“You’re not fat now—you’re pregnant.”
“Well, I feel fat.” Sophie slathered a cinnamon roll with butter. “Why aren’t you eating your food?”
Though Lana had never been less hungry in her life, she forced herself to take a bite of the frittata. “It’s delicious.”
After that, the conversation died.
“You’re not at all like your photos,” Sophie said after a moment.
Uh-oh. “Is that good or bad?”
“It’s just different. In the pictures you wore pants and a shirt. Now you’re wearing a dress with little blue-and-white hearts all over it.”
Wanting to make a positive impression, Lana had spent almost half an hour deciding what to wear. She’d chosen the dress because it was fairly new and she felt pretty in it. Now she wondered if she’d gone too formal. “A dress is bad?”
“Well, no, but why wear one when you don’t have to?” Sophie wrinkled her nose, causing her tiny silver nose ring to stick out.
“Normally I wear jeans on weekends. In fact, I was wearing my favorites earlier. But I cleaned house this morning, which I do every Saturday,” Lana explained, wanting Sophie to know she kept a tidy home. “Since this is our first meeting, I wanted to wear something a little nicer.”
The girl gave a slow nod and polished off the cinnamon roll. “I clean the apartment where my mom I and live on Saturdays, too. She works fifty hours a week for us, and it’s only right that I do my part. That’s what she says anyway.”
Lana nodded. “That seems fair.”
“I guess.”
She racked her brain for something else to say. “Do you have an after-school job?”
“Not every day. I work part-time at the movie theater near the apartment. I take tickets and collect trash from under the seats. My shift is five to ten on Thursdays and Fridays, and one to ten on Saturdays. That’s how I met Jason. He works in the concession area.”
“I’m guessing Jason is the baby’s father?” Lana asked.
Sophie nodded. “He doesn’t want to be a father, and I don’t want to be a mom, either. We’re too young. Now that I’m pregnant, he makes me go straight home after work to get my rest.” She eyed Lana’s frittata. “Are you going to eat the rest of that?”
“It’s all yours. Jason sounds like a sweet guy.”
“Sometimes. Last night he gave his two-week notice. He just got a new job at the candy store at the mall.”
Her carefully blank face made Lana wonder. “Is everything okay with you two?”
“We sort of broke up last night,” Sophie said to her empty plate.
She was obviously hurting. Lana felt bad for her. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Breaking up is never fun.”
“I was getting tired of him anyway.” After picking at her nail, she gave Lana a sideways look. “Did you and your boyfriend break up, too?”
“At the moment, I don’t have a boyfriend and I’m not dating anyone, but I used to be married.”
“Did he cheat on you? That’s what my mom’s last boyfriend did.”
There was no reason to sugarcoat the truth. “As a matter of fact, he did,” Lana said. “He wanted a baby, and when we learned I couldn’t give him one, he found a woman who could.”
“That sucks. So, you want to adopt because you can’t have a baby of your own?”
Lana nodded. “I love children, and I’m so ready to be a mother. I know I’ll make a really great one.” Another long silence. “Tell me what you want to be someday.”
“I’m not sure. Maybe a cosmetologist like my mom. She makes decent money.”
“That’s a great career.”
