“Well, I’m glad you’re taking it so well,” Jules replied stiffly. “Because if I were you, I would be plotting out how long it would take to slash all of his tires before someone realized I was missing from the party.”
“Don’t let me stop you,” Patti said jokingly, but a part of her really wanted her friend to do something heinous just for the satisfaction of seeing his day tainted like hers was now. She must have read too much into his appearance after all. Maybe those shadows under his eyes were from him losing too much sleep because he’d been too busy screwing his way through the female population while she was at home growing arms for his fetus.
“What in the world?” At the front of the room, Piper held up a small, cream-colored box with the word Lelo across the top. She smiled curiously, as she opened the lid and peered inside.
“Well, what is it? Show us!” someone in the group called out.
Piper turned the box to face everyone. Inside were four sets of balls. One pair was powder blue and about the size of a golf ball, and the other pair was baby pink, slightly smaller, and set into white rings that were joined in the middle, resembling baby rattles.
“Sheila?” Piper glanced over at their friend in question.
Sheila, who had her head bent toward her boyfriend, Tom, whispering to one another, feeding each other cupcake icing from their fingertips, lifted her head. A wicked smile split across her face. “Oh, you’re going to love those. Their Kegel balls.” Piper stared at her blankly, and then slowly, her face began to take on a slightly pinker hue. “After the baby comes you just pop those suckers in, and then your vag will be as tight as a virgin again.”
Tate snatched the box from Piper’s fingers and inspected them. “Sweet. Thanks, Sheila. We’ll make sure to put these to good use.”
“Yeah, Sheila,” Piper said tightly. “How can we ever thank you enough?”
“Just keep it tight, sweetie.”
Piper’s face turned a bright shade of red, and she turned her attention to another present. “This one is from Patti,” she announced, tearing into it.
“Come on vibrator,” Tate said eagerly, rubbing his hands together and earning a few laughs from the crowd.
“You wish,” Patti snorted. “But I don’t think Piper could get it far enough into your tight ass for it to be worthwhile.”
Tate pointed a finger at her and winked as though to say she’d won that round. Piper lifted up a small box. “Plaster of Paris foot molding kit.”
Patti smiled softly. “That way when your baby is all grown up you can still hold his or her foot in the palm of your hand.”
Piper’s eyes misted and she fanned her face. “Thank you. I can’t wait to use it.”
Patti smiled, because that was about all that she could manage with the growing lump forming in her throat. The gift was relatively inexpensive and it hadn’t taken her very long to pick out, but the moment she saw it, she knew it would be perfect. In the few days since she’d learned she was going to be a mother, she had begun seeing the world and the future through a mother’s eyes and, as she’d come to realize, some of the best things came in the smallest packages.
As much as she was looking forward to holding her own son or daughter in her arms, she knew that those days would be short-lived, which was why she’d purchased a kit for herself. She wanted to be able to look back one day, when the memories had grown fuzzy, and hold her child’s foot in her hand and recall just how tiny and precious they were.
“Hey, are you okay?” Jules touched her arm. “You’re not about to cry are you?”
Patti smiled tightly and waved away her concern. “Of course not. I have something in my eye.” She pushed out of her chair. “I’m going to go to the restroom.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“No,” Patti said over her shoulder, already rushing for the door. She could feel the burn of tears in her nose. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
She burst through the bathroom door and locked herself in the first available stall. It was such a sick twist of fate that she would spend her life dodging love, guarding herself from heartbreak, only to find herself heartbroken and pregnant in the span of a month. The realization that she may have to raise a baby by herself hit her hard, like a sucker punch to the chest, and she broke down, right there in the middle of the women’s bathroom.
“Excuse me, Miss, are you okay?” a woman’s voice called out to her from just outside her stall door.
Patti tore off a piece of toilet paper and wiped her runny nose. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said with a hint of self-loathing. “Baby showers always get me.”
A moment passed where Patti stared at the toes of the woman’s pointy black shoes and wished she would just go away already. “Do you need me to get someone for you?”
A ginger ale and the father of her baby would be great. “No, that’s okay,” she told her instead.
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
Patti waited until she heard the bathroom door open and close and the clicking of the woman’s heels had completely faded before she ventured out. The moment she did, she instantly regretted it.
“Hey.” Jon stood there, leaning against the row of sinks, his arms folded across his wide chest, just staring at her.
Surprised to see him, Patti almost tripped over her own feet, but managed to recover before making a total idiot of herself. “Hey,” she said shakily, trying her best to sound upbeat and not at all like she had just been crying her eyes out. It wasn’t working. “What are you doing in here? You do know this is the women’s bathroom, right?”
“I followed you,” he admitted.
Patti felt completely awkward standing in front of Jon, feeling like a complete mess. She tried to play it off. Skirting past him, acting as though he didn’t affect her, she approached the sink. The second she caught a look of herself in the mirror, fading yellow bruises and black smudges beneath puffy, red eyes, she grimaced. “Damn, someone needs to start realizing that fluorescent lighting is nobody’s friend.”
“Why were you crying?”
“Me?” Patti made a face and began washing her hands. “I wasn’t crying.”
She could feel Jon’s eyes on the side of her head. Finally, after a solid minute passed, he reached over and shut off the water. “Yes, you were.” He studied her, and the intensity in his eyes was unsettling. “Does me being here upset you?”
“Everything about you upsets me,” Patti blurted. She wanted to take the words back the instant they left her mouth.
“Fair enough,” he said, tipping his head to her. “Would it help if I left?”
Patti didn’t have to think about her answer. “No. I don’t want you to leave.”
“Why not?”
Patti opened her mouth, the words she wanted to say on the tip of her tongue, but just as she was about to say them, the door burst open. “Oh! Sorry.” The petite brunette, that still managed to be a few inches taller than Patti was, took one look at Jon and tilted her head back to look at the plate on the door. Yep, she was in the right bathroom. “Um, am I interrupting?”
“No,” Patti said quickly. She wiped her hands on her pant leg and turned to leave. “We were just talking. We’ll get out of your way.”
The woman stood aside to let them pass. On the way back to the party, Jon grabbed Patti’s elbow and pulled her to a stop. “What were you going to say back there?”
“I—” The words choked in her throat. “I was just going to say that you don’t have to leave because…they’re your friends, too—” Lies, lies, lies, her brain shouted at her, but Patti had chickened out. Jon was seeing other women. What kind of fool would she look like if she poured her heart and soul out to him now? And the baby? Yes, she knew he deserved to know about it, but just then didn’t seem like the proper place and time to tell him.