sober tears.

On Monday I had my phone interview and it went really well. So well in fact, that not even an hour after it was over Kate texted me saying, “I heard your interview went well!”

She said the execs in the office want to meet me and asked if I could come to New York City early next week. While I was excited that they wanted to meet me, I can’t just take off work and fly to New York City. I told her that I could go, but it would have to be a weekend. I didn’t hear from her for a few hours so I continued working and kind of forgot about it until Kate called me on my cell phone.

I shut my office door and answered it.

“Hey Reese. I know this is kind of last minute, but we were thinking – we could fly you in on a Friday night red eye, then have the interview Saturday morning and you could be on your way back home by Saturday afternoon,” Kate said.

I didn’t say anything right away. It all seemed kind of rushed. Why were they so thirsty to meet me? I mean, not that I’m complaining. It just seems really fast.

“I know this process is moving fast, but we are trying to get this position filled quickly as the holidays are approaching and this new shop opening,” she explained, as if reading my mind.

“Okay… Let me think about it,” I said. I hadn’t spent any time really, really thinking about if this was even a job I wanted. When Kate explained it to me, it did sound interesting, but I didn’t know if that was enough to make me want to travel all the way to New York City for an interview. I told her I would text her later and let her know.

After work, I went to the fitness class with Kendra and Carly. It was a lot less terrible than last time, but I still regretted going after the first ten minutes of being there. I’m never going back.

On Tuesday, Brady and I got dinner then went back to his place afterwards. I hadn’t told Brady about the potential new job at all aside from the initial conversation Kate and I had at his dad’s party and I wanted to get his take on it. I had tentatively told Kate that I would go to NYC, but I told her I would get back to her after I checked my weekend schedule. I obviously don’t have a weekend schedule except to drink.

I told Brady all about it during dinner and he said, “I don’t see anything wrong with exploring other options. As long as it isn’t affecting your current job. It was responsible of you to schedule your interview for a weekend so you won’t cut into your work.”

I didn’t mention to him that my phone interview was two and a half hours during the workday and I took it from my office. Oops.

He said that until I got an offer, I shouldn’t stress about it. Not that I was stressing or anything. I guess if nothing else, it’s a free trip to New York.

When we got to Brady’s house, he got in the shower while I laid on the bed texting Kate and Preston. Preston was telling me a story about how while he was out with Dillon the other night, Mr. Murphy called him and said he was in the neighborhood and wanted to pick Preston up from his apartment. Preston tried to lie and say he was at work and Murph was like, “Your store closes at 8. Why are you still there?”

So Preston made up this elaborate story about how there was a shoplifter and the police had to come and he had to stay and give a statement, etc. I laughed so hard. Couldn’t he just say there was a meeting or something? 

While I was laying there, I noticed Brady’s phone sitting on the nightstand charging. I tried to talk myself out of touching it, but that didn’t work. I don’t know what I was looking for, but I leaned over and took it off the charger. Before when I looked through his phone, all I had to do was slide to unlock it. But apparently he is actually using his touch ID and a passcode so I couldn’t get in. Okay, like I get it. I shouldn’t have been trying to look through his phone, but still. What’s he hiding?

I replaced the phone and minded my own business until he got out of the shower. I waited until he was almost all the way dressed before asking, “What’s your ex-girlfriend’s name?”

Brady’s entire body paused for two or three seconds then he continued pulling his shirt on.

“Anna,” came his muffled voice from under his shirt. Once he got his shirt on he turned his back to me and started touching stuff on his dresser.

“Anna?” I said, almost excitedly. “The same one I saw you talking to at your dad’s party?”

Brady turned around and faced me. “Yeah.” He sounded defensive. 

“Oookay. So it hasn’t been ‘a while’ since you’ve seen your ex then,” I said, trying really hard not to sound accusatory.

Brady shrugged.

“Why did you lie?”

“I don’t see why it even matters. I hardly ever talk to her or see her so you don’t have anything to worry about,” he said, gruffly.

