Kendra and I needed to go shopping for Thanksgiving so we did that during the day on Wednesday. Brady had to work, but insisted I take his credit card to pay for everything. I’m not exactly sure what we got, but we spent almost $400.

Kendra kept saying, “Are you sure he won’t mind?”

And I assured her that he insisted on paying. I mean, he did, right? And it’s not like he gave me a limit or anything. I still got rid of the receipt immediately just in case even though he probably won’t even notice. 

Kendra was making the major foods at her house and put Carly and me in charge of a few of the sides, dessert and setting the table. I threw some things in the oven then started setting the table. Then Carly showed up and she brought alcohol so the two of us started taking shots. Since Brady and Chris were downstairs, Carly and I took over Brady’s room and started getting ready and gossiping about Preston. He legitimately has two boyfriends now.

“Get this!” Carly said, doing the hideous open mouthed mascara face in the mirror. “Mr. Murphy and Preston are going to dinner tonight, like an expensive seven course thing. But he also has plans to make dinner with Dillon so he doesn’t know what to do.”

“He probably just shouldn’t participate in Thanksgiving this year,” I said.

“And then!” she exclaimed. “You know how Mr. Murphy gives him a weekly allowance? Well, he spends a ton of it on Dillon. He takes Dillon shopping and everything!”

We predicted that this situation is going to end badly.

I got dressed in a pair of One Teaspoon shorts, a sequin tank and a cardigan that I got a couple sizes too big so I could channel my inner Olsen Twin. 

Brady knocked on the door and when I opened it, he said, “Um, did you have something in the oven?”

I totally forgot that I was cooking. I scurried to the kitchen, but the pie and dinner rolls were almost black. Oops. Naturally, I blamed it on Carly.

“Carly, why didn’t you take the pie and dinner rolls out?” I shouted. She didn’t respond.

Luckily, Kendra showed up soon after that and we helped her bring everything in then I asked her to help me whip together some sides together. “Help” meaning she cooks while I finish my makeup.

Brady’s friends started showing up soon after that. First Jacob, Stacey, Dan, and a doughy cheeked guy I’ve never met named Paul showed up. Then that girl Brady works with that I met at his party came. She seems nice enough, but I don’t know why she was invited. Her name is Maddie and she came with her friend, Abby. I was really annoyed by their names.

Everyone started drinking and hanging out while we waited for the food to be ready. The doorbell rang and I announced that I would get it. I wasn’t sure who else we were expecting, but I wanted to be the first to see. 

I opened the door and Carly’s older brother, Kyle, was standing there. I think I’ve mentioned Kyle before, but we’ve had this ongoing flirtationship for years. We’ve never hooked up because Carly would kill me, but we flirt and tease each other endlessly. 

“Reese,” Kyle said, grinning. He’s so hot. He’s just like, a man, you know? He’s tall and fit and even though he had on a backward cap I could see that his blonde hair has grown out and was peeking out down by his neck.

“Hey Kyle,” I smiled back.

Kyle snaked an arm under my cardigan and around my waist and I could feel his cold fingers on my skin. I hugged him back lightly and he kissed me on my cheek as he pulled away. “Long time no see. How have you been?”

“Fabulous,” I sang. “Carly didn’t tell me you were coming.”

“I wasn’t going to turn down Thanksgiving dinner in the city. What did you cook?”

“Everything,” I lied walking away.

I had no idea that Chris and Kyle had never met, but I watched Carly introduce them. Then she stood there biting her nails hoping they would hit it off. It was so cute.

Finally, all the food was ready and we set up a buffet so everyone could load their own plates. I packed my plate with turkey, green bean casserole and mashed potatoes then made a glass of wine and tequila (sangrila). I sat next to Brady and Kendra sat on the other side of me and Kyle was sitting directly across. He kept making eye contact with me and smirking and winking. I hadn’t formally introduced Brady as my boyfriend to him, but I’m sure he got the memo.

Someone suggested we go around the table and say what we’re thankful for. Ugh. I hate shit like that. Everyone was saying that they are thankful for their families and their friends and Kendra said she was thankful for the opportunity to be a lawyer. It was so cheesy.

When it was my turn, I told everyone that I thought the little activity was stupid, but I was thankful for tequila. Then I made us do a toast.

After I finished my drink, I turned to Brady and said, “Can you make me another drink? I don’t feel like getting up. Three parts tequila, one part wine.”

“Sure,” he said and stood up.

That Paul guy must have been watching and he said, “Dude, you’re so pussy whipped,” to Brady.

