Sadly, that wasn’t to be the case.
Carrie had tapped out first, citing that her sister had an emergency, and Carrie was providing childcare.
Annoying, from Reese’s perspective, but she couldn’t really begrudge the woman. Probably.
So they’d been waiting on Jennifer, the last hope to diffuse Reese’s responsibility toward hyping Brynn up about making, in Reese’s mind, the most ill-advised decision of her young life.
Which was why Reese let out a long, quiet sigh when Jennifer’s text came through. She reached for the open bottle of wine on the coffee table and topped off her glass.
Reese had stared down her father while he looked at her with hostility in his eyes. She’d dealt with board members who made decisions outside of any common decency and stared her down while they did it. She’d wrangled Grant, whose drunken spittle had flecked her outfit while he’d blamed her for everything going wrong in his life.
And yet all of that paled in comparison to handling Brynn in this moment, who didn’t even realize that she should probably be upset.
In a way, it made things easier for Reese. If Brynn wasn’t distressed, which was astounding in its own right, then Reese should follow her lead.
“What are you thinking about for dinner?” Reese asked,standing up with her glass and walking over to a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf that covered one of the living room walls.
“Originally, I was going to have us all do a tasting menu at Nori Nori, but when I decided I wanted a more casual night, I figured that we could still order sushi.”
Reese tried to hide how the pieces were clicking into place, and she pretended to study the titles of the books on the shelves. Nori Nori was probably the most sought-after reservation in Boston, unique because it was only two private rooms for a nine-course tasting menu for dinner.
She couldn’t be sure, but for Brynn’s college friends, at least, it seemed like maybe a slumber party had less of an allure than a reservation at the most exclusive restaurant in Boston.
Guilt hit her at the current state of Brynn’s romantic and personal lives. And maybe, more than a little, she still felt badly about earlier today, when she’d been on the verge of being disparaging to Brynn.
Sure, she didn’t understand her future sister-in-law, but that didn’t mean that she was dumb. Or that she didn’t know what decisions she was making.
Which was further evidenced by… “So you’re into philosophy?” Reese asked as she finally focused on the titles before her. There were rows and rows of books by authors Reese had never heard of.
Brynn looked a little shy then, even younger when you added in her navy pajama set with pineapples repeated across the top and shorts. “I just finished my PhD in philosophy in the spring. Modern analytic philosophy, to be exact.”
Reese’s brows lifted, and she touched one of the spines. “So, I guess you and Grant have a lot to talk about then?”
Brynn laughed. “Well, most people don’t want to talk about philosophy, so I can’t exactly hold that against Grant either.”
“So, what comes next?” Reese asked, changing the subject but keeping it high level. Trying to get into anything related tophilosophy, she was quickly realizing, would be like bringing a knife to a gun fight. “Teaching?”
Brynn came to stand next to her at the bookshelf. “Still figuring that out.”
Reese realized, as they stood shoulder to shoulder, that she had an opportunity here. She was already a glass of wine deep—not enough to be drunk, but her tongue was a little more loose, and she had questions that, for weeks, had been begging for answers. “So, tell me more about you. I think this is the first time we’re really hanging out one-on-one.”
“Well, I’m an only child.”
Reese pointed at Brynn with the hand holding her wineglass. “Which I already knew.”
“Hmm…” Brynn scrunched up her face in thought. “Well, we’ve already covered my academic pursuits.”
Reese made a little ‘aha’ sound, like the idea was just coming to her. “Tell me about you and Grant. That is what we’re here celebrating, after all.”
“I can say that I never really saw Grant coming,” Brynn said, her voice full of earnestness.
“What do you mean?” Reese asked casually.
“Studying philosophy, from the outside, looks a lot like having your head in the clouds. I wasn’t looking for anyone. I finished undergrad and went right into my PhD program, which was pretty rigorous.”
Judging by the number of books, Reese thought that ‘rigorous’ was painting too merciful of a picture. But then, that seemed to be Brynn’s whole thing, understating everything about herself.
“How did you two meet?” For someone who’d spent their life making sense of the world, Brynn wasn’t exactly forthcoming with information about her own place in it.
