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Post by Melanie Benson on Jan 10, 2016 1:46:25 GMT
A day in the life of Melanie Benson seemed to always be anything but typical. During the week, she would busy herself by going for long runs, shopping, taking classes at nearby gyms, and hunting for new hobbies. Just recently she'd picked up pottery and trying to teach herself to speak Italian. Last week, after one disastrous attempt, she gave up on quilting. Some days she would make herself plans for lunch with Madison, or visit Jamie after school. While she didn't work, she felt it was no excuse to ever be lazy.
She found that her favorite time, despite never having work, was still the weekend - as it freed up the people she wanted to spend time with who were otherwise busy with work or school. In the recent months, people had come to mean mainly Tripp. This weekend was one that she had been looking forward to, as it fell between Christmas and New Years - two holidays which essentially gave her extra stolen time with her very work oriented boyfriend. But since meeting his ex-girlfriend at his family's holiday party (and subsequently breaking quite a bit of furniture in his father's home office), there had been a little nagging voice in the back of her head that sounded an awful lot like his step sister reminding her that he'd dated Colette for four years and had barely been with her for four months.
After preparing breakfast in the kitchen, Melanie brought her laptop to the counter, opening her calendar to check their dinner plans for the evening so she could call ahead and verify their reservations. She hummed softly to herself before she realized just how close January was and her stomach sank. She'd have to go to Austin in a few week's time for her mother's birthday - or, as she liked to call it, her yearly weekend long pilgrimage to hell.
She chewed on her lip for a moment before looking across her apartment at Tripp. "I have to go out of town for a weekend in January," she told him as casually as possible. "I just wanted to let you know in case you had any work events you hadn't told me about yet. You might have to go alone, sweetheart. Would you like more coffee?"
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Post by Tripp VanderMill on Jan 10, 2016 2:12:13 GMT
The inclusion of Melanie in his life had been anything but normal, if he was being entirely honest. Tripp had easily allowed this spontaneous, beautiful, and impulsive woman to come into his life, bringing with her a reason and a justification for changing priorities. In the last few years, he knew that he had allowed work to take over a large part of his life, and while he had thought that he had been okay with it, it took Melanie to show him that he was okay with sacrificing long nights and weekends working for more time with her. As their relationship progressed, so had his feelings for her, and so when she had mentioned that her family had wanted to invite him over for dinner to get to know him, he had agreed for no reason other than he had wanted to make her happy. Knowing that her relationship with her father had become tense in lieu of the discovery of some well-placed brusing along her wrist - which he had happily placed there with the help of the handcuffs Melanie had gifted him with - he had tried his best to remain on his absolute best behavior. With the drama that ensued between her younger brother and his own girlfriend, he had thought that whatever anyone had wished to say to him about the nature of their relationship had been shelved for another time. He hadn't been expecting her father to bring to light a couple of instances in which Melanie had lied to him through omission. The part about her birthday he had no trouble moving past, but it was the mention of Melanie's biological mother that had caused his anger.
After all of that tension had risen to the surface for him, he had been able to calmly set it aside by justifying the fact that he and Melanie hadn't been dating long and it was just a matter of time before she decided to share that information with him. Though, with each passing day, he was coming to the realization that he was getting tired of waiting for her to decide that she was ready to tell him. From the beginning they had promised to be honest with each other, and he couldn't help but feel that she wasn't holding up her end of the bargain.
Unfortunately the appearance of Colette at his family's annual Christmas party had done nothing but place them both on edge. Solving that problem by forcibly reminding each other of their own possessiveness, they had done some irreparable damage to his father's desk and chair, both of which he had every intention of replacing. And while he had been fine to let both of them continue to push away whatever anger or concerns they had toward each other, it had been her vague mention of going out of town that had reminded him of his own annoyance with her secrets.
"Out of town?" he questioned. "For what reason?"
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Post by Melanie Benson on Jan 10, 2016 2:22:51 GMT
Melanie had no idea that Tripp had been informed about her mother, so when he questioned where she was going, she felt herself tense – realizing that she would now have to talk to someone about her family situation. It was a conversation that she frequently avoided.
