by K. C. Crowne
I had to hold back a smirk at her terminology. “Like a severance package?”
“That’s right,” she said, raising her finger. “Exactly what I mean.”
“Now, Deborah,” Adam began, but she interrupted.
“I keep telling you, Nurse Wingard.”
Adam gave me a knowing look before his gaze returned to her. “Nurse Wingard,” he said. “You know why you were terminated, and you know that it was with reasonable cause.”
“That’s what you said,” she went on, nearly cutting him off. “But I knew that was bullshit when you said it. And that’s what my new boyfriend said, too. He paid for a lawyer from Denver, and this guy’s good. Says he’s going to take you to the cleaners.”
“Nurse Wingard,” I said. “It doesn’t need to come to that. What I’m proposing is that before you do anything rash, simply have your lawyer meet with ours. That way we can keep this out of the courts, and you can move on with your life with minimal fuss. Maybe there will even be a golden parachute in it for you.”
It was a tactic, one that I hoped would result in her seated at a conference table in front of a team of our best lawyers. If we could get that, there was no doubt they’d be able to talk her down, to let her know she didn’t have a case.
Lying. After the conversation I’d had with Annie, it should’ve been the last strategy on my mind.
“Wait,” she said. “You want your lawyers to meet with mine? Why? Why not just solve this here and now? Go in that desk of yours and write me a check. Then I’ll be out of your hair.”
“It’s not that simple,” Adam retorted. “If we do something like that, we’ll need to do it through the proper channels. We can’t simply hand you some money and be done with it, even if that were something we were considering.”
My eyelids felt like they were made of lead. I was tired, thinking of Annie, frustrated as hell. My focus was fading despite the seriousness of the situation.
“Why hell can’t we do it like that? Give me some money and that’s the end of it.”
“Because we can’t trust you!” Between my fatigue and the Annie situation and what was going on right then, I snapped. “You don’t deserve a single dollar, and even if we did, there’s no reason to think someone like you wouldn’t just come back for more even if we were to give into this bribe – which is what it is.”
Silence hung in the air. Adam and Deborah were stunned, her mouth opened slightly in total disbelief. Adam’s lips were a thin line as he stared at me.
“W…what?” Deborah stammered.
I’d screwed up. I was right, of course, but I realized what had happened. I was done lying.
“It’s not going to happen,” I repeated. “You were fired for a reason, and when you’re fired for a reason, you don’t get damn cent.”
She arched her eyebrows in surprise. “Is that right?” She scoffed, shaking her head as she got up. “This was me being nice, just so you know. Next is with the lawyer. I hope you’re ready for a fight.”
Deborah grabbed her purse, whipped it over her shoulder, and stormed out.
Adam said nothing at first, as if he were trying to process what he’d seen. “I…I hope you know what you’re doing, Duncan.”
I didn’t say them out loud, but two words popped into my head. “Same here.”
Annie
My parent’s house, totally decked out in Christmas décor, should’ve put a smile on my face. But all I could think about was him.
It was Saturday, and I’d decided to spend the weekend with the family. After what I’d gone through with Duncan, there was simply no way I’d be able to be alone, cooped up in that tiny apartment, nothing to keep me company but my own thoughts. Not to mention it was Christmas Eve eve. I’d originally planned on coming down the next day, but when Mom had called to confirm, I’d decided to drop in a little earlier.
The living room was lively. Mom was playing with Parker, Dad watching the two of them with a big, proud grandpa smile on his face. Bethany was in the kitchen getting everything in place for our annual Christmas cookie baking extravaganza. Dean was on his way from the office.
I hated to admit it, thinking it made me selfish as hell, but all I could think about was how much Bethany had, and how much I didn’t. She had a husband who loved her and a gorgeous little boy, and I had nothing but my broken heart.
“You alright over there, kiddo?” Dad asked, taking his eyes from Parker, who was currently in the middle of showing Mom some brightly-colored game he’d installed on her phone.
“Just thinking about stuff,” I said. And there was the worst part – I hadn’t yet told them about Duncan, how things had ended between us. I had no idea how to drop the bombshell.
“I bet you are,” Mom commented. “You’ve got a new job, a new boyfriend, and a ton to look forward to.”
Dad furrowed his brow. “I don’t understand why you didn’t bring him into town with you. There’s plenty of room for you both to stay here.”
Mom pursed her lips. “Come on – a doctor like him? He’s probably so busy he can hardly take time off for Christmas.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Dad scoffed. “A man should be meeting the family of his new girlfriend. Work’s work, but this is more important than that.”
I shifted nervously in my seat, not sure what to say or do.
“Hey!” Bethany exclaimed, popping her head out from the kitchen. “I’ve got an idea!”
“What’s that?” Mom asked.
“We can do a Facetime! Call him up and we can all say hi!”
Mom’s eyes lit up, but my stomach sank. “That’s a great idea!”
“No, it’s not,” Dad negated. “First impressions are important, and they need to be done in person.”
“Hmm,” Mom considered. “And he might be busy. It might throw off his doctor stuff if he answers the phone and there’s a whole family grinning back at him.”
“I don’t like that Facetime business,” Dad added. “He should be here with us. I want to know who’s dating my little girl.”
