“What’s the plan for the next week and a half?” Nolan asked as he popped a piece of chicken in his mouth and immediately regretted his decision once he realized how hot it was. “Hothothothothothot,” he hissed.
Bee let out a littlehmphand continued setting the table while I scooped the rice from the cooker.
“Well, I’ve got to find an apartment. Nothing too big. Just enough for when I’m in town and space for a crib and whatever other baby stuff I need. I’m going to an appointment and a class with Winnie. We’re supposed to finalize the registry. And names. We have to talk about names, because I’ve got a couple new contenders.” I set down the bowl of rice and then sat down next to Topher. “And then there’s Topher shadowing your craft services crew while we’re here and I’m looking at space for an LA location for Slice, Slice, Baby.”
Nolan’s jaw dropped to his plate. “Don’t tease me, man.”
“I’m just looking,” I told him. “But it makes sense.”
He slithered down in his chair with his hand to his stomach. “Slice, Slice, Baby in LA? It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
“I don’t know,” Bee muttered. “I certainly had you begging for way more than pizza last night.”
Topher’s brow furrowed. The three of us weren’t quite old enough and parental enough for him to feel grossed out by our sex lives, but it was a murky space in between.
“Well, we would love having a location down the street, Kallum,” Bee said. “And I do mean down the street. Because anything else will take me forty-five minutes to get to.”
I laughed. “Noted, madam.”
“So this means the big investor franchise deal isn’t happening?”
Topher huffed beside me. “Money left on the table.”
“Yes, I’m currently taking business advice from my nephew who just blew his college tuition on hot tub trucks.”
Nolan held up a hand. “Say more.”
Topher sat up in his chair, fully ready to pitch this disaster to Nolan when I shoved a spring roll in his open mouth and said, “Nolan, keep your money. And yeah. I looked over the proposal with my lawyer... and Tammy Cakes too, because she’s even sharkier than my lawyer. But I just couldn’t imagine missing the first two years of little Kallum-Winnie’s life. I want to be the dad who’s around, ya know? I don’t want to be the kind of dad who’s just there for the big recitals or the important games. I want the little stuff. I want to know their friends and which kids at the lunch table are punk-ass bitches.”
Bee made a heart with her hands. “I think I want babies.”
Nolan took her hand and began to stand up with a sly grin on his face.
“Not, like, right this moment,” she said with a laugh.
Nolan kissed her temple as he sat back down. “Didn’t you see Winnie yesterday, babe?”
She nodded with a full mouth and then held up a finger while she chewed.
I couldn’t help but feel immediately and deeply jealous of her. In the last four weeks since Winnie’s announcement, I’d done everything in my power to thinkbaby first. But Winnie was always my last thought at night and my first thought in the morning.
Thankfully, we’d gotten in the habit of talking every day. It’d been four weeks since Winnie had announced she was pregnant on social media. Since then, she’d send me weekly bump pictures and I downloaded an app to track the size of the baby. We’d stayed on the phone for hours at a time talking about names and what kind of sports our kid might sign up for or if they’d be into something bougie like dressage. We’d send each otherConsumer Reportslistings about strollers and car seats and recalls on crib mobiles we’d considered.
I’d been waiting for the perfect moment to ask her how much space was enough space, but I also didn’t want to ruin this little bubble we were in right now. And maybe she’d be ready to talk some time this week. Whenever the time came, I’d be waiting.
“I did see her,” Bee said finally with the kind of look you got from a girl’s good friend that saidI know something you don’t.
And I loved Bee, but whoa, that made me feel totally irrational.
Nolan elbowed her a little. “Holding out on us, huh?”
“She’s good!” Bee said defensively. “She’s happy... ish.” She took a huge bite of rice and added, “And that’s all I’ll say.”
Nolan gave me a pointed look, his brows waggling.
I could have just stood up right then and there and raced over to Addison’s and given Winnie some huge grand gesture of my love.
But I was being patient. I was playing the long game. And that was the biggest grand gesture I could offer.
