she got into over the weekend. Believe it or not, I think she kind of enjoys splitting her time because then she gets to come back with stories. Brady filled me in on a few things including reminding me that he would be working on Saturday so I’d get to keep Winnie. That was perfect because we were going to have an epic girls day. With our current arrangement it’s rare that I get to spend a full uninterrupted day with Winnie like that so Brady could work on the weekend all he wanted.

“Winnie, I’ll see you later this week,” Brady called out the window. “Love you guys.”

Did you hear that? Love you guys. He had definitely been being nicer the past few weeks, but this was a bit over the top.

“Bye!” I said and we headed inside.

Upstairs, I saw that I had a missed call from Brendan. Oh, now he wanted to fucking talk? Like I said, I was mad at him so I was absolutely not going to call him back. And anyway, Mike had sent a few of his signature scathing emails so I really needed to address those.

About an hour later, Brendan called again.

“Hi Brendan,” I answered.

“Hey,” he said back in a voice that sounded defeated. “I hate fighting with you.”

Oh fucking really? “Then why are you fighting with me? If you hadn’t stormed out like a child yesterday, this would’ve been over.”

“I know. I’m sorry about that.”

“And can you please explain to me how you’re upset when you were the one in the wrong in the first place?”

“I didn’t know it was supposed to be a secret! You never asked me not to tell Mike,” he said, beginning to sound like a baby again.

“Common sense, Brendan!”

He waited a moment and then said, “I’m sorry about yesterday. Are you at your office? Do you mind if I stop by?”

“No, I have so much work to do and quite frankly so do you,” I said.

“Yeah, you’re right. I should probably go.”

I knew I was being hard on him, but you know what happens when you let stuff like that go unchecked! It’s called tough love. I was very surprised though when I hadn’t heard from him by the next afternoon. Yes, I’d yelled at him a little bit (twice) but I thought he was supposedly in love with me. Whatever!

I was sitting in my office (I could no longer hide at home) when an email came in. It was from Thomas.

“Today is my last day at [Brendan’s company]. The last few years have taught me a lot, but I would be lying if I said they weren’t tumultuous…” He’d sent it BCC so I couldn’t see the entire recipient list.

Wait, what was going on? It didn’t make any sense that it was Thomas’ last day. Had he even put in a 2-week notice? Surely I would’ve heard if he did.

A message popped up from Paige. “Omg! Did you know about Thomas?”

“No! Did you?” I typed back.

“No…I wonder what happened.”

So if Thomas was leaving, what was Brendan going to do? Yes, Thomas had been a little menace the past few months, but he was still essentially Brendan’s right hand man. What an inopportune time to be in a fight with Brendan!

Well, no matter. I picked up my phone and gave him a call.

“Hey!” he answered, sounding rather happy to hear from me.

“Oh my gawddd, Thomas?” I said.

Brendan didn’t say anything immediately and from the cars in the background it sounded like he was out and about. “Yeah.”

“What happened?” I had to know.

He explained that it was unexpected, but mutual and that he had a friend from business school who was going to be starting in a few weeks.

“Oh em geee, Brendan, did you fire him?” I gasped.

He laughed but didn’t confirm or deny. “So are you still mad at me?”

“Kind of.” I’d almost forgotten about our fight because I was so focused on the Thomas drama.

“Do you wanna talk about it or do you need more time?” Brendan asked.

Hm, what a straightforward question that I was not prepared to answer!

“I guess we could talk about it later.”

So we made plans to see each other later that day and honestly, I was relieved because I don’t actually enjoy being in a fight with Brendan. And hello? I still wanted more details about Thomas’ departure! I was nosy curious!

“Oh, hi Brendan,” Winnie said nonchalantly when we let him into the apartment a few hours later.

Me and Brendan smirked at each other because clearly she got that from me.

“Hey!” he said back. “I brought dinner. You hungry?”

“Yes, I am so hungry,” Winnie replied dramatically.

I’ve noticed that Brendan and I both speak to Winnie like she’s an adult (she sure acts like she’s a little adult) which leads me to believe we will be great co-parents. Everyone else baby-talks her. What? Just thinking about the future.

