“The one and the same,” Brooke confirmed, picking at the white table cloth for something to keep her hands occupied.
“Did he apologize?” Vivienne asked, her voice razor sharp and deadly focused. She had been there for all of it, becoming Brooke’s family after Brooke’s had rejected her.
“He wants to be a part of my life. He wants to know me exactly as I am. And… he wants me to come to his wedding. He said I could bring my partner and wear a tux, he just wants me there.” Brooke’s eyes watered again. She quickly dabbed at the corners of them with her white napkin.
Vivienne relaxed back into her chair.“Good, I told him he could only have your number if he wasn’t going to be another sack of shit in your life.”
Brooke’s eyes widened.“You’re how he tracked me down?” Well there went her idea of asking Vivienne to be her date.
Vivienne flinched.“Don’t be mad. He seemed sincere.”
Brooke smiled softly.“I’m not mad, just surprised. Thank you, Viv, seriously.”
“B,” Christine started softly.“We need to find you a date. And she needs to be smoking hot.”
Brooke sighed.“You mean I have nine-ish days to meet a woman, convince her to fly to England with me, and get her all prepped for the absolute delight that is sure to be my mother?” She shook her head.“Honestly, I think if I go, it’s just going to have to be solo.”
Vivienne’s eyes drifted to the kitchen dangerously. Brooke’s heart stopped, knowing immediately what her friend was thinking.“Unless…” Vivienne said, slowly.
“Oh, Vivienne, that’s brilliant. B, you absolutely should ask Anna,” Christine agreed.
“B should absolutely ask Anna what?” Anna asked as she returned to their table with salads.
Brooke flexed her jaw and cleared her throat, lifting her chin in the proudest way she could muster.“For advice,” she let out a breath, hoping that Anna hadn’t heard the rest or that she wouldn’t see right through her answer.
Anna looked honored.“What’s the situation?” She asked, resting her hands on her hips like she was ready to take on anything.
Brooke took a shallow breath.“Um, well. The thing is…” She didn’t know how to trauma dump. She never did, especially not on beautiful women who made her heart beat faster than running a marathon.“You see, it’s like this…”
Vivienne sighed, knowing that they had thrown Brooke into the deep end and that she was slowly short circuiting in front of the girl of her dreams.“B’s family sucks ass. Her brother, who seems to have turned out to be fairly decent, called Brooke up to invite her to his wedding. She hasn’t seen any of them in over a decade, but she’s considering going. He said‘bring a date, rock a tux, middle fingers up to their parents.’” Even Vivienne’s posh British accent, and aggressive word choice, didn’t quite ease the blow of the blunt force of the summary of Brooke’s life.
Anna deflated, almost imperceptibly, but Brooke caught it, which certainly meant that Vivienne noticed, as confirmed when Vivienne continued,“the tux is easy. B crushes it in a suit, I can’t imagine how good she’d look in a tux. The problem is that she’s single.”
Brooke’s nostrils flared. She shot a nervous glance towards Anna.
Anna looked deep in thought.“She’s right, I think you'd look really good in a tux.”
Brooke felt the tips of her ears go red.
“That’s not where we need the advice,” Christine amended, softly.“It’s the date part. She can’t take Vivienne because her family knows Vivienne, or at least knows people adjacent to her. They would know that she’s not adate, date. It can’t be me because I could never commit to the bit, and because I’m getting a cat while she’s set to be back home in England.”
Vivienne nodded.“So, in your professional opinion, would you advise her to ask an attractive acquaintance to go with her, or would you advise her to face her family alone. The same family who rejected her for being queer. The same family who has never once done anything to apologize or right their wrongs—except for the brother—would you suggest that she face that alone?”
Anna hummed.“I would want to shove it down your parents throats. I amallabout the middle finger to your parents. If it was me, I would go full throttle.” Anna smiled.“But that’s just me.” She shot the table a wink and moved back to the kitchen area.
“You have to ask her,” Vivienne said.
Christine nodded.“Seriously, she pretty much just said she would go with you.”
“She has no idea what that means. She doesn’t know anything about me, or anything about them.” Brooke groaned.
“Brooke, you have no other options. You don’t have the time. Whoever you take will need the right clothes, they’ll need the right posture, they’ll need to be warned about your fucking mother,” Vivienne’s tone was deadly serious.“She knows enough. She’s hot.” Vivienne lowered her voice and leaned across the table.“And you’re already head over heels for her.”
Brooke shot Anna a glance.“I can barely manage a full sentence around her. You think I could handle a trip?” Brooke’s voice raised an octave.
“You’ve done amazingly well tonight,” Christine said, patting Brooke’s arm.“Seriously, I’ve been proud of you.”
“Yeah, at this rate, in another year you could probably manage a paragraph,” Vivienne said, her honesty cutting to the bone.“It’s now or never, B.”
