Complicated Love

Seriously?

"Are you ready yet?" I run by Brad's office door, pulling my hair up "We have to leave soon if we wanna make it there in time."

"Ready for what?"

He looks up from his laptop just long enough to know he's pissed me off.

"Shit!  That brunch... I have all these emails, Jen.  I don't think I can make it."

"What the fuck, Brad!  I told you about this two freaking weeks ago and have been reminding you!"

I walk into the office, half tempted to slam the laptop on his fingers, but instead settle for stealing the charger so it dies.

"You are such a bitch!" He follows me out, trying to get it "I'm sorry I can't go to your freaking brunch!  It's going to go the same way all the other ones do with your friends!"

"It's not with my friends, Brad!"

I throw the charger in my purse, grabbing my car keys as I walk to the garage.  He gets more and more pissed with every step I take, knowing he's out of luck.

"It's with my parents.  They wanted to see us before they leave for Florida, but obviously you don't care.  I'll be sure to tell them that when they ask where you are."

"Fuck, Jen!"  He runs out the door after me, trying to get me to stop "I'm sorry!"

"Yeah, well you're about thirty minutes too late for that!"

I back out, flipping him off in the process and speed down the road to make up for the missed time. 

I run into the diner, trying to think of a bullshit excuse about why Brad isn't here, but I'm interrupted by my stepmother waving me over.

"Hey," She gets up to hug me "You okay?"

"Yeah." I force a smile, sitting next to my brother, across from my dad "Where's John?"

"Both kids are sick so they skipped out on this one."  My dad answers, looking around "Brad parking the car?"

"No, he couldn't make it.  He's been up most of the night catching up on late emails for the company and just lost track of time."

My dad and AJ seem to buy it, but Sherry doesn't believe me in the slightest.  I can feel her staring me down as I look over the menu trying to decide what I want. 

"I'll take the chocolate chip pancakes and a mimosa."

I hand my menu to the waitress, waiting for her to take everyone's orders.

"So are you excited about Florida?"

"I'm excited to get out of school for the week." Aj quickly answers, showing his true teenage colors "Then I only have a few more months until I'm out of that hell hole."

"Obviously he's been enjoying his senior year." Sherry grabs a piece of toast "So anything exciting happen with you?"

"Yeah," My dad quickly cuts in "Did Brad finally hire that assistant he was looking for?"

"He did, but the guy was an asshole.  Hit on 2 other employees and then got drunk and broke a computer... all in his first week."

"So I'm guessing he got fired pretty quickly."

"Yup.  So I've been picking up most of the slack while Brad's away filming.  I haven't had much time to do anything else."

"Hey Jen, I have that shirt you liked.  Let's go see if it fits."

Sherry gets up, and I follow her towards the bathroom where she quickly shoves me in the family one and locks the door.

"What's going on?  You aren't yourself, and Brad never skips out on these."

"I don't know.  I have no freaking idea."

I shut the lid and sit down on the toilet seat with my head in my hands.

"Things just aren't the same.  He felt shitty when he found out this was with you guys and not a bunch of my friends, but we just aren't ourselves anymore."

"Sometimes things like these happen.  It's not like it was always rainbows and butterflies for your dad and I, but we stuck it out because we love each other, and I know you and Brad love each other."

"We do.  We really do.  I just feel like I could kill him half the time.  Things like this piss me off more than I even know how to say."

"... But I don't ever want to live without him.  I don't even want to think about it, and I know he feels the same way.  We both want to be together, we just don't know how anymore."

"You wanna know something?  Something I've noticed about you two?" She waits for a response, and I nod my head for her to continue "You guys never lost your passion.  Not once.  It might not be in the same form it was years ago, but it's still there.  It's in every argument you have, every day you feel like newlyweds again, every time you want to kill him.  It's there, and it's just as strong as it was all those years ago."

"You really think so?"

"Honey, I wouldn't say any of this if I didn't know."

We wait a few more minutes before walking back out to the table.  To my surprise, Brad is sitting in the seat that was formally vacant.

"My laptop died." He pulls my chair out for me as I sit down "I thought this was better than a nap."

I smirk, knowing I finally won this argument, and we can hopefully put it past us.

"I guess you can have the charger back."

"Wait, you took his laptop charger?" Aj looks over at us "Who takes a laptop charger?"

"Don't get married, dude.  Weird things happen." Brad answers, taking a bite of my pancakes "First it's the coffee pot, then the TV remote batteries and now a laptop charger.  I never know what to expect."

"Worst part is you never know what you did to piss her off until it's too late." My dad adds "It's not fair."

"It's marriage."