Chapter Three:
A Big Little Lie

Flashback - September 2002
New York City

Not to give himself too much credit, but after about a year of having Eleanor Brumby in his life, Mic liked to think that that he was finally getting the hang of fatherhood. He'd learned a lot of things, some that one would expect to learn with parenthood, and other random things that he never would expect to know in order to be a good parent.

One of those things was the knowledge of how to act a hundred percent invested in things that you didn't really care about. It wasn't that Mic didn't care about Princess Jasmine and Aladdin - well, he didn't. However, he did care about how much Ellie cared about them, so he was able to make himself, despite being incredibly jet lagged, stay up and listen to her as she relayed the entire events of the movie to him.

He had unfortunately missed out on watching it, and Ellie felt very passionately about catching him up.

"And then what happened?" Mic asked, sounding completely invested even though he could probably guess what happened next.

"And then - then they lived happily ever after."

"Oh that sounds amazing, love. Absolutely riveting."

If there was anyone on the planet Mic could offer endless shreds of patience for when he really had very little to give on the average day, it was Eleanor. Needless to say, there wasn't anyone else he would answer the phone for after a sixteen hour flight.

A third voice chimed in from the other end of the line. "Ellie, are you almost ready to hang up? Daddy probably needs to go to bed."

"But it's morning."

Mic laughed. "It's nighttime in New York, love."

"When are you coming home?"

"In three days."

Mic had been under the impression that civilian law wouldn't have him traveling as much, but sadly he had been mistaken. It hadn't so much been a problem when he'd been a bachelor, but now he had people who would actually miss him when he went away.

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"Alright, say goodnight to Daddy, Elle."

"Goodnight Daddy."

"Night Ellie."

"But it's morning."

"Good morning, Ellie."

"Good morning."

Mic had dealt with witnesses and clients who had been difficult conversationalists, but it wasn't until he started having regular talks with a toddler that he discovered what a truly roundabout communication style was.

"I love you."

"Love you too!"

There was some shuffling on the other end of the line. "She really misses you," Gillian said.

Mic's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"Uh-huh. She's been bugging me all morning, asking when you're coming home."

There had been a strange shift in Mic Brumby since he had embraced fatherhood, and Gillian had probably described it best when she said it was like how the Grinch's heart had grown three sizes after he discovered the true meaning of Christmas. It hadn't been an overnight change, but it had been a change nonetheless.

It had taken a couple of months of growing pains and adjustments for Mic and Ellie to warm up to each other. In Mic's defense toddlers aren't the easiest demographic of people to get to know, and in Ellie's defense Mic had a tendency to be the opposite of warm and welcoming - not to mention he was going in with no experience in child care in general, let alone parenting. But they had made it work - Mic had made it work, rather. The only thing Ellie had really had to do was get him wrapped around her finger, which had been surprisingly easy to do.

PRESENT DAY
APRIL 15TH, 2022

1045 EST
BRUMBY - ARTHUR RESIDENCE
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

After discovering what her daughter had really been up to in Melbourne early that morning, Gillian couldn't help but obsess over who this mystery man who had stolen Eleanor AnnMarie's heart might be. She had seen the comments he'd left on her photos, calling her "beautiful!", "gorgeous!" and "stunning!," and how'd she respond to them - Gillian supposed Ellie was trying to play it coy by responding with a simple red heart or kissy face. (despite her 'cool' status, Gillian was still trying to wrap her head around the younger generation's need to use emojis for everything)

Gillian had double-checked his profile again, making sure that it was indeed private. It was, and AJ Roberts was too common of a name for a Facebook search to yield any results. She didn't even really have a clear image of the guy to go off of - his Instagram profile picture was a far-away picture of him, standing on top of some mountain, no doubt at the end of a hike or some other outdoorsy activity.

I wonder if he knows Ellie doesn't go anywhere where there isn't air conditioning, Gillian thought to herself, ignoring the argument that was occurring right in front of her, on the living room flat screen. As much as she loved television dramas, her daughter's love life would have to take precedence.