We sat at the table and had dinner while Winnie talked our ears off and then watched a movie on the couch. After putting the baby to (reluctant) sleep, it was time to talk. Obviously I was ready to gossip about his company, but then Brendan grabbed me and said, “I’m sorry about the way I left the other night.”

I opened my mouth to say something like, “It’s fine this time, but don’t let it happen again,” but then he added, “But can you understand why I was upset?”

“Ummm,” I said. “Because I yelled at you.”

“Well, yeah. That too,” he said. “But it sort of seems like you’re ashamed of me.”

“What? How?”

He looked down and around and honestly, kind of insecure. “I don’t know. Just the way you kept saying it would make you look bad and that you were embarrassed.”

I felt horrible that he thought that’s what I meant. I had to explain to him (again) that it wasn’t about me or him necessarily and it was the situation that looked bad and maybe it was my fault for not being the one to tell Mike. I can’t believe Brendan thought my blow up was because I was ashamed of him — he really is naive sometimes. And what was it that Kendall said? “Our boy is sensitive.” I really need to keep that in mind.

“Okay, thanks for explaining, I get it now,” Brendan said. “I just want you to feel the same way about me as I feel about you.”

The guy sure does need a lot of reassurance. So I did the unthinkable and told Brendan that I love him. Can you imagine me telling a man I love him first? I mean, of course he’s alluded to it before, but he had never said it outright like I had. It’s called growth and I’m clearly the queen of it. And then when he looked elated and relieved and said it back, I demanded to know if he considered me his girlfriend. Guess I needed a bit of reassurance too!

So that was our tiny little fight. Stupid, but not totally pointless I guess. At least now all of our feelings are known. And even if I knew they were secretly still judging, no one seemed to care about Brendan and me and Paige is the only one who brought it up (to ask what we had planned for the weekend, like she cared).

A few weeks later, Brendan brought his new employee in to meet our team. Miguel. Oh my God. He looks like a supermodel or something — Andrea from Summer House vibes. He was tall and gorgeous with broad shoulders, light eyes and a shirt unbuttoned so you could see a hint of chest hair. Excuse me? I think I gasped when he walked in. Brendan never mentioned that his friend from business school looked like that. And then when he shook my hand, he didn’t let it go while he asked me questions about myself and pinned me to the wall with his eyes. I hoped this wasn’t going to be a problem.

We went into the meeting and he sat there like a boss and sweet-talked the pants off ole Mike. And Mike seemed happy (as happy as Mike can seem) so maybe Miguel would be good for all of us.

After the meeting, Brendan followed me to my office and Miguel came with us. They were talking to me about all the projects and what the priorities were and did I want to walk with them later in the week? Brendan sat in one of my chairs, but Miguel leaned against my desk so I had a clear view of his butt and it was all a bit much. And ever since our fight, Brendan had been being overly professional with me at work. So Miguel kept turning around and joking with me and smiling and it occurred to me that Brendan hadn’t told him about us since I blew up at him last time I found out he told someone. Was this, and I stress, going to be a problem?

One Saturday, Winnie and I hopped in the car to go to Brady’s. Brady and I had been getting along splendidly and surprisingly staying in touch a lot throughout the week. Usually our routine on Saturdays was: arrive in Connecticut between 8 and 9 AM, get Brady up to speed on what had been up the past few days then I’d leave before lunch. This particular Saturday though, Brendan was busy and I didn’t have any plans so I got comfortable and hung out for a bit. The three of us had bagels and OJ and then played in the backyard until Winnie was exhausted. Brady went upstairs to do some work in his little office while I got Winnie comfortable on the couch with the iPad. After a while she fell asleep and I should’ve said goodbye to Brady and gone home, but I didn’t. Winnie was using Brady’s iPad since hers stays at our place in the city. And do you know what’s on Brady’s iPad? All of his messages, of course!

I really shouldn’t have, but I picked up the iPad and started scrolling through his message threads like old times. I was just curious to see who he had been talking to. None of them really jumped out at me except Anna, who I haven’t thought about in years. Anna is Brady’s ex before me and she’s weird.

