I was about to defend the decision when Laura jumped in. “I’m okay with willing a baby girl into existence.”
“Well, there you go,” said Bev, and we all laughed.
We ate and drank, and then it was time for games; Annie was in charge of the first one. She used a marker to write a bunch of popular baby names on pieces of masking tape, then walked around the pool deck and slapped the pieces of tape on our backs.
“Okay, listen up,” she said once we’d all been tagged. “You’re going to ask each other yes-or-no questions to figure out which baby name is yours. As a reminder, Laura helped come up with this list, and two of these names are near and dear to her heart, so be nice!”
I’d played some version of this game before, but with celebrities. Baby names were harder because there were only so many questions to ask. Did the name appear in the Old Testament? Was it originally a last name? Was it Italian?
Meredith Green, who was quite pregnant by this point, was walking around with the name Theo on her back, and while I told myself it had to be a coincidence, a small part of me wondered if Annie or Laura or one of the other wives was trying to mess with me. “It’s not Todd?” Meredith asked.
“You’ve said Todd three times,” said Laura. “Pick something else.”
“Tyler?”
“I thought we were meant to ask yes-or-no questions,” I said.
“That’s the idea,” said Annie.
“I can ask yes-or-no questions,” said Meredith a tad defensively. “Is itTyler?”
I almost slapped my forehead, I was so annoyed. “No, it’s not Tyler.”
“Ask something else,” said Annie.
Meredith thought for a minute. “Is there a famous ballplayer who shares this name?”
None of us was good enough with sports trivia to answer that question one way or the other. “Mary Lou follows sports,” said Laura.
“What do I follow?” Mary Lou asked from a few feet away as she poured herself another glass of prosecco.
Meredith pointed at her own back. “Is there a famous ballplayer who shares this name?”
Mary Lou considered the question. “Yes,” she said. “But how’s knowing that going to help you if you don’t know the names of any famous ballplayers?”
“Touché,” said Annie.
It was clear that Mary Lou despised this game and maybe all shower games, which, frankly, made me like her more.
“Do I know someone with this name?” asked Meredith.
Laura shook her head. “No,” she said, “but Eileen sure does.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
Laura seemed to realize right away that she’d overstepped, but the problem was that she’d done it in front of so many other women, and most importantly Mary Lou.
“Yes,” said Mary Lou. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Laura turned at least three shades of pink, then started to stammer. “I was just joking.”
“About whom?” asked Mary Lou, although I knew that she knew exactly who Laura was talking about.
“Just that reporter Eileen knows. Teo Manca.”
Mary Lou turned to me. “Do you see much of him these days?”
“Not much at all,” I lied.
