Hope Begins to Fade

Pity Party

Brian laughed loudly and enthusiastically as he held court in one corner of Cathy and Jeff's patio. Steph had been correct, he'd only cared that he had enough alcohol, food and friends present. Cathy had even managed to give him the best gift ever; when Matt's mother who was coming to the party for a short time took the Stallyns off for a sleepover at her house she was taking Harper with her. Brian would be safe from his tiny nemesis.

It had been a huge relief to me that Michelle had apparently decided that Brian was not yet someone she wanted to party with and had collected Baby Haner after lunch having reminded Brian that as his birthday usually involved drinking he'd be best off to be child free for the night. Full credit to her that she'd managed this without blowing the news of the surprise party. She'd tried to contact me a couple of times and my guilt had gotten to the point where I was actively ignoring my phone. The number of times I'd 'forgotten' or 'misplaced' it in the past few days was bordering on the ridiculous. In a perfect twist of serendipity Matt was busy most of the time working on something with the rest of the guys in the studio so any attempts to contact me via his phone were thwarted. Believe me people had tried. I didn't even want to consider how many missed calls and messages were glaring at me from my phone. I could think myself lucky I didn't have social media because chances were I'd have approximately seventy billion notifications if I did.

My attempts to not spend every minute of the party at Matt's side were proving marginally successful. Steph was nominally the hostess but Brian had no intention of letting her leave his side so I stepped into the breach and was running around ensuring that no one ran out of food and drink.

I'd just dumped a couple of bowls of guacamole on to one of the tables Cathy had set up on the patio when Matt's mother approached me. "How are you Caitie?"

"I'm very well Mrs Sanders and yourself?" As much as I wanted to run away and hide I couldn't. I liked Matt's mother. Matt and the Stallyns adored her and she was a woman worthy of respect.

There was a hint of reproach in her smile as she responded, "Caitlin, honey, I've told you to call me Kim."

I gave a self-conscious laugh as I replied, "Sorry Kim. Sometimes I find it difficult to use first names with people's parents."

Mrs Sanders, ahem Kim, rubbed my arm as she said, "Well it's a credit to your upbringing honey but you seem to manage it just fine with Mel and Aaron." She nodded in the direction of Steph's parents who were deep in conversation with Brian's dad.

"You have no idea how many years of seeing them several times a month it took to get me to that point," I said rubbing the back of my neck. It was awkward. Kim didn't mean to make it that way, that was all on me. I wondered how much she'd think of my upbringing if she knew that I was climbing her son like a tree every night or if she knew that just half an hour earlier Matt had cornered me in the pantry where we'd made out like teenagers.

"You also seem to manage just fine with Brian's father," Kim pointed out.

"Not really. I call him Papa Gates just like the rest of these idiots." It was true. I knew that his name was Brian, duh his son was a Junior, but I found it difficult to call him that because the name Brian was inextricably associated in my head with his son. Not just that but when I even thought the name Brian it was in a tone of exasperated toleration. Even though Brian and I had well and truly resolved our differences I had no idea how Steph could tolerate him on a daily basis. That man was way too high maintenance for me.

Kim chuckled, "Brian does enjoy his role as patriarch to the boys."

I watched as Brian senior tipped his head back and roared with laughter at something that Aaron said. "Yeah, that point hasn't escaped my notice."