Page 105 of Falling into Place
I don’t knowwas on the tip of his tongue, but he thought that might piss her off even more. It might have been a rhetorical question anyway, because she kept right on going.
“Figure it the hell out, okay? Ask for help. Go to therapy. Read a self-help book. Don’t you have resources at work for this sort of thing?”
He did. He’d just never used them.
“If you really want to be that optimistic guy and tell the other one to get lost, youcan, but it’s gonna take some work. If you want to be the kind of man Carly deserves and that will give you both a happy life together, you have to face your issues head-on. If you think you weren’t a good partner yesterday, start being one today, and an even better one tomorrow. Do the work to make yourself worthy of this woman. Because deep down, I know you are. You’re not broken beyond repair, you’re just a little rusty in a few places.”
He just stared at her, mouth ajar.
“Damn, Sasha,” Macy said, pride shining in her tone. “That was ...”
“Awesome and kind of harsh,” Brooks filled in, then double-checked with Macy to make sure. “It was, right? I might still be a little drunk, so I can’t be sure I read it right.”
“It was,” Macy confirmed. “The perfect mix of encouragement and tough love. I couldn’t have done it better, myself.”
Sasha lifted one shoulder. “I call it like I see it.”
“You know who else used to talk to me like that?”
“Coach?” Sasha guessed.
“Well, yeah,” he admitted. “But I was talking about Mom.”
Both of his sisters’ faces softened.
“She was good at that,” Macy said. “Sometimes too good.”
“There were times I couldn’t tell if she was proud of me or mad at me,” Sasha said with a laugh.
“Exactly,” Brooks said. “That’s what that just felt like.” He mimicked her higher pitched voice. “You’re a disaster, Brooks. Like, an absolute catastrophe. But I think you can fix it, probably. Good luck with it.”
Macy laughed, and Sasha just regarded him without a trace of repentance.
“You’d have gotten there eventually, I think, but present circumstances have given you an opportunity to step it up right here and now,” she said. “And if you think Carly’s worth the effort, you don’t have another choice.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Carly
Hey, where’s the best place to find kitchen cabinet organizers? And don’t say you don’t know. I’ve seen your apartment.
—Text message from Kendall to Carly Porter, one year ago
Her entire adult life, Carly had worked so hard to avoid ever realizing her greatest fear that she’d never considered how she might react if it actually happened.
If you’d asked her a week ago how she might handle the prospect of unemployment, she’d have guessed it would be something along the lines of hysteria or a full-blown panic attack. Maybe even to the point she’d be on her knees, tearfully begging Mai to reconsider. She’d furiously search internet job boards and apply for twenty jobs by noon, because even though she was a saver and had a perfectly respectable safety net in her bank account, she never wanted to actuallyuseit.
But when she’d left Mode’s office that day, she had just felt numb. She’d gone home in a sort of trance, her body going through the motions to get to her car, drive home, and unlock her apartment. She fed Pepper,poured herself a glass of wine (adopting airport rules because no one was there to stop her), and settled in on her couch with the remote.
She sat there for hours, only getting up to pee, and wouldn’t have thought her day could get any worse.
Then Brooks called.
“Hi,” she said, too weary to say,Where the hell have you been?like she’d been prepared to yesterday.
“Hey,” he said.
She closed her eyes, tears building beneath them. It was so good to hear his voice. Especially after this morning.
