Tess flew to her door when there was a knock that night. She was in her bathrobe and had a cold cream mask on her face, but if Kyle came a knockin', she'd talk to him no matter how bad she looked. She peered through the peephole before opening the door and saw that it was Maria on the other side instead of Kyle, though. She shouldn't have gotten her hopes up.
Tess pulled open the door and said, "Hey, what's up?" When she noticed that her friend was crying, she dropped her cheery tone right away. "Oh my god, what's up?" This didn't look good. Maria's mascara was smeared, evidence of just how hard she'd been crying. Her face was reddened, and her breath was coming unevenly. "What's wrong? What happened?"
Maria took in a shaky breath and cried, "I broke up with Michael."
Tess's heart immediately sank for her, for both of them. She'd been worried that something like this would happen.
"Actually, we broke up with each other," Maria amended. "Oh my god, Tess, can I come in?"
Tess didn't even hesitate. "Yeah, of course." She opened the door wider and helped Maria inside. The poor girl looked like she could barely stand. "You . . . you guys really broke up?" She closed the door, still trying to fathom that. Michael and Maria were perfect together.
Maria nodded mutely that time and stood in the middle of the living room, wrapping her arms around herself.
"Do you wanna talk about it?"
"No," she whimpered.
"Okay. You sure?"
"No." Maria continued to cry. She was an absolute wreck. "God, I don't even know what happened. I mean, I do, 'cause I was there, but . . . oh, god, Tess."
"Okay, sit down." Tess wrapped one arm around Maria's shoulders, and together they sat down on the couch. "Calm down," she said, rubbing her friend's back supportively. "Calm down, okay? Everything's gonna be fine."
"No," Maria kept saying.
"Yes."
"No." Maria looked at her with wide, devastated eyes. "It was bad, Tess. It was so bad."
"What was?"
Maria looked away and mumbled, "The fight."
"You guys fought?" It was a stupid question. Tears and grieving weren't exactly signs of a nice, simple break-up. "What about?" That was kind of a stupid question, too. She had a feeling she already knew.
"Just everything," Maria said.
"Isabel?"
She swallowed hard and nodded, sounding angry when she muttered, "Yeah, she definitely had a feature role."
Stupid Isabel, Tess thought. Stupid . . . Evanses. "Oh, Maria, I'm so sorry."
Maria shrugged helplessly. "Don't be. It was kind of inevitable. Seven and a half months inevitable." She grabbed one of the pillows off the couch and hugged it tightly to her stomach.
"Maria, if Isabel wasn't pregnant . . ."
"She is pregnant," Maria pointed out.
"But if she wasn't . . ." Tess just wanted to explore the hypothetical. "Would this be happening?"
"Why go there?" Maria snapped.
"Just wondering."
Maria sighed heavily and set the pillow aside again. "I don't know," she admitted. "Probably not." Her voice wavered when she spoke. She sniffed back some of her tears, then broke down in sobs again.
"Oh, Maria." Tess pulled her into a hug, wishing there was something more that she could do. But at the same time, she couldn't help feeling that Michael and Maria not being together was a very bad idea.
"I think . . . I think he hates me now," Maria whimpered.
"Why would he?" Tess asked, pulling back from the hug to look at her friend questioningly. She had to know that Michael could never hate her.
"Because," Maria said. "I can't . . . I just can't do this. Any of it. I can't fight for him."
Tess made a face. That didn't make any sense to her. "Why wouldn't you?"
"Well, it's not like he's fighting for me, either," Maria noted. "He's too busy fighting for Isabel and the kid she's carrying."
"He has to," Tess reminded her.
"No, he's choosing to."
"Come on, you know he wouldn't be Michael if he wasn't stepping up in this situation."
Maria grunted and wiped cheek with her hand. "Stepping up to fatherhood."
"Well . . ." Tess shrugged. That was true. Michael Guerin was going to be a dad. It was pretty obvious that he didn't want a baby at this point in his life, but he was the type of guy who wouldn't neglect his responsibility to do what was right.
"I know this sounds crazy," Maria said, "and I know it's very selfish . . . but for once I wish he wouldn't be a nice guy; I wish he wouldn't do the honorable thing. I wish . . ." She stared straight ahead at nothing in particular and lowered her voice as though she were ashamed to say the rest. "I wish he would choose me over them." She then lowered her head and mumbled, "I told you it was selfish."
"Hey, it's totally not wrong to feel the way you feel right now," Tess assured her, "or to react the way you're reacting. I know when I found out Max was cheating on me . . ."
