AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Not that I hadn’t tried to get Jillian to talk to me. I had. I had spent a solid twenty minutes after that ugly scene alternately ringing her doorbell and texting her messages that could only be described as desperate. I likely would have kept going if I hadn’t spotted her neighbor glaring out the window at me, looking like she’d love nothing more than to call the police on me. At which point I had wisely regrouped and opted for a different plan. One that had been largely unsuccessful so far, and appropriately, had led me to the very place both Eric and I had first met Jillian.
Ignoring the startled glances from the assorted cooks and waitstaff, I angrily shoved my way through the kitchen, navigating the cluttered chaos with practiced ease. With a heavy sense of resignation settling on my shoulders, I pushed open the door to my parents’ office, not bothering to knock.
“Hey, have you seen—?”
The scene in front of me took shape a millisecond later, and I immediately trailed off and stumbled to a stop.
Instead of finding only my father in the office, as I had fully been expecting, I discovered that my entire family was casually assembled around the tiny room. Dad was sitting rigidly behind his messy desk, staring vaguely at some indistinct point on the opposite wall. Mom was perched on the sole unoccupied section of the scratched wooden surface, her brow furrowed as she swiveled her head to look my way.
And then there was my prey. At long last I’d found Eric. He was sprawled back in the pristine leather armchair that we typically reserved for vendors, business contacts, and potential catering clients.
Most impressively, he was managing to simultaneously look both sincerely hurt and concerned, while still exuding smugness from every arrogant pore in his body. I briefly wondered if my parents could read him like I could, but I suspected that it was all a show for my benefit anyway.
A moment of stunned silence hung in the air, in no small part due to my wild entrance.
Eventually, Dad cleared his throat and leaned forward, folding his hands atop a smudged calendar. “Son. Perfect timing. It seems we need to have a family discussion. Your brother has been sharing some, uhh, distressing news with us. I’m hoping there’s been a mistake or explanation.”
“Oh, I’m sure he’s been telling you all sorts of things. He’s been busy today.” I paused to glare Eric’s way but got nothing but the tiniest shrug of one shoulder in return.
I opted to carry on before he could twist things any further. Facing my parents, I held up my palms and stepped forward. “I’m sure he’s mentioned that I’ve been seeing Jillian. That’s true, I don’t deny it. But, no matter what he says, I can assure you that we didn’t do a single inappropriate thing before they broke up. And it happened entirely by accident. It wasn’t some convoluted scheme we’ve been planning.”
Eric scoffed. “Sure, that’s totally believable. I mean, we’d been broken up a whole three days, you had all the time in the world to ‘accidentally’ meet up with my girlfriend of a year and lure her into your clutches. And bed, obviously.”
I opened my mouth to suggest something anatomically impossible to him, but my mother held up her hand. “Eric, enough. Dean…I’m still not sure any of this is our business, but I wouldn’t mind hearing how you two ended up together. It does seem awfully fast.”
Once again, I had to debate how much to say, and how much to keep quiet about. It was quite clear that that my parents weren’t thrilled with me and Jillian dating, which was admittedly fair, and I didn’t want to make it worse by explaining that we had entered into a highly irresponsible marriage while drunk off our asses in Vegas. It definitely wouldn’t help my case.
I moved to sit gently on a low rickety shelf of catalogues and sample books. “Jillian was in Vegas a few weekends ago, having a girls’ weekend or something. If you remember, I was also in Vegas recently for Alex’s bachelor party. We randomly ran into each other at a club one night and spent some time together. That’s it. We hung out, it was mutually enjoyable, so we kept hanging out. One thing just sort of led to another.”
I looked down at the floor as I finished, afraid that my face might give something away. It wasn’t entirely a lie, just an omission. A monumental one.
“And she was okay with dating you, her recent ex-boyfriends’ brother? I know you two always got along, but that doesn’t seem like her. Not so soon anyway,” Mom said and dad nodded in agreement behind her.
Before answering, I eyed Eric up once more. For the briefest of moments, we weren’t enemies, but we were siblings again. Ones who had once been as close as any two people could possibly be, and with the ability to have complete conversations with nothing more than a look. I could read him like a book, petty jealousy and all. In return, he could see my thoughts. My resolve. It was enough to send him scrambling upright.
I turned back to my poor, unsuspecting parents, prepared to make a choice I’d never be able to take back. “To answer your question, yes, there was some considerable hesitation between both of us, but since we’re laying it all out now, you should probably know that she was much less concerned about Eric’s feelings after finding out about his secret second girlfriend he’d been messing around with for months.”
All hell broke loose.
Eric shot to his feet and started loudly denying my accusation, for some inexplicable reason. Dad was shouting about raising us both better than this, and Mom was shooting questions at us so fast I couldn’t even understand them.
During all of it, I leaned back against the wall, wondering how in the hell we’d gotten to this place. Our family had always been blissfully drama free. Normal. Cleaver-like almost. Right now, we were a veritable Jerry Springer episode. The thin walls were no match for us, and I could only imagine the reactions of the staff just outside.
Jillian was worth it, but man, it was all making me want to run for the hills. Or actually, to get in my plane and put a few hundred miles of air between me and the rest of humanity.
Eventually, the dust did inevitably settle. Angry voices petered out. Combatants retreated to their corners. No one was happy, but the worst of it had run its course.
To everyone’s utter shock, Eric spoke up first. “Alright. Fine, I’ll own up to what I did. But I didn’t mean to do it. I fell for Emily, just like you fell for Jillian. It just happened, right? Isn’t that your argument? Except at least Emily was never your girlfriend. That’s just wrong. It’s like, code. Bro’s before hoes.”
“Eric!” Mom snapped, appalled at his phrase.
“It’s just a saying….” he sputtered.
I stood up, towering over my little brother, resisting the urge to smash my fist into his smug face. “And at least Jillian was single when we got together. Neither of us were cheating on anyone. I’ll agree, the timing wasn’t ideal, but it’s not the same as what you did and you know it.”
“Not ideal? Come on, we’d just broken up. It was a matter of days. You were taking advantage of her. Or who knows, maybe we would have worked things out if you hadn’t made your move,” Eric insisted.
Which made zero sense as he had just admitted to falling for his side piece.