“I’m not worried. I just think it’s weird that you didn’t introduce me to her and failed to mention that she was your ex and then lied about the last time you’ve seen her,” I said.

“Okay.”

Okay?! Is there anything worse than when you’re having a discussion and/or argument with your boyfriend and he says, “Okay.” Like fuck you.

“That’s all you have to say?” I asked. “No explanation?”

“What do you want me to say, Reese? You were going to flip out on me no matter what!” Brady said, raising his voice.

“If you told me the truth from the beginning, why would I flip out on you? Do you really think I’m that ridiculous?”

Brady didn’t say anything so I took that as a yes.

“I couldn’t care any less about Anna. I have no reason to flip out over you just talking to her,” I said calmly.

“Well, you’re pretty unpredictable sometimes,” Brady muttered. I watched as he opened the door and left the room.

Before I could even stop myself, I just started crying. Ugh. Sober tears. I felt like I really approached him calmly and not accusingly, but obviously that didn’t work. I was so frustrated. For once, I felt like I actually wasn’t in the wrong. I didn’t want Brady to see me crying so I quickly locked myself in the bathroom to clean myself up. After ten minutes, I’d pulled myself together and emerged from the bathroom. Brady was sitting on the edge of the bed.

“I think I’m going to go,” I announced.

“I’m sorry,” Brady said.

“Okay…” I said quietly.

He reached out his hand and without even thinking, I took it. He pulled me on the bed next to him.

“I should have introduced you to Anna,” Brady said. “I’ll take full responsibility for that. I guess I just wanted to avoid any awkwardness.”

I nodded.

“You’ve known that she was my ex the whole time, haven’t you?” he asked.

I nodded again, smirking.

“How?”

Oh…shit. 

“Your mom told me,” I blurted out. I was not about to admit to stalking his Facebook.

“Wow, she did?” Brady looked confused.

“Mmhm,” I nodded.

So I’m glad I finally confronted him about Anna and I feel like I got some answers. I’m sure there was a more graceful way to bring the subject up, but I’m anything but graceful. lol. 

Anway, I guess I’m going to New York City for a few hours this weekend. Also, my parents are talking about visiting me for Thanksgiving next week. Maybe they can finally meet Brady! We will see. They claim they’re going to visit all the time and never do. Hmph.

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confronting amanda.

My dad was in the city for business on Monday and treated me to lunch. I never realize how much I miss my family until I see them. We met at an Italian restaurant not far from the office and my dad already had a table by the time I got there. When I spotted him sitting there in his slick navy suit I nearly cried. I haven’t seen my parents since Christmas and it has been way too long.

In some ways my mom and dad are polar opposites. He is in charge of the entire financial department for a Fortune 500 energy company so he makes like, a ton of money. He’s very business-minded. It’s all work, work, work with him even on holidays and weekends. I don’t blame him – working hard is how he got to where he is now. Even though he brings home enough money per year to buy a small jet, he is still very humble. He drives a Honda, buys his suits from Dillard’s and gets excited about free samples at the grocery store.

My mother, on the other hand, drives a super unnecessary white BMW X5, has a personal shopper who buys groceries for the house, and has an average of fourteen credit cards at any given moment. She was a practicing therapist for several years before starting a cupcake business with a friend. She never went back to therapy and relies on the profits from her cupcake shop (and my dad’s money) to support her extravagant lifestyle.

They met in college and bonded over their love of food. My mom says they would go out to eat six days a week which honestly sounds really awesome. Except now my mom isn’t a very good cook. They got married as soon as they graduated and found out they were pregnant with me on the first day of their honeymoon. They obviously love each other and get along great, but sometimes I feel like my dad wishes he would have married someone else.

I’m the perfect mix of them both. 

“Hi Daddy!” I greeted him.

He stood up and hugged me so tight I couldn’t breathe. I needed that hug though. 