I started reading through the messages and started to see texts from her that said things like, “I can’t wait to see you later,” and “Do you want to come over tonight?” Oh? All of their texts were like that — making plans for him to go see her and then talking about how they are looking forward to hanging out. So they were hooking up? A bit of ex-sex? One message exchange went like this:

Anna: “Can’t wait to see you later tonight!”

Brady: “Me too.”

Brady (a few hours later): “I’m on my way.”

Anna: “Cool. And Madeline is here :-)”

Brady: “Even better.”

Wait. Who was Madeline? Why would she be there? Was this a threesome? Those two are complete freaks. I kept scrolling and reading until the iPad was snatched from my grubby little hands. Brady was standing behind the couch over my shoulder.

“You have no right to do that,” he said calmly as he locked the iPad up.

“Okay.” I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly embarrassed that I’d been caught snooping, but it was just Brady and now I knew what he was getting up to. And I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t feel a bit icky. I don’t know why. It has literally nothing to do with me. I left after that.

Needless to say, Brady and I didn’t keep in touch the next week like we had been and he was short with me again at drop off on Tuesday. So the following Saturday, after a week of reflection, Winnie and I headed to Connecticut to Brady’s house. Brady was clearly still annoyed with me and didn’t say much, so I followed him into the kitchen and said, in my sweetest voice, “Are you hanging out with Anna this weekend?”

At first I thought he wasn’t going to answer me because he was quiet for a while, but then he said, “You know, Winnie had been telling me about her friend for a few months and I thought she had made it up; an imaginary friend. But then I finally figured out the name she was saying.”

I already knew where this was going.

“Brendan.”

“Yeah, they’re close,” I said, not missing a beat. “Definitely not imaginary.”

“Cool,” Brady said coldly and walked past me out of the kitchen.

So…at least it was all out there. What was unsettling though is that the following week, I had a missed call from Brady’s mother out of the blue. I haven’t spoken to that woman in like a year so who the the hell knows what she wants to talk about. I haven’t heard from her since and it’s not like Brady and I were on good terms for me to ask him about it.

Slutty single mom? Like she knows anything about me? I don’t understand where she got the audacity. How would she know if I’m slutty or not? What had Danielle told her to make her think I’m slutty? I couldn’t stop thinking about it. In fact, I was obsessing over it. So much so that I kept messaging Kendall to ask for more information and context and he would say, “It really was not that deep.” But it was totally that deep! Clearly she hit a nerve with her comment.

So while I was excited to spend the weekend with Brendan and his mostly sweet family, I was not excited about Danielle, who had found her way onto my shit list.

I dropped Winnie off with Brady early on Saturday and made sure he knew I had big important plans for the weekend.

“And what are you and Winnie going to do?” I demanded.

Brady shrugged and said, “No plans yet. Probably the pool, weather permitting.”

“Ew.” I hated the thought of my child at a shared, public pool where Brady would probably use her to hit on the MILFs in the neighborhood. I guess I couldn’t exactly be mad at that, but it was still gross.

Lucky for me, Danielle was only staying at the cabin for one night and she was with a friend (she always has a friend in tow) so it’s not like I would have to interact with her at all. But y’all know me.

“Heyyyy, Danielle!” I said super sweetly when Brendan and I arrived at the cabin.

She looked at me with disdain over her shoulder (I realized that she reminds me of Olivia Rodrigo, but obviously nowhere near as cute or cool) and said, “Hi,” boredly.

Really? And that would be my only attempt to be nice to her that weekend.

Brendan’s dad had been nerding out about his outdoor oven all day so we made pizza that night and sat around the back patio drinking wine. Super chill. Danielle said something about being “funemployed” which might be the most interesting thing she’s ever said. I mostly just sat there talking to Margot and Danielle’s friend (I forgot her name, but she was really nice) while Brendan and his dad coddled jobless Danielle.

