“Dad, you really don’t understand. Just let Brody talk.”
My dad leaned back into the couch. “I’m all ears.”
Brody’s jaw worked, and he looked as if he was struggling to get words out.
Veronica must have noticed because she took a step forward. “Mr. Mason, I’m sorry. This is all my fault. I didn’t mean—”
“For you to find out this way,” Brody interrupted.
I widened my eyes, and a quick look at Drew and Veronica showed their reactions mirrored mine.
“Brody,” I said, my voice holding a hint of warning.
But just like usual, my idiot brother ignored me.
“I don’t need you to pay for a divorce or an annulment. There’s no mistake here for you to fix.” Brody walked over and took Veronica’s hand, a move she likely only tolerated due to the immense shock she was in. “Veronica and I have been together for a while. Long distance. But now she’s here, for good. We’re staying married. To each other. Forever. Right?”
Brody had been going strong until the end, when it appeared as if his nerves started to fray. He turned an imploring look on Veronica, who gaped at him like a fish.
But to her credit, she recovered quickly. I could see the muscles in her arm flex as she tightened her hold on him and turned to my father. “That’s right. Married forever.” She nodded like a bobblehead who’d been shaken too hard. Then she regained her composure, pasted a cool look on her face, and walked over to my father. “It’s great to meet you, Dad.”
Then the Meryl Streep of my generation leaned down and kissed my dad on the cheek.
D R E W
All I’d wanted was a college education. That was it. Just a simple guy with a simple goal.
Instead, I’d become a formerly gay doppelgänger who’d fallen in love with his “sister” before almost dying and then nearly getting said sister expelled from school due to a stupid idea with an even stupider name. Though that wasn’t fair. The idea had been a good one. But getting involved with these people clearly hadn’t been.
What the hell did it say about me that, despite that knowledge, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else?
It took a while for Mr. Mason to leave. In his defense, he had a right to be wary, since it was all a big lie just like pretty much everything else his children had told him over the past six months. But in the end, he’d seemed to buy that Veronica and Brody were actually married, which was mostly due to Veronica, who’d sold their relationship like a professional con artist.
I watched Sophia close the door behind her dad as he left, and then we all whirled on Brody. But Veronica was the first to get actual words out.
“What in the actual fuck, Brody?”
Brody glared back at her. “I could say the same to you. Why the hell would you think it’d be a good idea to introduce yourself to my dad as my wife?”
Veronica faltered on that one, her shoulder slumping. “I thought it’d be funny. Your friends’ reactions were priceless. I thought I could recreate the magic.” She offered a small, hopeful smile, but when Brody didn’t return it, it slid from her lips. “I don’t know when to quit, okay? I take things too far. Happy now?”
“No. I’m actually pretty miserable,” Brody said as he slumped onto the couch, resting his elbows on his thighs so he could drop his head into his hands.
“I think we can all agree,” Sophia said placidly, “that Veronica created a bit of a shitstorm.”
Veronica looked like she wanted to argue, but really, what could she say? So she crossed her arms over her chest in what seemed to be more of a soothing gesture than a defensive one.
“But Brody, why the hell did you keep the lie going?” Sophia sat down beside her brother, so close that their thighs touched.
“I don’t know,” he groaned, his head still facing the floor as he gripped his hair with his fingers. “I just… He was being such a dick, but he also…wasn’t wrong. I know how irresponsible I am.” He lifted his head and looked at me. “But I also know that Drew and I can make a business work. It’s the closest to wanting to be an adult I’ve ever been, and I felt it slipping away. Even though he was wrong about what was going on this time, it was still like he was reminding himself of all the reasons I was a bad bet. And I didn’t want to lose his support, because that doesn’t just affect me.”
I couldn’t help but be touched. Brody had endured all that shit from his dad because he didn’t want me to lose out on the opportunity the man was offering. But I still didn’t understand why he went about it the way he did. “But why not tell him the truth?” I asked. “If you’d said it was all a joke, we could’ve avoided all of this.”
Brody shrugged. “I panicked, okay? Sometimes the simplest solution isn’t what pops into my brain. Besides, maybe if he thinks I’m settling down with a woman, he’ll think I can settle down enough to run a business. And Vee’s smart and responsible, and if my dad thinks she took a chance on me, maybe he will too.”
“So you’re using me as a pawn in your Peter Pan is Finally a Grown-Up crusade against your dad?” Veronica asked.
“You put yourself in that position. I just ran with it.”
Veronica took a step toward the couch, and I became a little concerned she was going to go after Brody like a spider monkey. “Yeah, there’s just one problem with that,” she said. “I’m on my way out of town, and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to come back. So you’re going to have to admit you lied when there was no reason to.”
“I did have a reason,” Brody argued as he stood up.
“Not a good one. You could’ve told the truth, but you chose to lie instead. That’s going to go over spectacularly with them.”
“You lied first!”
“I was kidding around. How was I supposed to know you had decades of daddy issues going on?”
“I do not have daddy issues,” Brody growled.
“Sweetheart, you have issues of just about every kind imaginable.”
“Okay, okay,” I said, stepping between them and lifting a hand in each of their directions. “Arguing isn’t going to get us anywhere.”
Veronica and Brody continued to glare at each other like they were each trying to immolate the other, but they were thankfully silent.
“We need to figure out what we’re going to do,” I continued.
“I don’t need to figure out anything,” said Veronica. “I know what I’m going to do. I just came back here because I forgot my messenger bag.” She pointed to a bag that was leaning against a wall. She walked over and picked it up, hiking the strap onto her shoulder. “Have a nice life, everyone.”
As she started for the door, I felt a flood of panic rise in me. My brain whirled as I tried to channel my inner Doctor Strange and figure out what all the outcomes of this moment could be. Because as much as I didn’t want to lie any more to Sophia’s parents, I also didn’t want to lose my dream when my fingers had just barely had the chance to ghost against it.
“Wait.”
Veronica sighed heavily, but she did stop in her trek to the door.