Marital Bitch (Men with Badges) - By Jc Emery Page 0,3
noticed him, I realize that her eyes are fixed on me. I smile, feeling my face heat. Her deep green eyes are enchanting. Slowly, she walks past but not before Brad can give her a quick head nod: his lady-killer head nod. He couples it with a sexy smirk and a slight chin rub; but the beautiful woman doesn’t take much notice.
I allow myself the indulgence of following her with my eyes, until she disappears into coach. During my experimental college days I’d tried dating a woman—a Venezuelan woman in fact—but it never got past a chaste kiss and some handholding for me to realize it was a phase.
Settling back into my seat, I see Brad staring me down. He’s not happy with me. Women are a touchy subject between us after what happened with Heather. It was so awful we took to calling it The Heather Incident.
“What?” I ask, feigning nonchalance, but he isn’t buying it.
“Are you gonna ask her out?” His tone is clipped and I can’t really blame him. He wanted to marry Heather before everything went wrong, and he’s never really forgiven me for my role in their breakup, not that I’ve forgiven myself.
“It was one time, Bradley,” I snap, sounding much too like his mother. Finally, about five years ago, he stopped finding creative ways to call me a lesbian. Brad doesn’t care if any other woman on the planet likes women, but after The Heather incident, he most certainly cares if I do. I don’t want this to rip open old wounds, though it seems it has.
“Do me a favor, just move on, okay?” My patience is wearing thin with this topic. It was over ten years ago and a plethora of women have found themselves into his bed since. Bradley Patrick is no monk.
He quickly turns away from me in his seat, indicating that our conversation is over. I huff and pull out the cheesy vampire book I’ve been enthralled with. I let myself drift into the imaginary world, all the while imagining the male lead is sitting next to me.
We remain silent for the entire flight—neither one of us is willing to budge on this topic—which suits me just fine. I can only apologize so many times, and I will only allow myself to feel sorry for so long.
Brad seems content to be my friend when it suits him, but then at the slightest blow of the wind, he’s back to chastising me. One of us is going to have to demand some finality once and for all. Either we can be friends, or we can part ways, but he can’t continue on punishing me like this at will. I won’t stand for it. My birthday has officially started to suck.
Our arrival in Las Vegas is far less exciting than we had intended it to be. The shuttle ride to our hotel is silent. I heard their subtle commentary on the plane to one another. They miss their kids. Darla is on the verge of tears. Her youngest is only six months old. She nearly backed out this morning to stay home with him, but my parents wouldn’t hear of it. They are no doubt in baby heaven right now, having their grandkids solely to themselves.
Lindsay and Adam seem to be staying quiet in an effort to avoid upsetting anyone. Brad’s and my silence is bringing everyone down. I hear subtle murmurs from Darla about how she knew this would happen—Brad and I haven’t spent more than six hours together in the last decade without getting into a fight. And it’s always about the same thing. It’s always about Heather.
The shuttle pulls up to Caesar’s Palace and we file out with no enthusiasm whatsoever. I can tell that our melancholy attitudes are wearing on Lindsay’s natural perkiness. Nevertheless, she keeps mum until we’re all checked in and heading to the elevators, where she promptly stops and turns around to face us.
“Okay, that’s it,” Lindsay says.
“Darla, James. You miss the kids, I get it. It’s only for two nights and they are in the best hands possible. You know this. Please, try to enjoy yourselves.” I nod a little too enthusiastically and she turns toward me next.
“And you, Ms. Birthday Girl, quit sulking and talk to Brad, will you? If you two choose not to be friends after this trip, fine. But we’ve all spent a lot of money on this goddamn vacation and I would really like if you two can just