For the first time in a long while, I began to wonder if I had sacrificed too much for my business and lost sight of what was important.
“How do you want to start?” Michelle asked. She rested her chin on the palm of her hand and looked at me with the same intense gaze as her brother had. It came back to me how often her and I would intimidate bullies and assholes with simple stares.
I sighed and rubbed my forehead. Suddenly I was so tired, so exhausted. Would it be wrong to pretend that this was just like old times, and that we were out to breakfast as a couple of gal pals and not a sister interceding for her miserable brother.
“Can I order some food first?”
“Honestly, that sounds like a good idea. Who wants drama on an empty stomach?”
“Ugh, not me,” I confirmed, picking up the menu from where the waitress had placed it at the end of the table.
I looked it over for a few moments, most of the words blurring in front of my face. When I could finally concentrate enough to make them out, I decided on a turkey club and promptly ordered my food with a glass of water. I could feel nerves begin to bubble in my chest, making me nauseous. I knew that I had to explain everything to Michelle, but I had no idea how to. There were so many words, so many ideas, but I had no idea what order to put them in or even how to express them.
Ugh.
What a mess.
Our food came and we dug in, chatting idly about work and life and traffic. It was nice but it was also… fake. Not like us. It was like neither of us wanted to do exactly what we came there to do, but I knew I had to if I wanted to get to Mickey.
And I oh-so-desperately wanted to get to Mickey. I wanted to put ice on his cheek and tut at him when he winced and take care of him as he had taken care of me so many times. Funny how certain things could trigger memories, but I could clearly remember a time where Aunt Trisha and I had both been down with the flu and he had stayed home from his senior trip to help take care of us.
He was a good friend, and I had taken that far too much for granted.
But that was going to change.
“You should start talking,” Michelle said finally, pushing her plate away from her when she was finished and giving me that look.
It jarred me to see Michelle so serious. She usually was the bubbly cheerleader type who hid her intimidating side in her back pocket to surprise people with. I guessed that she really was concerned about her brother. If there was ever a single thing that could break up our friendship, it would be if I hurt him.
I didn’t want to lose our friendship. Well, at least more than we already had through all of my neglect.
“Okay,” I took a deep breath and laced my finger together. “I guess I should start at the beginning.”
“That would be ideal.”
“Okay. So, this all started at the wedding-”
“Annika’s wedding?”
“That’s the only one I’ve been to in a while.” The waitress came back and set a new glass of water on the table, which I hastily chugged. The few seconds gave me extra time to think of what I wanted to say and how.
“Alright. So yeah, this all started at Annika’s wedding. Mickey came to talk to me early in the party and we parted ways for a bit. I was a bit tipsy and I made a dumb bet with Shelly. She was being a jerk and basically insulted every plus size girl on earth. I said that I could get any guy I wanted, and I may have used the fact that I knew Mickey had a crush on me when he was younger to my advantage. I’m not proud of it, but the look on Shelly’s face was so satisfying.”
Michelle didn’t look too impressed, so I chugged along with the story. She had never been one for revenge anyways. Not like I was.
“So yeah, we started to dance together and we both got pretty drunk. In all honesty, I don’t remember much of what happened. One minute I was on the dance floor with Mickey and then the next I’m waking up back in his hotel room with a big stone on my finger.”
“Wait…” realization struck Michelle and her jaw dropped, “You and Mickey?”
“Got hitched in Vegas… Neither of us remembers much of the night. We met after and decided to get an annulment for the marriage. He sent me the papers, but even after I sign them and we’re officially separated, it’s going to take a whole year to go into effect. Can you believe that? An entire year for something that happened between two drunk people in a shoddy chapel somewhere on the strip.”