Almost Easy

What's Our Story?

Brian’s POV 

Not gonna lie. Zoey looked sick. Like genuinely ill. The color faded from her face and I was sure she might hurl at any moment.

“Zoey,” I said softly.

She looked at me with a pained expression “Oh my God, Brian. I just got divorced. Like YESTERDAY!”

“I know…”

“And NOW I’m MARRIED again,” she cried “the press is going to eat this up.”

“Well when you put it that way…it does sound bad.”

“And Zacky is going to kill us both. Oh my God, Brian. We can’t tell anyone,” she said jumping up. “You need to get out of here. Like now.”

“And go where?” I asked dumbly.

“Back to your room,” she looked at me like I was incredibly stupid. It was cute.

I was almost on board here. I didn’t need Michelle to find out what had happened but on the other hand, I also didn’t need Zacky to find out years later.

I could envision the conversation, all of us sitting around at Thanksgiving telling funny stories of our youth while sipping too much scotch. Or maybe at one of Zoey’s kid’s birthday party.

I’d tell the cute kid with dark hair and his mom’s big green eyes “Oh hey, kid, did you know Uncle Brian used to be married to your mom?”

I couldn’t decide who would murder me faster, Zacky or Zoey. Probably best if we just came clean now.

“Zoey, come on. It won’t be so bad,”I tried to be reassuring “We’ll tell everyone about what us and then…”

“US?” she exclaimed “there is no US.”

I laughed “What do you mean, there is no us?” I stood and straightened my shirt and buttoned my jeans “Did we, or did we not, just spend the night together? Did we or did we not just get married?”

She leaned forward to place a hand over my mouth.  “We must never speak of this again.”

That was kinda sexy. She was so close and completely naked underneath her robe. I couldn’t help it. I pulled her close, my arm around her waist. She tensed at the unexpectedness of it, but after a second, she relaxed, her green eyes searching mine, her lips parted slightly. It was almost as if she was holding her breath.  And just as I was about to lean in and kiss her, she shook herself out of my arms and across the room to the couch.

I chuckled at her reaction but continued “And how do you presume we get out of this?”

“We pretend like nothing happened. Everything is normal. And then when we get back to Huntington, we get an annulment or a divorce. Easy peasy, pumpkin pie,” she said certainly.

If we could pull that off it would be a good plan.  No one would ever be the wiser. We’d just have to get through this weekend and then we could get a quickie divorce in secret. After all, I wasn’t the marrying type. I’d told Michelle that 100 times.

I reached for her hand. Her fingers were icy, “Please Brian, I don’t want to have another public disaster on my hands.” 

I lifted my eyebrows “You did bring it on yourself marrying that loser.” 

“Will you stop calling him that?” she frowned.

“He dumped you. What do you care?” 

“You don’t even know him. You don’t have a reason to hate him.”

 “I don’t hate him for me,” I replied as I rose from the couch. “I hate him for you, since you don’t seem to be able to do it for yourself. I’m going back to my room.” 

She followed me into the bedroom, a look of disbelief on her face “What are you going to say if someone sees you leaving my room? I think Jimmy and Leana are on this floor. You can’t leave until we come up with a story.” 

I found my socks and sat on the side of the bed to pull them on. “Zoey, let’s just go with the truth. I’m a fine specimen of a male that you just couldn’t resist and you took advantage of my drunken state by rushing me to the altar,” I joked.

Her mouth fell in horror. “We will not say that.”

I yanked on the other sock. “Let me finish—and now that you’re sober, you realize you’re not cut out for a life of misery that is being married to a rock star.” 

“Brian, I fucking swear.” 

“C’mon Zoe, get a sense of humor, will you? We’ll make a joke out of it. Say we had too many drinks and started talking about the old days of growing up in Huntington. We were swept away by old  times, and it just seemed like a good idea.”

“You think my family will buy that?” she pleaded “Your family? The band? I mean come on Bri…”

“First Zacky is gonna be mad but he’ll get over it. If he wants to punch me again, then ok, he can punch me again.”

She cracked a smile at that.

“Seriously Zoey,” I sat back down next to her. “We’ll clean this up. The right way. The adult way. OK?”

She still looked sick but she merely nodded “Do you remember anything?” 

“Does ‘Give it to me, big boy’ count?” I joked and she punched me.

“At least pretend to be a nice guy.” 

“I’m a musician not an actor.” 

“And we all know Zacky’s the real talent in the band,” she replied and I chuckled. 

“Get dressed. Let’s get out of this room, get some fresh air, find the crew and hookup,” I suggested as I dug into my pocket.

“Searching for your guitar talent?” she cracked as she moved toward the bathroom.

I followed behind her and stood against the door jamb, watching her as she appraised her appearance.

“Apparently this belongs to you.” I opened my palm and held out a cheap metal ring with a plastic “diamond” solitaire. “You can’t say I don’t have taste.”

I tossed it at her, as a look of sorrow passed over her face.

She eyed it carefully before placing it on the bathroom sink. “Nothing says ‘I love you’ like fake jewelry.” 

“Better than the ring from the loser,” I cracked and that earned me a glare. It passed quickly.

“I never liked that ring anyway,” she said as she turned on the water and ran her hand under it to test the temperature. “Too big.”

“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that complaint from a girl. Three things that a guy can have that can never be too big, a bank account, diamond and his di…”

“I get the picture,” she interrupted.