“It’s an idea,” I agreed.
I was already feeling less crazed about the whole situation, and I hadn’t even fully recovered from the hangover yet.
“Well, I think if I can recover here for a few days, you know, with that adjustable bed, and the soaking tub, and the steam room…”
“Of course you can stay here,” Willa said. She waved an arm out at the sprawling, empty space. “It’s not like I don’t have room.”
“What’s that look for?” I asked when a little smirk toyed with her lips.
“Just an idea to try out if Harrison still says no to the annulment.”
“What is it? I’m open to all ideas at this point.”
“Well, if he doesn’t want an ex-wife, you could… become his wife. His very present, very annoying, very nagging, very messy wife. And we both know the last part won’t be hard.”
Okay.
So I wasn’t a neat freak.
Living out of suitcases often meant my stuff got strewn around hotel rooms. It was a habit I sometimes continued as a house guest at my family’s places.
I tried to keep an eye on the habit.
But if I wanted to really annoy Harrison—who seemed like a tidy kind of guy—I would ramp it up.
“That would require living with him,” I said, zeroing in on the only flaw in the plan.
“In his multi-million-dollar penthouse. You poor, poor thing,” Willa teased.
“Fair,” I agreed. “I think I could be good at making a man’s life a living hell.”
“It’s definitely an option if he doubles down. Also, as his wife who didn’t sign a prenup…”
“You’re evil. I love it.”
“You can only push someone so far until they bend or break. Just make sure you have the paperwork handy when he gets to that point. But I hope he will be reasonable about this and you can just… talk him into signing the papers.”
“It’s good to have a backup plan, though. You’re home late. Did you eat?”
“If by ‘eat’ you mean scarf down a bag of chips at lunch, then yes.”
“Okay, it’s not usually my place in our friend group to act like the mom, but you need to be taking better care of yourself now.” My gaze slipped to her still-flat tummy. But we both knew it wouldn’t be that way for long.
“Don’t worry,” she said when my gaze slid from her stomach to her latte, “this is decaf. All my coffee is decaf now. I hate it. I’m exhausted all the time.”
“You could, and I’m just spitballing here, work less now.”
“I could. But the company is already a little… antsy about me needing maternity leave eventually. I’m trying to keep things calm.”
“We both know you are going to be working remote from the damn hospital bed,” I said. “And you’re allowed to be gentle with yourself. You have a lot going on.”
I couldn’t imagine going through first-time motherhood completely alone. I mean, Willa would never bealonewith our giant family. But that was different from having a partner.
“So, what I’m hearing is you will go get food while I take a bath,” she said, reaching to twist up her hair.
“I can do that. Do you have any cravings?”
“Anything bad for me. I’ve been eating super clean since… well… since,” she said, gesturing down at her stomach. “I think we could both go for comfort food.”
