The Wrong Brother

Chapter 1

IRIS

“This is the dumbest suggestion you’ve ever had, Jade.” 

“That’s saying a lot,” my best friend and roommate replied while popping another piece of candy in her mouth, “because there was that one time in Vegas I suggested that we pretend to be models to see how many guys would buy us shots and Gina ended up getting married to that one drummer dude.”

“Oh geez, don’t remind me.” Maybe this wasn’t her dumbest idea, I love Jade, but she’s had plenty of them over the years. This certainly isn’t a good idea though. After years of being single and one too many glasses of wine, Jade confiscated by phone and started creating a profile on one of those dumb dating apps. It was all fun and games while we were filling out the profile details, but now she wants me to do the honors of clicking the post button and I’m having second thoughts.

“What’s the worst thing that could happen, Ris?”

“I don’t know, matching with a freaking serial killer or something!”

“Oh my gosh,” she groans, “The odds of that happening are slim to none. You don’t have to meet any of these creeps, but chat back and forth, flirt a little, and get back into the game for crying out loud!”

I rolled my eyes in response. Getting back into the game would mean that I was in the game at any point. Jade knows as well as I do that I’ve hardly even been on the practice squad in the last ten years. The one and only time I’ve been in a long-term relationship was in high school. It was your cliche cheerleader and football star love story, except mine ended in a broken heart and a teenage pregnancy. 

Since then, my focus has been on my daughter, Nia. She was born the October after senior year. I took a gap to focus on raising her and getting back on my feet. Without my parent's help, I don’t know how I would have done it. I pushed through college and graduated with a business degree. I took a position working for a local construction company doing basic admin work. Now I’m handling almost all of their business contracts, make a nice salary, and even have benefits and a 401k. 

It isn’t that I swore off men after high school, but Maddox King certainly left a bad taste in my mouth that is still present almost ten years later. Rather than worrying about dating and a sex life, I was worried about school, working, and raising my daughter. There were dates here and there, but nothing that lasted long enough to become a relationship. Did I miss the idea of having somebody in my life? Sure, but it didn’t seem worth the risk to my heart and my daughter’s.

Jade has been trying to get me back into the dating scene forever. It’s usually in the form of a double date or a friend of the guy she’s currently seeing. None of those things interest me. This dating app interests me even less.

“I hear what you’re saying, Jade, but I’ve heard a lot of rumors about these types of apps. Aren’t they mostly just used for hookups?”

“You can filter those out if you want. If they ask to meet in the first twenty-four hours then just block them. Oh, and definitely block them if they just send a dick pic right away.”

“Jesus! You’re doing a really bad job trying to convince me of this.”

“Fine,” she sighs, “Maybe you’re right.”

“I am right, Jade. This was fun, but it wasn’t for me.”

I set my phone down on the coffee table and reached for the wine bottle to finish it off. In a move that was way too quick for somebody buzzed on wine, Jade reached under my arm and swiped my phone. I dropped the bottle and tried to lunge for my phone, but it was too late. She had already pressed the button to post my profile. Jade stood up from the couch when I lunged for my phone again and I almost fell on the ground.

“What did you do?” I cried out to my friend.

“I did you a favor, Iris. Just give it a week. If you’re not having fun chatting and flirting with a few guys, you can delete your profile and the app and I won’t bug you about it anymore.”

I sigh and sit back on the couch, “Fine! But for every unsolicited picture of a penis I see, you owe me a box of Whoppers.”

“You drive a hard bargain, but you’ve got yourself a deal.”

We shake on it and then she hands me my phone back. We spend the rest of the night scrolling through my matches. Some of them were automatic nos, like anybody with a faceless picture or holding up a fish. Seriously, that’s not the way to a woman’s heart. There were a few that were certainly good-looking, but their profiles had way too many red flags. Pro tip: Don’t talk shit about your ex. Even if they were the worst, that’s no way to find somebody new. There were a few potentials that I wouldn’t mind messaging, but that was going to take some courage I didn’t have right now.

By the time morning came around, my private messages box was full. I didn’t have time to look through them. I could already tell most of them were duds. But Saturday mornings weren’t meant for hookup app flirting, we had a full day of softball ahead of us. Just three years ago, Nia was playing t-ball and now she was playing on competitive teams. Her coach even wanted her to try out for a travel team, but there was no way I could afford those costs. I could hardly afford this league, my parents were paying for most of it.

“Ten minutes, Ni!” I yell down the hallway. 

Just a few moments later she emerges dressed in her uniform, minus the cleats. She has on just slides right now so she doesn’t scratch up the floors. That was a lesson learned the wrong way. “Have you seen my red headband?”

“Did you check my bathroom?” I ask back.

“Yeah, I didn’t see it.”

One thing about parenting nobody prepared me for is having to know where everything she touches ends up. I would lose my own head if it wasn’t screwed onto my shoulders, so keeping track of every little thing of Nia’s is almost impossible. I finish packing her to-go breakfast and try to think where I saw it last. She has a hundred and two headbands, but the team agrees to wear certain colors on certain days. 

“I’ll go run to the car and check while you finish packing your softball bag. Make sure that you check your bag while you’re checking, okay?”

“It’s not there, Mom.”

“Did you check?” I look over my shoulder at her.

“Ugh,” she scoffs, “Fine!”

I love that girl with all my heart, but every year her sass gets a bit more. There is no doubt we are going to butt our heads plenty as she enters her teenage years. I only hope we have a solid enough foundation of love to make it through. I’d give her the world if I could. Hopefully, she knows that. 

The car was a bust, but when I tossed my keys back on the counter, Nia was smiling while twirling her headband, “Found it!”

“Let me guess, it was in your bag.”

Nia smirks but then shrugs her shoulders, “I’ll never tell.”

“Yeah, yeah, you little stinker. Give me that!” I grab the headband and the two of us laugh while I do her hair and get her headband in place. On tap today we had a morning practice followed by two games. Hopefully, the girls played well and the coach didn’t decide they needed an evening practice too. I only had two days off a week and I gave one of those days up to softball for the sake of my daughter. Being done early would be a treat, that’s for sure. 

Then maybe tonight, I’d put Nia to bed and give a good ole college try at the flirting game my best friend was so obsessed with me doing.