Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 81113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
I had to just keep quiet and raise the baby on my own, best as I could. I had good parents who I liked to think did a good job of raising me. I could do a decent job, right?
That, and I had to do it without Brooke or Michael learning the truth.
I said goodbye to Brooke, hugged her, and then turned to stare around at my apartment, now filled with baby things.
It was going to be a long few months.
Chapter Twenty-Three: Michael
I couldn’t lie, I’d been moping around. Like a lovesick puppy or something. Honestly I was a bit ashamed of myself for being so down in the mouth. But I couldn’t help it. I missed Stevie, more than I had the words for. Every time I went into the restaurant and saw how well things were doing, I could only wish that she was there to see it. Or I’d think about how if things were running this well without her, how much better they’d run with her, how spectacular it would all be.
Yeah, I was in a funk, no doubt about it. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been like this. Perhaps I had been like this when Virginia had betrayed me but that was more of an outrage and betrayal. This was just… moping, and being frustrated with myself. I couldn’t understand why Virginia had done that, how she could break my trust, but with Stevie, of course I understood.
I had told Stevie that I didn’t want a relationship, and I had told her that the restaurant was still failing and that I had let her change things too quickly, gone to an extreme that our guests weren’t ready to handle. If I were her, I would’ve quit too. I had no one to blame but myself for this.
If only I had realized just how much I cared for her. If only I hadn’t been so gun shy about the new menu.
Honestly, I blamed my own state of mind for why it took me so long to notice that Brooke was doing some moping of her own. She was unusually quiet, especially at the restaurant, and seemed to be just… down. There was a heaviness to her that I didn’t usually see, like someone had strapped weights to her shoulders.
I made sure to make her a delicious breakfast the next morning, and while she devoured her pancakes, I sat down with her and asked her what was up. “Is it a boy? Or a coworker?”
Brooke shook her head. “I just miss Stevie, that’s all. With her gone, I don’t really have anyone to talk to about this whole thing, with Mom and Theo and their dumb TV show.”
“You haven’t watched more of it, have you? It’ll just make you upset, don’t do that to yourself.”
“I know, I know, and I’m not—it’s just—” Brooke set down her fork. “Mom called me.”
My eyebrows shot up. Virginia rarely spoke to Brooke. At first she had total radio silence, then she had tried to reach out multiple times, practically harassing Brooke, until Brooke put her foot down in the one and only temper tantrum I had ever seen Brooke give.
After that, Virginia had stopped trying to talk to Brooke. I was glad for it. Not that I wanted Brooke and her mother to have a bad relationship, but Virginia needed to listen to Brooke and respect the boundaries that Brooke had set down.
“Why did she call?” I wondered if it was something bad, if Virginia was trying to warn Brooke ahead of time of something so that Brooke wouldn’t have to find out the way she had about the cheating with Theo - when the whole storm exploded on her.
Brooke sighed, fiddling with her pancakes. “She asked if I wanted to come visit and tour the set. She even said that I could be in the show, if I wanted.”
Ah. “And how did you feel about that?”
Brooke shrugged, and I saw that her eyes were shining and wet. “Like she still doesn’t get it,” she whispered. “All I wanted, Dad, all I wanted was for her to apologize and say that she had handled it poorly. Like… you can’t control your emotions or how you feel about someone. I understand that. So if she fell out of love with you, that’s okay. If she fell in love with Theo, that’s okay too. Her feelings are valid.”
“Just because you’re angry doesn’t mean you can punch someone, though! Her actions weren’t okay. And at that point, it doesn’t really matter how she was feeling, was it? She could’ve asked you to go to marriage counseling with her, or asked for a separation, or even just a straight-up divorce. But she didn’t do any of that, did she? She wasn’t honest, she just took what she wanted without thinking about anyone else.