Anna laughed at that.“No, but it’s good. Because I feel the same way. And I’m trying so hard to not just climb into your lap and wrap my entire body around you like a koala bear because I don’t want to let go. It just feels really nice to know that you feel the same way.” Anna kissed her again, a small, light kiss.
“So, you’re not mad that I’m a bit clingy?”
Anna just laughed.“No, and when we get home, we’ll figure it out. I don’t want to sleep without you either.”
Brooke smiled at that.“Really?”
Anna nodded, tugging Brooke forward with the fabric of her polo.“Really,” she whispered just before their lips met.
Just then the bathroom door was pushed open. Brooke jumped back about a foot. Her trauma from being walked in on flaring up again. It was magnified tenfold when she realized the person who had walked in on them was her mother.
It was as if Anna could feel every tingle of fear in Brooke's mind, because Anna immediately positioned herself ever so slightly, and ever so noticeably in between them.“Mrs. Kent,” Anna said, her voice already a bit combative. Brooke loved her.
Sybil sighed, all but rolling her eyes.“I should have known.” She took a deep breath and spoke again before Anna could respond.“Ms. Fourchette, may I please have a word with my daughter. Alone.”
Anna stiffened, clearly hating that idea. She looked back at Brooke before she moved. Brooke hated the idea of being alone with her mother after reliving the very worst moment of her life, but she nodded. She needed to do this. She had to stand up for herself, or clearly nothing would change. No boundaries would ever stick because they wouldn’t be boundaries that she had set. Her mother would keep trying to walk over her.
“It’ll be fine, Darling,” Brooke said, steadying herself.
Anna did not look convinced. She pointedly kissed Brooke's cheek before she shuffled around Sybil and pushed back through the bathroom door. She shot Brooke one last look that told her to just yell if she needed backup. But Brooke was determined. She crossed her arms and leaned her hip against the bathroom counter, waiting for her mother to speak.
“Your father told me he spoke with you last night,” Sybil began.
She didn’t continue, so Brooke just nodded. Augustus had spoken to her, that was true. She could agree that that had happened.
“He suggested that I needed to speak with you as well.”
Brooke scoffed. So loudly in fact, that her mother seemed surprised by the noise.“Yes, Mother. It would be nice to hear an apology from you and not your husband.”
Sybil looked rocked by that sentiment. Her hands fluttered nervously, something Brooke had never seen before. It was a powerful feeling to know that she made her mother as nervous as her mother made her. Fear of rejection, she could see it bob in her mother’s throat behind her armor of pearls. Brooke was emboldened at the sight. She stalked forward and continued,“if what he says is true, why then have you continued to be awful to me?”
“Your friend”—
—“Girlfriend,” Brooke corrected immediately.“Anna is my girlfriend. And I quite intend to keep her, so perhaps we start by addressing her accordingly.”
Sybil rolled her shoulders back, preparing for battle, but Brooke would not back down. She spoke again before her mother could even begin to counter,“did you come to apologize or insult my partner more?”
That did it. That was a powerful enough blow to knock her mother back on course. For the first time in Brooke's life, she saw her mother shrink, defeated, and small.“I don’t know how to do this,” Sybil admitted.
“I’m not going to help you,” Brooke said, letting the truth of those words hang between them.“You kicked me out. You took my brother away from me. My friends, my football team at school, ballet, kendo, you, Father. All of it. You ripped it away and you never looked back. Until what? I showed up and wasn’t a failure? Until I charmed your colleagues and peers and people you believe are worthy? What am I meant to do in this situation, Mother? Even if you can manage to find the words? Pretend that none of it happened? Pretend that I don’t go to therapy every other week to unlearn you?”
Brooke’s voice had gotten louder, rougher than intended, but she did nothing to stop herself.“Shall we all just act like you don’t treat Anna horribly? Like you didn’t invite Holly to Nate’s rehearsal dinner? What was the point of that, Mother? To show me how normal she ended up? Or was it to point out that I could have ended up with a doctor? Because I’m still confused as to what your motive even was with that one, other than to cause me pain.” Brooke felt her eyes well with tears, but she soldiered on.“All you’ve done is cause me pain and you have the audacity to tell me you don’t know how to do this?”
Sybil Kent did something then that Brooke never could have imagined. She cried. Actual tears fell.“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“For what?” Brooke asked, not hiding the rage in her voice.“For which thing, Mother? I don’t accept a blanket apology for this many wrongs.” Susan would be proud of her for that.
“For how I’ve treated Ms… Anna.”
Brooke's jaw flexed.“That’s a good start. You should say that one to her.”
“And I’m sorry for inviting Holly. It was petty and beneath me. I invited her the day Nathaniel informed me that he was inviting you.” She sighed.“My motive was for you to see how she had ended up. Though, after seeing her and her wet blanket of a husband, I don’t know that I would call them normal.”
Brooke shouldn’t have laughed, but it was oddly amusing to know that her mother had realized the full extent of her backfired plan.
Her mother softened then.“And I’m sorry for how I treated you. Then and now.” She wiped her tears with the back of her hand. It struck Brooke then, that she and Nate both wiped their tears in the same manner despite not having a single memory of seeing her mother cry.“I don’t know how to right those wrongs.” Her eyes searched Brooke's.“And I know that I don’t deserve your forgiveness. To the extent that I won’t even ask for it, but I would like the chance to know you. On your terms, of course.”
It was better than she could have imagined. It gave her permission to not accept her mother’s apology, which she was grateful for, because she honestly didn’t think that she would. But she could accept this. She could accept that her mother had finally apologized and that she had clearly meant it. It also allowed Brooke to guide their relationship forward at her own speed. Brooke nodded and took a few steadying breaths.“The next time I come visit Nate and Mel, I will notify you and Father that I’m in town. Should our schedules be congruent, we could… perhaps.. share a meal.”
