“So what’s your name?” I said.
“Leo.” He looked like a newer version but not as new as Zack.
“I’m Lucian.” I shook his hand.
“Oh, Lucian. I heard about you.”
“What’d you hear?”
“You the one who married one of your souls.”
“Word spreads fast,” I said.
“Yeah, I was banging this chick, Abigail—”
“Yeah, I know her.” Fucking Abigail, such a big-mouthed brat.
“Sweet little ass, huh?” Leo said. I just shrugged like I had no idea what he was talking about. “So what were you doing on the bridge?”
I was texting Evey and mindlessly responding to Leo at the same time. “Just trying something out.”
Me: You ok?
Evey: Yes fine, have fun.
“Trying something out?” Leo said.
“Well, I have this theory. Since I’ve been with my soul, my angel gifts, so to speak, have been failing or fading. I don’t know, just changing.”
“So what’s your theory?”
“That I’m becoming a human.” I looked at him and arched my eyebrows.
He shook his head. “Nah, no way. It can’t happen.”
“Really, you don’t think it’s possible?”
“No.”
“Evey, my wife, is pregnant.”
“With what?”
“See, that’s my point,” I said. “It’s not a litter of fucking puppies, man. She’s pregnant with my baby.”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s true.”
He looked off into a restaurant, seeming to think about what I had said. “Hey, let me get these two home. Then you wanna grab a drink, and we’ll talk some more?”
I looked into the restaurant and saw a couple enjoying a meal. “Are those your souls right there?”
“Yeah.”
“Looks like they’re enjoying themselves.”
“Give me a second.” He opened his hand and revealed a giant roach.
“No, you can’t do that.”
He shook his head. “Yeah, I can. These two never stay home. I’m constantly following their asses around the city. I could use a beer.”
He left me on the bench, then a moment later he was following two very angry people out of the restaurant. Leo was laughing and waving for me to follow. I would never have done that to one of my souls.
WE ENDED UP at the Star Wars bar, and Han, the bartender working when Evey first met me, was manning the bar once again.
“You,” he said when we sat down. “I thought you’d be dead.” He addressed Leo, “Your friend can drink.”
“Whiskeys and IPAs,” Leo said.
Han poured us two fingers of Whistle Pig and some local IPAs in pints. Leo dumped part of his IPA beer into his whiskey, so I did the same. I’d told Evey that I wouldn’t drink like that, but we were fighting, and I needed something. I downed the first cup then the second, and I was toast. My body wasn’t recovering very fast.
Leo was looking at me strangely. “Why are you so fucked up, man?”
“I don’t know. This is what’s happening to me.” I shook my head. “I can only have one more, then I gotta get home.”
“Home?” he repeated. It wasn’t exactly angel-speak.
“Yeah, I gotta get home to Evey. She’s pregnant, and she’s gonna get mad at me for getting trashed.”
“The old ball and chain, huh? Been married a few days and you’re already fighting and in trouble?”
“No, it’s not like that,” I said, but it kind of was. “I just wanted to know if you had ever heard of anything like this happening?”
“What?” Leo said.
“Angels falling for their souls and what happens to them. Can they have babies?”
He laughed. “Fallen angel, what a cliché.”
“Yeah, I know. Just tell me though.”
“No, I’ve never heard of anything like that.”
“I got to go.” I threw some cash on the bar and waved to Han.
He smiled and waved back.
“Bye,” Leo called but didn’t turn around. “Good luck with all that cosmic shit you’re fucking with.”
“Asshole,” I said under my breath.
I texted Evey.
Me: B home n 5
Evey: Can you get me some Cherry Garcia?
Ice cream cravings already? That was a good sign.
Me: Of course!
When I came in holding a pint of Evey’s favorite ice cream, she was smiling and as happy as ever. “There’s my prince,” she said.
“I have a feeling that anyone holding a pint of Cherry Garcia would be your prince.”
“Not true,” she sang. “Have you been drinking?”
“Yes, but I know my limit now.”
“Good.” She kissed my nose while she took the ice cream from my hand.
“Can I lick this off of you?” I asked.
“Best idea you’ve had, husband.”
Things finally felt right again. I was licking ice cream off of Evey’s thighs, and heaven was here on Earth. I was sure of that.
I COULDN’T BELIEVE that Lucian was searching Want Ads for a job. He was lying next to me in our bed, circling ads and laughing at how overqualified he was.
“This one says, ‘Must be bilingual.’ Should I put on my résumé that I speak seventeen languages?”
“Don’t be arrogant. People don’t like arrogant.”
He rolled over and kissed my tummy. “Hello, baby.” He looked up at me. “Should we find out if it’s a boy or a girl?”
“We can find out at the next ultrasound.” So far, everything was coming along perfectly. We were pregnant with an actual baby, as far as the doctor could tell.
He yawned. “Are you tired?”
“Yeah, but not that tired. It’s only seven,” I said.
“Mm, I can’t wait to meet you,” he said to my stomach.
I was eleven weeks pregnant. We were a family. Lucian and I had fights, but we were a family, and we were working things out and figuring out how to be normal.
“You have an interview tomorrow, don’t you? At that financial firm?”
“Yeah. I’m going to drive you to work, then I’ll pick you up,” he said.
“Okay.”
In the morning, we got up like it was any other day. Lucian made my favorite breakfast—avocado on toast with olive oil and tomato. I smiled when I took it from him. “You’re too good to me.”
“It’s only because you’re carrying my baby,” he said with a smirk.
“By the way, I meant to ask you. Does our little one have an angel hanging around?”
He squinted and shook his head slowly. “No, it’s just you and me until she’s born.”
“She? You know?”
“No, no, just have a feeling. Wishful thinking, I guess.”
“You want a girl then?”
“I’d be happy either way, but yeah, I was just thinking how beautiful and kind-hearted she’d be… like her mom.”
We drove across the bridge as Lucian sang along to Leon Bridges. “You have a good voice,” I told him.
“So do you.”
“You’ve never heard me sing.”
“Evey, I’ve heard you sing a million times.”
I blushed. That’s right—he’d heard everything. “That’s not fair.”
“Sing with me.”
I tried to sing along but couldn’t hold a candle to Lucian’s singing. He said he’d been doing it longer, which was a silly understatement. He dropped me at Tracey’s warehouse, and then headed off for his job interview.