Page 50 of Brenna, Brat

“Really.” He ate some more of the chicken I’d made. “This is so good.”

Good. I was glad that someone was eating. I’d ratted out Juliet to our big sister Nicola, saying that she was getting too skinny and I was concerned.

“Hey.You ok?”

I looked up. “Thank you for talking to Beckett about my problem, and I’ll also thank him for getting involved,” I said. “I’m relieved.”

“You just looked really worried, not relieved at all.”

“I’m worried about the wedding,” I said. “I got an email saying that the lace for the veil is delayed, no matter how much I pay to expedite it. No matter how much Beckett pays,” I amended. “And…”

“What?”

“It’s not only the wedding. I’ve been thinking about my future lately and what happened today made me think harder,” I admitted.

He waited.

“I’ve always known that I’m not doing the right stuff if I really want to have my own label. I should be in New York. I should be sewing more, working on my social media, trying to get clients, setting up my own shop, doing all kinds of things. I don’t even have a name for it.”

“Why haven’t you done anything like that? You don’t seem to put things off,” he said.

“It’s because I’m afraid of the risk,” I admitted. “Look how it turned out with my former atelier, when I wasn’t cautious enough.”

“That’s going to turn out ok,” he reminded me.

“Luckily, but not because I made good decisions about it. Seeing Chic and how she’s living made me even more wary about the direction I’m heading.” I paused. “I don’t even know if I can make it at all. I think that I’m good enough, but so much could go wrong. People might not recognize that I have talent, since a large portion of the public has poor taste.”

Campbell laughed. “I’ll wear your clothes, for sure. I know you think I dress ok.”

“You look amazing,” I corrected. “I haven’t ever done a lot of menswear, except when I had to in school.” I thought about dressing him, doing all those fittings…that was wildly inappropriate. I was a professional!

“You and I could draw up a plan,” he suggested. “It might put your mind at ease or it might make you sure that you should do something else.”

“That would be a good idea. After the wedding,” I said, and he nodded. And I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “Has anything else come of that lunch with Beckett, anything for you? Is there anything on your job front?”

“Let’s eat more chicken.”

“That means no?”

He put down his fork. “It means, I’m probably not going to get hired while there’s a cloud of suspicion over me. Even if there shouldn’t be,” he said quickly, before I could interject. He wasn’t smiling anymore, which made me sorry that I’d brought up this topic.

“I’m job hunting, too,” I mentioned. “I plan to start something new as soon as Juliet’s wedding is over. I have a few interviews set up so I’ll be ready to go.”

“Good. That’s a good idea.”

“What I’m saying is that I’ll be solvent, even if others are having problems.”

“Am I part of the problem group?” he asked, and I nodded.

“Even if you have to sell your cars, give up your savings, and sign over this house, you’ll still have a place to go.”

“Brenna. Fuck,” he said, and rested his forehead down in his hand. “You and me, living in your studio where I can reach out and touch all four walls from the middle of the room.”

“It’s not that bad!” I said. “And you’ll be able to get some kind of job, even if it’s really cruddy and if it doesn’t require your level of education, and even if it’s uncomfortable or dangerous or something. Between the two of us, we could probably afford something bigger.”

He looked up at me and breathed in and out slowly through his nose. “I don’t think that it’s going to come to that. I don’t think I’ll lose everything, but I may. I’m glad to know I have options.”

“I’m an option,” I restated, in case I hadn’t made myself totally clear. “I’m saying, I’ll be here, and you can mooch off me for as long as you need.”

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