by Hazel Parker
“Ready to go shopping?” she asked, and Anna followed her to the car.
The store Martha brought her to was an expensive boutique that Anna would normally have never even stepped foot inside. She liked her style to be clean and professional, sure, but designer brands didn’t mean much to her, so she usually bought her clothes from department stores. This place was quiet, isolated, and every dress cost more than Anna made in a week. While Anna looked around, almost afraid to touch anything, Martha had already grabbed dresses off the rack for her.
“What do you think of this color?” she asked, holding it up for Anna to see. “I think the cut would be cute on you. You’re, what, size ten? Twelve?” She nodded uncomfortably, looking past the dress to see the price tag that dangled from the sleeve.
“It’s beautiful,” she admitted, “but…please don’t take this the wrong way, but are you sure that you want to spend so much money at a place like this? Honestly, I’m fine to wear something from a cheaper store, or I could even borrow something from a friend at work.”
Martha snorted good-naturedly. “Oh, honey, this is nothing,” she brushed off. “You’ve known Brett for years; you’ve got to know our family isn’t exactly strapped for cash.”
“Yeah, but with the cost of the wedding—”
“My grandpa offered to pay for the wedding,” she cut her off. “In fact, he insisted. Honestly, splurging on some clothes for my brother’s first-ever girlfriend is not a problem.” She reached for another two dresses, both in different jewel-toned colors and different cuts and laid them carefully over her arm. “In fact, it’s something you’re going to have to get used to, because if Brett doesn’t spoil you enough, I’m going to do it myself.”
Anna gave a small, forced smile, now feeling even more guilty knowing that Martha really believed that Brett was serious about her. How was she supposed to accept an expensive gift when she knew that she was deceiving their whole family? Maybe she’d just leave the tags still on…
“Let’s find you a fitting room and see if any of these work.” Anna followed her to the checker’s counter for the dressing room key and then locked herself inside. The place was private, there were only a few other people in the store, but the lounge that contained the dressing rooms was completely empty. Carefully, she stepped into the first dress and zipped it as high as she could, stopping just shy of being able to reach all the way up her back, and looked at herself in the mirror. It was a vibrant red, one that did compliment her dark features well but was bolder than the clothing style she normally wore, and strapless, which was something else that she hadn’t worn since high school prom.
“I’d like to see which one you pick, if you like any of those,” Martha called through the door.
“Sure; of course,” Anna replied. This, while beautiful, was not something she’d want to wear to a formal event, so she took it off and put it back on the hanger to try on the next one. Her hopes for a casual girls’ day were smashed when she heard Martha sigh and lean against the wall next to the fitting room.
“You know, I’m really glad that you and Brett are happy and stuff,” she began, “but I also hope you know what you’re getting into.”
Anna frowned. “What do you mean?” she asked, too curious to leave it alone even though she felt a little bad for gossiping.
“Brett is a good guy,” Martha prefaced, “don’t get me wrong. But I don’t want you going in blind to the fact that you’re his first real relationship.” Oh. Well, that wasn’t so bad.
“Oh, yes, I knew that,” Anna dismissed lightly. “Some people are a little hesitant to give up the wild, teenage-dream lifestyle, and he took a while. That doesn’t bother me.”
Martha hesitated. “Is that what he told you?”
“Is that not the case?”
“Well, I’m sure it’s part of it,” she backtracked, audibly afraid of saying the wrong thing and sabotaging her brother. “I mean, if that’s what he told you, I’m sure that’s all it is. Just forget I said anything.”
Anna laughed. “Martha, I’m not going to dump him over a little detail that you tell me,” she reassured: it was true, after all. Whatever Martha said, it would not be the demise of their relationship. “Brett is nice. He treats me well. I have a good time when I’m with him. What is it you think I should know?”
“I just think a lot of women don’t understand my brother,” she explained. “They think that he’s just a carefree party guy because that’s how he comes off. He can even be kind of a bastard, at his worst.” Anna could give her that. “But it’s not like he’s just like that because he’s a jerk. He had it tough growing up.”
At that, Anna couldn’t hold back an indignant scoff. “Didn’t you all grow up as, like, millionaires?” she accused. “A semester of tuition at his high school cost more than my mom made in two years. I grew up in Spanish Harlem; I’m sorry, but I’m not buying that.”
“It wasn’t the money that was the problem,” she disclaimed. “It was the pressure that came with it. I’m not saying he had it harder than you did—I’m sorry; I’m putting my foot in my mouth. I should shut up.”
That wasn’t what she’d meant to do, either. Why was this so hard for her? Martha was a nice woman who was doing a nice thing for her; why was she screwing it up?