Over the years, Melanie’s relationship with her mother had only worsened and she hadn’t told anyone just how bad it had gotten – not even Madison or Jamie. While part of her didn’t want to go to Austin for her mother’s birthday, Melanie told herself that she had to be the bigger person and go – when in reality she was still clinging on to a small shred of hope that Simone would change her mind and decide that Melanie was a person that she wanted in her life.
Melanie took a breath and looked down. “So, Mom – you met Mom,” she explained hastily. “Madison. She’s actually my step-mother.” Melanie admitted. “I don’t like to call her that, because honestly, she’s always been mom to me ever since I was five.” She shrugged her shoulder up and chewed on her lip for a moment. “Simone – my mother lives in Austin and once a year, in January, I go down to see her for her birthday.”
Pouring herself another mug of coffee, she took a sip of it and shut her laptop, making a note to make those travel arrangements later in the week.
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Post by Tripp VanderMill on Jan 10, 2016 2:46:25 GMT
Tripp watched for for a moment as she explained the situation. It wasn't anything that he hadn't already found out, except for the part where Melanie planned on heading to Austin to vist her for her mother's birthday. That was something that her father hadn't mentioned, though he wasn't surprised. What had surprised him was that he was sure that she would have ever bothered to tell him had it not been for his questioning. It seemed very much like she was just hoping that her short stay in Austin was going to be completely unquestioned by him, and had he not already known about her mother, he supposed that it would have. Unfortunately for her, he had been waiting for this opportunity to finally discuss this with her, to have her be honest with him.
"I'm aware," he informed her. "Your father might have mentioned something along the lines of your real mother when we saw him at dinner." He nodded at her, wondering if there was more to the story that she hadn't told him. "I thought we had agreed to be honest with each other, Melanie. Were you ever planning on telling me about her yourself?"
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Post by Melanie Benson on Jan 10, 2016 2:50:35 GMT
"He told you?" she echoed before frowning. "Not 'real mother' - biological, maybe. Glorified egg donor, sure. But there's really nothing real or motherly about her so, I don't know what my father was thinking." Melanie took another sip of her coffee, avoiding looking up at him. "I don't tell people about her, actually. I prefer it that way. I introduced you to my Mom and Dad. This is..." she huffed softly. "I don't like to talk about her," she explained. "It upsets me."
Crossing her arms in front of her she shrugged. "Did you, perhaps, think it would have been worth mentioning that your ex-girlfriend of four years still spends time with your family? Because that would have also been something that maybe I would have liked to know before walking into the ambush that was your step-sister and ex-girlfriend at Christmas."
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Post by Tripp VanderMill on Jan 10, 2016 3:17:31 GMT
At her defensiveness, Tripp couldn't help but go on the defense himself. "Yes, he told me. As you should have." Though she tried to dismiss her relationship with the woman, the fact remained that Melanie hadn't thought of mentioning her to him. Whether it was because they truly didn't share a relationship or because she didn't trust him to have that sort of intimate knowledge about her life.
When she aburptly changed the topic to the relationship he had with Colette, he felt his own defensiveness rising, causing a sort of anger to begin surfacing. "Colette has nothing to do with this - the fact remains that you lied to me about your mother and I don't understand why. Apparently you've also lied to be about your birthday - another fact that your father was more than happy to share. And let's be entirely honest here, it wasn't an ambush at the Christmas party - it was two immature women trying to stake their claim on something. Colette and I were together for a long time and with that comes with some complications. Such as her friendship with Penelope and her relationship with my family."
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Post by Melanie Benson on Jan 10, 2016 3:33:43 GMT
Melanie scowled a bit, shaking her head at him. "I don't celebrate my birthday," she told him flatly. "My father shouldn't have said anything to you about either of those things and I intend to talk to him about that later. And I told you why, just now - talking about my mother upsets me and so it's not exactly the thing I find time to mention over dinner at Le Bernardin," she snapped a bit.
Frowning, she took another long sip of her coffee, suddenly wishing that there was something stronger in her cup, especially when he explained more about his relationship with Colette. "Still, it would have been worth mentioning that your ex-girlfriend just tends to pop up from time to time...like the world's most irritating game of Whack-a-Mole," she mumbled. She tapped her fingers against her kitchen counter. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about my mother," she finally muttered reluctantly. "But, as I said, she's not an important part of my life and I introduced you to the important part of my life, so I don't see what the big deal is."
