Then it clicked. But Jane’s brain processed things more quickly than mine.
“You’re PREGNANT?” she screeched.
Candace squeaked, “Yes?” She glanced at me and then looked at Jane again.
A waiter walked by with a steaming, heaping bowl of seafood spaghetti alfredo. “Our house specialty!”
Candace yelped, “Oh god, I think I’m going to be sick!”
She bolted to the bathroom and I excused myself from the table to go look after her. Jane remained in the same motionless position, her color drained from her face, with her full champagne flute in her hand. She looked like someone had frozen her into a toasting pose. This night had been carefully planned and then . . . surprise! Candace dropped a bomb. A baby bomb. This had left Jane literally speechless, which I’d never seen before.
I swung open the bathroom door and found Candace standing over the sink, with both hands clenching the rim. A slightly green hue colored her face.
“Sorry, wave of nausea. I just found out about the baby and wanted to tell you. There’s already a heartbeat! I didn’t plan to announce it here publicly.” She entered a stall and, leaving the door open, dry heaved and slumped down next to the toilet. Thank god the floor looked clean.
I bent down and rubbed her back. It all clicked now. “Candie, this is great news. Is Zachary your doctor?”
She nodded. “We’re due in six months.”
A laugh bubbled out of me. “Sorry, I was just thinking how funny it was that I thought you and Zachary were having an affair.”
“Me, cheat on Wil with Dr. Robot Zach?” Wrinkles formed between her brows as she frowned at me.
“I know, it was a stupid thought. But wow, six months! My game will be released in six months, too, just before the holidays. We’ll be giving birth at the same time.” Stroking her hair, I added, “Jane will be fine. She’s probably just worried about her foiled bridesmaid dress plans because you’re preggers now. But I have to ask . . . I thought Wil was superreligious and didn’t believe in sex before marriage.”
She lifted her eyes from the floor to my face. “Yeah, we abstained while we did the long-distance thing, but one night we got really drunk and, well, all those years of pent-up angst blew the fuck up, and we crammed a lot of sex into a short period of time. He was so horny that we broke the—”
I cut her off before she got too pornographic and made ME vomit. “Oh geez, I don’t need to hear all that. I just assumed you guys were all Puritan-like and, well, you aren’t.”
“Yeah, we are definitely not. Not anymore.” She pulled herself upright, using my arm as leverage. “Do I look okay? Let’s go back to the dinner. I’ll be fine.” As she washed her hands she said, “Oh, wait, I had one more thing to say.”
Between Asher’s dinner cameo appearance and Candace announcing her pregnancy at Jane’s prerehearsal dinner, I couldn’t imagine anything else surprising me.
“Wil went out and bought me a ring.” She pulled a tiny drawstring satchel from her purse’s inner pocket. A classic square-cut solitaire ring its only contents. Exactly Candace’s style. Good job, Wil.
She continued. “I didn’t put it on because I didn’t want to upset Jane at her special dinner, you know how she is.” It was a good plan, except for the fact that the accidental baby announcement turned out to be an even bigger deal than Jane’s engagement. Our Candace bringing a human into this world? What a huge fucking deal!
“I really am so excited for you! Wil is an amazing guy. I know you’ll be happy together! And that little guy or girl will be gorgeous, I bet.” Wil was Chinese, Candace was Caucasian. They’d have a cute little happy hapa baby.
She smiled and hugged me. “Thanks. I . . . I know it’s crazy to ask, but . . . um . . . would you be the godmother for the baby?”
What did godmothers do? Babysit? Attend all birthday parties? My only godmother context was Cinderella. And that involved ball gowns, fairies, and step-bitches.
“I guess? Could you let me know what that means? And are you getting married first?”
She nodded and sighed. “We’re going to do a courthouse wedding soon, because I don’t want to look huge in all the pictures. I know, it’s totally shallow. But I hope you’ll come to that. I can’t imagine getting married without you by my side.”
My eyes brimmed with tears. We’d been through so much since our freshman year of college together, and I loved her so much. Plus, she was pregnant and no one should be mean to pregnant people. “Yes, of course I’ll come. And I’ll be the godmama. I would be honored.”