"No, this is different," Maria cut in adamantly. "Michael is not Max. But still, I feel like . . . this is horrible. I feel like he betrayed me. And I know—I know that's not true. He and Isabel did this long before he and I were even a couple. But I can't help feeling angry and . . . I don't know, like scorned or something."
"Is it's Isabel who's the problem," Tess asked, "or the baby?"
"It's just the fact that Michael's starting this family," Maria explained, "and even though he wants me to be a part of it, I'll never be a part of it, and I don't even think I wanna be."
"Do you wish he was starting a family with you?" It was a bold, big question, but Tess felt the need to ask it.
"No, not even. Or at least not yet," Maria replied. "I'm so not maternal. I just want things to go back to the way they were, and I know they never will, so . . ." She sighed in defeat.
"So this is it? You guys are just over?" It seemed so sudden, so . . . wrong. "Over and done with?"
"Pretty much."
That wasn't good enough for Tess. "No." She rose to her feet and peered down at Maria, slightly angry at her for being so willing to just give in. "No, I don't buy that. You guys are in love."
"It takes more than love to make a relationship work, Tess."
"It shouldn't."
"Well, it does!" Maria sprang to her feet, her tears shining like lighthouses. "And I was stupid to think I could make love work. I shouldn't have deluded myself."
"How is love a delusion?"
"Think about it. It's not about happiness; it's about heartbreak," Maria argued. "In the end at least. I mean, look at you and Max, or Max and Liz, even. Or here's an oldie but a goodie: You and Kyle."
Tess frowned. If Maria was attempting to shift the focus . . . "Okay, but this isn't about me. This is about you, you and Michael."
"Right. And you know what I should've done? I should've never let myself fall in love with him in the first place. Because before Michael, I had fun with guys. Just fun. Now I have this, this broken heart and-and eyes I can't even see out of 'cause they're so blurry with these stupid tears. I hate this."
"I know you do." Tess understood the hurt. She'd felt it too many times for one lifetime. "But I've known you all my life, Maria, and I know you've never been happier than when you're with Michael."
"I'm not very happy right now."
"Well, that's 'cause you guys aren't . . . together right now." Tess made a face when the words felt uncomfortable on her tongue. "God, it sounds strange."
Maria's face took on a glazed expression as she walked away from Tess and made into the kitchen. "It was all strange," she said, her voice suddenly becoming very monotone. Tess could tell she was drifting off into her own world, the one made of only her own thoughts. "Me and Michael, right from the very beginning . . . I should've known we would never work. We're too different."
"That's why you work."
Maria frowned at her and asked, "What're you doing?"
"Uh, trying to be optimistic?" Wasn't that the best friend's role?
"What's the point? It's over." Maria hopped up on the kitchen counter and hung her head. "It's all over."
"That's bleak," Tess remarked, so unused to hearing her friend talk like this. Maria was fiery and feisty and . . . this just didn't seem like her.
"That's life."
Tess shook her head. She didn't want Maria to lose herself because she felt so horrible. It would get better. "No. No, no, I don't like this, Maria. This isn't you. I'm not gonna let you roll over and play dead." As Maria opened her mouth to object, Tess kept going. "And yes, that's exactly what you're doing."
"Oh, yeah? Look who's talking. You haven't lifted a finger to make things right with Kyle."
"That's not true, and that's . . ." Tess placed her hands on her hips and stomped her foot in frustration. Maria definitely wasn't making this easy. "You know, I realize you're upset, and I know this is just your anger talking, but . . . well, now I'm angry, too, because you're my best friend, and you should've learned from my mistakes. Michael's a great guy, the kind that comes along once in a lifetime. He's nice and he's smart and he's cute and he's funny. And he loves you." Kyle was pretty much the same, except for the loving her and not Maria bit. "If you let him go, you're crazy, and you'll regret it for the rest of your life."
"Or maybe I'll regret it if I stay with him," Maria theorized. "'Cause it'll never be the same."
"No, but maybe it'll be better."
"How can it be better?"
"You guys will grow and . . . become fuller people and . . ." Tess rolled her eyes at her lame attempt at a response. "I don't know." She made her way into the kitchen and stood before Maria, admitting, "I'm just trying to look on the bright side or whatever."
"Bright side?" Maria echoed. "There is no bright side."
"There might be, but you just won't see it."
Maria hopped down off the counter and stared at Tess accusingly. Her voice rose in volume as she said, "Hey, I'm not the one who's got my blinders on. You still believe in happily ever after, even though you shouldn't."
