I walk into my house, tossing my keys on the table by the door before making my way to the couch. Throwing myself onto the couch, I put my head back and close my eyes, letting out the biggest sigh of relief.
Fuck, today has been brutal. I walked into practice not knowing if anyone would ask me, but why would they? I went on the ice, did what I had to do, and then got my ass out of there, knowing I had to go to Sofia. I don’t know what Helena was going to do or if she was going to call her, but I wanted her to hear it from me at least. How fucking dumb did that even sound? I wanted my ex to find out from me that the wedding she was planning was now cancelled. I practiced what I was going to say the whole ride there. How I was going to tell her that it was cancelled and ask her to sit down with me for a minute. I was almost there until her boyfriend walked in the room. I rub my hands over my face as I laugh, thinking how this is like a soap opera.
I’m about to lie down when the front door swings open. “Honey, I’m home.”
“Matthew.” I hear my father hiss at my uncle. “Too soon.”
“You can take the stupid out of the guy, but you can’t keep the guy from being stupid,” my uncle Max says, and I can’t help but silently laugh. For the first time in a while, I feel okay, or at least that things are going to be okay. I mean, I don’t think anything is going to be okay until Sofia and I sit down and finally fucking talk. She can keep evading me for as long as she wants, but sooner or later, we are going to have a discussion. A discussion we should have had two years ago.
“That makes absolutely no sense,” my uncle Evan says, and I get up, walking over to the entrance.
Looking down, I see the four of them are walking down the hallway like a boy band. “What is going on?” I ask them and look over to make sure no one else is walking in the door.
“You called,” my father reminds me, when he’s close enough, he grabs me by my neck and pulls me to him. “I called Evan.”
“Who called me,” my uncle Matthew says, hugging me once my father lets me go, after the hug he slaps my arm.
“And we all know that he doesn’t go anywhere without this one,” my uncle Evan says. “M&M for life.”
Matthew and Max both moan. “That fucking nickname will probably be on my tombstone.”
“Oh, it will,” Evan assures him, slapping my arm, “even if I have to spray-paint it.”
My father heads to the living room while my uncle Evan heads to the fridge, as Max and Matthew walk over to look out at the yard. “What’s going on?” I look at all of them. “It looks like an intervention.”
“Bite your tongue,” my father scolds. “Come and sit down.”
“Yes, come and sit down so we can hear all about it,” Evan says, walking over to the couch, sitting on the other side. “We should order pizza or something.”
“This isn’t a slumber party,” Max says, sitting down next to him laughing.
“I was also going to add in beer,” Evan says to him.
“Come over here.” My father motions for me with his head.
I groan, throwing my head back, knowing I’m going to actually have to tell him the whole story. I walk over and sit next to my father. “Should we, I don’t know, get something to drink?” Evan says to us.
My father and I both yell, “No!”
“Jesus,” Matthew says, holding up his hands, coming over and sitting next to Max. “Okay, so what’s going on?”
I put my elbows on my knees and take a deep inhale, my head hanging forward. “I don’t know how to put this,” I start, “it’s just, we decided.”
“We?” Matthew asks and I close my eyes, knowing that with the four of them, there is no way I can get away with anything. If one lets me off the hook, it’s just because the other one knows he’s going to get me. It was always like that growing up. We would get away with it with one of them, and as soon as we would celebrate our victory, the other one of them would sweep in and crush our souls.
“We started the wedding planning.” I look up at the guys as they just stare at me, waiting for more. “And, I don’t know, it’s just like everything she picked would be the opposite of what I would have wanted.”
“You called off your wedding because you didn’t have the same decoration taste?” Evan asks, almost laughing.
“It was more than that,” I say. “It just…” I shake my head and look down at my hands that are gripped together. “It felt wrong.”
“It’s better that you did it now,” Matthew says, “than get divorced later.”
“That’s what I told her, but she didn’t take it as well,” I tell the guys and then take a deep breath. “There might be more.”
“There might be or there is?” Max asks as he puts his elbow on the arm of the couch.
“Well, I didn’t know she was looking for wedding planners.” I look at them and then to my father, who hasn’t really said much. “We went for our consultation and—”
“Did you fuck your wedding planner?” my father says between clenched teeth, and I just stare at him and shake my head. I mean, I did screw her, but not recently. He lets out a huge sigh of relief. “I would hate to have to kick your ass.”
“I would do it for you,” Evan says, glaring at me, and I just shake my head, not sure that by the end of this, he won’t kick my ass.
“I walked in, and Sofia was there.” I say her name out loud and my uncle Matthew is the first one to hold up his hand.
“Sofia?” He repeats the name, making sure he heard right. “The Sofia?”
“The Sofia.” I say her name in a whisper.
“The woman you were in love with?” Max asks and my chest gets tight and all I can do is nod at him.
“But you guys broke up?” my father asks and I take a deep inhale.
“We did,” I admit, “sort of.”
“Sort of?” Evan says and I just stare at him. “Oh, there is so much more.” He points at me. “And I have a feeling I’m going to have to kick your ass.”
“I have the same feeling,” Matthew agrees, glaring at me, and when I look at Max, he just shrugs.
“No one is kicking anyone’s ass,” my father declares. “You never told us.”
“I guess there is no time like the present.” I rub my face and get up, the nerves getting the best of me. “We were at an away game,” I start, thinking back to the fucking day I wish never fucking happened. “We won by the skin of our teeth and the guys wanted to go and celebrate.” I can hear their voices clear as day in my head. “Let’s just go and have one drink, they said, and I knew I should have just said no and gone home. But I didn’t, of course, I was like, one drink and then I’ll leave.” I start walking the room, pacing. “Especially since I knew Sofia was waiting for me to take her out.” I close my eyes. “We were going to go celebrate her getting into Chicago events.” I look at the guys, who still don’t say anything to me. “I kept checking my phone and then the guys there were relentless, ‘Stay, have one more.’” My hands go into fists. “‘Stop looking at your phone, Petrov.’” The burning starts in my stomach. “‘You’re so pussy-whipped.’” I look up and close my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose. “So I kept drinking with them to show them I wasn’t pussy-whipped.” The minute I say the words, all four of them groan. “Needless to say, I was shit-faced, and when I got home, she was there waiting for me all dressed up. Her face was filled with worry because she couldn’t get a hold of me.” I swear I have to rub my chest as I see her face again, like it was just yesterday and not two years ago. “She was frantic with worry since I never answered her calls or texts because my phone had died somewhere along the way. She tried to walk away from me and I—”
Max gets up. “Did you touch her?” He asks the question, and if I didn’t know better, I think he would have hit me first and asked the question after if I wasn’t related to him.
“Of course not,” I reply, and he sits back down. “But I wasn’t kind to her either. I told her to stop complaining and then I broke up with her.”
“While you were drunk?” Evan asks. I refuse to look over at my father for fear I will see how disgusted he is with me.