Page 41 of Unrealistic Expectations

“I’m so sorry that I’m laying all of this on you when you’re winning an award. And your parents.” Jessica’s face crumpled, and she seemed like she was on the verge of tears.

“Do you want me to take you home?” The valet tapped on his window, and he turned away from Jessica to give him a dirty look. Before, he would have gotten out of the car and called his date an Uber without even thinking about it, but he felt fierce about Jessica. He didn’t want her to leave unless she needed that. And then he would leave with her. “These awards are just self-congratulatory paperweights, and I don’t like spending time with my parents all that much.”

“At least we have that in common,” she said on a bit of a laugh. “I want to see you recognized for your work, and I’m curious about your parents,” Jessica said. “It’s the least I can do after how you helped with my mom.”

“You don’t owe me anything, Jessica.” He was a better person, and he wanted to be a better person, just by being around her. She didn’t have any illusions about who he was or what mistakes he’d made. But she liked what she saw from him enough to give him the time of day anyway. He’d never be able to repay her for that. “I care about you, and I wasn’t going to watch her treat you that way.”

She looked at him then, with glossy eyes. He’d never seen something more beautiful in his life. And she held his raw, peeled heart in her hands even though he wasn’t ready to tell her that. He couldn’t breathe until she told him whether she was still in this with him. He didn’t even care about the dinner. If she didn’t want to go in, his mother would insult him and tell him that he was just as useless to talk to as his father. If she did go in, his father would say something offensive within the first few lines of conversation. And then they would watch his parents pick at each other until they were nothing but bones for the rest of the night.

It would be miserable, but it would be bearable if Jessica was next to him.

“We can leave right now.” The valet tapped on his window again, and several cars behind them laid on their horns. “Just say the word.”

“Let’s go in. Let’s be brave,” she said. “After all, they can’t be worse than my mother.”

—

Jessica was a mature adult who could admit when she was wrong. However, she’d rarely been quite as wrong as when she’d predicted that Galvin’s parents couldn’t be worse than her mother. There were two of them, for starters. And where her mother was outwardly mean and transparently always looking for an angle, Galvin’s parents looked like loving parents. At least on the outside.

They were waiting in the foyer of the hotel where the awards ceremony was being held. It was clear that Galvin had never had a chance of not being breathtakingly handsome. His father was tall and broad shouldered, with the same thick, dark hair—down to the cowlick at the front. His mother was so thin that she looked brittle, and Galvin had gotten his penetrating gaze and green eyes from her.

They both smiled at them, and they didn’t look loathsome and mean until they got close. Jessica didn’t believe in woo-woo stuff. Everything people interpreted as “vibes” came from brain chemicals and instincts that had kept their ancestors alive when they had to run from saber-toothed tigers on the savanna. But, if she did believe in vibes, the Bakers had some of the worst she’d ever experienced.

When Mr. “Call me Gil” Baker and Mrs. “Aren’t you lovely?” Baker shook her hand in turn, cold fingers crawled down her spine. Neither of them hugged their son or congratulated him on his award. And she didn’t like the look in Gil’s eye when he looked her up and down. And when Mrs. Baker looked Galvin up and down and deemed his Brioni suit unacceptable with a quick purse to her lips, Jessica wanted to fight her.

Even though Galvin had tried to warn her, she’d been caught off guard. But once she met the two of them, none of her worries about what the future might hold mattered. The only thing on her mind was making sure that Galvin’s parents couldn’t do any more damage.

For his part, he didn’t seem to be affected by them. Maybe he was accustomed to how dismissive and contemptuous his parents were. By all accounts, Jessica should be, too. But when it was Galvin, it made her angry. She wondered if this matched up to his experience of her mother. And maybe his depth of caring for her had prompted his defense of her.

Jessica wanted to call them both on their attitude, but they turned and went into the ballroom and just expected Galvin and Jessica to follow. Jessica shot a look at Galvin’s face, which betrayed nothing. But then he put his arm around her waist, and it felt like he was holding on for dear life.

She was so glad that she hadn’t left him to deal with this alone. Or had him leave with her. She knew people like his parents, and they would probably criticize him for leaving an awards dinner with their last breath. They were petty, small people who only cared about how their son made them look—whether or not he was happy. No wonder Galvin had chased partners that wouldn’t get too close but would raise his profile.

“It’s going to be okay,” she said, even though she didn’t know if that was true.

Galvin cracked a smile, and that felt like a win until she realized it was his “I don’t feel anything” smile. “It won’t, but I’m glad you’re here anyway.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

I don’t know why he builds those silly little houses.” Galvin’s father was trying to explain, for the fourth or fifth time that night, why commercial architecture was the future. “People shouldn’t even be building single-family homes anymore. They’re not environmentally friendly or sustainable.”

“I think Galvin’s homes are beautiful. As humans, we need art. It’s not as important as food or water, but we wouldn’t be human without it.” Jessica had said the same thing three or four times. After the third, Galvin had leaned over and whispered “Don’t bother” in her ear. But he wasn’t at the table now. He was giving a speech and talking about the marriage of utility and beauty and the vision that had inspired the movie star’s home that he was winning an award for—an award for smart environmental design.

It was hard to pay attention to what Galvin was saying through the blind rage his parents were invoking. When Mr. Baker tried rephrasing his insults, yet again, Jessica gave him a sharp look and put her finger to her lips.

She could have been mistaken, but Mrs. Baker might have cracked a smile at someone shushing her husband. So, she was just a bitch all around.

Instead of stewing more on how awful Galvin’s parents were, she let herself look at him. He was funny, charming, and exuded a kind of self-confidence and competence that was hard-won. He wore the hell out of a suit, but he still blushed a little bit under the attention of a ballroom full of his colleagues.

They’d shown pictures on the big screen of his designs. She’d seen them before, but they were really remarkable when they were blown up so large it was almost like being in the house. She’d known he was talented. Even with all the connections in the world, it wasn’t like architecture was easy.

“He should have gone to Syracuse, like us. But he just had to stay close to home so he could star-fuck.” Jessica changed her assessment of his mother. She wasn’t just a bitch. She was dead inside.

This time, Jessica didn’t try to defend Galvin’s choices to his parents. She could see now that it was a complete waste of time. And the more she tried to defend him the more they found things to complain about. They were a lost cause.

At least they weren’t saying these things to his face. But from the way Galvin had reacted to them—almost like he put on a costume as soon as he set eyes on them—she knew he had to have heard all of these things multiple times before.

Instead of telling his parents off, making it clear that she hoped one of their giant buildings collapsed while they were the only people inside, she took a long sip of champagne. At least his parents’ quagmires served better hooch. And she was glad she was there for him, because when he looked out into the crowd, he could bypass looking for approval from either of his dickhead parents and see her. She approved of him. She cared about him. She saw him. Hell, she might love him. Even though it was the wrong thing to do.

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