The State of the Family

“Oh, I already love how honest you are,” Casey said after laughing for a bit. “You seemed so very shy the last time, I wasn’t so sure how to reach out, really.”

“Well, meeting the older brother does things to the nerves,” I quipped.

“Especially when that older brother is Seth,” she winked. “So tell me, did Luke explain things to you afterwards?”

“Yeah, he did. Sort of.”

“If you ask me, he should’ve told you before, not after. For the record, I had told him that,” Casey said without reservations, sounding much like a disapproving older sister. “I even thought you already knew that time. Figured I was wrong in the middle of eating the ravioli, but I couldn’t just pull you aside so soon.”

“It’s all good. I mean, you didn’t even have to, and I totally appreciate how you did,” I answered shyly.

“Just so you know, I totally agree that Seth was an ass that night. I even told him that,” Casey said with conviction.

I laughed. I thought I would be surprised to hear it, but I wasn’t. In a short span of time, I already knew Casey was as straightforward as anyone could get.

“I already asked him to behave better the next time. Told him you seemed way better than that bitch Luke almost married.” The animosity in her tone was only too palpable when she referred to Luke’s infamous ex.

“Oh, so you knew her, too?” I tried to sound disinterested, but obviously I was curious. And here was an opening.

“Of course. Like I said, Seth and I have known each other since medical school. When Luke introduced that girl to the family, I already had that icky feeling that something fishy was going on with her. But I never said a word because, really, who am I to do so, right?” She paused to nibble on a tortilla before she continued on. “Anyway, I wasn’t wrong in the end. Well, three years later, anyway,” she shrugged her shoulders.

I gave her a look that said “please elaborate” and she willingly obliged.

“When Luke told Seth he wanted to marry her and asked him to help him buy a ring, Seth knew he had to be the protective older brother. He only ever wanted to know if the girl was ready to get settled in the financial department – she was not – but he stumbled on something else along the way. Seth only became so hell-bent on figuring things out with her when he posed a theoretical question regarding pre-nups, and she shut Luke down for days on end in response. And that was before Luke was even able to propose. Thank God he never had the chance to.”

“W-What was the dealbreaker?” I mumbled, not knowing if I even wanted to hear the answer.

“It’s a jumble of things, really. Credit scores, for one. God-awful credit scores. Cheating on Luke. And a kid on the side with the cheatee whom she passed off as her bestfriend.” My eyes widened fractionally at that one. “That girl was the worst decision Luke ever made and he knows it. But the period between when he didn’t know yet and when he did wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. Not for him. Not for everyone in the family…” Casey paused, her voice lingering quietly as she let the statement sink in.

“What do you mean by that, exactly?” I meekly asked, urging her to divulge more.

“What has he told you about it?” she asked, clearly treading the waters before letting on a figurative bomb.

“That he threw away everything after what she did and that everything went really bad with him after,” I recounted.

“That was a very good synopsis,” Casey said approvingly, her lips curling into a very tight smile. “But very broad, don’t you think?”

I had to nod lest there be no more stories to hear.

“He became a nomad. He left everything here and disappeared. He called before he got on a plane to Europe, though, asking us not to bother him for a while because he wanted to be alone,” she shrugged her shoulders at that, “And after that, all we could trace him for were his credit cards being swiped at this country and that. That was basically how we knew he was more probably still alive.”

I had to wait a few more seconds before Casey could continue. She seemed suddenly lost in thought, and I figured maybe she was reimagining how things had been before.

“Their mother, Amelia, was distraught more than everyone else but we all knew better than to come after Luke. Henry wanted to swoop in and drag him back home, but he got vetoed by the two doctors in the family. Three, since he gave me a vote, too, when he realized he was being overruled by his wife and son,” she smiled faintly.

I smiled, too, at the tiniest amusing thing in the story.

“We gave the grieving period three months. We knew Luke had to go through it. And we hoped he’d come back recovered soon enough.” She paused a bit to sip from her glass. “But we were wrong. He was gone for more than a year, and we had no idea what he did to himself at the time. Three months passed and we all wanted to intervene. God knows just how worried Henry and Amelia were, but we all knew it was a lost cause and that even if we tried, we knew it would just make Luke want to hide himself better. And we didn’t want to lose what little information we could get about him, so we waited it out.”

“When did he decide to come back?” I asked curiously, afraid of what the answer might be. My mind was already picturing several scenarios of Luke in his lowest, and I couldn’t help it. My head was spinning, and my overactive imagination wasn’t helping.

“He just called Seth one day asking him to fly out and get him out of Amsterdam as soon as he could. We knew where he was exactly and Seth couldn’t have been on a plane sooner. I wanted to come with him but Seth said he knew it had to be just him or he’d never get his little brother back.” She paused, trying to gauge my reaction. I was waiting for her to tell me what happened next. “Seth was gone for two weeks. And then they were back home. Luke looked terrible after being on a mission to self-destruct for eighteen months from what I’ve heard, and Seth looked miserable having to explain to the family about Luke’s situation. Seth never hated the bitch more than he did the day he saw Luke in Amsterdam. I never hated the bitch more than the day I saw the brothers back home.”

I didn’t appreciate the fast-forward to Luke coming home, but I understood how the information might be too private. That maybe it was up to Luke to tell me what exactly happened on his own time. I fell quiet, realizing I was dating a broken young man who broke himself consciously.

“You must be reevaluating your choice of dating Luke, thinking it’s a bad idea,” Casey said matter-of-factly after a moment of quiet observation. “I would, too, if I were in your shoes. But I have to tell you one thing. You never knew that bitch and how good she was in playing Luke. Damn, she was good. She played all of us. And for that, she broke him. But he’s whole now, we all made sure of it. Only Seth fails to recognize that.” She sipped her drink once again. “Even their parents have moved on.”

And just like that, the loaded conversation ended. A long silence came from my end. Clinks of the iced beverage came from Casey’s. It had to look awkward, because it felt like it. It felt as though a compendium of secrets had been opened before me and I was so overwhelmed that I didn’t know exactly what I should do from there.

“So that’s basically what you stumbled on when you met Luke,” Casey said after a while, a wide smile on her face as though she didn’t just tell me the most serious thing ever. “And I really want you to stick around. I really like you.”

And at that moment, from those words, I actually knew that despite everything she had just told me, I still wasn’t going anywhere. There’s an out. Somewhere between those lines, there was an out. Just like what Luke did before. They were giving me an out. But I just wouldn’t take it.

The dinner went on normally after that. We chatted about medical school. About just how much of a culture shock second year was. And about how little the second year coverage was in comparison to third year. She shared with me some funny medical clerkship anecdotes of her own along with some survival tips… until we both decided it was late and we had to go home.

She gave me a ride in her white Mini Cooper she was driving herself (how cute is she??) and dropped me off at my building with an “I’ll see you around, yes?” and a nice big smile from me. I can’t even believe she was years older than I was. She seemed so lighthearted about things. She wasn’t like other doctors who lived and breathed the definition of hierarchy. She was definitely way up the societal ladder being a medical consultant and all, but I never even once felt like there was a barrier between us. And I liked it.

Now if only Seth could do the same, everything would be lovely.