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Sitting down on the wingback chair opposite me and handing me a glass, he downed his drink immediately, without waiting for me. Then he got up again to grab the decanter and bring it back to the dark wood coffee table between us, pouring himself a second glass.
I took a long sip of my Scotch. I could tell I was going to need it.
David inhaled a deep breath and sighed roughly, as if he had been put through the ringer and was only just now surfacing.
“We got some news today.”
“What kind of news? Where’s Colleen, is she OK?”
“I put her to bed already. She had a few too many martinis,” David said, shaking his head. “She’ll sleep it off and I’ll have to deal with her again in the morning. For now, at least, I get some peace.” He paused, regarding the amber whiskey in his glass, then said, “Well, not really.”
Something was eating away at him. I had never seen him like this.
“David, what’s going on? What happened? Are you two splitting–”
“Amelia is pregnant.”
My heart sank into my stomach. My breath stopped. My head spun.
What? Amelia? Pregnant?
I was in shock. Couldn’t speak, couldn’t form a coherent thought.
Amelia,myAmelia…
Pregnant.
My mind reeled with the sudden, monumental implications of this information, before I could even think straight enough to ask any questions.
“She told me today,” David said, “when I surprised her at work.”
I barely registered David’s statement, instead hearing the words“Amelia is pregnant”on a loop inside my head.
It had to be mine. She wouldn’t be sleeping with someone else behind my back. She was mine, and mineonly.
Which meant that my future child would be my best friend’s grandchild.
“I want to support her, but… she’s my baby girl, Nathaniel. My strong, smart, capable Amelia with a good head on her shoulders. Good judgment. Or at least I thought. I just don’t understand. How could this happen?”
I knew only too well how it happened, and my stomach twisted at the thought of David finding out. All the guilt that had been building up over these last couple of months came crashing down on me now that I knew my best friend’s daughter was going to have my baby.
This was when David needed me to say something reassuring to him, something that would put him at ease and quell his fears for his daughter’s future.
I found it agonizing to try and come up with anything to say to him. Everything would be a lie, anyway. The truth would hurt him too much.
“David, maybe… I’m sure she’s just… is she OK?” I looked away then, not wanting to betray my feelings for her.
“I haven’t spoken to her since earlier today.”
“Neither have–” I stopped myself before I made a terrible mistake. I had let my guard down. Stopped being careful not to reveal our secret.
Shit.
David squinted and shook his head, like he had a thought enter his mind that wasn’t supposed to be there. “Yeah, so, like I said, she’s been out of touch. I don’t know what to do, I–”
“Sorry, I’m so sorry David, for what you’re going through. It must be a terrible shock. But I… have to be back in La Jolla soon. Early morning client meeting. I’ll call you tomorrow, sound good?” I placed an awkward hand on David’s shoulder as I stood to leave.
“But you just got here–”
