Hurt filtered through Betty’s eyes. “We are.”
“No, because if we were you’d tell me the truth. If you didn’t want to pick up my phone calls then tell me so, but at least don’t come up with some stupid excuse like that. I thought our friendship meant more than that.”
Looking at Gerard again with hopeless, wide eyes Betty shook her head. “I swear to you, Trish, every word of this is true. You want to know why I look so pregnant? It’s because I’ve been there. I’m only five days pregnant by Earth time.”
“What!” Trisha tossed her napkin onto the table, ready to grab her purse and just get the hell out of dodge. She was angry and humiliated. Why had Betty felt the need to lie, why couldn’t she just be honest? Did Betty think she couldn’t handle knowing the truth?
That she was married and obviously wanted her space. Trisha was a big girl; she didn’t need lies to make it through the day. Especially not from the one person she still trusted in the whole wide world.
“I can’t believe you’d lie to me like this, Betty. I thought our friendship meant something.”
“Oh my God, Gerard, she’s going to leave, baby, you have to help me.” Betty grabbed his arm and shook it.
“Trishelle, everything she has told you is all true.”
Going to her happy place, Trisha tapped her nail on the table and tried to drown them out. She wouldn’t walk away, even though that’s exactly what she wanted to do—because even if Betty no longer considered Trisha a friend, she still did and she was really hoping to God her friend would laugh any second now and say “Just kidding.”
“I’m sorry to be blunt, but we thought it might be best to hear it from your friends as opposed to having a petite fairy show up in your apartment to drag you off to Neverland,” he said.
“Neverland!” Trisha laughed with no small amount of relief. It was a joke after all, elaborate, and wow, when had Betty become such a great actress? She’d really had Trisha going there for a second. Sighing with relief, she nodded. “Okay,” she held up her hands, “I was seriously getting all hurt, sheesh Betty… You jerk, that was a mean joke.”
Betty’s brows gathered into a question mark and Gerard shook his head as other tables began to take note of them, twisting in their seats to find out what’d made Trisha chortle like a braying donkey.
The waiter arrived with their salads and Trisha tried to ignore the sick pit in her stomach telling her that neither one was actually joking. She kept waiting for the punch line, the ‘Ha, I got you,’ but it wasn’t coming.
They ate the rest of the meal in silence, which increased her anxiety. This had to be a joke. Had to. Because she was wearing a Peter Pan costume for crying out loud. Obviously it was a joke.
The salmon salad had been good, but it was sitting in Trisha’s stomach funny. Wanting to cleanse her palate of the overwhelming fishy taste, she ordered a coffee. “So, are you guys coming to the play? I’m sure Briley would love it.”
Betty’s lips were thinned and lines bracketed her mouth as she finally nodded. “That was the plan.”
The waiter returned with Trisha’s coffee. She took it from him with slightly trembling fingers and a hard pit forming in her stomach.
Betty picked at her chef’s salad, moving cherry tomatoes around her plate before finally sighing and setting her fork down. “Trisha, it’s all true. Danika is Gerard’s fairy godmother. She sent us here to convince you of this, or she’d come herself and just whisk you off. But I know how much you hate surprises so I begged her to let me be the one to tell you the truth myself, give you some warning before just dumping you in Hook’s lap.”
Choking on the hot coffee, Trisha thumped her chest. “I’m sorry, what?” she wheezed through the tears. “Did you say Hook?”
“James, that’s how he prefers to be called,” Gerard supplied.
Licking her teeth, the fire in Trisha’s belly roared back to life. Scooting her chair back so hard it toppled to the ground, she stood. “You know what, that’s fine. Whatever. I’m glad you guys find it so funny to act like total asses with me, real nice. You know it would have been easier to just say, ‘Trisha, I’m sorry I forgot to tell you about the baby and for ignoring you so much these past few months. I’m an ass, can you ever forgive me?’ This just sucks.” Needing to get away before the angry tears started spilling, Trisha yanked her purse off the ground. “Thanks for lunch.” She reached into her purse and tossed whatever bills she could find on the table, not bothering to look to see how much it was. “I’ve gotta run.”