Tess shifted uncomfortably. If she stopped believing in it, then she worried she would never experience it.
"Name one person who's actually in love and happy right now," Maria told her. "Name one."
Tess opened her mouth, but she struggled to come up with a name. She couldn't say herself, and she couldn't say Kyle, and now she couldn't even say Michael. At last, it came to her, though. "Marty." She smiled proudly. "Marty and Francis."
Maria rolled her eyes. "They don't count."
"Why not? Because they're gay men?"
"Well, for starters!"
"But it's the same thing," Tess insisted. "Well, minus one vagina and plus one penis." She waved that off. "Irrelevant. They're in love and they're together and they're happy, and you know what? Their gayness is an obstacle in and of itself, because a lot of people think it's like a sin or something. If they can overcome that, why can't you and Michael overcome Isabel's pregnancy?"
"Because it's not that simple."
"So make it that simple." She didn't want to sound insensitive, but maybe that was what Maria needed.
"I can't," Maria cried. "God, Tess, would you just get off your moral high-horse and try to understand what it's like to be me in this situation?"
"High-horse?" Tess shrieked, offended by that. "I'm trying to help you. God, I can't deal with you—I can't deal with you when you're like this."
"Fine, then I'll leave!" Maria shouted, stomping towards the door.
"Fine!" Tess felt a little bad.
Maria whirled around before leaving and said, "I don't know why I thought you would understand. You're the queen of dysfunctional."
Tess huffed. "Be a little bitchier, why don't you? It's no wonder Michael chose Isabel over you." The moment she said that, she regretted it.
Maria looked hurt. The tears in her eyes started to flow freely again. "Fine, take his side," she growled. "I don't care." She stormed out of the apartment, and Tess's entire body went limp with regret. So much for being the supportive friend.
...
Maria knocked on the door to Kyle's apartment. She didn't like having to do this, but she had nowhere else to go. As she stood there, waiting for him to come open the door, she glanced to the left at the door to her and Michael's apartment. Or probably just Michael's now. She stared at the numbers on the front door, the five and the two and the one . . .
"Hey, Maria," Kyle said when he opened the door. He looked slightly confused to see her. "Tess isn't here."
"I know," she said.
"Neither is Michael."
She took another glance at 521. "Good."
"Good?" Kyle echoed. "What?"
"You didn't hear the yelling earlier?"
"Me, night-class, attending. I wasn't here," he explained.
"Oh." Lucky him.
"There was yelling?"
Maria shifted a bit uncomfortably. She didn't like the thought that Michael could walk out of his apartment at any moment and see her there. "Can I come in?" she asked.
Kyle still looked confused, but he stepped aside. "Sure."
"Thanks." She slipped inside his place, breathing a sigh of relief when he shut the door. "I tried calling Marty, but then I remembered he and Francis are in Vegas."
"Eloping?" Kyle inquired.
"Gambling."
"Huh, even better. We should go there sometime. You know, the four of us." He seemed to realize there wasn't much of a four anymore, because he quickly changed the number. "The three of us."
"Uh, I think you and Michael are gonna have to go by yourselves," she told him.
"Why? You got a gambling addiction?" He laughed, but she didn't. "Okay, apparently not so funny."
"He and I aren't . . ." She had really expected Kyle to at least have an idea as to what was going on. "He didn't tell you?"
"Tell me what? Me, class, attending, remember? I haven't seen Michael all day."
That explained it. Maria flapped her arms against her sides and said, "We broke up. We're not together anymore."
Kyle's entire expression registered shock. "What?"
"He'll probably come over here to tell you later. I'm sorry, I know he's your best friend and everything, but do you mind putting the bromance on hold for one night? I really need a place to stay."
"Oh, so . . . here? You wanna stay here?" Kyle questioned.
"Can I? I've got nowhere else to go. It's either here or the art museum, and that place is creepy at night."
"What about Tess? She's got an extra bedroom," Kyle pointed out, obviously trying to figure out a way to get her to leave. "You used to live there all the time."
"We had a fight, too," she confessed. God, she was just alienating all the people close to her, wasn't she? "Please, Kyle," she begged. "As pathetic as it sounds, you're the only friend I've got right now." And that wasn't good. She and Kyle could easily drive each other crazy.
"Oh, you can stay here," he told her, locking the door so that Michael couldn't just barge in and find her there. "Not forever, though."
"Relax, it's just for tonight," she assured him. "Then I'll . . ."
