Jackpot! (28 page)

Thankfully, Drew let it go. Danny and I were safe for now. But our guilty secret was looming in the air and we both knew the truth had to come out at some point. Not tonight, though.

After dinner, Drew insisted we get the dessert that was featured on
Check Please
, fried bananas with vanilla ice-cream. We also ordered the flourless chocolate cake. I don’t remember how it came up, but as we all dug our forks into the desserts, Drew and I started talking about Larry, our drunken news director. Together, we told the story about how one morning, a massive snowstorm had made it impossible for me to get to the station on time to do the lottery. Larry, who had probably had a few screwdrivers that morning volunteered himself to fill in. He was stumbling across the floor and slurring his words into the mic. Drew did a funny and very accurate imitation of him.

“Larry even dropped a ball!” I said.

“Yeah, it was the third number for the pick four,” added Drew.

I could tell we were thoroughly entertaining my brother and his girlfriend. Both of them were laughing heartily. What a great night this was! I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had so much fun. The four of us were great together, and let’s be honest, both couples were great with each other. I loved seeing Danny happy, and I could tell he enjoyed seeing me in a good relationship, too.

When the check came, Drew and Danny fought over it, and Courtney gave me this cute little giggle. In the end, Danny agreed to let Drew pay under the condition that Drew had to play in Danny’s Tuesday night poker game the following week.

Walking out of the restaurant, Courtney led the way, followed by Danny, me, and then Drew. This time, I tapped Danny on the shoulder and said loudly, “She’s a great girl.” Again, because of the noise level, I wasn’t worried that Courtney would hear.

Danny responded with a wide grin, “Funny, huh? Both of us fell in love at the same time.”

I gave my brother a big smile, “Is it that obvious?”

“Yeah,” he replied with a chuckle, “But good luck introducing him to Ma!”

Chapter 32

I can only speak for myself, but I was feeling no pain when I walked out of the restaurant. I suspected that the other three people who drank just as much if not more, felt the same way.

“Hey, there’s a new club just a couple blocks down. Anyone interested?” asked Danny.

I’m pretty sure we all said yes at the exact same time.

As we walked down the block, the four of us were engaged in a conversation about the US Air flight attendant guy who drank a beer and slid down the slide, when all of a sudden, we noticed a stroller coming toward us.

“Wow, what a cutie!” I heard Danny say.

The parents stopped in front of us and I looked down and saw a little girl who looked no more than a year old. I found myself somewhat in awe of the beauty of the child, a very different reaction than I’d ever had in the past. Something had changed within me. Usually, I’d roll my eyes when I saw a baby and try to avoid any contact at all costs. But tonight, I found myself drawn to her, interested, infatuated almost.

Drew looked at me and said, “She kind of makes you want one of your own, doesn’t she?”

This was unbelievable! The irony was making my head spin more than the drinks. Here I was, trying to get pregnant by a guy who didn’t think I wanted kids. Standing next to me was a woman who couldn’t have kids, dating a guy who she had no idea had just given up millions for her.

“She’s really beautiful,” I whispered, feeling tears well up in my eyes.

Courtney put her arm around me and said in a comforting tone, “Someday…”

The parents told us all to have a nice evening and strolled on. When I looked at Drew, he was smiling. “Maybe you’re more ready for kids than I thought,” he said.

“I don’t know,” I replied.

He whispered in my ear, “You’d be a
great
mother. You know that, right?”

I couldn’t have felt worse at this moment. I
had
to tell him the truth. I
had
to.

We continued down the block, and the second we walked into the club, Danny shouted, “Hey, listen to the song!” He and Courtney burst out laughing. I heard Sean Kingston’s
Fire Burning
blaring.

“What’s so funny?” Drew asked.

“You’ve got to show them!” Danny said to Courtney.

“No way!” she shouted.

“Please?”

“Fine,” she agreed with a giggle.

“Come on,” Danny said, taking her hand and leading her onto the dance floor. He turned around and said to us, “Watch her!”

Drew took my hand and pulled me onto the dark, crowded dance floor. While we danced, we watched Courtney do a PERFECT imitation of Sean Kingston in the Fire Burning video. It was truly hilarious! She was great! Plus, it was so cute how she was laughing at herself while she did it.

As for myself, I was so enjoying my dance partner. He was sexy, sexy, sexy! Drew wasn’t that great of a dancer by any means, but he sure looked good. His perfectly sculpted body helped matters immensely.

All of us stayed on the dance floor for a long time, and before I knew it the waiters were serving last call. I couldn’t believe it was almost two in the morning.

Once outside the bar, Drew offered the first cab that stopped to Danny and Courtney. I kissed my brother on the cheek, and then came the shocker; Courtney was hugging me hard.

“I’m so glad we ran into you guys!” she exclaimed, “I had so much fun!”

