Page 19 of Brenna, Brat

I thought of how I’d given Juliet a black eye last summer. I’d been studying martial arts at the time and had been feeling aggressive—since then, I’d been following a yoga workout that my mom had devised, which was more calming. “We don’t run around getting into fights in bars,” I informed him. Other places, sure. It happened.

“It’s good to see you. Why didn’t you ever text me back?” he asked. “I thought we had a nice time at dinner. You smiled like you were having fun.”

“I did have fun,” I said. He waited, but I didn’t need to explain any further.

“I did, too. Tonight, however, wasn’t so good for me,” he mentioned. “Carrington and I just came from my mom’s house where we met her new boyfriend. He’s younger than I am and I had to watch them French kiss.” He tilted his head as I recoiled. “Are you going to throw up right now, or can you hold it in?”

“I’m ok.”

“That’s one of the reasons that my sister’s on edge,” Campbell continued. “She also really doesn’t like Sophie. I’ve heard a lot about her.”

“Soph couldn’t help that Danny didn’t love your sister like he loves her,” I stated. “They’re married now and they’re going to have a baby.”

“Wow.” He raised his eyebrows. “Good thing Carrington didn’t hear that, or she would have gone for blood for sure. It’s that kind of night.”

“I guess it is,” I heard myself say. “We went to dinner at our parents’ house and found out that they’re getting divorced. My mom spelled it out in cupcakes, one letter on each.”

“A divorce message on cupcakes?” He seemed stunned. “I don’t know, you may win this one.”

“Are we in a competition for who’s having the worst time?” I asked.

“Not anymore. Now we’ll work together to make it better,” he explained. “I’m going to forget about the guy who talked about his philosophy major and then sucked on my mother’s neck, and you’re going to forget about the cupcakes. Ready?”

“Where do you want to go?”

He pointed across the street at a place that looked, in generous terms, like a dump. “That seems fine to me. Watch that puddle.”

I jumped over it so that my boots wouldn’t be damaged, because I’d gone along with this plan. Why not? I had no desire to return to the former bar, to explain how I knew Campbell, and to get involved in another teary discussion about my parents’ split. Nicola had picked me up and was supposed to drive me home, so I quickly texted and said that I would get a ride.

“Do you want the same thing to drink?” he asked as we entered the next place. “What did you have, vodka and cranberry juice?” I nodded, thinking that he was observant. I watched him go tothe bar as I squeezed myself into a chair at a small table, and I saw two women seated on stools give him a big once-over and whisper to each other, too. Popularity followed him everywhere, and it helped him to get his order from the bartender quickly as well. That guy smiled and added a wink.

“Here we are,” Campbell said, and placed my drink in front of me. He also squeezed into a chair but had a harder time than I did, since he was significantly larger. I had, out of boredom while at the gallery, looked him up, and I’d seen his player profile from college. Six-four, two-fifteen, D for defenseman, hometown of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. I’d also seen that he wasn’t at all like his sister on social media, because she posted her entire life and his (one, singular) account was private. I’d seen a bunch of pictures of him playing hockey, though, and in team photos through the years. I’d had to admit that he was a very, very adorable little boy and he’d grown into…he wasn’t too bad.

“Cheers,” he said, and held up his own glass before clinking it to mine.

I drank a huge swallow. “Cheers. Thank you for this.”

“The world owes you after the cupcake message,” he answered. “That’s crazy.”

“That’s my mom,” I corrected. “For thirty-five years, my dad went along with it. Why is he done with their marriage now?”

“You think the divorce was his idea?”

I hesitated, considering before I nodded. “I do think so,” I finally answered. “She’s a mess about it, but he’s very calm. Of course,that’s how they usually are too, but it seems like she’s in shock.” I drank again. “When did your parents break up?”

“I was twelve. I remember it perfectly, because my dad had Mom served with papers while she was throwing a dinner party and I heard her screaming from my room, which was two floors above.”

“That was mean.”

“It was a douche move,” Campbell agreed. “It was because she’d been cheating on him and he was getting back at her. The cheating had gone both ways, though, so she was still able to get a good supply of alimony.”

“You found out all that when you were twelve?”

“She liked to drink a few glasses of wine at night and when she did, she liked to talk. If I wasn’t at a rink, I was there, so I ended up having to listen. Later, I asked my dad about it and he gave me all the divorce documents to read. I got the full story that way. She wasn’t quite as angelic as she had painted herself but he didn’t come off cleanly, either. They’d treated each other like shit.”

“I hope my parents’ divorce isn’t like that. I hope they can do things somewhat amicably.” But considering my mother, I was sure that there would also be a lot of dramatic scenes involved, and I sighed.

“You want another?”

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