“You look amazing, pumpkin,” he said, kissing me on the cheek.

I’ve told my dad nine billion times not to call me “pumpkin.” It insinuates that either a) I’m big and round like a pumpkin or b) I overdid it with the self tanner and am the shade of a pumpkin. Both of which are unacceptable and downright mean.

“Thank you. I’ve been working out and stuff. I even ran a 5K!” I told him as we sat down. The “working out” part was obviously a lie, but whatever.

“Good for you! And you ran the entire thing?” 

I nodded. “Of course. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.”

“That’s mighty impressive, doll. The Reese I know would’ve had a horse and carriage take her to the finish line.” 

I stuck my tongue out at him, but couldn’t help thinking that was a great idea. Next time.

We ordered small plates and talked about my mom and other family back home. Mom is up to her old tricks, maxing out the credit card and hoarding expensive, vintage furniture. In her defense though, our house does look like a grand, french provincial estate. It was even photographed for a local magazine a couple years ago. 

All of my grandparents are retired except my maternal grandmother who owns and manages a highly successful high rise apartment complex downtown. We are convinced she will never retire. Daddy says they are all doing great except missing me tremendously (who wouldn’t?). 

Catching up with my dad was fun and I was sad when we both had to go back to work. He made me promise to make a trip home soon and I told him I would.

When I got back to the office, I started chatting with Aron outside the break room. Since I had him alone I decided to casually mention the whole Whitney/Amanda thing and find out his involvement. He assured me that he didn’t tell Amanda anything about me and I believed him. 

“Between you and me,” he said, looking over his shoulder. “Amanda is talking to BJ again. She told him that you caused a bunch of drama in the office and he said you’re a high schooler stuck in a 24 year old’s body.”

I saw red. I really didn’t think that I cared about the opinions of those peasants but that really pissed me off. How was I causing drama? What lie did she tell BJ to make him think I’m some immature drama queen? And why would Amanda be stupid enough to get back in contact with him after all he did to her? Ugh. 

I thanked Aron for the information even though I wished he hadn’t told me. There was no way I wasn’t going to confront Amanda now.

Unlucky for her, I caught her walking past my office later that afternoon.

“Amanda!” I called after her sweetly. “A quick word?”

She turned and looked at me curiously then walked into my office.

“How’s your day going?” I asked in my best sorority girl voice. 

“Good,” she smiled. “Whitney is letting me write the blog posts for next week so that’s what I was working on.” 

“Nice. Blogging is fun, right?”

She nodded.

“Just really quickly,” I said, getting into it. “People have been telling me that you’re saying things about me – inappropriate things – and I wanted to address it before it goes too far.”

I had barely finished the sentence when she said, “I haven’t said anything about you,” and crossed her arms defensively.

“Okay… But I do think you must have said something to make people think you were talking negatively about me.”

“No I didn’t. I haven’t said a word about you,” she said defiantly.

The little bitch was bold. I definitely expected to just say a few words and scare her out of my office, but she wasn’t backing down.

“Whatever you say, Amanda. Just know that if I hear anything else, I’m going directly to Tracey so she can handle it.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Oh so is Tracey actually disciplining people for their actions now?”

For a moment I didn’t know where she was going with this then I caught her drift. I hadn’t been fired over the BJ incident. 

“Yes she is. So continue talking if you want to be sent back to school with a bad recommendation.”

Amanda smiled and said, “Okay, Reese.”

Even though she looked angelic in her Lilly Pulitzer shift dress and matching turquoise headband, I wanted to snatch her hair out. 

“Have a nice day,” I said and watched her walk out. 

note: thanks for the recent comments everyone. most of y’all are so sweet and I appreciate it. 🙂 I’m going to be adding a FAQ page to this blog this week or next to address some of the questions I’ve been getting. if you have any you think should be added, email or tweet me. or leave it as a comment obviously. bye!

hotmessinhighheels@gmail.com
twitter.com/hotmessReese

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