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“Look who’s late for once!” Teresa all but shouted when I walked through the door at Gigi’s condo.
“Some of us are running a business, if you didn’t know,” I replied. “And I’m not that late, anyway; Gigi said to be here at six, and it’s only five after.”
“There’s the saying that goesif you’re not early, you’re late,” Teresa argued. “And both of us were early.”
“You were hardly early!” Angela cut in. “You walked in two minutes before six!”
“Just because you were here all afternoon doesn’t mean you get to call out someone who was here just before the hour,” Teresa said.
“It does when you’re giving Cass a hard time for being five minutes late,” she argued.
“Girls, girls,” Gigi said, walking into the room from the kitchen. “I didn’t invite you three over here for a bicker fest, and since when does Cassie walking into the room spark bickering anyway?”
“I was just teasing,” Teresa said with an innocent shrug.
“How are you?” I asked Gigi as I gave her a hug. “I’m sorry I haven’t been coming over as much lately. It’s been pretty crazy with all that’s gone on.”
“I’m sure,” Gigi said. “Let me get a good look at you. My dear, you are positively glowing!”
I laughed. “I don’t know about that, but thank you.”
Gigi had asked both my sisters and me to come over to dinner at her place tonight, and I had been scrambling most of the day to make it happen. I was still trying to figure out a way to cut corners with expenses for the business, all the while bringing in more money.
But there were only so many things that could be cut, along with so many ways to make more money. Especially since both of my sisters had made it clear to me already, they weren’t interested in taking on any more work. Not that I could give Teresa much more anyway. She was busy.
“Oh!” Angela commented at Gigi’s words. “Is this the first you’ve seen of her since she told you she was pregnant?”
“It is,” Gigi said. “And trust me when I say there is a visible pregnancy glow that happens. I’m sure you have it.”
“I don’t know, I don’t feel like I’m glowing,” I said.
“Are you feeling less nauseous?” Angela asked.
“Since I got that medicine, I have been,” I said. “Enough that I’m not running to the bathroom sick to my stomach every half hour like before.”
“Thank God for that,” Teresa said. “I would go nuts if I got that sick and had to feel it for nine months.”
“It doesn’t usually last the full nine months,” Gigi said. “Most often, you only deal with that in the beginning stages.”
“Still,” I said. “I feel like I have so much to do, so much of the time. I don’t have the freedom to be spending my time in the bathroom bent over the toilet.”
“Gross,” Angela said.
I gave her a look, and she rolled her eyes. “Just saying! You schedule everything. I think having a baby is going to do you some good in that you’re not going to be able to schedule yourself to death anymore. You’re going to have to learn this crazy thing called being flexible.”
“I’m flexible enough,” I said. “You know, it kind of goes back to that whole running a business thing that I was talking about. If I was wasting time, we would all be in some deep shit.”
“That’s why I was glad when you were the one who took over the logistics of the company,” Gigi said. “But I also wanted to talk to you girls tonight.”
“Oh?” I asked.
“What’s going on?” Teresa chimed in. “Usually when someone says that phrase, it’s not going to be fantastic.”
“Let’s get our food and sit down, then we can talk,” Gigi replied.
I wasn’t sure I was very hungry after she said she had something to talk about with us. I worried she was going to tell us she had taken a turn once again and the cancer was back, or that there had been some other change of plans in her life that would make things harder for her.
She hadn’t been living in this condo for very long, and I had hoped with it being the more independent side of assisted living, she would be here for years. But I also knew I had a tendencyto let my mind run wild, and I could very well be letting my imagination get the better of me.