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Post by Tripp VanderMill on Jan 10, 2016 16:50:41 GMT
"I'm glad that he did," Tripp said decisively. He had hoped, or rather expected, that it would have been Melanie who would have been able to tell him about these aspects of her life. It had done nothing but make him wonder if maybe their relationship wasn't built on complete honesty after all. It wasn't even just that, he had to admit, it was the fact that she had tried to keep a large part of her life a secret from him. The way that she kept bringing up his former relationship with Colette continued to remind him that he supposed that he should have been a little bit more upfront with her about his own past. The difference came down to the fact that Colette truly didn't mean anything to him anymore - clearly, her mother still played some sort of role in Melanie's life.
It was difficult to accept her apology when he kept getting a little angry every time she tried to dismiss it, he was reminded of the fact that he had to find out about all of this from her father. What was worse was that the mention of Colette kept getting pulled into it, and as far as he was concerned it was something completely different all together. "Colette has been around for a long time," he admitted. "She's part of our social circle, she's friends with Penelope and my parents like her. It's an inevitability that she might end if being invited to functions where my family is involved."
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Post by Melanie Benson on Jan 10, 2016 18:21:18 GMT
Melanie crossed her arms again, frowning at Tripp. At the mention of how his parents liking Colette, she couldn't help but feel the same insecurity she'd been feeling for the past few days, but amplified. The very idea of having to deal with Colette at various social functions made her uncomfortable. For Melanie, it was less that she thought anything would happen between Tripp and Colette again - she was more that confident that it wouldn't. But he was right, she'd been around for a long time. Melanie had never had that sort of relationship prior to Tripp and while her feelings seemed to develop for the man in front of her exponentially, she wondered how she could compare to that level of history - someone that, perhaps, his family still expected him to end up with. "Well, that's good to know," she muttered.
On the topic of her mother though, Melanie didn't view her as a large part of her life, so the fact that she hadn't told Tripp about Simone didn't seem - to her - like it had been a large secret to withhold. "What do you want me to say about my mother, Tripp?" she asked, unable to keep the edge of frustration from her voice. "She left before I turned two. We're not close. I see her once a year for her birthday and it's the worst weekend of my year."
"I didn't leave it out because I wanted to keep some deep dark secret from you. I left it out because I try to ignore her existence for the majority of the year just like she ignores mine. And I have no idea why my father would think it was appropriate to bring her up, considering the way he feels about her, too."
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Post by Tripp VanderMill on Jan 10, 2016 21:12:07 GMT
Considering that ultimately this all had nothing to do with his relationship with Colette, he decided to leave it be. Tripp didn't want to fight about his former relationship, especially when it really came down to the fact that she hadn't been a serious part of his life in quite some time, and whatever involvement they currently had with each other was strictly out of politeness. Their one brief hook up the year before had been more out of boredom than it had been about the resurgence of feelings toward her though he supposed that in retrospect he should have mentioned that to Colette before.
"Yes, well your father brought it up as he was trying to explain to me your tendency to be fickle. Apparently he was concerned that you were going to get bored with being in a relationship with me - just like you do with all of your hobbies. It's a trait that he said you inherited from your mother, according to him. And sometimes, I suppose that I would have to agree with him. Especially as you seem to fixate on my relationship with Colette." There was a part of him, he realized, that knew that he shouldn't have said it even before the words came out.
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Post by Melanie Benson on Jan 10, 2016 21:26:49 GMT
Melanie froze for a moment as Tripp's words sank in and while she knew that he didn't really even know the severity of what he was implying by agreeing with her father, the very fact that her dad had compared her to her mother was upsetting. "He compared me to her?" she asked softly before shaking her head and sighing. "My mother packed up her bags and left when I was very young. My father raised me on his own until he came back to New York and met Madison - which is fine. She's amazing. My mother came into town when I was four because she'd gotten remarried and her new husband wanted children so suddenly she remembered that she had one sitting on a shelf somewhere. But my father kicked up quite the fight."