“It’ll be a nice introduction,” Bethany said. “It doesn’t have to be this big thing – he can just say hi and that’s that. It’s what I did with Dean, remember? And Duncan’s just as much of a workaholic as him, sounds like.”
I couldn’t take any more. Duncan had already been a liar, and I wasn’t about to do the same to my family.
“Listen,” Dad said. “How about instead of arguing, we actually listen to Annie and see what she wants to do.”
I cleared my throat. “We’re not doing any of it,” I said. “Because…”
“What?” Mom’s complete attention was on me. “Why aren’t we going to do anything? I don’t even understand what that means.”
“It means we can’t do anything, because I broke up with Duncan.”
No one said a word. I wiped the tears from my eyes, jumping from my chair and rushing from the living room into the kitchen.
“I’ll talk to her,” I heard Bethany say from the other room.
The kitchen counters were covered with dough and sprinkles and all sorts of festive holiday cookie fixings, the colors and cheer a total contrast to how I felt at that moment. I leaned back against the counter, letting my head hang.
“Hey,” Bethany said, appearing at the kitchen entrance. “You want to talk?”
Part of me desired some solitude, but I knew I’d just be crying if I were to get it. “Sure,” I said. “Talking sounds okay.”
Bethany stepped over to the fridge and pulled out a couple of mugs. “Dad’s famous eggnog. Should take the edge off.”
I allowed myself a smile, taking one of the mugs and sipping. It was rich and creamy and delicious.
“So,” Bethany said, leaning against the counter next to me. “I just want to say that we’re not mad or disappointed or anything like that. Me, I’m just confused. It seemed like you really had something with Duncan.”
“We did. We had something amazing, more amazing t
han I thought I’d ever get.”
“So…what happened?”
“What happened is that I found out it was all a lie.”
She cocked her head to the side, confused. “He lied to you? About what?”
I sighed, a shuddering breath. “He’s Andrew’s brother.”
At first, Bethany didn’t appear to understand what I was saying. “Andrew, as in your ex?”
“One and the same.”
I told her the whole story, how they were brothers separated by adoption, how Duncan had only recently come back into his life, how Duncan had lied to me about knowing who I was.
“Let me get this straight,” Bethany said. “He lied to you because he wanted to meet you?”
I shrugged. “I guess he was into me or something.”
She laughed. “Or something? Annie, it sounds like he was crazy about you. Guys don’t go to those kinds of lengths for women they’re iffy about. He must’ve been into you from the moment he saw your picture.”
“What are you saying, that what he did was okay?”
“Mmm, maybe not exactly.” She glanced to the side, as if something had occurred to her. “Did I ever tell you about how Dean and I first met?”
I considered the question. “It was…oh yeah! You guys met at the grocery store in the frozen food aisle or something, right?”
“Close,” she said, the memory bringing a smile to her face. “It was in the ice cream aisle. I was getting some Ben and Jerry’s, trying to decide between all the flavors. And then I spotted this insanely, and I mean insanely handsome guy in the aisle with me. He was looking at the ice cream too, and he glanced over and smiled, said you can’t go wrong with Cherry Garcia.”
Her excitement was infectious, and I found myself smiling along with her.
“Anyway, I asked him what his favorites were, and he told me. We started chatting about ice cream, and then I mentioned this new place that opened downtown that I’d wanted to check out. He picked up on the hint and asked if I wanted to go with him instead of the two of us eating pints alone in our apartments.”
“That’s so freaking adorable.”
“I’m not done,” she said with a grin. “So, we go to the ice cream place and I was feeling quite indulgent. I get the biggest sundae they had, but Dean seemed…I don’t know – kind of weird. Like he was apprehensive. I asked if he was cool, and he assured me he was. Then he told me he was pretty competitive, so he got the biggest sundae too.”
“So far, so good,” I said.
“So we go to town, eating our ice cream and getting to know each other. The attraction was instant, and before too long we’re playing footsy, and then Dean asks me to come back to his apartment. I said yes, of course, and we’re not even in the hallway before we’re all over each other.”
A wave of sadness flowed through me, the story reminding me of my own attraction to Duncan, how hot and irresistible it’d been.
“But when we get into his apartment, I hear a weird noise.”
“A noise?”
She nodded. “And then…a smell. A very, very stinky smell.”
“What was it?”
“Well, Dean gets a weird look on his face but tries to play it cool, going back to kissing. Then I hear it again. And then I smell it again. This time there was no denying what it was.”
It hit me. “No way.”
“Mhmm. He was farting. And they were all kinds – squeaks, toots, honks, big bassy ones. Totally out of control.”
I started laughing. I couldn’t help it.
“He excuses himself and runs to the bathroom. He’s in there for a while, and when he comes out, he looks at me like he was shocked I was still there.”
“He just had gas or something, right?”
“Not exactly. He had gas, sure, but not random, too-many-beans kind of gas. He looked like he had something he needed to tell me, something he felt totally guilty about.”
“What was it?”
She grinned. “He said, ‘I lied. I don’t eat ice cream.’ And I was like, ‘Sure you do – I just saw you eat a half-gallon back there covered in caramel.’ And he says, ‘I did. But I can’t. I’m lactose intolerant’.”
