Paige is pregnant, by the way. I had a feeling she was with child last year based on how she was acting and the questions she was asking. And then her entire wardrobe changed and she stopped wearing blazers every single day. I kind of thought she might confide in me since we’d been having some really personal conversations — most notably the one we had where she asked about the origin of Brendan and me. I gladly gave her the scoop: basically we were really close from the beginning and went through breakups around the same time and it just felt natural when we got together. I wasn’t going to take credit for his separation so I left that part out, but Paige said something like, “But you must’ve known while you were with your ex that something was brewing with Brendan.”

“I mean, I guess kind of. I think we both knew we liked each other, but it was never anything serious, you know?” I said.

“Yeah, I know. I feel like Mike and I had a bit of a thing like that,” she said.

I tried to keep a poker face, but OH MY GOD I CALLED IT. “Really?”

“Yeah. Had. Past tense. I mean, we met for drinks when he gave me my job offer and I got hammered and yeah…that’s where everything started.”

I didn’t even try to hide my shock. Because what was she talking about? “What do you mean? What exactly happened?” 

“Nothing really happened, I guess. He started being really flirty with me and we just had this thing,” Paige explained. I just stared at her waiting for further details because can you even imagine Mike flirting? None of this was making any sense to me. She said that they had a ton of sexual chemistry and he would go out of his way to be near her and touch her and she liked the attention (this sounded almost exactly like my relationship with my former boss, Scott). And then she said she didn’t even know he was married until a few months ago (complete bullshit — I don’t think Mike wears a wedding ring, but he has pictures of his wife and kids all over his office), after she called him outside of working hours and he told her that he was with his family and it was inappropriate. When she pressed Mike about their flirty relationship, he told her nothing was going on, he’s married and her boss, blah blah blah.

“I mean, what did you want from him? You’re married, too,” I pointed out.

“I don’t know, I just wanted him to acknowledge our thing, I guess? I obviously didn’t want anything from him.”

That was it? That’s the story? They didn’t even make out? I was like, okay Paige, *don’t ever tell that story again*, in the words of queen, icon, legend Garcelle Beauvais. I feel like she was telling me that just to compete with me. Anyway, she’s pregnant now, due next month and shuffles around rubbing her belly all day. She’ll be like, “Omygod, I can feel his spine, wanna come feel?” And it’s like, uh no, we aren’t even that close so it’s weird. I don’t really have time to sit around and gab all day and she comes to my office to grill me with pregnancy and baby questions for hours on end. Not to be rude, but was I this obnoxious when I was pregnant?

Brendan brought his new business manager, Gigi, to the office to meet our team. Mike had already met her and kept telling me that he wanted me to meet her and that she’s “really good” so her reputation kind of preceded her. Her real name isn’t Gigi, but it’s super unique and just as silly so I gave her an alias. I fully expected to hate her, especially when she waltzed in wearing a hideous oversized Hailey Bieber blazer. But…I don’t? She’s kind of great? She’s annoying (she’s told me no less than 40 times that she’s Hungarian and that her family is from Hungary), but she’s really smart and she’s direct like I am and gets everything done that she says she’ll get done. It’s like, duh, of course they just needed to put a woman in charge! Plus, she likes reality TV and fashion so we talk about that stuff too.

Brendan hasn’t officially taken a step from his company yet, thank god. Over the years, we’ve worked together a lot and I can’t imagine a project without him. When Mike gave me all that extra work, he and Miguel, who both know a lot more than I do, helped me a ton. Mike would say things like, “We need clearance from the city to get the gas turned on, can you talk to the city?” And Brendan and Miguel would be like, “We know someone from the city!” We just do so much together and I’m not looking forward to him not being around. 

Meanwhile, I guess things thawed out a bit between Brady and me. After I turned him down about working on things, he ignored my existence for a few weeks, but then he needed to change our schedule because he had some upcoming travel.

“Oh, now you want to talk to me because you need something,” I said.

Brady smirked. “Yes. I appreciate you.”

That was potentially the nicest thing he’s ever said to me, at least in a very long time, so I was willing to overlook the past few weeks of him being rude to me. So we were distant, but not actively hating each other. Like, we didn’t keep in contact during the week, but we’d still catch up when we saw each other. And we even relaxed our custody schedule a little bit, after I complained about not ever getting to spend weekends with Winnie.