Pausing, she leaned against the kitchen counter and looked away from him. "I was a teenager when I decided I wanted to get to know her - it wasn't really anything against mom and dad, you just get curious about where you come from, I think and my dad never liked to tell me much about her. So I spent about three summers with her, which she reluctantly agreed to. By that point, she had no interest in being a part of my life because she'd had two new children with her new husband. Actually, I think the only person in that family that had an interest in me was her new husband who seemed very concerned with the way I started filling out my bikini. So I stopped visiting during the summers."
"Then, when I was about twenty, I went down for her birthday - and I asked her why we couldn't have a real relationship - even if it was more friendly than motherly. I asked her why she left. And she said that, the entire time that she was pregnant with me she tried very hard - but the day I was born and she held me she knew that she didn't want to be a mom. But the funny thing is she has two kids down in Austin, so she didn't want to be my Mom." Melanie paused for a moment, realizing that her eyes were tearing and she quickly turned away from Tripp to dab at them. "So that's it. That's all of it."
"That's who my father compared me to, Tripp. And he hates her - which is funny because he doesn't even know the half of it. You're the only person I've told all of that to." She shook her head and looked at him. "What else do you want to know? Because then I have some questions."
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Post by Tripp VanderMill on Jan 10, 2016 21:42:19 GMT
He hadn't expected her to go into detail about all of the reasons why she disliked her mother, and he certainly hadn't been expecting her to have so many valid reasons for doing so. He could understand the fact that she had grown up in a fractured household, it was something that he has personal experience with, it was the part about her mother and step-father treating her poorly that had really bothered him. But no matter how much he understood the problems that she had, the fact remained that he had to learn about the fact that he mother even existed from her father.
"What else should I know, Melanie?" He didn't want there to be any more secrets between them. "And what sort of questions do you have?"
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Post by Melanie Benson on Jan 10, 2016 21:52:34 GMT
Melanie sniffled as discreetly as possible and shook her head at him. "I don't know, Tripp. It's not like I have a running list of things that I'm keeping from you on purpose. As I've already told you, I didn't tell you about my mother because I honestly try not to think of her often, let alone talk about her. It hurts," she told him. "And I don't like that."
She shrugged her shoulders up. "Why don't you get along with Penny? And what's your relationship with your parents like?" she asked him. She knew that his parents were divorced and his father remarried and that he didn't get along with his step-sister, but she hadn't pried. In fact, she'd just assumed that he would tell her eventually or that she would learn it slowly on her own - she'd thought that was how it was supposed to work. "Because this has to be a two-way street."
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Post by Tripp VanderMill on Jan 10, 2016 22:02:28 GMT
Tripp frowned when she immediately dismissed the idea that she had any more secrets that she was keeping from him. He hadn't even expected that she would have had this one in the first place, but he had been quickly surprised to find that she had actually kept something rather large from him. The thought had even crossed his mind that he should have apologized to her for bringing it up, or even for being angry with her about it, but at her questions for him, he bristled. None of this was meant to be about him, and he didn't appreciate it suddenly becoming about his own relationship with his family.
Sighing, he shook his head. "Penelope and I have just never gotten along. And quite frankly, there's nothing to be said about my relationship with my parents. I'm not sure what you want me to say about any of it, Melanie."
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Post by Melanie Benson on Jan 10, 2016 22:11:04 GMT
Melanie's eyes snapped up to look at him when he stated that there wasn't much to say about his relationship with his family. She ticked her eyebrow up hoping that maybe he'd laugh and imply that he was joking. But he didn't. "You're unbelievable, do you know that?"
She huffed. "I actually felt badly for a split second there for not immediately penning you my autobiography within the first few months of us dating. And I have been trying - and I think that you know that I have - despite the fact that I've never had to be open or honest with anyone about anything if I didn't want to be before. And you - you make me want to be because the way that I feel about you..." she trailed off and then chuckled dryly. "But this is not a one-way street, Tripp. That's not fair. You can't just pick at the scab of the worst areas of my life and accuse me of lying to you when I didn't use those as an opener on our first date and then not do the same. And I'm not going to pry - you don't have to tell me about that or how you feel - but don't then make me feel ridiculous for not knowing how to share the more intimate details about my family life."
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