My jaw about hit the floor. “He’s what?”
“Totally lactose intolerant – can’t eat a bite of ice cream without his guts going into full revolt.”
“But…”
Another nod. “But he ate an entire sundae without saying a word.”
“Why?” I asked on a laugh.
“Well, he was in the ice cream aisle, sure. But just to the right was all the non-dairy stuff. I’d asked him about the Ben and Jerry’s and he decided to go along with it for an excuse to talk to me. Little did he know how carried away it’d get.”
“So, then what happened?”
She giggled. “I had to make an emergency run to the pharmacy to grab him some stomach stuff. When I got back, we spent a little time waiting for his guts to chill out. And…that was it. We were inseparable from that point on.”
I couldn’t take the grin off my face. Whatever else, her story had put me in good spirits.
“Do you get what I’m saying?” she asked. “Dean looked me right in the eye and lied to me within the first two seconds of us meeting. But he did it because his heart was in the right place. He just wanted to get to know me, and a little white lie was how he did it.”
“Then…you’re telling me that I should just forgive Duncan for what he did?”
“Well, I don’t know.” She smiled at me. “That’s your call to make. But maybe show some empathy? I mean, think about it from his point of view. He meets his long-lost brother, and then finds out that his brother’s girlfriend is the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen. At first, he doesn’t do anything because, well, that’s his brother’s girlfriend. But then he finds out they broke up. He wants to make a move, but he can’t without revealing something you might not be okay with.”
“Didn’t I have a right to know? That’s not exactly a tiny detail.”
“You’re right – he should’ve handled it differently. But this is how love is, Annie. Maybe Dean should’ve told me he couldn’t actually eat ice cream and not lied to me right off the bat. But that’s life.”
I sighed, considering her words. “It’s not only that, though. Andrew wants to get back together with me.”
“Oh,” she said, waving her hand through the air. “That’s easy – don’t do it. You don’t get back with exes.”
“But what about the little fact that he’s Duncan’s brother?”
“Andrew’s going to have to get over it,” she said, shrugging nonchalantly. “He’s a big-time lawyer now – he can find some trophy wife or whatever. Stick to your guns.”
I sipped my eggnog. “So, you think I should be with Duncan?”
“It’s your call. But if you ask me, cut him a little slack. After all, if I’d been super strict about lies, I wouldn’t have an amazing family right now.”
As if on cue, Dean, tall and handsome as ever, popped into the kitchen. “Hey, babe!” He strolled over to Bethany and planted a kiss on her lips. “And hello, lovely sister-in-law.”
He pecked me on the cheek. “Howdy, handsome brother-in-law.” A thought popped into my head, and I couldn’t resist. “Want some eggnog, Dean?”
His eyes flicked down at the mug I held. “Oh, can’t do it – lactose intolerance.” He put his hand on his belly.
“Right,” I said. “So I’ve heard.” Bethany and I chuckled.
“Oh no,” Dean said, looking at his wife. “You didn’t tell her, did you?”
We both broke out into wild laughter.
“It was for a good cause,” Bethany swore. “I promise.”
Dean grinned. “Alright – I trust you.”
We all laughed, happiness taking hold of me for the first time in a long while.
But was she right? I couldn’t say. However, I wanted to see Duncan again, and I wanted to see him more than anything.
Not by a long shot.
Duncan
It was Christmas Eve, and I wasn’t proud of where I was.
My car was parked in front of Annie’s place. I knew she didn’t want to see me, and that even if I did happen to chance upon her, she’d just as likely greet me with a punch to the gut than anything else. But she was all I could think about. I’d known it was a long shot, but I had to at least try.
I hadn’t come to hang out, only to give her a call and see if I could talk her into…I didn’t even know. She’d already said her piece, and that hadn’t exactly been ambiguous.
Not only that, but the lights were off in her apartment – there was a good chance she was with her family.
I considered calling her, my thumb hovering over the send button in my phone. But before I could decide one way or another, my phone shook in my hand with an incoming call. Andrew. I debated answering, part of me wanting to give he and I some space while this insane situation worked itself out.
But it occurred to me that wasn’t any kind of solution – this situation wasn’t simply going to work itself out. We had to be grownup and sort through our feelings. That didn’t make it any less of a disaster.
I steeled myself, then answered. “Andrew. What’s going on?”
“Hey, brother. How’s your holiday going?”
“Nice and shitty. How about you?”
“The same.” A moment of silence. “Listen, I don’t like this. We should talk.”
“Agreed.”
“Want to come to my place?”
“Sure. Be there in an hour.”
“See you then.”
Short and simple and to-the-point. But it was only the beginning of what was certain to be a difficult conversation. No sense in putting it off. I put Andrew’s address into my maps and started driving. The entire way there was spent thinking about what had happened and how much I missed Annie.
It was so fucking strange. I’d been with plenty of women before, had my fair share of girlfriends. But never did I feel the way for a woman the way I felt for her. She was burned into my mind like a brand, and I knew that whatever happened between the two of us, Annie would be in my thoughts for the rest of my life.