Plus, this was her third time trying rewatching this one specific scene in Big Little Lies. Usually Mic and Gillian watched TV at night, but Mic kept falling asleep during this episode, and Gillian was determined to get season two started before the weekend was over. So her solution had been a simple one; she and Mic would watch the season one finale (again, for Gillian's fourth time) in the morning, after breakfast. That way there was no chance of Mic falling asleep during it.

"So Zoe Kravitz was the one who pushed him?" Mic asked, turning to look at Gillian with wide eyes.

"Her character's name is Bonnie, but yes. You would know that if you had read the book before, per my suggestion."

"I really didn't see that coming."

"Well if you had read the book-"

"You know what also doesn't make sense?" Mic asked as the credits rolled. "The book takes place in Australia, right? Right. So why is the TV show in California? Especially since they casted Nicole Kidman, who is an Australian actress and made her play an American woman, when they could've just made the entire thing take place in Australia like it was supposed to-"

"Love, you're not putting the television adaption of Big Little Lies on trial here, calm down," Gillian said. "I think this is just more reason that you should've read the book first."

"I don't have time to read."

"You're retired. You have so much time to do so many things."

"I don't want to read. There. Are you happy?"

"I'm just saying don't complain about the show inaccuracies if you refuse to read the book-"

"Fine. Can I have the book?"

"You already have it. I gave it to you a month ago-"

"Then I'll read it."

"Wonderful. I'll be expecting a book report by the end of it -"

Gillian paused, looking down at her phone when it began to buzz in her hand. Ellie's face lit up the screen, a photograph from a trip she'd taken to Paris the year before. The original contact photo had been a picture from a ballet recital when Ellie was thirteen, until Ellie had all but pried Gillian's phone out of her hands last Christmas and changed it to something more flattering.

"Be right back, I need to grab this," Gillian said as she stood up from the sofa. Mic looked up at her, his brow furrowed.

"Who is it?"

"The gardener."

Mic paused, looking over his shoulder at the window. "You mean the one that's outside….right now?"

Gillian hastily glanced up to see that the gardener was, indeed, right outside, trimming the bushes. "No uh, not that one. The gardener for the, uh, backyard. He's the one calling me."

"Gillian-"

"We have two gardeners, love, I promise!" Gillian said over her shoulder as she rushed out to the back patio, finally picking up.

"Hiiiiii Mummy!"

"Hello darling, how are you?" Gillian reached behind her to yank the french door shut.

"I'm doing fine…."

If there was anything that needed to be known about Eleanor, it was that she was, unlike her father, a terrible liar - equally horrible at keeping secrets for very long.

Gillian sat down on the edge of one of the lawn chairs by the pool. Maybe finding this out would be easier than she thought.

"How's Melbourne?" Gillian asked. "What have you and your friends been up to?"

"Oh you know, nothing much. We've been to the beach, shopping, he took me out to dinner-Oh, well I mean…we went out to dinner."

Gillian smirked. This was going to be much easier than she thought. "Does he take you out to dinner often?"

"I mean yeah, kind of, when we're both in town - I mean, no, I don't know what you're talking about. There's no he, Mummy."

"Whatever you say, love," Gillian drew her robe closer around herself, resting her chin on an upturned palm. "So, how long have you two been together?"

"Oh, I don't know, about three months - I mean, I'm not with anyone!"

"What's his name?"

"Mummy, stop it!"

"Eleanor, you're being ridiculous. If you're seeing someone, you can tell me. I'm your mother."

Ellie huffed. "Actually that's the exact reason why I can't tell you."

Gillian stood up, walking over to the edge of the pool. Her watery reflection followed her as she paced the length of it. "Come on," her curiosity was now truly getting the best of her. "You can tell me. I understand that you're an adult now with your…adult relationships."

"Stop. I'm not going to tell you anything."

"You're going to have to tell us something about it eventually, if it ends up being something serious."

Ellie laughed "Who said anything about anything being serious?"

Gillian peered over the fence at the neighbor's backyard. She wasn't sure if they had a gardener, but it looked like they needed one. "You're saying a lot by not saying anything, I think."

