As you can see, I was totally normal about Brady and Caroline’s engagement. I was fine if I didn’t sit and think about it for too long. I mostly felt betrayed on behalf of my daughter — who didn’t seem bothered or to care in the slightest after coming home from spending New Years with her dad. So maybe I was offended for no reason because Winnie did not even mention that she knew about it.

I think I’ve briefly mentioned a couple times that Winnie has taken up dance and has been in classes since last summer. Mainly just to socialize and for something to do in the same way my mother put me in gymnastics as a small child. I was actually kicked out of gymnastics, but that’s a story for another day!

So anyway, apparently Caroline is a trained dancer and took classes up until she went to college (a fact she’s told me no less than six times). She always wants to discuss Winnie’s progress and to know if Winnie has learned these certain moves or reached these certain milestones. I’m like, “You know, I think she finally learned that she’s supposed to start dancing once they say ‘5, 6, 7, 8.’” It’s like, she’s a little baby! Everyone else takes it so seriously though including the other dance moms. They all think they’ve spawned the next Maddie Ziegler while I watch their child pick their nose and eat their boogers for the entire class. It’s just so funny to me.

Winnie’s dance school was also out for the holidays, but over the break they held a little mini camp/workshop during the day which I obviously signed Winnie up for because some of us still had to work. To celebrate the end of day camp, the children had put together a little showcase with brunch (aka an excuse to charge more $$ for tickets and a costume) and I told Brady about it in passing since we’d need to modify our schedule to accommodate. He didn’t ask any follow up questions at all, but then Caroline messaged me asking for further details, really leaning into her new stepmom role. Then she was like, “You don’t mind if we come to brunch, do you? I’m excited to see what Winnie has been up to!”

It’s like, why would I give a fuck if you come or not? And you always come without asking so why ask now? Stop being annoying. Was I still feeling bitchy about the entire proposal/engagement? Probably. And it didn’t help that Brendan was traveling and wasn’t going to be able to come with me and you know he’s always with me at these things.

Sunday rolled around and I was back to being unbothered about Brady and Caroline. Like truly, I did not care even though I never got any kind of acknowledgement for the bottle of Clicquot I sent. I was fine!

At first I didn’t notice, but Caroline was acting kind of weird to me. Like, standoffish. For example, usually she always rushes over to say hi when we see each other and gives me some sort of compliment, but we made eye contact when they walked into the event and she didn’t come over to say hi. But I also hadn’t seen her in a little bit (Brady was meeting me outside the house during drop off, remember?) so maybe something had changed. Still I thought nothing of it and marched right over to say hi myself. The last thing I want is to seem petty when I am definitely not.

“Hey!” I said.

“Hey Reese,” Brady said like he was already sick of my shit. I hadn’t even done anything!

Caroline was standing next to him, but kind of behind him and was carrying a tiny bouquet of flowers. I hadn’t thought of getting Winnie flowers, but considering how much she loves them, it was a cute idea that I wish I had thought of.

Brady and I politely chatted for a bit while Caroline said nothing. She’s usually yapping my ear off so again, this was weird. Eventually I leaned over so I could actually see her and said, “Congrats, by the way.”

Caroline looked at me, surprised, and I pointed to my ring finger.

“Oh, thanks,” she said back like she wasn’t expecting me to speak to her. “Thank you for saying that.”

Whatever.

We went into the little viewing room where we could watch the kiddies and Brady plopped into a seat right next to me and Caroline sat hesitantly on the other side of him.

“So…” he leaned over to me, smirking. “Where’s Brendan?”

I don’t know why, but this offended me. Since when does he care about Brendan?

“He’s out of town. Why?” I said back.

Brady shrugged. “He’s always with you.”

“Do you have an issue with that?” I snapped.

“I really don’t care. I just didn’t know if you were still together.”

Uh, excuse me? Hello??? Why wouldn’t we still be together? Did he know something I didn’t?

“We’re definitely still together. No need to worry,” I said.

He continued smirking and said, “I’m not,” in a way that felt sarcastic.

Caroline glanced over at us and he stopped talking to me. She probably thought it was odd that we were having a conversation because Brady hardly ever speaks to me anymore.

A little while later, the children came out and we all went to the decorated tables where brunch was being served. Winnie sat in a chair between Brady and me and climbed back and forth between our laps to gossip about her dance friends. Caroline was definitely being weird, but I felt bad because she was clearly trying to be included and Winnie wasn’t giving her a chance. She wasn’t even interested in the flowers (to be fair, it was an entire bouquet of baby’s breath or something and it was kind of hideous). I even stepped in to try to facilitate interaction between them. I’m like, “Winnie, did you say thank you for the beautiful flowers?” and “Caroline is speaking to you, did you hear her?”

Perhaps he thought I was laying it on thick or something because Brady made eye contact with me and mouthed, “Stop.”

Huh? I mouthed back, “Stop what?” I literally wasn’t doing anything except trying to get Winnie to acknowledge Caroline’s existence. But he didn’t seem to care if they interacted or liked each other at all.

Brady glanced at Caroline and she glanced back and then he ignored me, not answering my question. I’m like, what the fuck is going on? What am I missing? They were both being so weird and I was completely over it.

The next weekend, Brendan and I went on a trip to Mexico, just south of Cancún. It was much needed if you ask me — a getaway for just the two of us with no child to worry about or wedding to attend. I was excited for some uninterrupted relaxation time with my man, my man, my man! And although I said just the two of us, there was another couple there. Do you remember Alexander, Brendan’s high school friend who I met on New Year’s Eve? He and I had what I thought was a short, meaningless conversation that night, but Brendan and Kendall kept teasing me about him and insinuating that I had a crush on him or something. We were all at a lounge one night and Alexander showed up — Kendall was like, “Reese, your bestie is here! Alexander, come over here, come say hi to Reese!” It was all very confusing, we had literally one conversation and it was mainly about his wife. I mean, I thought he was hot but I never told anyone that. (Did I?)

So anyway, Alexander and his wife were also in Mexico and staying at the same resort as us, but aside from a dinner reservation, we didn’t have plans to hang out with them.

I packed bikinis, flowy dresses, a cutout top by Cult Gaia, chunky gold earrings, my entire sunglass collection, etc, really prepared for a sunkissed weekend. But then it proceeded to rain nonstop for all four days we were there. I think I might’ve seen the sun once. But our room had a nice, covered outdoor space with a little pool that faced the ocean so we spent a lot of time out there drinking room service wine and talking. And when we weren’t sitting outside, we were in bed talking and having a lot of sex. I love Brendan literally so much, like he’s my best friend and my favorite person in the world (besides maybe my daughter, usually). But do you know what he told me?

He told me that he got a large settlement from his ex-wife after their divorce. I’m like: interesting, you told me how you argued back and forth about an engagement ring and a Rolex watch, but you never once mentioned a settlement. Apparently since she got to keep the townhouse they got together and “has more money” than him, she (her family) cut him a fat check to settle the divorce quickly.

“Fascinating. And then you spent it?” I said.

“Not all of it,” Brendan said. “But definitely some. I invested the rest.”

“What did you spend it on?” I had to know, mainly because it would tell me how much this “settlement” check was.

“Well, my place obviously,” he said. “She took the house so I had to have somewhere else to live.”

Remember Brendan bought a huge three bedroom apartment a few years ago and I was perplexed how he could afford it? Well, that’s how — his ex-wife’s family bankrolled it. Gross. It shouldn’t matter to me and I guess I can’t hold it against him, but I hated that.