"Go home?" he suggested.
She let out a deep, saddened breath and flopped down on the couch, completely drained of energy. "It's not home anymore. I'm gonna have to move out, probably quit my job, too. Maybe I can stay with Marty once he gets back."
"Whoa, hold on." Kyle sat down beside her. "You're serious?"
"You thought I was joking?"
"Well, no, but . . ." For a moment, he seemed at a rare loss for words. "You guys can't break up. You guys are . . . you guys."
That didn't mean they were immune to relationship troubles. "Kyle, please, I can't . . . I can't take you sounding like Tess right now," she said, feeling the emotions she was trying so hard to suppress climbing back up towards the surface again. "I just wanna go to sleep."
"Okay, okay. You can take the bed," Kyle offered generously.
"Ew. The bed you and Tess had sex on? No thanks, I'll take this couch."
"We had sex here, too."
She made a face of disgust and lifted her hand off the arm of the couch. "Fine, the bathtub then."
"Uh . . ."
"No, just . . ." Clearly she wasn't going to find a place in the apartment where Tess and Kyle hadn't done it, so she resigned herself to the combination most comfortable and least intrusive sleeping spot. "The couch is fine. I'll manage."
"Okay. I'll go get you some blankets." Kyle got up off the couch and went into the hallway to rummage around his closet. "So why'd you and Michael decide to break up?" he asked as he tossed various blankets out onto the floor. "Isabel?"
"Everything," she mumbled. "I can't even blame her. It's not her fault. It's mine . . . and Michael's."
"Well, I have faith in you two," Kyle said, shutting the door and gathering up all the blankets in his arms. "You'll get back together. Just give it some time." He stood before her, his arms full, and announced, "Blankets."
And just like that, she broke down, started sobbing. She didn't want to, but she couldn't help it. It was like spontaneous combustion, only with tears instead of fire.
"Oh, Maria." Kyle dropped the blankets and sat down beside her again. "No, no, don't . . . cry. Well, cry if you want to, but . . . here." He reached down and picked up a quilt for her. "I got blankets."
"Thanks, Kyle." She clutched the quilt to her chest, crying even harder when she realized it was a baby quilt. His name was on it, along with his birthday. Much to her surprise, he put his arm around her and hugged her to his side. "I'm sorry," she wept. "I don't mean to impose or . . ."
"Don't worry about it," he said. "We're in the same boat here."
She sat up straight again and tried to dry her eyes with her hands, but the tears just kept coming. "He said he wishes he'd never fallen in love with me," she cried. "And I told him the same thing. I didn't mean it, though."
"And neither did he. You know that, right?"
"I . . ." She shook her head. "I don't know." In all honesty, she didn't know why someone like him would love someone like her in the first place.
"Well, he didn't," Kyle reassured her. "He didn't mean it."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because," he replied, "I pretty much said the same thing to Tess. And we all know I didn't mean it."
That admission made her feel a little bit better . . . for about a second. And then she felt like she was dying again.
...
Isabel was bored. Episode one bored. Whenever she didn't have anything to do, she ended up lounging around, dwelling on the fact that she couldn't fit into anything except her fat pants anymore. Actually, she couldn't even fit into those. She was in full-on maternity wear, and it wasn't at all fashionable. Being pregnant really sucked. She couldn't wait to be done with it. After she popped the brat out, she was getting her tubes tied. End of story.
She decided to give Michael a call. She didn't want to pester him, but at the same time, she wanted to make sure she was fresh in his thoughts. Eventually, if she played her cards right, she would be in his thoughts more and more, and Maria would be in his thoughts less and less. How gratifying.
When Michael answered the phone, he sounded angry. "What?" he barked.
"Is that how you speak to your baby mama?" she teased. She'd probably interrupted some sex. She felt so bad about that in the sense that she didn't feel bad at all.
"Sorry," he apologized. "I got a lot on my mind."
She didn't doubt that. She had a lot on her mind, too. Always did. "What's up? You sound like you're in a bad mood." Perhaps she'd interrupted a lack of sex.
"It's just one of those days," Michael mumbled.
"You okay?" She had to admit, she liked where this conversation was going.
He didn't give her an answer, instead choosing to ask, "Do you need something?"
Oh my god, she thought. Did they break up already? "No," she replied. "No, just callin' to say howdy."
"Fine. I'll talk to you tomorrow." He ended the call and left her listening to the dial tone in a hurry. She smiled and slowly flipped her phone closed. Here she'd been thinking she might have to play a little dirty to get the lovebirds to fly apart, but apparently they'd done that all on their own. She could tell just by hearing Michael's tone that that was what had happened.
