“You were right.”
She blinks a few times and then frowns, “Has he hurt you?” She demands.
I’m momentarily shocked at her sudden protectiveness.
“I’m going to kill him. Where is he? At work?”
“Hey woah!” I laugh, “He hasn’t hurt me.”
“So why are you telling me this?”
“Because he loves me too.”
Another slow blink.
“We, uh, we’ve decided to give this a real go.”
“A real—holy shit, are you guys dating!?” She says it so loudly, the tables around us all glance our way and her son stirs a little beneath the hood sheltering him from the worst of the light.
“No need to shout,” I laugh. “Damn.”
“Sidney, I’m so serious right now. Are you two actually dating?”
“Yes,” I swallow.
“Damn it.”
My head snaps back, “Excuse me?”
“You just lost me a hundred bucks.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask but the waitress comes to take our order, halting our conversation for a few minutes.
When we’re finally alone again, she answers.
“Me and mom have had a running bet foryears.”
My mouth drops open.
“She called it,” Luce shrugs, “I figured it would be a couple more years yet.”
“You took bets?” I whisper hiss.
“What?” Luce laughs. “I’ve always known you’ve been in love with him; I just thought he would take a few more years to figure it out.”
“You didn’t think he was in love with me?”
“No, I did, but men are weird.” She shrugs. “I wasn’t sure he’d get it together to pull it off. It’s why I was so worried about him hurting you with this whole baby thing. I honestly thought he wouldn’t figure it out.”
I shake my head, “Well, I’m glad you lost money. You shouldn’t be betting on people.”
She laughs and shrugs, “I’m happy for you, Sid.”
I soften, “Thank you.”
“So when’s the wedding?” She grins, sipping her soda.
When the road is clear, I jog across it to Noah’s office building, pushing the large glass doors open into the foyer. Since my name is down as an approved visitor, they don’t need to call up and instead provide the key for the elevator. No one pays me much attention as I climb into the cart and hit the button for his floor, the elevator music filling the awkward silence as we travel through the floors. There’s only two people left in thecart by the time I make it to Noah’s floor, but they don’t get out.
