That Baby (30 page)

Me:
 
She already has. Phillip too.

Danny:
 
Does she believe it?

Me:
 
Yes.

Danny:
 
Does Phillip?

Me:
 
Not at all.

Lori continues screaming into my ear. “You can tell your lover that there is no more home for him.”

“Lori, there’s a logical explanation for this. Will you please calm down?”

“Don’t think you can lie your way out of this,” she says. “I know how you are.”

“I’m not a liar! There is a reason we were where we were and it has to do with you!”

“Yeah, because I’m a pregnant bitch! What were you doing, sitting around laughing at me?”

Laughing at her? Is she even sane? If I thought my husband was having an affair, sitting around laughing at me would be the last thing I’d worry he was doing.

“Lori, Danny is pulling in the driveway. Please, listen to him.”

I watch Danny jump out of the car and Lori and Phillip come out of our house. Danny marches over to them as I get out of the car.

“You can’t believe what you read,” Danny says calmly to Lori. “Jay was just helping me—”

“No!” she screams, covering her ears and bawling. “Bullshit! I’m not listening to your lies! I knew something was going on! You’re always sneaking over here!”

“Lori, you need to calm down,” I say.
 

She storms up to me and points her finger in my face. “I want the truth. How long has this been going on? Since college, right? I should have known! You’re a horrible person and I never fucking want to see you again! How could you? How could you betray our friendship?”

Danny steps between us. “Lori, stop it! You’re being ridiculous! Don’t yell at her like that! She doesn’t deserve it!”

“Oh, sure! Stick up for her! Take her side! I don’t know why that doesn’t surprise me. I know what I saw!”

“If you’d just stop screaming and let me explain!” Danny yells back.

Lori’s hair is a mess, rivets of black mascara are running down her face, and she’s hysterical.
 

I can’t blame her. I’d be hysterical if I thought Phillip cheated on me. But if I saw a photo of her and Phillip hugging, I would never think they were cheating. I’d have to see photos of them literally in the act to ever believe it.

I realize that we’re not as good of friends as I thought. Because if we were, she’d never believe it. Never in a million years.
 

The only way to convince her is to show her.

“What are you gonna say? That you didn’t mean to? That it just happened? It’s all bullshit. Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!” she cries.

“You know what? Fuck it!” Danny yells, throwing his hands up in the air. “I fucking give up! I try to do something nice—”

“Nice?
Nice?
” she screeches.
 

“You know what, Lori?” I say coldly. “You’re right. Danny and I were up to something that we didn’t want you to know about.”
 

“I knew it!” she yells. “You bitch! I hate you!”

“Danny, can I have the room key, please?” He gives me a puzzled look but fishes it out of his pocket.

I grab it and hand it to Lori. “Here. Take this. It’s the key to the hotel room that Danny rented for the night. You should go see for yourself what we were up to. Phillip, take Lori so she can see the messed up sheets, the discarded champagne bottles, and the condoms in the trash. All the details of our lurid affair are still there waiting to be seen.”

She shudders and stops crying. “Why in the hell would I want to do that?”

“Because I want you to see it,” I tell her in the bitchiest tone I can muster up, knowing it’s the only way to get her to go.

She shakes her head and glares at me. “Fine! I’m taking photos too. That way I’ll have proof of your infidelity. I’ll sue you for everything, Danny. Just wait! I’ll make your life a living hell! And you’ll never, ever see your baby!” She grabs Phillip’s arm and marches him to my car.

“The keys are still in it,” I tell Phillip. “Go.”

He tries to help Lori in the car but she yells at him, “I can do it myself!” and slams the door shut.

As he runs around to the driver’s side, I’m in tears.
 

He pulls me into a hug and kisses the top of my head. “It’ll be okay,” he says reassuringly. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Once they leave, Danny and I plop down on the sidewalk. He puts his arm around me and I sob on his shoulder. “I can’t believe she could ever think I would do something like that!”

He rubs his face. It’s red. Like it used to get during two-a-days or after a hot practice when he was hungover.
 

“It’ll be okay, Jay,” he says, although he really isn’t very convincing.
 

“I keep going over and over it in my head, Danny. Have I ever flirted with you? Have I ever given her any reason to doubt our friendship?”

Danny slumps down. He looks defeated, and Danny Diamond never looks defeated, no matter how bad the odds.
 

“I can’t think of anything. I mean, I know she’s been having dreams where I cheat on her. And the panties were not a good move. So I can see—”

“Those were
not
my underwear!”

“Do you think I’ve ever given her any reason not to trust me? I come home every night. I’m with her all the time. I’ve gone on two business trips by myself since she’s been pregnant. I was gone one night and talked to her from my hotel room for most of it. I can’t believe any of it, then again, everything about this pregnancy has been a surprise.”

“What do you think she’ll do when she sees everything we set up? You wrote her that sweet note, told her about the massages, that you had a gift for her. Do you think you should go to the hotel, Danny? Once she sees it, she’s going to feel horrible. You should be there. You could still get your massages and salvage the night.”

“No fucking way,” he says. “Let’s go inside. I need a drink and you need to stop crying.”

Once we’re inside, Danny heads to the beer fridge while I sit at the island. “Get me one too.”

He comes back in with two bottles, sets them on the counter, opens them, and hands me one.
 

“Nothing to cheer about with this one,” he says, clinking my bottle with his. Then he looks at me. “You’re a mess.”