Perfect. She was thrilled, couldn't think of a better scenario. Maria was out of the picture now. Celebrate good times. She had to go tell Max.
Isabel knew her brother would either be at his office or at home, so she rode the elevator up to his suite to check for him there. She knocked on the door and waited for him to answer. She checked her reflection in the security cameras perched overhead while she waited. What was that, a wide-angle lens? She looked, like, twelve and a half months pregnant! How outrageous!
"Come in," Max called.
She pushed open the door and strolled in with a smile on her face. Max was sitting at his kitchen table with a half a dozen stacks of papers in front of him, some sprawled out before him.
"You're good," she remarked, making her way into his kitchen. She found a glass of champagne and popped the cork on it. "If I had money, I'd pay you for your services."
"Like a hooker?" he said.
"Yes, like a male, brotherly hooker." She cringed as the words came out. "I wish I'd said something else. Anyway, you did your job. You did it well. Michael and Maria broke up today."
Max glanced up from his work, seemingly surprised. "They did?"
"Yeah. Or at least I think they did. Michael sounded pretty upset on the phone. I think he was about to cry, or already crying. That makes me happy." She took out two glasses and poured one glass for herself, one for Max.
"You drink?" he asked.
She scoffed, "Who doesn't?"
"Most pregnant women don't."
She raised her glass to her lips, wanting to take a sip. Just a small one. "World of crap," she muttered. "Whatever." She emptied her glass in the sink and handed him the whole bottle. "Drink for me."
"I might do that." He looked down at his work again, rubbing his forehead as though he were stressed out.
"So what did you say to her?" she asked, sitting down beside him. She was really curious. She'd always known Max was diabolical, but to be able to break up a supposedly air-tight couple in a single day? He must've said something extremely heartbreaking.
"Just stuff," he replied with a shrug. "I didn't think she'd break up with him."
"She's a bitch." Isabel smiled. She was a bitch herself, but a better one than Maria.
"Well, congratulations," Max said. "You're getting what you want."
She always did, one way or another. "We make a great team, you and me," she told him. "Too bad Dad didn't leave any portion of this business to me. We could've ruled the world together."
"Guess I'll just have to settle for ruling the world by myself." He smirked.
"Hmm." He could be such a little jackass sometimes. "So how was your first official day in charge?" she asked. "Did everything go well?"
Max tensed and answered, "It was . . . insightful."
She frowned. That was a strange word to use.
He pressed his elbows onto the marble of the tabletop and leaned forward. "If I tell you something, will you promise not to tell anyone else?" he asked.
She nodded, fully intending to keep any promise to Max after the role he'd played in the Michael/Maria break-up.
Max stared at her for a moment, then looked away and blurted, "Dad was broke."
Isabel . . . didn't respond for a moment. Because that didn't make any sense. When she did manage to get something out, it was only one very confused word: "What?"
...
Tess didn't get much sleep that night. She had no idea where Maria was; she wasn't answering her cell phone. She was worried about her friend, and she felt guilty for kicking her out. Technically, she hadn't kicked her out; Maria had left voluntarily. But only because they'd snapped at each other.
The next day, she went over to Michael's place. The door was open a bit, so she stepped inside and surveyed the living room. It was full of cardboard boxes, and those boxes were probably full of Maria's things. Michael certainly wasn't wasting any time. It was heartbreaking to see.
"Michael?" She peered around a stack of three boxes and saw a half-assembled crib on the floor. There was still a lot of work to be done on that.
"Hey, Tess," Michael said as he walked out of the bedroom. He had another box in his hands.
"Hey." My god, she thought. He looks horrible. There were bags under his eyes, his hair was tousled about, and he looked like he hadn't slept in days. And he definitely hadn't shaved, either. He looked ten years older than he really was. Poor guy.
"What-what's going on here?" she asked, though she already knew. "You're packing up Maria's stuff?"
He set the box he was carrying down atop two other boxes next to the couch. "Yeah."
"Did she stay here last night?"
"Nope."
Tess tensed in nervousness. "Oh, god." If something bad had happened to Maria, she was never going to forgive herself. What if she was in a ditch somewhere? What if she was drunk and passed out? What if she was drunk and passed out in a ditch? "I hope she's okay."
"I really don't care," Michael mumbled, picking up a roll of packing tape off his coffee table. He pulled out a long strip of tape and sealed closed the flaps of one cardboard box with it, then repeated the process on another.