I smiled. Brady is “pussy whipped” just because he was willing to make me a drink? That’s a little ridiculous I think. Brady didn’t deny it and just shrugged and went to make my drink.

Eventually we all made our way downstairs to continue drinking/watch football. Carly, Kyle and I were kind of huddled together catching up since we hadn’t seen Kyle in a while. He’s moving to the city from the suburbs for a job so we were mostly talking about that. The condo he’s looking at isn’t far from my apartment and I told him.

“Oh yeah?” Kyle said, slinging his arm around my neck. “You’ll have to show me around the neighborhood.”

I giggled and pushed him off playfully while Carly shot me a dirty look. Brady appeared next to me at that exact moment. He looked from me to Kyle and smiled politely.

“Hi,” I said guiltily. This would probably be considered flirting.

“Hey. I’ll be over there,” Brady said and gestured to somewhere across the room. 

I decided to leave the Kyle situation alone and go find my boyf. I saw Mabby on the way there and asked if they were having fun.

“Not as much fun as you,” Maddie said smiling and I sensed some shade.

“Well, not a lot of people can be as fun as me,” I said, walking off. I was going to stay and passive aggressively tell her that she needed to lighten up and trim her split ends, but decided against it. Maturity – 1, Drunk Reese – 0.

I found Brady sitting in a chair talking to his friends and I plopped down on his lap/the arm of the chair.

“Hey lover,” I said affectionately. “I missed you.”

“Me too,” he said, kissing me on the cheek.

And then I heard that Paul guy, the same one who called Brady pussy whipped, say, “Goddamn, can you take your girlfriend’s titty out of your mouth for five minutes?”

He said it in a low voice and didn’t mean for me to hear, but I heard.

“You’re fucking rude!” I blurted out.

Paul gave me a shit eating grin and said something like, “You really picked a good one, Brady.”

“Where’s your girlfriend, ugly?” I demanded.

Paul laughed which only made me more mad.

“And as much as you clearly love Wendy’s, that doesn’t count.”

“Reese, stop,” Brady said gently.

I spun around to face him. “Me? Why are you taking his side? He started it!”

Brady gave me a look that said, “Just shut up and we’ll talk about it later.”

I got up and stormed off. I met up with Kendra and told her what happened. She rolled her eyes and said something about me always making a scene. Whatever. I wasn’t just going to let him say whatever he wanted. People were starting to trickle out including that asshole Paul. I hope I scared him away. 

Brady found me and mentioned that he and Chris wanted to go to Best Buy so as the last few guests were leaving, I changed into something warmer so I could tag along. I’m usually not into Black Friday shopping, but I was drunk and kind of just wanted to see the shit show.

When we got to Best Buy, it was surprisingly not that crowded. I was expecting/hoping for lines, fights, riots, tasers, etc. Brady and Chris were looking for DVDs or something lame and I followed along for a little while. Then I got bored and wandered off. A guy who worked there saw me walking around aimlessly and asked what I was shopping for.

“Oh, nothing really,” I said.

He insisted on showing me some of the deals they were having so I followed him around the store. He showed me a laptop that I definitely don’t need, but it was on such a good deal that I had to get it. He also showed me an iPad that I decided I could get and give to someone as a gift. Then we looked at the Beats headphones which were over half off. I need a nice pair of headphones for when I run and work out so I told the guy that I wanted those too. I also picked up an e-reader to reads books on, a case for it, a phone case, a keyboard for the iPad, and a green Kitchenaid stand mixer. 

We ran into Brady on the way to the cash register. He looked at my full cart and gave me a confused look. “What is all this?”

“Just some stuff I need,” I said. I was feeling judged so I told him I would meet him at the registers.

In total, including the geek squad protection for my laptop, I spent over two grand. I felt like I got good deals (except later I found out that the laptop was only $50 off so I was swindled).

After Brady and Chris paid for their things, I made Brady load my things in the car while I watched.

“Jesus, Reese,” Brady said as he put my new mixer in the backseat. “What did you do?!”

“What?” I replied defensively. “Those are all gifts and they were good deals.”

But now I’m kind of regretting buying all that stuff.

I met with my potential new boss on Friday morning. I woke up hungover so I took two Advil, drank a glass of water and put on about six layers of concealer under my eyes. We met for coffee and I knew what he looked like because I’d stalked his LinkedIn profile. I immediately found him sitting in the back of the coffee shop with a laptop.

I walked to the side of his table and he looked up from his laptop at me curiously, flicking his eyes over my body and face.  