Brady was like, “Oh, that’s no problem. If you want a weekend, just let me know.”

Very interesting. I figured he was trying to build up some good karma with me, especially when he reached out to me about Mother’s Day and asked if I wanted to pick up Winnie that Sunday morning to spend the day with her. I’d assumed that it would be like last year and he would deliberately make plans without me. So I immediately took him up on his offer before he tried to change his mind.

I made plans for us to do girlie things during the day and then that evening Brendan was going to take us out for dinner. So I skipped my ass to Connecticut on Sunday morning to pick up my child and Brady was all, “You look nice today.”

And I was just in leggings and Sherpa slides so that was immediately suspicious. I let him know that I super appreciated him switching the schedule and letting me spend Mother’s Day with Winnie and he was so nice (like overly nice) about it which was quite different than how he was last year. I filled them in our plans for the day and Winnie was amped and actually excited to leave with me. We strapped her into the car and then Brady stepped in front of my door so I wasn’t able to open it.

“So I wanted to run something by you,” he said.

“K.” I figured he was just going to ask to change our schedule again, that’s how casual he was speaking. And I was so grateful for him letting me have the day that I was open to whatever.

“I am dating someone and I thought you should know,” Brady said.

I just blinked at him so he continued.

“I want you to be aware in case we get more serious.”

“Who is it?” I asked. From what he was saying, it didn’t sound like he was talking about Anna or anyone I knew. And “more serious?” So they were already serious?

“Her name is Kara.”

“Kara?” I repeated in an unnecessarily judgy tone. “How do you know her?”

Brady smirked, like he was enjoying my reaction. “I don’t see why that matters.”

“How long have you been dating her?” was my next question.

“Not very long, a few months or so. But I really like her.”

So he was telling me all of this on Mother’s Day — mid May — and he’d asked me to “work on things” in February. So they couldn’t have been dating that long. How serious could they have gotten in less than 3 months?

“Oh. I didn’t know you were capable of ‘really liking’ anything or anyone,” I said.

Brady grinned, loving winding me up. “Seriously?”

“So has she met Winnie?” I changed the subject.

“Not yet, but she might, which is why I wanted to tell you.”

“Thanks,” I said sarcastically. “Well, we have a nail appointment so we have to go.”

“Okay,” Brady said, but didn’t move.

I told myself I was not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me upset about the bomb he just dropped, but he was standing in front of my door and I opened it and he didn’t move…so it hit him.

“Jeez!” Brady exclaimed.

“Sorry.” I was totally not sorry. “Thanks again! Bye!”

As I drove back to the city, I dissected everything he’d just told me. Kara, a few months, “more serious.” On one hand, Brady dating someone was a relief because now I wouldn’t have to feel guilty about Brendan. But on the other hand, I felt kind of icky. I didn’t want Brady bringing some random broad into Winnie’s life and then it not working (because let’s be honest, Brady is not a good person in a relationship and he is certainly not going to marry her). What if Winnie hated this Kara person — or maybe worse, what if she loved her? What if she loved her more than me?

When we got to the nail salon, I scoured Brady’s socials for an hour trying to find any indication of the existence of someone named Kara/Cara. I couldn’t find a morsel of anything which makes sense since Brady doesn’t really use any social media regularly. Maybe she wasn’t even on social media. Or maybe she wasn’t even real? I was lowkey spiraling.

Anyway, we went to dinner with Brendan at a gorgeous, bougie little spot I’ve been dying to go to. One of those fancy places with white tablecloths and probably not totally suitable for children. Oh well. I kept telling Winnie all day that she needed to be on her best behavior.

It started off nicely. We ordered literally everything on the menu and Brendan and Winnie gabbed like they always do. One of the reasons I love Brendan is because of how much he loves Winnie. Like, he accepted both of us with no hesitation even though it’s a lot. I’m sure it would be easy for him to find someone who doesn’t have baggage in the form of a toddler. He could probably get with a cute 22-year-old recent college grad (ew) and have an easy life, but he doesn’t and he chose us. Plus he just always thinks of Winnie and considers her with whatever we do and I just love to see it.

