Ava shook her head. ‘No, it’s not that. And I already bought her these dessert plates from West Elm that have animals in people clothes. They’re being delivered tomorrow.’
‘Aw, that’s cute!’
‘Tommy.’
‘Right, you were saying?’
She took a deep breath. ‘I wasn’t stressing because of that. So when Jeremy and I … you know.’
‘Broke up.’
Ava decided to break up with her boyfriend of over two years about three weeks ago. Something I thought would be short-lived, but they genuinely seemed to be done. She said it was a mutual decision, but I felt like Jeremy just said that because he was trying to save face. How could you not love Ava? I’m gay, and even I tried to make it work.
She nodded. ‘Right, that. Well, before that, we – for old times’ sake …’
I waited for her to continue, but when she didn’t, I started to do the mental math myself.Oh no.‘Ava.’
‘Yeah.’ But she said it like she was confirming my suspicion. And then, to make it clearer: ‘I’m late.’
‘Wait,’ I said. ‘How do you know?’
Ava rolled her eyes. ‘How do I know? Because it’snot here!’
Now I was kind of freaking out. Why did she wait so long before telling me? ‘Sorry, no, I mean how many days late are you?’
‘Only ten. But I’ve never been late before.’
‘So it could be something else. Are you stressed?’
‘Hmm, let’s see, I’m a Black woman in America, I broke up with my boyfriend of two years, I’m about to submit my application for early decision to Johns Hopkins, and I’m ten days late. Yeah, Tommy, I’m fucking stressed.’
‘That’s it, then,’ I said, hoping that was it. ‘You and Jeremy broke up – maybe it’s just the stress from that. I mean, you’re on the pill.’
‘The pill isn’t one hundred percent effective.’
‘Right, I know. Sorry, I’m just freaking out.’ She looked like she was ready to hit me, so I quickly added, ‘I know you’re freaking out, too. We’re both allowed to freak out.’
‘Okay, that’s what we need. Ten-second freak-out break.’ She told her phone to start a timer for ten seconds, and we spent the time pacing back and forth, fake crying, shaking our hands, crossing ourselves, whining, and finally just groaning unintelligibly, before the timer went off. ‘Freak-out over.’
‘Right, so we’re good. Now that freak-out time is over, how long before you can take a pregnancy test?’
‘Internet says to wait a week after a missed period.’
‘Okay, so you’re at ten. We go get one and you pee on a stick, it says you’re not, and we laugh about it.’
‘Best-case scenario.’
We didn’t need to talk about the worst-case scenario. Especially because I knew that despite our timed freak-out session, she was still freaking out. I mean, I would be, too. Ava and I were both type A people. Only, Ava was kind of a genius, and I didn’t understand anything about bioengineering, yet she managed to make 3D-printed human tissue sound less sci-fi-y than it probably was.
Her application for early decision at Johns Hopkins was due in October. Then she’d be accepted, she’d go to Baltimore, and she’d major in bioengineering before going into a doctorate program. At least, that was her plan. Nowhere in that plan were kids. She always said she wouldn’t think about that until her thirties. But what would a baby do to those plans? Ava couldn’t have a newbornandgo to a school like Johns Hopkins.
But that was later.
Ava looked like she was going to have an unscheduled freak-out. Maybe she was thinking all the same things I was. I pulled her into a hug.
‘It’s okay,’ I said. ‘Whatever happens, I’m here, and we’ll figure it out.’ I knew it was actually Ava who would be figuring it out, but I’d support her and be there for her regardless.
‘Okay, let’s go get a test. But we have to drive down to Wilmington or into Philly.’