“I’m Reese,” I told him.

“Reese!” he exclaimed, surprised, and stood up to shake my hand.

His name is Andrew and he is tall with dark hair and warm dark eyes. Andrew kind of reminds me of Freddie Prinze, Jr. He’s good looking for sure, but I could tell that he’s past his peak. He probably used to be the fucking man in high school and college, but the partying caught up with him. He’s probably only a couple years older than me.

We sat down and small talked for a while and then even though Kate told me it would be a casual meeting, Andrew pulled out an interview guide and started asking me questions. I wasn’t really prepared for this, but I surprised myself with how well I was talking about profit and loss, target markets, employee coaching and overall business acumen. 

An hour later, Andrew said, “Reese, I think you would be a really good fit for this position. However I’m going to be bluntly honest with you.”

I really had no idea what he was going to say. He looked down at his notes and kind of sighed then said, “As a sales director, you would be in charge of sales managers and assistants who have years and years of experience. A lot of them will probably be older than you. I’m a little concerned about you being taken seriously.”

I swallowed and blinked a few times. That was not what I was expecting at all. Taken seriously? What the fuck was that supposed to mean? 

“I mean, I’ve not had a problem being taken seriously thus far…” I said slowly.

“Maybe ‘taken seriously’ isn’t the correct term,” Andrew said. “But you’re a young, great looking woman. I don’t think that is what anyone will be expecting from a sales director. This is a high caliber job, you know.”

I’m not a feminist by any stretch, but a woman can’t be taken seriously in a “high caliber job?” That’s rude. 

What he said left a bad taste in my mouth, but something about Andrew made me really like him. The way he shook my hand was so personal and warm, I suddenly had visions of innocently flirting with him and tricking him into giving me extra vacation days.

Kendra and I got dinner and drinks on Friday night and I told her what happened with Andrew. 

“Reese, that isn’t legal,” she told me. “He can’t say that to you. It’s offensive and illegal.”

Even though Kendra’s probably right, I’m not going to like, press charges on him. If he doesn’t think I can handle the job, then that’s his loss. Plenty of people think I can be taken seriously.

On Saturday night, the gang (me, Brady, Carly, Chris, Preston and Dillon) planned on going out. We hit up a night club first and drank and danced and had a really fun time. I didn’t get us a VIP table, but one of the bartenders gave us all free shots and took them with us.

After a while, Brady and Chris said that they were going to a bar close by. Since the rest of us were still having fun, I told them we would meet them there later. After they left, Carly confronted me in the bathroom about her brother.

“Ya know, Brady asked me about you and Kyle,” she said.

“What did he say?” I asked with wide eyes.

“He wanted to know if you guys have history or if Kyle likes you. I obviously said no.” Carly cut her eyes to me in the mirror, looking stern. 

That made me feel really awful. If only Brady knew how little of a threat Kyle is. If I wanted Kyle, I would have had him.

After we left the bathroom, I texted Brady to see where they were. He didn’t respond right away, but we still closed out our tabs preparing to leave. When we got outside, Brady still hadn’t responded so I suggested we go to a bar around the corner. I figured we could waste time until I heard back. I started talking to this hot black lawyer and decided he would be perfect for Kendra. I introduced them and then lied about having to go to the bathroom so they could have some alone time.

I ended up going to the bathroom and calling Brady, but he didn’t answer. I texted him, “You need to answer your phone so we can find you!!!!”

I went back out there and found Kendra, but the lawyer was gone.

“Did you get his number?” I asked excitedly.

Kendra made a face. “Uh no. He’s weird. And the law school he went to isn’t even Top 25 or anything.”

“Kendra!” I exclaimed. “Who cares what law school he went to. Don’t you want to get laid?!”

She gave me a dirty look and ended the conversation. We hung out at the bar until it closed and since Brady never called me back, I took an Uber home with Kendra and Carly.

I didn’t hear from Brady again until he called me on Sunday morning.

“Hey. I ended up coming home and passing out last night. I didn’t even make it to the bar,” he said.

I didn’t want to argue with him or question him and start a fight so I just said, “Oh.”

“I’m really sorry. I didn’t even drink that much so I must have been extremely tired,” Brady went on.

“Yeah,” was all I could think to say. I wasn’t about to pretend to be okay with this, but I also didn’t want to argue.

Brady asked if I wanted to come over, but I told him I had plans with Kendra. Kendra did ask me to go to church with her and I declined, but after talking to Brady, I changed my mind.

Brady and I didn’t talk for the rest of the day.