There were a few moments of silence on the other end of the line. Ellie took a deep breath. "Fine, but you have to promise not to say anything to Dad yet, or else I'm not going to say a word."

"My lips are sealed, I promise."

Both Gillian and Ellie were well aware of Mic's poor track record with reacting to Ellie's boyfriends, a precedent that began with Ellie's first boyfriend when she was fifteen. Mic stood very firmly in the belief that there was no one on the planet good enough for his little girl, and failed to realize that his little girl was now twenty-two and had a much better judge of character now than she had when she was fifteen.

As far as the Brumby family dynamics went, Gillian often felt like she was the point of neutrality stuck between two very opposing poles - those poles being her husband and daughter. If there was something to disagree about, Mic and Ellie would find some way to disagree about it - most times that only left room for Gillian to be the moderator, unless it was a topic extreme enough that she had to take sides. Like when Ellie wanted to get her belly button pierced for her sixteenth birthday (Gillian said no to this), and Mic threatened to send her to boarding school if she actually did it. (Gillian said no to this as well)

As much as Gillian understood Mic's need to be protective of their daughter, Gillian also understood and remembered what it was like to be twenty-two.

"His name is AJ and we've been going out for about three months."

Gillian's eyes lit up, even though she already knew his name and probably could've guessed how long they'd been together. Ellie's first trip to Melbourne had, indeed, been almost exactly three months prior.

As intrigued (nosey) as she was, Gillian knew she had to go about information gathering in moderation. She wasn't about to scare Ellie into clamming back up.

"Is he from Melbourne? What's AJ short for? How did you two meet?"

"We met while he was in Sydney for a weekend with friends. I don't know what AJ is short for - he won't tell me. And he's from Arlington."

"Arlington?" Gillian frowned. She had lived in Australia her entire life, and she had never heard of Arlington, Australia. "What part of Australia is that in, love?"

"Oh, it's not in Australia. It's a city in Virginia, Mummy."

Gillian's eyebrows shot up. "Virginia?" she asked slowly. "Virginia as in…the US?"

"Yes, that's where Virginia is."

Gillian turned away from the fence and looked back into the house, making sure Mic wasn't anywhere in the vicinity. "Eleanor AnnMarie-"

"I know."

"Your father is going to lose his mind."

"Believe me, I know. That's why you absolutely cannot tell him - not until-"

Gillian frowned. "Until what?"

"Mummy, you're going to think I'm crazy, but I think -"

"You think what?"

"I think…he might be the one."

"Oh my god, Eleanor!"

Mic would admit that he was probably not the most perceptive person, but he always knew when his wife and daughter were keeping something from him. When Gillian decided to take the call from their other gardener (Mic knew they only had one gardener) on the back patio with the door closed, he got his first suspicions. When that phone call lasted thirty minutes, he got even more suspicious, and when he overheard Gillian shout "Oh my god, Eleanor!", Mic knew something was up.

They both only knew one Eleanor, and it certainly wasn't their gardener.

He was sitting in the kitchen when Gillian finally came back inside from her mystery phone call, shutting the french door softly behind her.

"So, what's up with Ellie?"

Gillian jumped. "Oh god, Michael, I didn't see you there. You scared me," she walked over to the sink to wash her hands. "What do you mean? Ellie's fine."

"What were you two talking about?"

"Oh - nothing. She was just telling me about her weekend," Gillian dried her hands off on a nearby dishtowel. "It's nothing you'd want to hear, love. It'd just stress you out."

Mic raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

"Yeah, you know how she is."

"I do," Mic nodded. "That's why I know you two only keep a secret from me when she's dating someone."

Gillian's eyes widened. "Dating someone? Who said anything about her dating anyone? She's single right now."

"Single?"

"Uh-huh." Gillian nodded. "This is the longest she's been single since she was eighteen, that's what we were talking about," she walked over to Mic and placed a kiss on his cheek. "Believe me, if I knew she was seeing anyone, you'd be the first person I'd tell."