Page 101 of The Dating Pact

“Yeah. You married Mom. And you told me?—”

“I told you nothing would change the love you had for her. Because Brooke doesn’t want to take the place of your mom. But she loves you too. She wants to be there for you, be your friend. And I don’t know why, all of a sudden, you supposedly hate her. You always liked Brooke.”

He grumbled something I didn’t quite catch, but I received the message anyway. He hated her now that I wanted to be with her.

I didn’t have the energy to keep this conversation up. Especially when he wouldn’t listen. He wanted to be mad, so I’d let him. “I love you, Sebastian, and you won’t understand until you’re older, but it’s possible to love lots of people in lots of different ways. No one is replacing your mother.”

I left it at that and trudged out of his room, fatigue weighing each of my limbs down. I flopped onto Lulu’s bed, rearranging the hundreds of stuffies to get comfortable while she took three times longer than it would take a sloth to get dressed. I combed her hair and reminded her to brush her teeth, which she could do completely independently. So I stayed in her room while she went to the bathroom. I heard Sebastian in the shower and Amelia’s squeaky voice say, “Brother, listen to me. I’m-I’m good at math. One hundred plus one hundred is two hundred and, and, and… If you make it to a million, there’s no more numbers.”

“Yes, there are,” he told her. “Numbers go to infinity.”

“Infifty?”

“Infinity!”

“Oooh, infinity. Yeah. What’s that?”

“It goes on forever.”

Little did he know, he’d just defined what Brooke and I had promised to each other tonight. Best friends for infinity.

Next morning…

Brooke

How did last night go?

Seb ended up in my bed in the middle of the night.

I’m pretty sure he feels bad but doesn’t know what to say.

Me either.

Brooke

You’ll get there.

Friday…

The only time the family therapist could fit us in is for Saturdays. I won’t be at the market for the next few weeks.

Brooke

I guess I’ll have to give all the squash I was saving for you to someone else.

Damn. What a shame.

Brooke

I’m sure you’re devastated.

Very.

Saturday…

Brooke

Saw your parents today at the market. They couldn’t figure out your POS system.

---