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Sadie broke down, vomiting the story of her relationship with Matthew and how we ended up on the couch together in our fancy hotel, at his expense. They’d been together longer than I’d known, an entire year, with their anniversary approaching on New Year’s Eve. I guess my relationship with Caleb falling apart within that time distracted me from much else. Matthew didn’t sound like the dirt bag I perceived, but my guard was still up. Elevated.
They broke up when Sadie told him she was pregnant and terrified. Even though he offered to take care of her and their baby, it was Sadie’s decision to end their relationship for the five minutes she stopped to call and beg for me to pick her up. It made me think of Benji, and mom’s stupid book that was still in my bag.
“I broke his heart,” Sadie continued. “He got drunk, slept with an ex, and told me as soon as he woke up.”
“How drunk was he?” Not that it made what he did forgivable, but I needed a scale by which to grade his flaws.
“Worse than Benji when dad died.” Sadie peered at me over her wet eyelashes, unable to blink. Somewhere between my heart and throat, my breath caught with the memory of our dad’s funeral. Then, somehow, Sadie and I were both sobbing with laughter on that velvet couch.
“That’s,” I gasped, “really drunk.”
Our eruption was a release, but it didn’t change the circumstances of my sister being pregnant and me flying to London on a whim. Or the fact I quasi-hated Matthew. And that stupid book in my purse.
“He’s the one, Mia,” Sadie confessed, her heaving laughter softening to calm breaths. “I’m sure of it.”
I thought back to mom’s book, her unsupportive comments about Amelia being the one for Benji and somehow I’d let Caleb go. I thought he was the one.
“Is that you or your fetus speaking?”
Sadie took the pillow from her stomach and held both palms to her belly, smiling to herself. “Both of us.”
Letting out a sigh deep enough to fill the Atlantic, I dropped my head onto the back of the couch and watched my little sister. Her manicured nails tapped against her stomach, no sign at all that it housed a small human. Sadie was going to be one of those perfect pregnant people, with the fancy clothes and easy labor, fooling everyone else that it would all be so easy.
“I can’t believe you’re going to be a mom,” I admitted, smiling at her.
She looked at me, wiping tears from her cheeks. “I can’t believe you’re going to be an auntie and a godmother.”