I rub under my eyes then take a drink of beer. “Ohmigawd, this tastes good.”

“Should you be drinking it, Jay? Lori says—”

“I really don’t care what your wife says, Danny. I’m sick of her judgmental bullshit. This is the first sip of alcohol I’ve had in three months. Our doctor said it’s fine to have a an occasional glass of beer or wine.”

“I know. Jay, I’m really sorry. I can’t believe she acted that way.”

“I can’t either. I don’t think I’ve ever been so hurt. I’ve been dumped by a lot of boys, but this hurts worse. Way worse. I just can’t fathom how she could even think it.” I swirl the beer in my bottle. “I have to be honest with you, Danny. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to get over her accusing me like that. Of how she looked at me. Of the horrible things that were spewing from her mouth.”

“Me either,” he mutters. “She threatened to take away my baby.”

I hear Angel whimpering in her kennel. I leave Danny in the kitchen to ponder his life and go get my adorable Angel puppy. I hug her, let her give me a million kisses, and start crying again.
 

“Let me take her out for you,” Danny says, pulling her out of my arms. “You sit down.”

When he comes back in, I hand him my beer. “You want the rest?”

“Can’t do it, huh?”

“I feel sorta sick to my stomach, to be honest.”

He sets Angel down and we watch as she run circles around the island, growling at a tennis ball.
 

“I’m gonna sit on the couch,” I tell him and move to the living room. Angel bounds onto the couch with me, nips my nose, then bounds down again.
 

“She’s so freaking cute,” he says, picking her up and hugging her before she squirms out of his arms. He plops down in the chair across from me. “And now we wait.”

“Today is the anniversary of my mom’s death,” I mutter.
 

“Oh, Jay, I’m sorry,” he says.

An hour later, Angel barks when she hears my car pull into the driveway.
 

Phillip and Lori come into the house. Danny stands up and walks into the dining room.
 

Lori moves slowly toward him. “I’m sorry,” she says softly. “Can we go home?”

“I’d say you owe Jay an apology first. Do you have any idea how much you hurt her?”
 

Lori just stands there, motionless.

“I love you. I chose you. I’m having a baby with you, but none of it is enough. I don’t think I’m ever going to make you happy. And that pisses me off, because I don’t deserve to be treated like this. You said some really hurtful things.” He looks at me. “To both of us.”

But Lori won’t look at me.
 

“I just want to go home,” she says again.

“What happened to you? One of the things I love about you is your confidence in me. That confidence is gone. Jay helped me plan this. She was doing something nice for you. And this is how you repay her? And, not only that, but before you even give me a call so I can set the record straight, you call Phillip and tell him that the girl he has loved most of his life is cheating on him. I looked at the pictures, Lori. We hugged at the hotel because something cool happened to Jay.” He says to Phillip, “She felt the baby kick for the first time.” He turns back towards Lori and continues. “But that’s all that was in the photo. Two friends hugging. The photo of us at the restaurant. For gosh sakes, I told her I wasn’t eating sugar and she shoved cheesecake in my mouth. None of us deserve the way you treated us.”

He pulls the black velvet box out of his pocket, opens the lid, and sets it in front of her.

“Here's the necklace I had custom made for you. I was going to surprise you with it tonight. I know pregnancy hasn’t been easy on you or easy on us, but I wanted to get you something so spectacular that you would know how much I love you and appreciate what you’ve gone through. I made Jay try it on because I wanted to make sure it would lay properly and the lady at the store had a fat neck. So you enjoy. I’m out of here.” He heads toward the door.

“Danny! Wait!”

“No, I’m sorry. You being pregnant and the hormones you’re taking can excuse some things, but not this. You figure out what you want. You let me know. I’ll be sleeping at the hotel tonight.”
 

When the door shuts behind him, Lori drops to a dining room chair, studies the necklace, and starts crying.
 

“You should probably go now,” Phillip tells her.

She leaves the necklace on the table and walks out the door.

Phillip locks the door behind her and then rushes to me. “Did you really feel the baby kick?”

April 21st

Made up.

“Let’s take Angel for a walk,” Phillip says, pulling me into his arms. “You’ve been moping around the house all morning.”

“I just still can’t believe Lori. Have you heard from Danny?”

“Yeah, he texted me early this morning. Apologized again for everything. Wanted to check on you.”

“What about Lori?”

“She went to the hotel late last night. Sounds like they made up.”

I sigh. “Well, that’s good, I guess.”

“Give her some time,” Phillip says. “Come on, Angel. Wanna go for a walk?”

The puppy comes tearing around the corner with one of my shoes in her mouth. The corner of the heel is chewed to pieces.

“Are you kidding me? Angel, bad girl. Give me my shoe!”

The dog sprints down the hall, so I run after her.
 

“Princess, stop chasing her. She thinks you’re playing with her.”

I stop and sit down. Angel peeks at me from under the ugly kitchen table that is still (un)gracing my house. She prances over, drops the shoe in my lap, and licks me.

I inspect the damage to the shoe. “We’re going to have to find her something to chew on besides toys. She’s destroying them faster than I can buy them.”

“Let’s take her for a walk and wear her out,” he offers.
 

Later in the day, I get a text from Lori.

Lori:
 
I was being stupid. I’m just a stupid girl.
 

I can’t disagree with that and, since she didn’t apologize, I don’t bother replying.
 

CHAPTER TWELVE