"Yes, you do," Tess said. "You know you do."
"It doesn't matter," Michael grumbled. "We're done."
Tess frowned and shook her head. "I don't believe that. I just wish you guys hadn't . . . but I guess it doesn't matter what I wish." She wished they could all go back to the way they were, the Core Four, best friends in the entire world. They were the Fractured Four now, and it was much less fun. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
"I wish I was a kid again," he blurted, rolling the packing tape around his finger, then unrolling it again. "Six years old, just startin' school, still thinkin' girls had cooties."
Tess smiled sympathetically. Didn't he know boys were the ones with the cooties?
He set the packing tape back down on the coffee table and sat down on the arm of the couch, looking sullen. "I didn't mean to hurt her," he said quietly.
"I know."
"I didn't mean for any of this to happen. But it did. And if she can't be here to support me when I need her most . . ." He sighed heavily. "Well, then, she can't be here. At all."
It all seemed so drastic, so sudden. Tess felt just sick about it. "Where's she gonna go?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Kinda thought she'd move back in with you."
"I think she's probably kinda pissed at me right now," Tess confessed, eliciting a confused look from him. "Too much defending you, not enough agreeing with her. It's not that I think one of you is right and one of you is wrong. I think I'm just more able to understand where you're coming from than she is. Max and Isabel are two of a kind. I know what it's like to be under that spell."
"It's not about Isabel; it's about the baby," Michael clarified. "From here on out, it's all about the baby."
"And that's . . . admirable, Michael. Really, it is," she assured him. "But why does being a father have to entail sacrificing all your personal happiness? It doesn't seem fair."
"It's not fair," he agreed. "But it was Maria's choice, not mine. I was never gonna leave her. She's the one who couldn't deal. So now she has to leave the apartment. But that's okay. She'll be okay. Maria always lands on her feet . . . or her back."
"Michael!" That was an incredibly harsh and crude thing to say, and it was so unlike Michael to say it. "I realize you're angry, but . . . you shouldn't try to make her out to be the bad guy. She didn't do anything wrong."
"Neither did I," he reminded her. He rose to his feet again and started down the hallway towards the bedroom again. He stopped on the way, though, and turned back around to face her. "Please . . . let her stay with you, Tess," he pleaded. "I can't be worried about her. I have to know she's safe."
Tess sighed. They were alike in that regard. She had to know Maria was safe, too, and one way of knowing that was by living with her again.
Tess left when Michael went back into the bedroom to continue packing. She had just set foot out in the hallway when the door to Kyle's apartment opened and he and Maria came out.
"That's a stupid game," Maria was saying. "All those annoying little moles . . ."
"You just have to know how to whack 'em . . . oh," Kyle said, noticing her. "Tess."
"Kyle." She wished she'd dressed up a little. Michael wasn't the only one not looking his best that morning. "And Maria?" She glanced back and forth between the two of them, confused. What had they been doing hanging out together? They never did that. Had they been . . .? Tess's eyes flared up in alarm.
"Oh, god, no, not in this lifetime," Maria said as if she'd read her mind. "Kyle let me crash at his place last night. Since I had nowhere else to go."
"She slept on the couch," Kyle added.
Tess shot him a look of disbelief. "You made her sleep on the couch?"
"I offered the bed," he said in his defense.
"And what're you . . ." Maria motioned from her to the closed door to Michael's apartment.
"Oh, I was . . . looking for you, actually," she admitted. "I wanna apologize if I sounded insensitive and lecture-y last night. I didn't mean to. I know I can't understand what you're going through, but . . . I wanna be there for you. You're my best friend and I love you."
Maria smiled a little, and that small smile was a clear indicator of forgiveness.
"Maria, I want you to move back in with me."
Maria swallowed hard and nodded, holding back tears. "Thanks." It wasn't really something to be happy about, seeing as how moving back in entailed moving out of the apartment she'd come to know as home, leaving the roommate she'd come to love.
"No, thank you," Tess said. "Two-bedroom apartment . . . it'll be nice not to have to pay two rent fees a month." That was a pathetic attempt to keep it light-hearted, so she turned serious again. "And it'll be nice to have you around, even though I know you wish you were . . . somewhere else."
"No, trust me, 'somewhere else' is the last place I wanna be . . ." Maria trailed off slowly as the door to 521 swung open. Michael joined the three of them in the hallway, holding yet another box in his hands. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, not saying anything. The tension was so thick, Tess could have cut it with a knife. Finally, Michael dropped the box down at Maria's feet. The sound it made broke the silence and caused both Tess and Maria to flinch.
