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“How are we feeling?” he asks and I laugh.
“Weare feeling like a bloated walrus,” I say. “I’m so over this pregnancy. The baby’s crushing my insides, I have to pee all the time, and I don’t even want to talk about the heartburn.”
“Tell me about it,” says Stacy and the other women laugh around us.
Jack kisses me on the cheek and I feel warm inside.
The first gift is from Jennie. A car seat. A really nice one too. As I unwrap the package, I’m surprised by how large it is. “Jennie,” I say, “This is…this is so much!”
“You need it,” she says. “Take it and say thank you.”
“Thank you,” I laugh.The next bunch of gifts are clothes, but so nice. “Oh, my gosh, look how cute.” I hold up a little pink dress with lace trim. That was given to me by Stacy. One of the gifts anyway. She pushes another wrapped gift toward me. “And some onesies,” she says.
“Wow,” Jack says, “I don’t remember Martin being that small.”
The doorbell rings and Jack says, “Don’t move. I’ve got it.”
He gets up while I open the next bunch of gifts. More onesies and some T-shirts with funny sayings on them. As I’m looking at one that says,Daddy’s Little Angel, I look up to see who’s just arrived.
I don’t recognize her. She’s got long red hair and big green eyes. She’s tall and thin and she looks like a supermodel. She waves for a second at me and the rest of us before turning and talking to Jack.
I rub my hand over my huge bump and anger begins to boil my blood.
Whatever’s being said, has ended and Jack turns and walks over to us. She’s carrying a gift. “Ladies, this is my coworker, Priscilla.”
Priscilla. Ugh. Her name was pretty too.
Priscilla waves brightly at everyone. “Hi,” she says. “I hope I’m not too late. I got held up at the office.”
Jack holds a hand out towards me and says, “You haven’t met my girlfriend yet. This is Sarah.”
Hisgirlfriend. I don’t know why, but I don’t like how that sounds. Not in front of her. She shouldn’t have any idea that I’m going anywhere.
I shake her hand and I become acutely aware of how swollen they are next to her long and elegant fingers.
“So nice to meet you,” she says.I manage a tight smile. “Same.”
She turns to Jack. “Congratulations.” Then to me, as if I’m a second thought. “To both of you. You’re going to be a dad again!”
I do not like how friendly she is with him. Who does she think she is anyway? I’m grinding my teeth and trying to stay cool, but I feel like a volcano inside.
“Have a seat,” Jennie chimes in. “We’re just opening the presents.”
“Oh, great,” she says and puts her gift with the others. As she sits down, Jack takes his place next to me…but I’m steaming. I wish he would sit somewhere else.
The rest of the party goes as planned. All in all, I got more than enough for the baby. All that was left was a crib for the nursery, but otherwise, we’re all set. It was a good day.
Or at least it could have been ifPriscillahadn’t shown up.
Everyone starts to leave sometime after. I watch as Priscilla thanks Jack for the invitation and kisses him on the cheek. It’s all I can do not to walk over and rip all the pretty red hair out.
“Hey, Sarah,” Jennie’s walking up to me with a trash bag. “Jack and I have all this. Why don’t you just relax for now?”
“Sure,” I say. “One second.” Priscilla’s left and I walk up to Jack. “So, she’s your coworker.”
Jack is looking at me like a deer in headlights. My tone tells him that something’s wrong, but it’s pretty clear he doesn’t know what. “Yeah,” he says. “She’s been at the company for a while now. I thought it’d be nice if she came. Are you okay?”
“So, she’s just been there this whole time? When you and Clark have your little celebrations after work, is she there?”
