Page 191 of Bridesmaid for Hire
“Yes, you showed me last night,” she says as she stirs the spaghetti sauce she’s been working on for the last hour. I asked her why she didn’t just buy some premade sauce from the store, and she told me that making it was supposed to give her some time to herself, but that backfired because I decided to watch her.
I think it was a subtle way of her saying she wanted me to leave her alone, but once she started mixing things in a pot, I became invested.
“Is that your favorite picture of us?” I ask Patricia as I stare down at Maggie’s smiling face. We weren’t even a couple then, and yet we look more like a couple than ever. God, I miss the way she pressed her hand to my chest. It was so delicate, and yet, possessive. I should have known in this picture that she liked me. All that fucking wasted time.
“You know, I haven’t really considered a favorite,” she says.
“Do you want me to put them up on the TV again tonight and you can decide your favorite?”
“You know, it’s the waterfall one, yup, that’s my favorite,” she says asshe pours some cream into the sauce, turning it from bright red to burnt orange.
“Yeah, I like that one too.” I sigh heavily. “There’s some I haven’t showed you because I don’t think they’d be appropriate. But I have this one picture of her sleeping on my chest, she’s topless, but you can’t see anything. I stare at that one before I go to sleep because it reminds me how comfortable I was with her.”
“That’s…uh…that’s nice.”
“Thanks.” I set my phone to the side and clasp my hands together. “Can I ask you something, Patricia?”
“I mean, you haven’t stopped talking since you came in here, so sure, why not?” She almost sounds sarcastic, but I understand why Maggie loves Patricia so much. She’s definitely the better half of her and Gary.
“When you and Gary broke up in college because he was an idiot, got drunk, and gave a lap dance to that one girl…” I see Patricia’s jaw tighten. “When you guys were apart, did you still love him?”
“I did,” she says tersely, still stirring the sauce.
“Even though you were mad at him, you still loved him?”
“Yes. It’s not easy to just forget about feelings you’ve harbored for years. I was furious with him, and it was hard to forgive, but I never stopped loving him. Are you asking because you hope that Maggie still has feelings for you?”
“Yeah.” I look up at Patricia. “Have you spoken to her? I know you’re close. Did she say anything to you?”
Patricia shakes her head. “I haven’t heard from her at all.”
“Are you just saying that because she told you not to say that or are you saying that because she truly hasn’t said anything to you?”
Patricia turns to me and looks me in the eyes. “Brody, I like you. I consider you a friend. But you are being extremely annoying—very needy, very clingy and frankly, the only reason I’m allowing this to go on is because I know if I ask you to leave my house, I’m going to have todeal with Gary worrying about you. I’d rather keep you here and listen to you talk aimlessly about Maggie. Therefore, if I had any sort of detail as to what is going on with her at the moment, don’t you think that I’d tell you so this would be over and done with and the sooner that can happen, the better?”
I give it some thought.
“Are you saying that my annoyance outweighs your girl code?”
“Yes,” she says exasperated.
I nod. “Good to know.”
TWO DAYS LATER…
“I know you guys said you don’t want to get in the middle of this,” I say as I join them in the living room where they’re watching an episode ofJeopardy!Gary is terrible, but the way he shouts his answers with confidence, you have to give the man credit. “But—”
“What is yellow corn?” Gary shouts.
“What is All Souls’ Day,” the contestant on the TV says, getting the answer right. Gary slaps his leg and turns his attention to me.
“What were you saying?”
“I was saying, I know you don’t want to get in the middle of this romance gone wrong, but I was just scrolling through social media and saw a GIF of Kris Jenner where she says, ‘What would happen if you just call Taylor up’ and it got me thinking—”
“Who is Patricia Arquette?” Gary shouts.
“What is the pitchfork?” the contestant and Patricia say at the same time. Gary winces.
