He doesn’t even laugh, just keeps looking, as if he’s going to have to draw me from memory in a few minutes and wants every detail.
“I’m basking in your presence, Sunshine. You fit in so naturally here. I was just thinking about how lucky we are to have this family. And how lucky they all are to have you.”
Well.I cover my sniffle with another sip of wine and reach to hold the hand he’s had on my knee since we sat down.
Blanche draws everyone’s attention again with a delicate clink of her knife against her wineglass, and I remember hermentioning a personal announcement earlier. Sasha’s face is ashen beside me as he surely has the same thought I am.She’s not going to announce the film, is she?Even the non-hard-core portions are explicit and not something I ever considered the rest of the family seeing.
“I know I’ve been traveling a lot lately and spending more time on my creative endeavors, and I want to thank you all for being so accommodating and letting me come and go as I please to see you all and the grandchildren. Now that we have Lucy and Sasha joining the Sinclair group chat, and with Kat and Henry finally back from their travels, it’s the perfect time to tell you all something I’ve been so excited to announce!”
Sasha squeezes my hand, and I hold my breath, bracing for the blow.
“I’m rested and ready for my next batch of grandbabies!”
Epilogue 1
“Yes!”
Lucy agreeing to marry me under the stars one night at the beach house felt like a dream. After being so nervous that I was literally sick earlier in the day, I managed to actually ask her the question I’ve been dying to ask for months now. Even during the darkest days of being an asshole and thinking she was conspiring against me, I knew if I ever got married, it would only be to her.
Now, as I sit in the waiting room of a bland office in the city, I don’t have regrets, exactly. But I do think I might be unprepared for what’s about to happen. We had been cuddled naked in our favorite hammock, listening to the waves and tipsy on champagne and each other, when Lucy clarified her willingness to marry me.
“Couples counseling,” she slurred sleepily into my shoulder, so softly that I barely heard her.
“Hmm?” I still had hope at this point that she said “let’s fuck again,” and I didn’t hear the word counseling.
But couples counseling is exactly what she meant, and I got an impassioned speech about working through our communication styles before we got married. My upbringing and inability to trust her needed to be unpacked, and her abandonment issues, thanks to her dad, also threatened to fester. Sober Lucy the following morning felt just as strongly as tipsy Lucy the night before. When she shyly admitted she had needed to be a little drunk to admit to wanting counseling, unsure of how I would react, I felt like the world’s biggest piece of shit. So here we are, ready to learn some tools and exercises to help me become a better man for my future wife.
It’s nerve-racking, not knowing what will happen in this first session. The internet says it’ll be more getting to know us than anything and seeing how we communicate. I don’t know if it’s our current communication that’s the problem, or if we should focus more on how to heal from what I did. Either way, I’m committed to doing whatever I need to do.
A petite woman with bright blue highlights emerges from an office and makes a beeline for Lucy and me.Showtime.
“You must be Sasha and Lucy! I’m Allie. It’s so nice to meet the two of you. Sloane had mentioned you, Sasha, when Kat married Henry. Once I realized you two would be coming to see me, I asked her to stop telling me things. I didn’t want any bias or pre-conceived notions!”
She’s bubbly but not in an annoying way, and Lucy seems relaxed enough. I hope client confidentiality is strong enough to keep Sloane from finding out all the details of our sessions. Even if she does, it’s just as likely that Blanche will give out merch for our film for Christmas. So maybe I can just relax and not think so much about who will find out what.
“Sloane told me about your college days when she recommended you! I hope I can hear your side of her and Ledger’s courtship sometime. She made it seem pretty intense.”
Allie cackles as she leads us into her cozy office, complete with a plush couch and flickering faux candles. “She leaves all the craziest parts of their story out when she tells it. I remember all the juicy bits she likes to pretend never happened!”
As we settle in, accepting Allie’s offer of tea, she notices the fresh tattoo on my wrist. .
“Oh, what a lovely design. It looks like…an abstract sun? I have a few myself, but certainly not as many as you seem to have!”
My shirt does show off both of my full sleeves to full effect. “Thanks! I do have quite a few, since I get one for every kill—”
I realize what I’ve said as Lucy coughs up a mouthful of tea, interrupting me. Allie manages to hide her reaction, no doubt a reflex after years as a therapist. The awkward silence isnothow I wanted to start to start this session. “This sun is special though, since it represents a theft instead. I stole Lucy’s heart.”
A beat passes before both women laugh, and Allie seems ready to get us back on track.
“I’d like to start by asking what brought the two of you here today?”
The silence is deafening as Lucy and I look at each other, neither knowing how to explain or where to start. I decide to just go for it.
“Well…Lucy moved here to find out more information about her dad who was never around, and we both ended up working for Blanche Sinclair. We worked together closely—”
“We were her sex avatars in an X-rated film about her and her late husband,” Lucy interrupts. “Then we began a relationship in real life, but Sasha’s family background makes it difficult for him to trust anyone, and he saw me having lunch with an enemy and went ballistic.”
“I’m not sure I would call itballistic, exactly—”