In the middle of dinner, I blurted out, “So Brady has a girlfriend.”

“Oh, really?” Brendan said.

“Really?” Winnie said.

“Yeah. Isn’t that bizarre?”

“I mean, I don’t know. Not really?” Brendan said.

“I think it’s super weird. And I think they’re getting serious which makes zero sense,” I said.

“Oh. I feel like that kind of makes sense?” he said.

And then out of nowhere, I started bawling. Right there at the dinner table.

“Really, Mommy?” I heard Winnie say.

“He just dropped it on me this morning, obviously trying to get a reaction out of me. I don’t really care, I just think it’s weird the way he told me. And why would he tell me? On Mother’s Day!” I cried.

Neither of them said anything so I just kept going. “I assumed he was hooking up with his college girlfriend, Anna, but he mentioned some girl I’ve never heard of and wouldn’t tell me anything about her. Just some stranger!”

Brendan was giving me a strange look that was a mix of confusion, horror and judgment. He asked, “Why are you so upset about this?”

“Why wouldn’t I be upset?” I shrieked. “I get that you don’t care if your ex is in a new relationship since she was probably in one the whole time you were married or maybe you never liked each other in the first place, but it sucks!”

It didn’t sound that harsh in my head, but Brendan’s face let me know that perhaps it was a bit harsh.

“Uh, okay,” he said.

“Okay,” I repeated. “It’s fine. I’m not even that upset.”

I pulled myself together and Brendan and Winnie carried on like I didn’t just have a meltdown. Needless to say, dinner was a bit tense after that. So who really ruined Mother’s Day, Brady or me?

We got back to the apartment just after 7 so we chilled for a bit before it was Winnie’s bedtime. Winnie always needs an hour to run around before she goes to sleep so she’s properly tired. Otherwise she will wake up and she will enter my bedroom without warning. I learned that the hard way. I let Brendan take her to bed while I poured us wine so we could drink and hash things out. I assumed he was mad at me since dinner, but he was far too polite to confront me in front of Winnie. Meanwhile I scrolled through every “Kara” or “Cara” on LinkedIn located in the tri-state area. What?

After several minutes, I realized that all of the lights were out and the apartment was quiet. Mind you, it was like 8 PM at this point so there was no way that Brendan had gone to bed already? Didn’t we have things to discuss? I left the wine on the counter and went to find this man. And sure enough, he was in the bed shirtless like he was about to sleep. At 8 PM without even telling me!

“Uh, hello? Are we not having wine?” I asked.

“Uh, no. I don’t want any wine,” he said.

“K.” I joined him on the bed. “Cuz you’re mad at me?”

Brendan said, “Yeah, I’m pissed!”

Oh? In all the years I’ve known him, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Brendan say that and especially not to or about me. We’ve had plenty of disagreements, but he always stays calm and level headed and I was suddenly fearful that I was going to burst into tears again.

“That was such a low blow and I’m sorry, but you crying about your ex having a girlfriend is weird. It’s weird!” he continued.

“It’s complicated having a child together!” I tried to explain.

“I get that, but didn’t you know this was going to happen eventually? Why wouldn’t he get into another relationship, you have?”

I couldn’t tell Brendan that just a few months ago Brady asked to work on our relationship and I considered it for approximately 36 hours, but I was thinking about that in the back of my mind. Or the fact that Brady said he “really likes her” which I’m fairly certain he never even said about me. Or that we’d made out.

“I don’t know, but I feel like him telling me that on Mother’s Day was deliberate and strategic just to ruin my day,” I said instead.

“Do you not see how this is weird?” Brendan asked.

“No!”

“Whatever,” he muttered and flipped over so he was facing away from me.

Seriously?

“I’m sorry about the low blow,” I said.

Brendan said, “It’s fine.” And that made me feel worse because it was totally not fine, clearly.

“Are you still pissed at me?” 

“No,” Brendan said, but still didn’t turn around to look at me.

I felt like a complete asshole as I got up to change into pajamas and do my nighttime routine. And I felt even worse when I got in bed and he cuddled me like I hadn’t been a raging twat all day. I love Brendan literally so much (mainly because I can feel how much he loves me) and I hated that I’d pissed him off, especially over Brady.