Being extremely tired and drunk, I said, “You too.” I immediately regretted the response since there was so much more I wanted to say to my brother’s girlfriend. The whole cab ride home, all I could talk about was my very lame choice of words.

“I can’t believe I couldn’t come up with something better!” I complained to Drew, “I’m a screenwriter for God’s sake!”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said with a laugh, “You were fine.”

“I wanted to tell Courtney how much I liked her, and how great it was to see Danny with someone so smart and so sweet and so into him. I wanted to tell her that I considered her a friend, and that I respected her and admired her.”

“You can tell her all that,” said Drew, “Why don’t you call her tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” I said with a drunk smile, “I think I will.”

Then I put my head on my boyfriend’s shoulder and fell asleep until the cab pulled up to my building.

We staggered inside and then up to my apartment, and the second I opened the door I made a mad dash for the couch.

“Come on,” Drew said, picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder, “Let’s go to bed.”

That’s the last thing I remember. I must have fallen asleep upside down while being carried into my bedroom.

Chapter 33

I woke up early the next morning, still in my clothes. Next to me was Drew, still in his clothes. Our shoes were off. My head was pounding. I tried to recall how I ended up this way. Bits and pieces of the previous night were floating around in my head.

Monica was pregnant, Danny was carrying around a picture of him and dad, I was eating sushi, I was chugging sake, Drew and I were talking about Larry, we were eating fried bananas, I was staring at the beautiful baby, Courtney was dancing like Sean Kingston, Drew’s biceps were looking good, Courtney was hugging me good-bye, I was making a b-line for my couch. And now, I was here, in my clothes with a horrendous hangover.

It had been a great night, though, worth every pain I felt. I was in love. Danny was in love. Danny liked the guy I loved. And I loved the girl he loved. And then I remembered the dark cloud looming over everything, which was that I still needed to talk to Drew. Until he knew the truth, what we had wasn’t real. And even though the thought of that was making my head pound harder, it was a conversation that desperately, matter-of-factly had to take place.

“Let me guess. You have a headache,” were the first words out of Drew’s mouth. Before I could respond, he started taking off my shirt and kissing my neck.

At this moment, the ovulation kit popped into my head and I realized I probably wasn’t ovulating anymore, but I didn’t care. I loved this man, and I wanted him, just for him, not for a baby. It was over for me. I was surrendering to love, and my days of manipulation and con games were behind me. I would have to tell Frankie when she got back that I was done with her contract and her scheme. I was in love. And yes, indirectly she’d had something to do with that, but her bribe had been wrong. Very wrong. And I had been wrong for ever considering it.

“You know, something really interesting happened last night,” Drew said softly in between kisses, “We actually slept together and didn’t sleep together.”

“What does that mean?”

“It just means that we were actually able to enjoy each other without sex. It’s cool that we just cuddled and didn’t actually fool around. You know something? We might actually end up getting married and having like five kids together.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. This was just too much. The guilt had finally overtaken my soul. I had to tell him the truth this instant. “Drew, I can’t do this anymore. I have to tell you something.”

“Oh my God!” he exclaimed, “You’re pregnant, aren’t you? I should have known!”

“Drew…”

“You were acting so weird last night, and when you saw that baby in the stroller… Now I get it!”

I suddenly felt like someone just flushed the toilet and I was going down it. “Drew, stop.”

“Oh my God! Why were you drinking last night?”

I grabbed his shoulders. “Listen to me. I AM NOT pregnant.”

“You’re not?” he asked. I wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed.

“Actually, I don’t know. Maybe I could be, but it would be really early on, and drinking wouldn’t matter at this point…I don’t think…”

“But you might be pregnant?”

I put my head down in shame. Then I took a deep breath and mustered up all the courage I had. “Look, I’ve been trying to conceive a child since the first time we slept together. It has to do with my mother’s lottery winnings. A few weeks ago, she gave Danny and I a contract that stated if either of us had a baby in the next year, she’d give us eight million dollars.”

As I spoke, I could detect three things on Drew’s face; shock, disgust and sadness. I found it interesting that I could actually see all those emotions in one look. I figured this must have been the same look he had on his face when he found out about his dad and Monica.

“So I went out with you,” I continued, “and I slept with you in hopes of having your baby.”

The movie,
The Blair Witch Project
actually caused me to both throw up and to acquire insomnia. At this moment, if I had the choice of seeing it again or seeing Drew’s reaction, I would gladly have picked the movie in a heartbeat.

When he responded, his voice was cold, unemotional and distant. “So you basically used me.”

I put my head down. “Yes.”

“You pretended to be attracted to me and to care about me and listen to my stories.”

“No, that’s not true.”

“The dinner at Soldier Field, all the dates we had, the other day in the equipment room, and that night…that night you told me you loved me.”