“Whew! Sorry, yeah, I’m fine—just nauseous. I think I stood up too fast.” I tried to laugh, like it happened to me all thetime, and rubbed my stomach. “I’m still in my first trimester. I hate how it can just hit you out of nowhere like that.”
“Oh, you’re pregnant! So am I.” She gave me a friendly smile.
Bile rose in my throat, helping me to look even more green. Hearing about her pregnancy was going to be tough—but I had to do it.
“It was like that for me too. But there’s hope—I’m just starting my second trimester and it’s already gotten so much better. I’m Savannah.” She gave me a little wave.
I bit the inside of my mouth, forcing myself to smile back. “I’m Jenna.”
“Hey, why don’t you sit down for a minute, catch your breath.” She gestured toward the nearby staircase. “I just need to use the restroom and I’ll be right back.”
I sat, my mind racing.So far, so good. Now to get her talking.My nausea faded as I rested my legs.I really should get something to eat, I thought for a second time.
A couple of minutes later, Savannah emerged from the restroom with a smile. “How are you feeling?”
“A little bit better, thanks. So … how far along are you?” I tried to keep my voice light.We’re just two moms-to-be. How great to meet a fellow preggo, right?
“I’ve just hit twelve weeks. And you?”
“I’m coming up on ten weeks.” I swallowed a lump in my throat, tasting the lie on my tongue.Keep it up. You can do this.
We walked back into the thick of the farmer’s market together, chatting. Savannah Mitchell just seemed so happy, so comfortable in her own skin. It left me feeling both irritated and envious. It forced me to remember how happy I had been to be pregnant, how much I had been looking forward to the future, to being a mom.
My feelings were at war with each other. Half of me screamed,she is the enemy! She’s having the baby that should have been mine! Mine and Max’s.The other half realized how much Iprobably would have liked her if we’d met under different circumstances. She was sweet and friendly, full of nice tips and tricks to help make my fictional pregnancy go more smoothly. Did she deserve my hate? Maybe, maybe not—but I needed information. So when Savannah invited me to join her at Ellie’s bistro for lunch, I was thrilled. “That sounds great.”
I forced myself to eat a little bit of salad as Savannah and I sat at the bar.Time to get her talking about Max.
“So … have your fingers been swelling up lately too?”
“Oh … I’m not married,” Savannah said.
“Me either—no judgment here. So, what’s your situation?” I took a sip of my water.Keep it casual. Don’t come on too strong.
“Well … it’s a long and complicated story.”
Bingo.“Oh? Tell me.”
I listened as she described meeting Max—all the details I remembered from spying on them that first night at the bistro, when Max had singled her out as a lone woman, eating dinner with a glass of wine at the bar. She told me about how she and Max had gone on to have a casual fling for a few weeks, before it had fizzled out. Then she found out she was pregnant.
I hung on her every word as she described how she had wrestled with the decision, but had finally gotten in touch and broken the news to Max—only for him to tell her he’d just gotten back together with his ex-girlfriend.
“He said he has agirlfriend?”I choked out with wide eyes.She doesn’t know Max and Madison are actually married.I felt a tiny twinge of guilt, knowing what I knew. Something that would undoubtedly hurt her. But I had to keep my cover intact.
“Yeah, just my luck, right?” she said.
This was very different from how things had gone when I had told Max I was pregnant. He had been shocked, but then he had picked me up and whirled me around, as if we were in a rom-com. He had whooped and hollered and hugged me tightly. I faked a sneeze to cover up the tears welling in my eyes as Iremembered how happy I’d been in that moment. And he had been happy about it too—or so it had seemed.But Max never mentioned anyone else to me. He told her about Madison right away. Why?
“Wow.” I continued asking what I hoped seemed like casual questions—just a new friend, wanting to get to know her. The story she wove was incredible.
Apparently, Max had come back days later to say that he had confessed the pregnancy to his girlfriend, and that she was trying to be understanding. He convinced her to meet Madison to “get all the weirdness out of the way from the start,” so that they could form a friendly co-parenting relationship.
“What? That’s crazy,” I said, playing along.
“You’re telling me. I should have known it would be a mistake.” She shook her head, frowning.
“What happened? Did you meet her?”
She described the day of their coffee shop meeting. I remembered how shocked I had been when I saw Savannah sitting inside, and how Max and Madison walked right up to her.
