“Yes, but he only just told me this morning! I worked long hours Friday and yesterday, and for some reason, my silly husband didn’t think it was smart to text me or call me about it! So sorry I wasn’t there,” she said giving me a hug. I was trying so hard to read between the lines, to read her thoughts— a hint of anything to give me clarity, but she just sounded so damned sincere. I was so confused.
Jeanette was next at giving me a hug. “I hope it’s OK. Natalie called me as soon as she heard, and then when you weren’t answering your phone, we had to make sure you weren’t just withering away in bed. But I’m so glad to see you up.” She told me this with a bright smile, and I wanted to smack Jeanette over the head. She hadn’t done a thing except be kind, but I couldn’t handle all of this perkiness on top of my own fake cheer.
“I must have my phone on silent or something. I’ve just been doing laundry and watching a little TV. But I went for a walk yesterday, so you see I’m feeling fine. Nothing to worry about,” I said.
“But were you guys trying? You never said anything,” Natalie asked. I looked at her then, wondering if she was curious about how much sex Greg and I had been having since she had been denying her own husband.
I laughed. “We’ve just been having so much sex!”
Jeanette burst out laughing, probably because I never discussed sexual things, and I was known for being the prude in the group.
Then I said, “But no. We weren’t trying to get pregnant. Greg said he wants to now, though.” I kept my eyes on Natalie, and then I saw it. The forced smile that didn’t match the disappointment in her eyes. No one would have guessed if they hadn’t known her for years, but I could tell when she’s not pleased with surprising news.
“That’s great!” Jeannette said, “So you’ll be the first of us!”
“We’ll see. I think in a few months we can try to get pregnant, but I won’t get my hopes up too much, just in case,” I said turning my attention to Jeanette.
“Here, we brought you cupcakes,” she shoved the box into my hands. Jeanette loves to bake, and I’ve been trying to get her to sell her stuff— open a bakery, offer to make wedding cakes or something, but she was scared to venture into her own business. I wish I had a marketable skill like that.
“Thanks, girls, for coming over, but I was thinking of taking a nap before you came, and I’m a bit tired,” I lied. After that, they left, with many well-wishes and goodbye kisses, and then I was alone again.
The problem was that my mind kept going back and forth from hating Greg to loving him, from trusting him to feeling betrayed. But the look in Natalie’s eyes when I mentioned we were trying for a baby— that look meant something. My brain would explode soon if I didn’t find out for sure. I considered asking Greg outright, and maybe he’d do the decent thing and fess up. I’d almost decided to do this when I looked at my phone and saw it was on silent.
I had a missed call from my mother (who was so blissfully ignorant of the problems in my life right now). There was also a text from Greg asking how my day was going, three missed calls from Jeanette, four from Natalie, and a string of texts between them asking me to call them back. More notably, I had a text from Harvey.
It simply said, “Call me.”
So I called him.