She squealed and hugged me again so hard my arms may have bruised. “I was thinking about asking Jane to be at the courthouse ceremony, too, but I might give her time to sit with my baby news first. I think my engagement news on top of that baby announcement might be a lot for her to handle. Since the pregnancy and engagement were unplanned I’m hoping she doesn’t see this as me upstaging her somehow.” Candace put her ring back in the satchel. Really? We couldn’t celebrate this amazing news out of fear of hurting someone else’s feelings? She and Jane grew up together, and they became roommates after college. I met Jane through Candace. We’d all gone through a lot together and I had hoped by now that none of us would be trying to one-up each other.
We stayed in the bathroom a while, chatting about the pregnancy while we freshened up. When we were ready to rejoin the festivities, we walked back to an empty room. Candace asked, “Where’d everyone go?” The balloons and flowers were all removed, too. The prerehearsal dinner party had vanished. I checked my watch. We were in the bathroom for only thirty minutes.
On the table next to our purses were two silver domes on top of two plates. One where Candace was seated, the other where I had been, next to Jane. I handed Candace one of the sets of silverware in the center of the table where the orchid arrangement had been.
She lifted her dome first, revealing a small can of ginger ale, a cup of chicken soup, and a pack of oyster crackers.
Under mine? A “skinny girl” salad, fat-free Italian dressing, and a small square of engagement cake with Jane’s face on it.
Classic.
“Hey! Where’s my cake?” Candace moaned.
I slid mine over to her. “Baby can have first dibs.”
Chapter Nine
Five thirty A.M. wakeup times were the worst, but I could either wake up at the asscrack of dawn or stay at work way past midnight to get the game launched on our accelerated schedule. Neither choice was good, and both were worse options than rocks or hard places. I chose the asscrack.
Already, these long days and nights had taken a toll on my body. But I had to do this. To prove to all the naysayers at work that I could handle it. Plus, with the Seventeen Studios brand name on my résumé I could go anywhere next. It had cachet like Google or Apple. AND . . . my game idea was going to be produced by ME! That was maybe the coolest thing to ever happen in my entire existence. Who cared if my life span shortened by a few hundred days because of the grueling work hours I imposed at age twenty-seven and a half?
On my drive to work I called my mom, who had texted that they were back from Italy. Eight in the morning central time was a perfectly reasonable time to call them. After all, she often called me presunrise in Seattle, presumably by accident.
Mom picked up on the first ring. “Melody-ya, what’s matter? You in hospital? You hurt? Why you call so early?” Her voice was more shrill and panicked with each sentence.
“I’m on my way to work and thought I’d call you while I had time in the car. I’m not in the hospital. Oh! I wanted to ask you something.”
My dad jumped on the line. “You finally have boyfriend? Is that why you call so early morning?”
Oh my god. I didn’t realize that calling at an unusual time translated into me being injured or announcing I was actually dating someone.
“No, Dad, I don’t have a boyfriend. I just called because I had time to check in with you.”
I could feel my parents’ hearts sink with their weighty silence.
“Well, at least you not in the jail.” Thanks, Mom.
“And you not call to tell us you move back home with us.” Thanks for looking on the bright side, Dad.
Time to change the subject. “So how was Italy? What cities were your favorites?”
“Rome. Vatican City. Venice. Very wet in Venice, you need special rain shoe,” Dad said. “Too many pigeon.”
“So did you have a good time, though? Did you go to a lot of museums and walking tours? How was the pizza and pasta?”
Mom chimed in. “I got sick of too many cannoli. Too much cheese in all our food. So we ask around for Korean food.”
“Wait, you ate Korean food in Italy?”
Dad cleared his throat. “Most of time. We miss some tours because we looking for it.”
I rubbed at my brow. “Seriously? You ate mostly Korean food there?”
“And some of your Carnation instant breakfast.”
I shook my head. Time to change the subject again. “Well, I hope you had fun. Anyway, remember when I downloaded the Liftr app on your phones when you came to visit me a long time ago?”