"You're gonna have to take Frank, too," Michael said.
Maria just stared at him in confusion. "What?"
"I can't afford a dog right now," he explained.
Maria cast a glance at Tess and shook her head. "But The Links doesn't allow pets. Right?"
"Right," Tess said.
Michael flapped his arms against his sides. "So who's gonna take him?"
The three of them looked at each other questioningly for a moment, and then they all turned to look at Kyle. "What?" he said, clearly oblivious to what they were silently suggesting.
...
"Well, Frank, I guess it's just you and me." Kyle spread out the front page of the daily newspaper on his bathroom floor and cast a glance at the dog. Frank was just sitting in the hallway, staring at him. "The bachelor pad. You'll like it here. Lots of bachelors, like you." He laid out the obituaries, followed by the classifieds, and finally the sports section. The bathroom floor was pretty well-covered. "Hey, we should get a stripper," he kept on. "You like blondes?"
Frank stuck out his tongue and panted.
"Yeah, me, too. We'll ask her to give you a lap dance. How's that sound?" He laughed a little, and then the very disturbing image of a stripper giving a pug puppy a lap dance entered his mind, and he shook his head to get rid of it. "Or we could just work on getting you housetrained." He knelt down and slapped his hand against his thigh. "Come here."
Frank didn't move.
"Tess would be so much better at this," he groaned.
Frank tilted his head to the side.
"Oh, Tess? She's . . . hard to explain, man. Hard to explain," Kyle told the dog.
Frank whimpered and lay down, looking sad.
"What, you miss your mom and dad?" Kyle crawled across the newspaper and sat down next to Frank, scratching him behind the ears. The poor dog was like a kid in the foster system. Luckily he was landing in good homes. "Yeah, I don't blame you."
Frank lifted his head to lick the palm of Kyle's hand. Tess's licking was . . . better.
After sitting in the hallway, wallowing in the depressiveness of the bachelor pad for a few minutes, Kyle got to his feet and picked up Frank. With a mind of their own, his feet took him over to Michael's place. He barged right in the door and asked, "Just how stupid are you?"
Michael was sitting on the living room floor with a crib that was still nowhere near put-together. He had the instructions in his hand but looked up from them when Kyle came in. "Apparently very," was his response. "I can't get this thing together. I can't . . ." He tossed the directions aside and raked one hand through his hair.
"I brought the dog," Kyle said randomly. He held Frank up at his side and lifted up his right paw to wave to Michael.
"Hey, Frank," Michael mumbled.
"So tell me, just how stupid are you?" Kyle asked again.
Michael leaned back against the wall, looking as though he were about to drop. The guy probably hadn't slept in . . . well, in a good long while. But Kyle wasn't going to take it easy on him. "You let your girl walk out of your life," he said. "And after she walked out, you kicked her out. That's stupid."
Michael closed his eyes. "That's just the way things happen, Kyle. Get used to it."
"But it makes no sense. Why would you guys throw it all away just 'cause you hit a rough patch?" Kyle kept on, shifting Frank to his left arm.
Michael's eyes shot open to give him a disbelieving look.
"Okay, I know that sounds hypocritical of me," he acknowledged, "and it is. Touché. And I know it's not a rough patch so much as the rest of your life, but . . ." He stopped, considering some things he hadn't thought about. "Wait a minute, now I'm rethinking." But he still came to the same conclusion. Michael was being stupid. "No, still, why would you just give up?"
Michael pushed himself up onto his feet, groaning. "Maria gave up first."
"And you followed suit, like a . . . follower."
"You gave up on Tess."
"No I didn't, 'cause I'm not ruling out the possibility that Tess and I could get back together again someday," he refuted. He wasn't exactly being optimistic about it lately, but . . . he hadn't lost all hope. Losing all hope would mean that he didn't love her anymore and . . . he'd never stop loving her.
"Yeah, 'cause you might or might not be together again someday," Michael said. "What you're going through is just a rough patch. You said it yourself: What Maria and I are going through affects the rest of my life. I'm not gonna wake up someday and no longer be a dad. That's always gonna be there, and I gotta make that a priority above everything else."
Kyle made a face. "You can't do that while dating Maria?" It sounded to him that Michael was giving himself a voluntary ultimatum. That was a special kind of stupid.
Michael shrugged helplessly. "She doesn't seem to think so. And if she doesn't think so . . . I don't think so."
