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“Is that him?” Amber asked, her voice full of emotion. “I got the announcement. You told Phil he was adorable and you’re right. And he has your red hair. I have his little picture in my wallet.”
She opened her bag and pulled her wallet out. Katrina sat up, straining to see. Sending the pictures in the announcement was clearly a big mistake. She wanted to grab the photo. Annie and Katrina stared at each other, poker faces in place.
“Here you go. See, I have it right at the front of my photographs. The picture is cute, but in person he is even cuter. You’re so lucky.”
Deflating, Katrina couldn’t take the tension any longer and slumped back into the seat. “Yes, I’m so lucky. I’m the luckiest girl alive.”
“I’m so, so sorry for what I said and did, slapping Dave, calling the baby names,” Amber said, her lower lip trembling.
Annie shouted, “What the hell, Amber!”
“You guys didn’t deserve that. It’s offensive, but I didn’t care. I took my anger out on Dave. He just up and left and never gave me an excuse. I’m not saying that justifies what I did, Katrina. But it’s what led to it.”
Katrina glanced at Annie and then up at Amber. “Amber, I’m sorry, too. I’m sorry we betrayed you. It was wrong. It should have been handled differently. But I love him, and he loves me, and I don’t apologize for that. It just happened.”
“It was meant to be,” Annie said. “Amber, what about you! You’ve got the wealthiest guy in Louisiana crazy about you! I’ve heard around town the guy would do anything for you.”
“That’s true. He has already. In order to make it possible for me to ever speak to Katrina and Dave again, he made a hundred-thousand-dollar donation to that Down syndrome organization.”
Katrina gasped, wishing she could disappear. Money was always supposed to make everything okay. But it really didn’t.
“Please tell Phil thanks for his generosity,” she said, trying to keep her emotions intact.
“It doesn’t change anything. But I just wanted to say in person how sorry I am. Your baby is adorable.”
“Thanks,” Katrina said, getting weary of the whole scene.
“I’ll let you get back to your meal. I’m here to grab a whole cheesecake.”
She smiled and turned to walk away.
They didn’t speak again until Amber had paid for her purchases and left the café, walking down the street to a shiny sports car parked at the curb.
“What in the hell happened?” Annie asked.
“I didn’t tell you because I just wanted to forget it.”
“Gotcha. But now tell me.”
She repeated the story. “It sounds so horrible when I repeat it.”
“Oh, sweetheart, I’m sorry,” Annie said. “Of course, it’s upsetting. I had no idea it was that bad. What a bitch.”
“I’m having a hard time forgiving and forgetting.”
“Well, you did a bang-up job of lying then. You made it seem like it was no big deal.”
“I want her to leave us alone,” Katrina said. “She hurt Dave calling his son a name. It’s so cruel. With Amber you can’t gain anything by sinking to her level.” Pushing her cold toast away, she said, “I want to go. That took every impulse to do anything fun from me.”
“Katrina, that’s awful. I’m so sorry. Let’s get out of here.”
Without further discussion, they packed up their baby things, got the sleeping infants into their strollers, and left after paying the bill.
Out on the street they headed north toward home. “Until she showed up, this was nice,” Katrina said. “I can’t believe the babies didn’t wake up.”
“We were only in there half an hour. I was ready to spend the entire morning with you.”
“Now it’s my turn to say I’m sorry. All I want to do is get home.”
