I slapped a hand to my forehead. “The shots! I forgot about those.”
Turning back again, I waved to Winnie at the back of the trolley. She was mid-laugh as she waved back. I pointed to my belly and then to her and then shrugged before flashing two thumbs. Surely she would understand my miming Morse code which definitely translated to:Baby in your belly feeling good, hot stuff?
She laughed again and gave me the double thumbs-up.
I couldn’t wait for the rest of our lives, and I was also terrified for it to all happen too fast. My mom was ecstatic. She’d been digging through all my old baby clothes and photos and sending me and Winnie both a constant stream of blurry cellphone pictures. She’d texted me and asked for Winnie’s number the moment we got off the phone, and Winnie happily agreed even after I told her Mom often FaceTimes everyone when she’s meaning to make a regular call and holds the phone up to her ear and that we’d all tried to help her understand the difference but there was no use.
Tamara cried when I told her and had been sending me a constant stream of names used by friends and family for their newborns so that whatever name we chose was original. She also sent me the names of her doctor of choice and a list of which Kansas City hospitals were on her shit list and why. And Dad, well, he sent me a seven-word text that I screenshotted for when I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.That’s going to be one lucky kid.
Life was good.
“My girlfriend is so fucking cool,” I said as I turned back around.
“Your girlfriend, huh?” Nolan said through a burp that he caught with his fist.
“I mean, we never said it was official, but I’m her baby daddy and she literally owns this dick. If you look along the bottom it says:Made in the USA, property of Winnie Baker.”
“That sounds pretty permanent.”
“Forever kind of shit,” I confirmed. “Look at us! Just a couple of former fuckups who are all settled and spoken for. We’re basically a Home Depot commercial.”
“Speaking of forever,” Nolan said as the trolley chugged up one of the last steep hills before we reached our destination, “what’s the plan after this cast party tonight? Your sexy Santa movie isdone-done.”
“Why’d you have to go asking me real-life shit on a night like tonight, man?”
“You’re the one out here looking for parenting advice!” he yelled over a shrieking Luca as he reenacted some story for Teddy and Steph, who sat as far from each other as two people on the same bench seat possibly could.
“Okay, okay, okay,” I said and then took a deep breath. Fuck, I really was drunk. “Real life. I’m going home to KC. She’s going back to LA. I’m going to settle some shit... and I don’t know... find someone to run the restaurants for me, because I don’t know if Toph is up for it. Especially not with a location that still needs to be rebuilt after the fire. And Winnie really wants to book more gigs after the baby, so I’ll fly out to LA and be with her as long as I can. Hell, maybe I’ll sell the whole Slice, Slice, Baby franchise and just start a food truck in LA or just be a full-time dad and—”
Nolan gripped my shoulder. “Bro, you love SSB. You’ve poured your heart into that company.”
I nodded. “I know... and it’s all a big maybe, ya know? But I’ll do what I have to do. I’m not just, like, some pizza daddy anymore. I’m someone’s father. And I’m Winnie’s—whatever she wants me to be, I guess. Future husband, I hope.”
The trolley lurched to a stop and the driver, whose name tag read Ronald, pulled the lever next to the steering wheel to open the door.
Nolan turned to me and grabbed my cheeks, squishing my face a little. “One day when Isaac isn’t sad—or as sad as he has been—we’re going to reunite and—”
“Holy fucking shit. An INK reunion,” I said through my puckered lips.
“We’re going to do a new album calledGrown Menor something and we’re doing it on our terms. Just don’t tell Isaac. Yet.”
“We gotta write this down,” I said frantically.
“It’s in my dream journal.” His hands dropped and he began to stand up as the rest of the cast and crew filed out.
“You have a dream journal?” I asked. “Is that something I’m supposed to be doing?”
“Yes, I have one and if you ask me about it when I’m sober, I’ll probably lie. And yes, you should have one. It’s life-changing.”
I followed him out of the trolley and the neon lights of the North Pole lit the dark summer sky.
“You know what’s beautiful?” I asked. “We’ve been best friends since middle school and we still surprise each other.”
He threw an arm around my shoulder. “I love you and will definitely not lie about that when I’m sober. Now, let’s go fuck this place up like we’re twenty-one again.”
Me, Winnie, Nolan, Bee, Sunny, and Luca all sat in a huge half-circle booth with a feast of appetizers and table full of drinks. Steph, Jack Hart, Gretchen, and Pearl were at another table, and then two more tables were filled with our secondary cast and some crew members, including a very strange man they called Tall Ron.
“Has anyone tried fried pickles dipped in honey mustard?” Winnie asked. “It sounds good to me and I can’t drink, so I feel like I have to be a little wild.” She smiled and then yawned.She’d been so sleepy with the baby, and I was a little surprised we’d managed to coax her out this late.
