“Second of all, you should be out on dates on a Friday night, not held up in your loft, drawing.”
“This coming from a woman who wouldn’t go out with the same person twice. Now you’re married and the expert?” She was right though. I should have been out dating.
“You know I’m right.” She looked around the room. “Your loft looks amazing. I can’t believe you did all of this yourself.”
“Well, I don’t date, remember? I have plenty of time on my hands.”
“We can fix that.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
“Please don’t set me up. You know I hate being set up.” I got up to head to the kitchen to make coffee. Brooklyn followed close behind. “You want some coffee?”
“I already had my daily allowance.”
Turning around in the kitchen area, I glared at her. “What are you talking about?”
She grinned from ear to ear and batted her eyelashes. I looked down at her stomach. “Are you serious? Are you pregnant?”
When she nodded, I grabbed her and squeezed her. I felt her start to cry.
“You’re gonna be an auntie,” she said.
“I can’t wait.” I was getting emotional too. As happy as I was, I felt an emptiness inside of me that I couldn’t explain—a void. I was envious of Brooklyn for the first time in a long time.
She pulled out of the hug and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “It’s still early, but I wanted to tell you first—after Keith, of course. I haven’t even told my parents.”
“Brooke, I’m honored. I want to be there for you every step of the way. I know I’ve been so busy lately and I haven’t been the greatest friend. I was just swept up with the loft and my new line. I feel like I’ve been living in a social fog the last few months.”
“It’s okay, pinky. By the way, how is the line coming along?”
Brooke never used to care, so I stared at her before I answered. “You’re never going to believe this. Divine Denim is being featured in next month’s Vogue.” I started jumping up and down. “It comes out in two weeks. Ah!”
Brooke started jumping too.
“Don’t jump… the baby.”
“Oh yeah.” She laughed. “Ah, Evey, I’m so proud of you.”
We hugged again. I didn’t ask for my key back, and I promised myself I’d be more open to dating. My career was taking off, I had a place of my own… it was time.
IS THAT BEEPING? What is that beeping? I felt a nudge, and then a full-out kick in the back of my leg.
“Ouch!”
“Lucian, your fucking phone is ringing. Answer it. It’s probably your mother.”
Groggily, I sat up and reached for my phone. “Hi, Mom.”
“Hi!” Her voice was so cheery that it always put a smile on my face, even when my irritated girlfriend was glaring at me.
“What’s up, Mom?”
“Is Laura there?”
“She is.”
“Oh.” Her voice fell.
I stood, walked into the kitchen, and pushed a stack of bills out of the way so I could start a pot of coffee. “What’s going on? You can tell me.”
“I was just gonna see if you wanted to get brunch.”
“Brunch sounds great.” Several seconds of silence passed. I lowered my voice. “I know you don’t like her, Mom, she’s probably going to work. It’ll just be us.”
“It’s not that I don’t like her. I’m a mom, your mom, and I think you deserve the best.”
My mother and father had the ultimate relationship. They had been best friends for thirty-five years until he passed away last year of cancer. After his death, my mother became hyper-focused on my life.
“Mother, I’m jobless, living in a shitty one-bedroom apartment—”
“You’re going to get a job. You have too much talent not to. Things will turn around for you.” She whispered, “Laura doesn’t treat you well, Lucian.”
Laura was always harping on me about getting a regular job, but I had gone to college for graphic and web design. I wasn’t giving up on that. It was a real job, and I’d had one until there were cutbacks where I had been working. It wasn’t my fault at all. I had been unemployed for seven months, living in a fog. I was just going through the motions with Laura, who I had met and started dating in college. She had gone on to med school, and now she was a hotshot surgeon at San Francisco General. I only saw her two days a week, and we usually spent it fighting.
“I’ll meet you for brunch. Where should we go?” I asked my mom.
“Meet me at Sweet Maple. I’m buying.”
I sighed. “Okay. I’ll meet you there in an hour.”
Shuffling back into my room, I heard Laura on the phone, talking to someone about one of her patients. “I’ll be in shortly,” she said.
I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to make up an excuse to leave.
Laura had long, straight blond hair, a narrow chin and nose, and big pink lips. She was six feet tall, only two inches shorter than me, and had a killer body. I used to think she was model-ish and unique; now she reminded me of a Viking warrior. There was no softness to her, mentally or physically.
Inside the room, I slid back into bed while she scrolled through her phone. Without looking over, she said, “I have to go in today. One of my patients is having some post-op issues. You going to brunch with your mom?”
“How’d you know?”
“Because you do that on Saturdays.”
“You work a lot on Saturdays.”
She ignored that. “They’re hiring orderlies at the hospital.”
I laughed through my nose, and then turned on my side to face her. She was still looking at her phone. “I have a master’s in design, Laura. I was making close to what you are when I got laid off.”
“Then get a job.”
I shook my head. “As though I haven’t been trying.”
“Try harder. My back is starting to hurt.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“From carrying you. I pay for almost all of our meals out,” she said.
“I always tell you I can’t afford to go to the restaurants you like anymore. I offer to cook for you. You insist on paying and act like it’s no big deal.”
She got up and tossed the covers back at me. “It’s not a big deal when it comes to the money. It’s the fact that doing it doesn’t bother you.”
“Are you serious? Are we living in the eighteen hundreds?”
She was standing naked and confident in front of my dresser mirror, brushing her long hair. “I have to go.”
She went into the bathroom and started the shower. I followed her in and hopped up on the counter to talk to her through the shower curtain.
“We’ve been together for a long time, Laura.”
“I know, and I love you. But things aren’t moving forward for us anymore.”
I agreed with her but stayed quiet.
“And…” she said.
“And what?”
“I had a spark with someone at my work.”
“What in the world is a spark, Laura?”
“A connection. You know what a spark is.”
I really didn’t. “Are you cheating on me?”
She tore the shower curtain open and scowled. “Of course not. I’ve always been honest with you.”
“Who is it?” I said.
“Another surgeon.”
“Of course. Which one?” I knew a lot of the people she worked with.
“Tom.” She blinked, expressionless.