“At minding my own business? Apparently much better than most people.” When Pops didn’t like people, his responses skewed snarky. Pops never liked Martin.
Martin cracked up as he pointed at Pops with gun fingers.
“There she is!” Pops looked past Martin. “My beauty, Debbie B!”
Mrs. Bartlett blushed as she wrapped her arms around Pops. “Oh Stanley, you have always been such a charmer.”
Has he?Tiana didn’t think that was how most people would describe Pops.
When Mrs. Bartlett finished greeting Pops, her attention turned to Tiana, she wrapped her arms around her and pulled her into a hug. “Andmy girl! So beautiful!”
Tiana felt herself getting emotional when Mrs. Bartlett used that particular term of endearment.My girl. She’d always wanted a mom. It wasn’t that she hadn’t wanted a dad as well, but she sort of had a paternal figure filled with Pops. But Mrs. Bartlett was the first and only maternal figure Tiana had ever had. That was the biggest loss she felt in the entire marriage. Tiana hugged her back then dropped her arms after a couple seconds, not wanting to allow herself to feeltoomuch.
“And where is that handsome new fella of yours?” Mrs. Bartlett looked over Tiana’s shoulder, her eyes lit with genuine excitement for her former daughter-in-law.
Tiana felt horrible lying to Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett. They’d welcomed her with open arms into their family. “He, um, he’s not going to be able to make it…”
“He’s running late,” Pops said at the same time.
As they were speaking, the restaurant doors opened, and Tiana glanced over her shoulder. Despite texting him not to come, she still had a glitch of hope that her fairytale prince would ignore her message and show up anyway to save her from her anxiety. She thought this might be her big rom-com movie moment when she’s in the awkward, uncomfortable moment and the hero, who she thinks has abandoned her, shows up looking gorgeous and whisks her away. That didn’t happen.
Instead, Brock walked in with Gianna. She’d been explicitly told he would not be attending, which is why she’d agreed. She felt her jaw drop, surprised to see him. He, however, did not seem at all surprised to see her.
She turned her head back to Mrs. Bartlett. “Did I get the wrong day? Or did I not…”
“No, you didn’t,” she stated flatly.
Her ex’s mom began to walk towards him. “I’ll go speak to h?—”
“No.” Tiana stepped to the left to block her path. She didn’t want to make a big deal over this. People in the restaurant were already murmuring about him being there she didn’t want anything to end up online. “It’s fine. I’ll go and just catch up with you guys a different night.”
“No!” Millie cried out and grabbed onto Tiana’s leg. “Auntie Tiana! Don’t leave! Please don’t leave!”
“Shh, shh, shh,” she shushed the five-year-old as she bent down to try and not draw even more attention to the situation. “It’s okay. I’ll see you before you leave, don’t worry.”
“What’s wrong? We can’t all have dinner together? This is my family, and we’re celebrating.”
Brock’s voice boomed above her as she held Millie in her arms, crying, still crouched on the ground.
“Celebrating?” Mrs. Bartlett repeated.
“We’re engaged!” Brock announced loudly.
Mrs. Bartlett gasped, so clearly, she’d had no clue about the engagement or the photo shoot that had taken place at the resort earlier in the week or the article that was going to be coming out the following week.
Millie had a death grip around Tiana’s neck, and she looked around for Belinda or Martin to help her extract their daughter so she could get the hell out of there.
“Okay, sweet girl I’m gonna go.” She tried to remove her arms, but Millie just doubled down, holding on like a koala bear.
She looked up at Pops, who was now seated at a booth in the bar and too busy shooting Brock stares, that if they could kill, would have ended up with her ex being six under.
The walls felt like they were closing in on her as panic and stress began to rise in her like a pressure cooker. Her heart was going a trillion miles a minute, her palms were getting sweaty. She stood, not knowing what else to do, holding Millie, who was still crying, attempting to calm her down.
Now more people were looking, Tiana was attempting to get Mrs. Bartlett’s attention so she could take Millie, but Brock’s mom was dumbfounded over her son’s announcement.
Tiana just needed to get Millie settled and handed back to her mom or dad and get out of the restaurant because she was starting to hyperventilate. Her lips were starting to tingle, and her knees were getting weak.
A hostess approached and said, “Bartlett party, if you could follow me.”