We all went to bed fairly early and Brendan and I just made out all night. He didn’t try anything, probably because his parents were down the hall and it would be weird. I was somehow convinced to go on the little boat/lake trip the next morning so we got up and ready and I helped Margot pack a cooler with booze and snacks. We had to drive a bit to get to the lake and in the car on the way there, Brady called. I immediately freaked out because why would he be calling me unless it was an emergency? Brady never calls me — only texts *sometimes* — and I’d told him that I had plans this weekend. So naturally, I assumed Winnie was hurt and I’d need to get home immediately.

“Hi, is everything okay?” I answered, while trying to make eye contact with Brendan’s dad in the rearview mirror because he was gonna have to turn this car around.

“Yeah, everything is fine,” Brady said casually. “We can’t find Winnie’s white pants and she wanted to wear them today.”

Really? “We probably didn’t pack them. She has a skirt she can wear instead,” I told him.

“Okay, I’ll look for it. My mom is on her way. She wanted to have lunch with us…” And he just kept going on. He just wanted to chat. Telling me what Winnie requested for lunch and how his mom asked about me. And he was being so nice, like extra nice in a way that made me slightly suspicious. And I was trying not to engage too much in conversation considering I was in the car with Brendan and all of his family.

Eventually, I was like, “Okay, well I have to go.”

“Oh.” Brady sounded disappointed.

We hung up and of course Brendan said, “Is everything okay?”

And it’s like, yes, everything is absolutely fine, Brady is just bored and lonely and thirsty.

Anyway, I don’t really have anything else to share from the rest of the weekend. Margot and I cried together after a lot of wine (this was after yet *another* school shooting), Brendan and his dad competed about absolutely everything and Danielle sent her friend to get information (I assume that’s why the friend was suddenly interested in Winnie’s whereabouts). I don’t think I need to mention that I absolutely love Brendan’s parents though. They’re just like, so cool. They’ve always been so nice and welcoming to me with no hesitation even though it was probably a little weird. I’ll even forgive his dad for sending me into a panic by telling me there were snakes in the lake (I found out that he was he was “kind of” joking).

The next week, it was back to reality. Brady dropped Winnie off bright and early on Tuesday morning and was it just me or was he being super short and distant? I was trying to ask him about the weekend and the normal stuff we talk about and he acted like it was such a bother. Because I rushed him off the phone when I told him I was going to be busy?? Whatever!

He was back to texting me the following evening though so I guess he got over it.

On Thursday, Paige organized this brainstorming meeting with herself and Mike, plus me, a couple of our designers and Brendan and Thomas and their team. Paige loves to throw a meeting on the cal to try to pretend she’s doing something. This time I didn’t mind though because it would be one of the only times I got to see Brendan before he went on a fishing trip for the weekend.

The entire meeting was pretty useless (of course) and uneventful except for when Thomas followed up something Brendan said with, “That’s a really stupid idea.”

Excuse you? Who says that to their boss, in a meeting, in front of a ton of people? I would’ve been offended even if he didn’t say it to someone I care about. Thomas is absolutely out of control.

Brendan said, “Okay, it was just an idea.”

“Yeah, not a very good one.”

And I couldn’t not say anything. It’s not like Brendan was going to stand up for himself.

“Do you have any ideas, Thomas?” I asked in my sweetest voice.

“I’m still thinking,” he replied.

“Okay, well I don’t think it’s productive to shoot down ideas when we don’t have any of our own,” I pointed out.

“I agree,” Mike said.

Imagine Mike agreeing with me! When has that ever happened? He turned to me and nodded, like I’d done something good.

Paige immediately messaged me saying, “Lol, awkward.”

You’re telling me!

It didn’t help that all of our projects were off schedule and delayed (mostly due to construction, but for multiple different reasons) and Mike was always in a rage. The following Monday morning, he sent a nasty email to some of us asking about the delays. I got up and marched right into Paige’s office to discuss.

“Someone woke up in a bad mood,” she said.

“He’s literally going to hurt himself getting this riled up so early,” I said.

Paige laughed. “I know. I have to agree with him about this one though, the construction either has to get on schedule or we need to think about finding additional partners to work with.”

