“You have the worst voice,” Isabel a said.
“It’s real y sad about Michael Jackson,” Katie said.
“I don’t think it is,” Lauren said. “I don’t know why, but I wasn’t sad at al .”
“Do you know what you’re going to name the baby?” Isabel a asked.
“Wel , I like Jason but I’m not sure.”
“Maybe you should name him Blanket,” Lauren said.
Isabel a wanted everyone to stop talking about babies before Mary came over to the table. Mary was pregnant two weeks ago, but no one knew that. She’d confessed to Isabel a and Lauren one night when they were at her apartment. Lauren had brought champagne over to celebrate her new real estate job. “Come on,” Lauren said when Mary said she didn’t want any. “I’m final y gainful y employed. If you can’t celebrate that, what can you celebrate?” She’d poured the glass anyway, and held it in front of Mary, right under her nose, until Mary turned her face away and said, “I’m pregnant.” Just like that.
“Oh, fuck,” Lauren said, lowering the glass. “Why didn’t you say so?”
“I can’t believe it,” Mary kept saying. “I just can’t believe it.”
“Wel , it’s pretty good timing,” Isabel a said. “I mean, you’l be married soon.”
“Yeah,” Mary said slowly. “I just didn’t plan it. I didn’t think it was going to happen like this.”
Then she cal ed Isabel a a week later to tel her that she wasn’t pregnant anymore. “I’m not sure what happened,” she said. “The doctor said it’s normal.”
“Wel then, I’m sure it is,” Isabel a said.
“I feel so stupid,” Mary said. “I know I didn’t plan it, but then I wanted it. Now I feel like I wished it away.”
“I don’t think it works like that,” Isabel a said.
“I guess not.” Mary didn’t sound convinced.
Now they were at Shannon’s wedding, and stil al anyone could talk about was babies. “Do you know why Kristi said she couldn’t come to the
wedding?” Katie asked. “Because they only travel when her mother-in-law can come with and she was busy. They can’t leave the baby even for a night, because Kristi only breast-feeds. She never even pumps. That is weird.”
“Isn’t the baby almost a year old?” Isabel a asked. They both nodded.
“Gross,” Lauren said.
Ken was worried about Mary. He told Isabel a after the wedding. “I’m worried about her,” he said. Isabel a hugged him. He was a nice guy.
“I think she’l be okay,” she told him. He nodded. Whenever he stood next to Mary, he had his hand on her arm.
Katie was talking about her birth plan for the second baby. Lauren looked at her with disgust and fear. This was nothing, Isabel a thought. Harrison and Isabel a had seen the actual video of Charles’s birth. It happened quite by accident. Katie and Tim invited them over for dinner one night, and as they were drinking wine, admiring the baby, and eating mini quiches, Katie asked, “Do you want to see the birthing video?” Isabel a was sure that neither she nor Harrison said yes, but they didn’t say no either, and so they found themselves watching Katie writhing on the TV while a slimy Charles made his way into the world. When they walked out of the apartment that night, Harrison hit the elevator button and simply said, “Holy shit.”
Isabel a loved him for that.
“They aren’t that good of friends,” she felt compel ed to tel him. He just shook his head and put his eyes to the ceiling. “Holy shit,” he said again.
“Hooooly shit.”
Lauren had pul ed the first layer of her bridesmaid dress over her head and was dancing around to “Beat It.” “I think maybe no more cocktails for Lauren,” Isabel a said to no one in particular.
“That’s just real y inappropriate,” Katie said. Isabel a made a mental note to tel Harrison this later. “Do you believe she thinks that’s inappropriate?” she’l say. “How about showing your friends a video starring your vagina?” And he’d laugh.
Isabel a hadn’t seen Harrison in a while. He was probably avoiding being anywhere near Katie. Isabel a was sure that he was afraid of Katie after the video. She didn’t blame him.
She walked outside and saw Mary and Ken on the other side of the stone patio that overlooked the ocean. Mary leaned her head in the nook of Ken’s arm and he kissed the top of her head. Isabel a felt like she was spying, but she stood and watched them.
Harrison walked up behind Isabel a and smiled when he saw that she was crying. “Are you crying?” he asked. She shook her head no. “You are the worst liar,” he said. Isabel a always cried at weddings. (Although normal y she cried at the ceremony and not the reception.)
“Everything okay?” Harrison asked.
Isabel a nodded. “I’m just happy.”
“Clearly,” he said. He pul ed a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to her so that she could blow her nose. Harrison always brought handkerchiefs to weddings so that he could hand them to Isabel a. He was the only person she knew besides her grandfather who carried actual handkerchiefs.
The first time he’d handed one to her, it was like finding a twenty-dol ar bil in her winter jacket: unexpected and incredibly lucky. It thril ed her, the happiness that came with that gesture—and it never went away, it never even faded. Every time he gave her his handkerchief, she was dizzy with fortune.
“You missed a great conversation in there about childbirth,” Isabel a told him.
“I’m sorry I missed it,” Harrison said. “Did Katie pul out some photos of Charles in the birth canal?”
“Not this time. There was just a lot of talk about placenta.”
“ ‘Placenta’ comes from a Latin word meaning ‘flat cake,’ ” Harrison said.
“How do you know that? Why is that something that you know in your head?”
Harrison shrugged. “I heard it somewhere.” He smiled.
“I think you watch too much Discovery Channel,” Isabel a said.
When Harrison gave her a dog for her thirtieth birthday, she was overwhelmed at the responsibility. “I think I’m going to kil it,” she kept saying. He assured her that she would not. Isabel a had wanted a dog for a long time, but once she had him she was sure she wasn’t ready. She could step on him, forget to feed him, or leave something poisonous out for him to eat. The possibilities were endless.
The second night he was at the apartment, Winston cried so much that Isabel a ended up lying on the floor next to him. She woke up to Harrison standing above her saying, “Who owns who?” Winston was curled in a tight bal by her stomach, and she looked closely to make sure he was stil breathing. Then she looked at Harrison, rubbed her eyes, and said, “I think he might own us, but we’l see.”
Harrison smiled. “You’re a good mom,” he said, and then he went to brush his teeth. Just like that, out of the blue, You’re a good mom.
“Do you want to go back in?” Isabel a asked him. “Katie is talking about her birthing plan.”
Harrison considered. “No,” he said. “I do not.”
Isabel a twisted the handkerchief in her hand and smiled.
K en’s father had died, and so Mary couldn’t be as honest about things as she wanted to. “I’m al my mom has,” Ken said whenever Mary mentioned anything.
“She has three other kids,” Mary said.