Traffic slowed suddenly as they drove under the hotel that stretched, literally, across the pike. “So when the guys double-teamed me at Mike’s place, and then seemed to laugh about it, it felt like I was being suckered. So I ran away, then I let them back in. God, they were so convincing.”
“Laura.” Josie’s voice was so mature and wise it made Laura close her eyes. She knew what came next. Josie moved over into the left lane to get off the pike at the split. “You are Ryan right now.”
OK, not what she expected. “What?” she shrieked, outraged.
“Ryan kept critical information from you about a life-altering fact that made moving forward impossible.” Josie stayed left and kept her eyes on the road, though she sighed. “And you are doing the same thing to Dylan and Mike. They have no idea that one of them is going to be a father in four months. And you are making it impossible for the father of your daughter to go forward, to step up and do the right thing, to have a role in raising her.”
“I’m not Ryan!”
“You are totally Ryan.” Laura knew they were close to Jeddy’s; she started drooling at the thought of their asiago cheese foccacia with chipotle maple sausage.
“Ryan,” Laura practically screamed, “lied about having a wife for nearly a year. He talked about marrying me. He created an entire relationship with me that was permanently hopeless and never, ever possible.” How dare Josie compare the two? In fact, she was the one who had been lied to again by Mike and Dylan!
“Look,” Josie said flatly, pulling into a parking space and rummaging for quarters. Laura opened the glove box and pulled out a roll, the paper unraveling from earlier parking jobs.
Josie interrupted herself. “Jesus, you’re organized!”
“How hard is it to go to the bank and get a roll of quarters?”
Josie got out of the car and shouted, “How hard is it to tell the two men you were sleeping with that one of them might be the dad?”
“Uh, not even close?” Laura sputtered, grabbing the edge of the car door and hauling herself up and out. Two women walking a golden retriever stood, staring at her belly, mouths forming perfect little “O”s, one with short salt-n-pepper hair, the other with a shaved head and the wilted look of recent chemo treatments.
Laura wanted to crawl into a hole. Josie looked over, saw the scene, and came to her rescue. As well she should, since she’d dumped her into this fiasco. “What are you staring at?” she snapped at the women, throwing an arm around Laura, guiding her to the Jeddy’s entrance. “Haven’t you ever seen lesbians go to desperate measures to conceive?”
“Isn’t that what sperm banks are for?” one of them muttered.
“Hater,” Josie threw over her shoulder, spiriting Laura in.
“Lame-o,” Laura said, shaking her head. “You’re losing your touch.” Josie growled at her, baring her teeth. Madge appeared, looking older and shrunken, as if she possessed no fluid whatsoever under her skin.
From Laura’s face to Josie’s face to Laura’s stomach, Madge took them in. Pointing to Laura’s belly, she said, “Fat or pregnant?”
“Alien baby.”
Madge hacked out a laugh. “Which one?”
“Which alien?” Now Laura was confused.
“No—which guy? The Italian Stallion or the viking?” She led them to the only clean table in the place. It was slammed.
“Actually, the baby is mine,” Josie interjected. “New technology.”
“Yeah?” Madge rasped. “If any woman’s got balls, it’d be you.”
“Can’t be yours,” Laura protested. “I’m not your type, remember?” she said with a bit more snap than she’d intended.
Madge spun her hand in a circular gesture. “I ain’t got all day. Same thing you ordered last time?”
“I want that foccacia. And everything we ordered last time.”
“Eating for two,” Madge mumbled as she poked her handheld device and sped away. Josie looked around and seemed to take in the crowded place.
“Nothing like it was in the early morning.”
“You can see how they stay in business,” Laura marveled.
“How does that old woman work midnight shift and lunch?”
“Not human.” Laura’s stomach jumped as some odd muscle spasm took hold of her abdomen.
“You OK?” Josie asked, leaping to her feet. “You look like something ripped inside.”
“No, no, I’m fine,” Laura gasped. As she looked down to examine her belly she felt it again, a little spasm and then it was as if something in her moved. Kicked.