“We would run into this issue no matter who we work with though. The issue is getting fixtures and supplies,” I pointed out.

“Well, I talked to Thomas last week and he said that Brendan has been making him get approval for literally everything he does so it takes longer.”

Oh, really? Is that why Thomas was suddenly acting like a spoiled child? But judging by all the chaos he causes with his mistakes, I can’t really blame Brendan for micromanaging him.

“I mean, it is his company so…”

Paige shrugged and put up her palms like she didn’t want to get involved. “I don’t know, but if they can’t figure it out, I’m going to recommend alternatives.” And then to my shock and horror, she added, “I know you and Brendan have your thing going on…sleeping together or whatever.”

Sleeping together? What? Who would say that? I mean, it wasn’t exactly inaccurate, but it sounded so…sleazy. I was too surprised to say anything at first, but then duh, she’d been talking to that slimeball so of course.

“Did Thomas tell you that?” I asked.

“No, Mike told me.”

Mike? Mike was gossiping? And how did he know about Brendan and me? From my vague drunken speech at dinner in Chicago? And he was confident enough about that to go telling people?

“I don’t know why Mike would tell you that,” I said. And then because I felt really exposed and awkward, I got the fuck out of there.

As much as I wanted to confront Mike about gossiping about me, with all of his recent rants, I didn’t think it was a good idea. And anyway, Brendan texted me in the afternoon wanting to hang out later so I’d just ask him. Maybe he would know why his bestie Mike was running his mouth. I wasn’t mad (at least I didn’t think I was mad), I just felt weirded out that Mike knew about me and Brendan and hadn’t talked to me about it.

Brendan bounded over to my apartment a few hours later and by then I’d worked myself into a bit of a state. I couldn’t stop thinking about Paige saying, “sleeping together.” It hit me the same way the “slutty single mom” thing did — it was just so degrading.

“Aww, I missed you,” Brendan said, scooping me up into one of his big bear hugs.

“Literally same,” I said back. He looked cute in his head to toe athleisure and baseball hat and even with the hat on I could see that he’d gotten some sun on his face during his fishing trip. I was ready to climb him and love all over him, but I needed to get to the bottom of something first. “Did you tell Mike about us?”

We’d barely even pulled away and Brendan kept my hands in his. “Yes, I did.”

“What?” I hadn’t expected that answer — especially with a big smile still on his face. “Why would you tell him?”

“Huh? I just wanted him to hear it from me. Is that not okay?” Brendan said.

“No!” I exclaimed. I tried to stay calm. “Why would that be okay? He’s my boss, Brendan!”

Poor Brendan looked genuinely confused. “I figured he’d find out anyway. I told him months ago. I didn’t think it was a big deal, he doesn’t care.”

“It’s a huge deal! Because now he’s telling people and it’s weird and embarrassing!” I explained.

“Embarrassing?”

“And what did you tell him anyway?” I went on. “That we’re ‘sleeping together’? It’s not like we’ve ever really talked about what we are so I can’t even imagine what you would’ve told him months ago.”

“I didn’t tell him that!” Brendan said, becoming visibly upset with the conversation and finally letting go of my hands.

“You shouldn’t have told him anything! I don’t get why you’re telling everyone — it’s unprofessional and it looks bad!”

“Why does it look bad?”

Had this dude never had an affair with someone at work??

“Because it looks bad! I don’t want everyone knowing our business, especially because I know they’ll be really judgemental about this,” I said.

“Why do you think anyone would judge or even care?” he asked.

“I don’t know, Brendan, maybe because you were married not that long ago and everyone knows and probably thinks I’m a homewrecker now. And Mike cared enough to tell Paige and I’m sure she’s told everyone in the office!”

“Wow. I didn’t know you felt like that.”

I could tell then that he was very, very upset with everything I’d said so I needed to backtrack. It probably would’ve been fine if I hadn’t brought up his marriage since that’s such a sensitive subject for him. He turned away from me like he was going to leave.

“Brendan.” Really? I’ve always praised him for being so mature and able to talk about his feelings, but here he was acting like a baby.

“No!” he said with finality and stormed out.