"Oh, and if Maria jumped off a bridge, would you?"
Michael rolled his eyes and trudged into his kitchen to pull a beer bottle out of the refrigerator. He closed the refrigerator door and stared at it for several long seconds before lowering his head. "I love her," he stated simply. "More than anything in the world, I wanna spend the rest of my life with her. But I can't. It's not that simple anymore."
"But-"
"Kyle." Michael's whole tone was adamant, forceful. "I'm gonna have a son, or a daughter. With Isabel. It's not that simple."
Kyle nodded slowly in consideration. He supposed it wasn't. If Tess were to be expecting a kid with Max, it wouldn't be that simple. It never was when it got to this point.
Kyle glanced down at Frank and decided in that moment, "I think I'm gonna get him neutered." A lack of a sex drive and capability to make babies could be a blessing in its own way. Frank would thank him someday.
...
"Oh . . . okay, this makes sense." Isabel took another look at the ledger in her hand and frowned. "No, wait, this doesn't make sense." She and Max had each devoted their entire day to sorting through financial document after document related to the predicament the company was in, and quite frankly, she was sick of it. But at the same time, she loved it. She loved that her dad wasn't as successful as everyone thought he was. Dick.
"It just keeps getting worse," Max grumbled. He rubbed his eyes as though he were having trouble seeing things straight at this point. They had been sitting in his living room dealing with this disaster for hours.
"If Dad was losing money at the speed of light, why wouldn't he just tell you about it?"
"Boast about your successes, hide your failures. One of his philosophies."
Isabel rolled her eyes. What a quack. "So by doing that, he made you think you were getting everything you wanted . . ."
"When in fact I was inheriting a company in complete disarray." Max sighed heavily. "Bastard."
"Huh." Isabel smiled a little. "In light of these new revelations, I'm kind of glad to be left out of the will."
"How am I supposed to fix this?" he asked. It probably wasn't a question so much as something he was wondering aloud to himself. "Who am I kidding? I'm not Donald Trump. I'm not even out of college."
"Max." Isabel set the ledger down and placed a supportive hand on her brother's knee. "Dad left this company to you because he thought you could handle it. And you can. I'll help you. Here, will you hand me that stack of files?"
Max reached for the stack, then withdrew his hand and said, "No, you know, you don't have to be here. You don't have to do this. Just . . . go to your room."
She raised an eyebrow. "Did you just tell me to go to my room?"
"Your hotel room," he clarified. "You should relax, watch some TV. Isn't The Hills on? Don't girls like The Hills?"
So stereotypical, she thought, deciding to play into it. "Yes, girls like The Hills. They like to eat of the salad and shop of the mall."
"I just meant . . ."
"I know. Actually, I have a lot of respect for Lauren Conrad," she admitted. "She took her good looks and fashion sense and turned it into national celebrity. Too bad she has such tragic taste in men."
"So go," he suggested. "Watch. Idolize."
"While you sit here agonizing over this? I don't think so." She reached across the table and grabbed the stack of papers herself. They still had so much to go through.
"Why not?" her brother asked.
"Because I don't want to." Wasn't that reason enough? "I can help, Max. This is the way Dad would've wanted it, the two of us working together to sort out his mess."
He wrinkled his forehead. "That's not the way he wanted it, Isabel. That's why he left you out of the will."
He had her there. "Well, it's the way he should've wanted it." She smirked.
"I appreciate your interest, but I can't let you help," he said. "You have other things to focus on." He glanced down at her pregnant belly to make his point.
"And trust me, I'm focused on that," she assured him. "But I'm not useless just because I'm pregnant."
"I didn't say you were. But this is stressful stuff. You and your offspring don't need any stress."
"My offspring?"
He took the stack of files out of her hands. "Besides, I'm meeting with this guy named Roger tomorrow. Apparently he knows everything there is to know about this company. He'll help me figure everything out."
She sighed, accepting the defeat. Once again, she was excluded from the company. What else was new?
"Please, go, get some rest."
There was no point in arguing with him. Max was almost as stubborn as she was. "Fine." She stood up—God, it was getting hard to stand up these days. Her back felt like it was about to break in two, and she was so freaking huge. "Keep me updated on what's happening, though. It's all very dramatic in a boring, business way. And I do love drama."
"Will do," he promised. "Goodnight."
"'Night." She sulked out of the suite and headed down the hallway to the elevator, sighing disappointedly. She had five minutes until The Hills came on.
