AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Nicole!”I clenched the phone to my ear a little tighter.“What’s going on?Are you okay?”Was the baby coming early?Was she in labor?I needed to be there for the baby.But if we stayed...I couldn’t think about it right now.“Are you having the baby?”
“No.”
Relief washed through me.Followed quickly by renewed concern.“Then what’s going on?You sound like—”
“We’re just doing this thing the doula recommended to help with labor.”
“This thing...”I knew the moment I asked.“Nicole!Please tell me you’re not having sex.”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Why would you answer the...never mind.”I shook my head and contemplated hanging up so they could finish whatever it was they were doing.But I needed to talk to her.“Can you take a...break...or something?There’s something I want to talk about.”
“Of course.”I could always count on my best friend to put whatever she was doing on hold if I needed her.Even if it was sex.Fortunately, I didn’t need her that often, but I knew she was always there if I did.I listened while she mumbled something to Ryan and heard the distinctive sound of kissing in the background before finally she came back on the line.“What’s up?How’s Vegas?Please tell me you’re having fun.”
“I am.”It wasn’t totally a lie.There’d been fun.“It’s only been a few days, and—”
“You’re not ready to come home, are you?I know how you feel about Vegas, but come on, Lex.Try to enjoy yourself for once.You need to have a little fun and if you can’t have fun in Las Vegas, I’m not sure there’s any hope for you at all.Remember, you had fun there once.And you met Leo and you—”
“Nic!I’m having fun.So much fun that I can’t believe it.I’m out of control!Honestly, it’s fine.”Sometimes the only way to get her to listen was to yell.“I need to talk to you about something.But first, how’s the baby?How do you feel?”I probably should have talked to her about my stuff first, because once you got Nicole talking about herself, all bets were off as far as getting a word in edgewise, but the second I got her on the phone, I’d needed a bit more time to tell her what I’d called to tell her.It was a chicken move, for sure.But I didn’t care.
There was a long sigh and I could totally picture my friend with her hand on her back, stretching her exceedingly large belly forward in a dramatically stereotypical housewife fashion.“I’m enormous.”She groaned.“I swear there’s more than one baby in here.They keep telling me there’s only one, but I was reading in a magazine the other day about a woman who went in to deliver one, and had three.Three!Can you even imagine?How do they missthree?”
“They don’t,” I said.“What magazine did you read that in?”
“I don’t remember.But it’s true.There were definitely three.There was a picture of her holding them all.I’d sue if that happened to me.”
“So you think you’re having triplets?”I rolled my eyes and was grateful she couldn’t see me.
“No!Don’t be ridiculous.”Nicole paused.“But there’s definitely two in there.”
I had to swallow my laughter and it took me a minute to fully recover.“Right.Well, I’m glad you’re feeling okay.”
“Okay!?”She made a very unattractive half grunt, half choke noise.“If that’s what you can call having a twelve-pound turkey pressing down on your bladder, kicking the crap out of your insides day in and day out.Seriously, Lex.You havenoidea what this is like.”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed.Hard.When I recovered, I wiped the tears that had leaked from my eyes.“I have an almost twelve-year-old, remember?I have some idea what it’s like.”My hand cupped my growing belly that had seemed to have doubled since the last time I’d checked.“And I might have some—” I stopped myself from telling her about the baby.At least until we’d told Ben he was going to be a big brother.Besides, I needed to focus on the real reason for my call.
“You have some what?”
“Nothing.”I shook my head; Nicole would never let it go.“I was just going to say that I have to make some plans for Ben’s birthday in a few days.”It was true, if not entirely the situation at hand.“And I have some news.”Shifting gears was definitely the best approach.Although I wasn’t sure how she was going to take it.
“You got married?”she shrieked through the line.“You bitch!You can’t get married without me.”She burst into messy loud sobs and I had to hold the phone away from my ear while she sniffed loudly into the receiver.I should have guessed how a hormonal and very pregnant Nicole, who was emotional on a good day, would react to such an ambiguous statement.
“Nic.Nic!”I raised my voice to be heard over her sobs.It was a damn good thing we hadn’t gone through with the wedding.But she really wasn’t going to like what I was going to tell her.“We didn’t get married.”I paused.She wasn’t crying as hard, but she was still sobbing.“Did you hear me?”
A sniff, a snort, and she said, “Yes.”She paused a beat and added, “How could you?I told you how important it was to me that my baby’s godparents were married.And you’re in Vegas.Lexi!If you’re going to get married anywhere, it should be there.”
My head spun.“Wait.What?Are you mad that I didn’t get married?Because a second ago you were uncontrollably crying because you thought I had gotten married.Which is it?”
She grunted and there was silence before she finally said, “Both.Don’t mess with me.I’m really pregnant and hormonal and I don’t know what I want.”
I chuckled a little.I, for one, couldn’t wait until the baby was born and Nicole could go back to her normal level of neuroses.I couldn’t imagine how Ryan was dealing with it.I was pretty sure a more patient man didn’t exist.
I waited for Nicole to recover from her emotional rollercoaster and used the moment of quiet to walk with the cordless phone through the small garden area outside our room.It couldn’t have been more different from the lush forest back home, but the cactus and desert flowers were gorgeous in a barren yet striking way of their own.There was so much potential still in the garden areas and despite my own indecision about moving to the desert, I knew I’d enjoy immersing myself in some of the challenges that Oasis would present.Leo was right: it was full of potential and maybe it was time for a change.
“So if you didn’t call to tell me you got married, what’s up?”
I took a breath and braced myself for another emotional outburst.There was no point dancing around it, not at this point.So I just said it outright.“Leo has been offered an amazing opportunity down here.We’re considering it.”
