“You really don’t know what happened that night?” I ask him.
“After our time in the closet? No.”
I chew on my bottom lip, trying to keep my mind where it is rather than allowing it to skate back in time. “I chased after Adam, my ex, feeling terrible for what he saw us doing just two weeks after breaking up from a two-year relationship. I finally caught up to him on Trail Creek Road. I was just in time to see his car skid on a patch of ice and flip over into the gorge.”
Brody’s hand cups across his mouth and his eyes widen with shock. “Wait, that was—”
“Yup.” I inhale through my nose to recompose myself. “So, this might give you a small hint of my interest level of falling for someone within four minutes. I was only eighteen. I’m sure I didn’t know what love was, but that night still haunts me. The thought of being in a real relationship in my thirties, following the path of love, marriage, and everything else, scares me to death. Plus, I just watched my mother lose the love of her life. No one is safe from pain.” There’s the reason I don’t smile.
I feel winded after saying more than I ever intended to tell Brody, but it appears as though he is listening and digesting my words. He swallows hard and his eyes fill with a light film of tears. “Jesus. I—just need a second.” He stands from his chair and rushes to the bathroom, closing himself inside.
This is why I don’t have friends.
I’m a monster.
A few minutes later, Brody steps out of the bathroom and ambles past the dining room toward the kitchen. “Can Hannah stay with you tonight?” I hear him ask his mom.
“Of course,” Elizabeth answers.
“Yes!” Hannah responds.
I guess there’s no place like grandma’s. Why is Brody offloading Hannah though?
“Can I have a hug?” I hear Brody asking Hannah.
“Fine,” she groans.
“I love you.”
“That’s it?” she continues.
“You complete me, Hannah Banana.”
“No, Dad. That’s not what I meant!” she scolds him.
“Sweet dreams and I will see you before school,” Brody tells her. I hear the smack of a wet kiss followed by the slap of a hand against skin.
“Gross,” Hannah moans.
Brody walks back, passing the dining room, where I’m sitting and continues for the front door. Not even a damn goodbye.
“Oh yeah,” I hear him say as he opens the front door. I twist around in my chair, wondering what he’s doing. He returns to the dining room and grabs my hand. “Come with me.”
“No. What are you doing?”
“Let’s go, Journey.”
“I don’t want to go with you.”
“Tough,” he says. “Get up. Get your coat. Let’s go.”
“What is wrong with you? Do you understand what “no” means?” Obviously, he doesn’t, based on the fact that he showed up at my apartment the other night for a date that I declined.
“No,” he says. “Well, not when it’s important and matters.”
He disappears into the foyer before returning just as fast, this time holding my coat. “Here’s one arm,” he says, holding the coat open. He lifts my left arm and shoves it into the sleeve, then repeats for the right arm. My coat is now awkwardly resting over my shoulders and scrunched up at the elbows.
“I’m still not going with you.”
