Just us.

43. Bridgerton

The door bell rings and I know it's Reece as it's just passed 6. I go to open the door and he's standing there on his phone
"Hey Reece" I smile. He however, does not look too happy
"I see you told Mia about our little meet and greet?"
"Oh, sorry I, I sort of had to. She came back last night and I asked her to take the kids out so we could talk" I apologise. Oh god what has she said to him?
"You trust her with your kids?"
"She's actually very good with kids Reece. The girls adore her"
"Right. I'm here" good change of subject.
"Great" I smile, "and you are empty handed?" I notice. I really wanted that chocolate Reece.

"Ok don't know how hard it is to find a meter bar of chocolate in the shops? I had to order it online. It'll be here tomorrow" I guess I can wait
"Well, come in"
"Charming house by the way"

We walk into the living room,
"Cute" he examines the room,
"Okay you can stop with the condescending language" I say
"What?" he shrugs
"'Charming' and 'cute' are just other words for small. We weren't all born with a silver spoon"
"Wow I haven't even been here a minute and your tearing into me"

"Because you turned up empty handed and insulted my home in less than a minute" I state.
"Okay I'm sorry I have more money than you" she rolls his eyes
"I'm sorry you do" wait, does that sound right?
"Wanna get started?" He suggests. Yes.

"So first things first, did you ever tell Mia 'I love you' when you were together?" I ask
"Are you plugging me for inside info on her?" He questions
"No dumb dumb I'm trying to ascertain if you've ever said it before" I explain
"You are mean when you don't get chocolate" he crosses his arms
"Well I was looking forward to tucking into it whilst watching Bridgerton tonight" I really was...
"Nice to know the chocolate was what was driving this whole thing"
"What? No, no! That's important to me too. Right, let's move on"

"Did you ever tell Mia that you loved her?" I ask again
"No. It wasn't exactly a loving relationship" huh, I guess so
"Okay. What about Autumn?"
"Ew gross who tells their sister they love them?" Okay, never mind
"Did you ever tell your dad?"
"The man's a monster. No" well that may have been sort of an obvious one to be honest
"Did you ever tell your mum?" He hesitates before nodding. Now we're getting somewhere
"Yeah"

"Okay, well before we get into that, just for the record, you know I'm not a therapist. I do still think you should seek therapy" he groans "however, I am a good shoulder to cry on and a listening ear. But I just want you to know that anything I tell you, it's not like I had the training"
"Fine" good. Because I have no idea what I'm actually doing.

"Okay, do you think that you're unable to tell Marjorie you love her because the last person you said it too... broke your heart"
"What do you mean 'broke my heart'?" He questions like he has no idea what his mum did to him. That's the tough as a rock wall around him.

"Well she left and never came back for you. Not only that, but she left you with a monster. She knowingly left you in the hands of someone that she knew would hurt you. I mean, a mother's rejection. I mean, that's really hard. Of course that would brake your heart"
"Yeah I did hate her for what she did" Reece agrees while staring at the floor like he can't look at me
"Would you say you still hate her?"
"I'll always hate her" he shrugs "more so for what she did to Aut. I mean Aut was younger than me she needed her mum" even though they don't show it, it's so clear how much Reece and Autumn love each other. Knowing their own father ruined their relationship as well as their relationship with Mia is just sickening.

"Hate is a really powerful emotion. And if you're still hanging on to that, nearly 30 years later. It's no wonder you can't say those words to Marjorie. When you've still got all that built up anger from the one person you said it to before"
"So what do I do about it?" He asks. I'm no way a professional but maybe we can figure out how to say it.

"Well you need to understand that wasting that kind of energy on a woman like that, is hindering the relationship with the woman who currently does love you"
"She does really love me" he nods.
"Marjorie adores you! I personally don't see why" I shrug.

"And are you saying that to me as Char or my ex girlfriend's current squeeze?" He asks. Well it's a little weird knowing he's been with Mia
"I have to be a bit salty towards you okay? You're my girlfriends ex"
"Did you just call Mia your girlfriend?" OH MY GOD. I did. I just called Mia my girlfriend. And to Reece aswell?!
"I did didn't I?" Oh my gosh.
"Wait you've never said that before? I'm the first person to hear this?"
"Uh... of all the people I could have said it in front of for the first time" it had to be Reece. I cannot believe this. It wasn't even Mia!

"Wow I am coming with a truckload of chocolate next time you are so mean when you're not fed"
"Sorry. I just would've preferred it to have been Mia"
"Story of my effing life" he huffs.
"You can't blame people for liking Mia I mean look at her. Even your own sister had a crush on-" crap!
"What?!" Oops. Big oops.
"Nothing!" He leans forward in the chair looking, well, gobsmacked
"Aut had a crush on Mia?!"
"No!"
"My sister had a thing for my girlfriend?!" Wow I can really not keep a secret. "Oh god. Did anything ever happen between them?" He asks. Ew that's disgusting!
"No! I don't know! Ask Mia!" Now I'm panicking. I don't think so though, Mia always referred to Autumn as a little sister.

"Right. Yeah. I really wanna ask my ex girlfriend who she's been with"
"Fine then ask autumn" I suggest
"Because asking my sister about her bedroom antics is much better!"
"Look as far as I'm aware, nothing ever happened. In fact she always said she viewed Autumn as a little sister to her so it would have been gross for her" I tell him in hopes to calm him down.
"Gross for her?"
"Yeah. And if we could keep this between us that would be great because I told Mia I wouldn't tell"
"Fine. It's not like anyone knows I'm here anyway" wait what??

"You didn't tell Marjorie you were coming?" I ask. Why the hell would he not tell Marjorie?!
"No! I'm going this for Marjorie. Why would I want to tell her I'm doing it?" Well I would want to know if Mia was in his position.

"Oh my god. So in addition to your inability to say 'I love you', your anger issues, we also need to deal with your communication but I can only deal with one of your problems at a time!"

"Okay. Let's circle back to the other two. How do I deal with the issue at hand?" Okay. That's good. Getting back on track.
"Right well, Marjorie deserves to feel loved. So until you can actually say those three little words, we need to find another way for you to say it"
"Okay, how else can you say it?" He asks. Huh. Actions? Like gestures. I have an idea!
"There's a show on Netflix we could watch where the male leads all make huge declarations of love without having to say it" I suggest
"Okay. What show is that" he looks at me for a moment before going wide eyed "no! No, no, no, no! I am not watching Bridgerton" yes we are.

...

After watching half an episode I look over at Reece on the sofa and he is totally hooked. I knew he would be. If only I had some chocolate...