“I guess I don’t understand what you guys grew up with, either,” she admitted. “I’m the first person in my family to go to college, and no one was ever anything but proud of me for going to school: any school. No one had a whole lot of expectations for us.”
“We were all expected to be perfect because we represented our family. Brett was a pretty hyperactive kid and had a lot of behavioral issues growing up, but people just kind of brushed it under the rug because we didn’t talk about things like that. Hell, no one even knew he needed glasses until he was ten because our parents wouldn’t listen for long enough to realize he couldn’t see the board. He would just get scolded for not doing well in classes.”
“That…sucks,” Anna admitted. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to say.”
While it wasn’t the same kinds of struggles she’d had to go through, it made her heart hurt to think about Brett as a child struggling and being held to the same standards that an adult would be. It made her think of him a little differently: that immaturity, the lack of motivation to do things for himself, the distance he kept from people. He wasn’t just a player: he’d built up a persona that didn’t care what anyone thought, and if he let it crack even just a little, he’d be vulnerable, and he was afraid of that. The second dress that Martha had handed her had been way too short, so she’d taken it off pretty quickly in favor of trying the third: a teal one that cut off right above her knees and covered enough of her cleavage to be comfortable, but was still cut low enough in the back to be a little more adventurous, sexier than she normally would dress, with a long sleeve on one side and no sleeve on the other. Despite feeling a little self-conscious, she opened the door of the dressing room, and Martha’s eyes went wide.
“Anna, you look beautiful!” she exclaimed, twirling her around once to look at every angle. “That dress is perfect for you.”
“Are you sure it’s not too much?” she asked, referring to both the sexy style and the price, but Martha shook her head.
“Brett’s not going to be able to take his eyes off you. Not that he would, anyway; I’ve seen the way you two look at each other,” she added with a wink. Anna wanted to question what that meant but managed to leave it alone, giving herself one last glance in the mirror.
“This is the one I’m choosing,” she decided. Martha looked thrilled as Anna turned and went back into the dressing room to change back into her normal clothes.
By the time Martha dropped her back home, it was late. After shopping, they’d gone out to dinner, something that was considerably less awkward than the shopping trip had been and had taken their time in eating before Martha paid the tab and they left. It seemed as though Martha had been anxious to get
off her chest all the things she’d told Anna about Brett because as soon as that conversation had ended, she’d perked right up and they’d talked about much lighter topics like the wedding and work and hobbies. Honestly, it felt like catching up with the older sister Anna had never had and always wanted.
She carefully hung the dress up in her closet, making sure that it was safely wrapped in its bag before grabbing her pajamas from the dresser drawer and got ready for bed. After brushing her teeth and hair, she went to set her alarm on her phone but unlocked the screen to find a text from Brett that she wasn’t expecting.
“How was dress shopping? Martha texted me to say she thinks u r great.” Anna smiled: though she wasn’t looking for approval from his family, she liked the idea of Martha liking her.
“It was fun. Way too expensive.” She laid down in her bed and plugged her phone into the charger, feeling suddenly distracted from how tired she was.
“U know that’s not an issue.”
“I still feel like I should pay her back.”
“It’s just as much for Martha as it is for u.” Well, that made her feel a little better. She and Brett texted back and forth like that for a while longer, talking about her day, his new job, and details about the wedding. Anna knew that she should go to sleep, but every time she went to type that she had to go, something stopped her, and she found herself in a loop of conversation that she didn’t want to put an end to just yet even as she watched the minutes tick by and she thought about how tired she’d be in the morning. She fell asleep with the phone in her hand and a smile on her face.
Chapter Eight: Brett
Brett didn’t see Anna again for a week, not until the day of Martha’s wedding. She worked, mostly, and since the last two times he’d gone over to her place had been so…passionate, to say the least, he wanted to avoid any chance of saying or doing something that might change her mind and ruin their date.
Shit. It wasn’t a date, he reminded himself; just a favor she was doing for him as a friend. For some reason, he kept making that mistake, and he knew he needed to shut it down because despite the fact that she’d agreed to fool around with him and he could, therefore, gather that she probably didn’t hate him anymore, he was still pretty sure that she had zero interest in him. He wasn’t her type, after all: chronically unemployed (despite this brief interruption, which he had to admit, he was enjoying), lazy, and irresponsible, three things that she not only wasn’t used to seeing but that she resented.
For that reason, Brett kept his distance. He allowed himself to text her, so long as they kept the conversation light, and he knew that he was going to run into her at work now that he was going to visit his grandfather to help him get dressed and ready for the wedding. Brett had thought that it was crazy to allow a man on his deathbed to leave his medical facility for the wedding but Eustice was so firm in his stance that the medical staff told him that it couldn’t make him any sicker than he already was. Brett knocked on the door of his grandfather’s room and entered.
