Chapter Eight - Anthony
I stare at the picture of the wedding dress Brooke bought for a long time, trying to decide how to reply. My first thought is that Brooke deserves a lot more than a forty-dollar wedding dress from a suspect-looking website, but since it’s for a fake wedding, I guess it doesn’t matter anyway. I haven’t really booked a venue, I was just kidding. I thought she’d laugh about it, not up to the game. I should have known. Brooke was always willing to jump into things and play along.
I open my desk drawer and pull out the album I’d found this morning, smiling. It’s faded and a little discolored, its letters peeling. The cheap felt hasn’t held the test of time well, but the inside is the same as the day Brooke had given it to me. I flip through the postcards inside, thinking of the road trip that never was. We could actually do it now, Brooke and I. We could see these places for real and take that trip. I think maybe we should.
I shake my head, focusing on one extended joke at a time, and make a decision.
I book the venue for real. If Brooke is going to put out money on this, any money at all, I should put my money where my mouth is too. I reserve the entire Main Street Charm Hotel for the day. It’s one of the only venues in town, but I’ve always liked it. It has an onsite chapel, an old ballroom that dates back hundreds of years, and a spectacular outdoor garden with roses, statues, and a tea room. It’s a perfect place for a wedding.
After I book the venue, I take David to the park. We haven’t been yet, although I walked past it the other day. David seems to be adjusting really well to all the changes, and I want to make this as fun for him as possible.
“Are there swings?” David asks on the way to the park, staring up at me. He’s an incredibly smart and inquisitive kid, always full of ideas and questions.
“Five of them,” I say. David nods.
“How many slides?” he asks. He likes numbers: how many of each thing there are, how old people are, how much time has passed, how far away things are.
“Three,” I say. We’re about a block away now, and David’s eyes are darting around, taking in his new surroundings.
“Okay,” he says like he’s approving the playground. I smile.
“One twisted, one racing, and one tunnel,” I say, knowing that’s probably his next question. David’s eyes light up.
“Twisted ones are the best ones,” he says, tugging on my hand like he wants us to walk faster, get there sooner, now that he knows there is a twisty slide. We speed-walk the rest of the way, and he runs as soon as we get to the gates, climbing up the equipment with a huge smile on his face. I watch him from the fence for a minute, glad we’re here. I’m about to go in and challenge him to a race on the racing slide when I feel a tap on my shoulder.
“Anthony,” Brooke says, standing behind me on the other side of the fence. She looks radiant again today. Her hair is tied up in a ponytail and she’s wearing a soft simple shirt and jeans. I keep thinking it’ll stop surprising me, how beautiful she is now. It hasn’t, even though she was always pretty – even though we’re already getting close again, building a friendship.
“Good afternoon,” I say, smiling at her. “Done dress shopping?”
“I think the one I ordered is just right,” Brooke says, smiling back.
“It’s sexy,” I say. “You’ll look great in it.”
“I hope so, since it’s for such a big day,” she says, the same laugh in her voice as last night. That sound I’d missed so much.
“The Main Street Charm Hotel is all ready for us,” I say back.
Her eyes widen a little and she shakes her head like it’s a nicer venue than she’d been expecting me to book. “Good,” she says. She looks over my shoulder, smiling again. “Is the little boy running toward you David?”
“That’s him,” I say, turning my head a little to wave at my son. “You know, since we’re getting married, you’ll need to get to know him.”
“That does seem important,” Brooke says. She steps around the fence and through the front gates of the playground, meeting me inside. I hadn’t meant for her to come in right now, as I didn’t want to interrupt her day if she was doing something, but I’m glad she’s staying.
“Who are you?” David says, running up to us. He’s already managed to get a stain on his new shorts, and he’s bouncing on his feet like he does when he’s excited.
“David, this is my friend, Brooke,” I say, catching Brooke’s eye and smiling. “Brooke, this is my son, David.”
“It’s very nice to meet you,” Brooke says, reaching to shake David’s hand. He shakes back and looks at her like he’s making very serious considerations.
“You’re pretty,” he announces. “Will you push me on the swing?”
“Thank you,” Brooke says, grinning. “I’d love to.”
David takes Brooke’s hand and pulls her toward the swings without even looking back at me. I smile. He’s always been really social, making friends at playgroups and at parks in New York. I’m hoping he can start school with kids he can grow up with, making lasting friendships. I want his life to be as normal as it can be for the only son of a self-made billionaire.
I can’t hear what Brooke and David are talking about from here, but I get the feeling that he’s asking her a lot of questions as she pushes him on the swings. She’s smiling at him, very engaged in their conversation, and I can’t stop watching. Something about Brooke and David together looks natural somehow, and I’m thrilled that they seem to become fast friends.
They run through the playground together for the rest of the afternoon, and I watch as she plays tag, slides down every slide, and does an impressive crossing of the monkey bars.
“Dad!” David says, running up to me, out of breath and laughing. “Come play too!”
“What are we playing?” I ask, moving as David tugs on me.
“Monster! You have to be the monster and chase me and Brooke,” David says.
“What kind of monster?” I ask. When Michelle first died I didn’t know anything about kids and didn’t know how I was possibly going to take care of, or even be around, David. Now, hundreds of stories and movies and songs and games of monster chase later, with the help of late night calls to my mom and some very patient nannies, I like to think I’ve become pretty good at this whole ‘being a dad’ thing.
“A big one who roars loud, with big claws and probably, um, orange fur,” David says. Brooke smiles at me as we get back to her in the center of the playground.
“One who eats little boys?” I ask, putting a growl in my voice. David yells happily, nodding.
“Yeah!” David says. “Come on, Brooke! We have to run!”
“On the count of three, I’m coming after you!” I say as Brooke and David scurry away. “One, two, three!”
“Oh no! A monster! David, be careful!” Brooke says as she runs. I run after her and then David, trying not to laugh as I do.
“I know where there is a weapon that can save us!” David says, ducking down for a minute.
“Nothing can save you! I am a monster who eats little boys!” I say with my best roar.
“We’re doomed!” Brooke says.
“Monster, STOP!” David says, holding a stick at me. “This magic wand froze you.”
I come to a stop, almost falling into Brooke as I do. She looks breathless from laughter and running.
“Now he’s captured,” David says to Brooke.
“You saved us!” Brooke says, reaching her hand out to give him a high-five.
I’m unfrozen again soon by a magic spell David finds in a rock, and the chase starts again. By the time we leave the playground an hour later, we’re all dirty and panting and tired.
Brooke’s hair is falling down around her face, and I have to fight the urge to tuck it behind her ears for her and to ask her to come home with us. With me.