“Hey, Gramps,” he greeted, forcing some cheer into his tone to cover up the nervousness. “How are you feeling today?”
Eustice looked much better than he’d seen him in a long time. He was sitting up when Brett walked in, eating his breakfast with more gusto than his normally meager appetite would allow.
“Good morning, kiddo!” he exclaimed, ushering him over for a hug. “I’m feeling better than I have in months; I’ll say that. This wedding’s got me so excited; nothing could bring my mood down today.”
Brett smiled. “Glad to hear it,” he replied. “Once you’re done eating, I’ll help you into your clothes. Unless you want one of the nurses to do it—though that might be awkward since I know Anna’s working today.” Eustice frowned in confusion.
“She is?” he asked, looking a little dejected. “I haven’t seen her in days; the young man who took over for her during the day said that she’d caught the flu. I was wondering if she was even well enough to attend.”
Brett cursed internally. Why would Anna give her patients to someone else, and moreover, why would she have him lie about it?
“Oh, yeah, she was under the weather, but it was just one of those forty-eight-hour bugs,” he covered, hoping Eustice wouldn’t ask any more questions about it. “She took a few days off to rest and recover so she’d be ready for tonight.”
Eustice broke into a delighted grin, one which was weak on one side from a stroke he’d never quite fully recovered from but that conveyed his elation all the same.
“Glad to hear she’s feeling better,” he said, and Brett made a mental note to remind Anna to add that lie to the growing list of them. “So she’ll be in attendance?”
Brett smiled. “Wouldn’t miss it,” he reassured. “Now, come on. Let’s get a nurse in here for your bath; then we can get you dressed up and ready to go.”
While Eustice was being given his bed bath, Brett decided to look for Anna to give her a heads up on the lie in case she ran into Eustice before he had a chance to tell her. He waited in the lobby for a few minutes, hoping that she’d come visit the front desk and see him standing there, but he had no such luck. Instead, a middle-aged woman was the one to notice him waiting.
“Can I help you?” she asked, sounding a little more rushed than friendly, but when Brett read her name on her nametag as Jackie, he recognized her from the stories that Anna had told: she was apparently gruff but kind, and though a lot of people found her intimidating, she was a nice person.
“Oh, I was looking for my…friend, Anna Diaz. I know she’s working right now, so I was wondering if I could come say hello.” Hoping to butter her up into being extra generous in her compliments for his family, he’d stopped at a local candy store and bought her a box of dark chocolate covered cherries. He’d convinced himself that it wasn’t so overtly romantic that it would immediately register that way for her coworkers if she didn’t want them to know about this, but Jackie gave him a knowing smile and beckoned him to a back room that said: “STAFF ONLY.” He hesitated to walk through it, but Jackie opened it for him to reveal Anna and her coworker Josh sitting at the same table, arms touching, both hunched over Josh’s phone and looking down at the screen. Anna was laughing, wiping tears from her eyes, and Josh was looking at her with the kind of admiration that could be recognized as puppy love from a mile away.
“Hey, Diaz,” Jackie interrupted, “I found someone in the lobby for you.”
Brett waved to both of them. “Hi, Anna,” he greeted. “Hey, Josh. I came in to visit my grandpa, and I thought I’d stop by and say hello.”
Anna nodded, her face unreadable. “Well, hi,” she replied. Her tone held no malice, but also didn’t sound overly excited to see him. “Josh was just showing me this hilarious comedian—oh, do you know Josh? This is Brett, an old friend of mine and the grandson of Mr. Riggs.”
“We’ve met, yeah,” Josh smiled. “How’re you doing, man?”
“Oh, livin’ the dream,” Brett replied lightly. With both of them in here, it seemed inappropriate to give her the candy, but despite his best efforts to keep it hidden behind his back, Jackie had already seen it and was not going to grant him any mercy.
“Did I see that you brought Anna chocolates?” she asked, nudging him forward in a way that made him feel like an awkward teenager being encouraged to put on his prom date’s corsage.
“I brought them for the nursing staff,” he lied, “as a little ‘thank you’ for taking such good care of my gramps.”
Jackie nodded. “Chocolate cherries are Anna’s favorite,” she pointed out, and he flashed her a tense, warning smile.
“What a coincidence,” he lied. “I just picked up something that sounded good. I’m glad to hear at least someone will eat them.” He set them on the counter behind him, feeling as if he were intruding on something. There was a certain type of quiet that could only be achieved by interrupting two people who were really close and having a good, private moment, and that was exactly th
e energy he was getting now. It made him want to crawl out of his skin.
“That’s sweet of you,” Anna said blandly, “thank you. We don’t get a whole lot of appreciation for what we do, so it was kind of you to think of us.”
