Page 22 of Ideal Life

Dave was trying not to laugh out loud.

“Speaking of handsome young men,” Vera said, “Jacob and Libby seem to be having the best time in the Maldives!” She set her phone in front of Talia and hit Play on Libby and Jacob’s latest video.

“Hi, friends!” Libby was on the dock in her green sundress, her blond hair up in a high ponytail. “Today Jacob and I are going to help with coral reef rehabilitation…”

Talia settled in to watch her baby sister again, this time managing to shove aside that nagging feeling that she wasn’t traveling enough or dressed well enough and instead just enjoying Libby and Jacob’s success and joy.

“Aren’t they so sweet?” Vera said.

Talia nodded. Their smiles were so genuine and contagious.

Breakfast arrived, and everyone dug in.

Talia’s Nutella stack was divine. The sweetness of the chocolate contrasted with the rich saltiness of the bacon, all sandwiched perfectly between fluffy layers of pancakey carbohydrate goodness. God, Talia loved breakfast!

After they finished eating, she rewound the meal, and Talia and her parents ate breakfast together again, two more times (a veggie-and-cheese omelet with a side of coffee cake for round three, and Belgian waffles smothered in strawberries, candied pecans, and powdered sugar for round four).

And it was worth it, even if she did have to watch Libby and Jacob living a more perfect life than hers, and even though Vera tried to convince Talia to date Sam in each rewind.

Libby

While Talia was finishing breakfast with Vera and Dave, Libby emerged from the bathroom in the overwater bungalow she and Jacob were staying in. It was just after 9 p.m. in the Maldives, and it had been a long day of photo shoots for the resort. The life of a full-time creator was not as relaxing as it looked; when a hotel chain paid for your flights and your luxury suite perched on stilts over a cerulean-blue lagoon, your end of the bargain was producing lots and lots of content for them—photo shoots for their digital advertising; short, entertaining videos for social media; and long, detailed videos for YouTube. Every moment of your “vacation” was documented. So really, every moment you had in paradise was work.

Still, Libby was happy with her life. She had a sweet husband who was also hot and who didn’t mind living out of a suitcase. She got to fly business class and stay in five-star hotels in far-flung locations and eat in the best restaurants in the world. It was not a life she could have imagined for herself, growing up watching her mom and dad, who still lived in the same town they’d grown up in, still partied with their friends from high school who had also never left, who never even stepped foot on a plane.

And yet… Libby now held a little ticking bomb in her hand as she walked out of the bathroom. It was a pregnancy test that very definitely confirmed what she’d suspected—beautiful, because her biological clock had started making itself known rather insistently last year, and the overwhelming desire to have a baby had consumed her. But also a bomb, because how did a baby fit into their jet-setting life?

She walked into the bungalow’s bedroom. The suite was built out of light wooden planks and decorated with thundu kunaa—handwoven mats of dyed reeds in beautiful, intricate patterns—and lacquered vases and framed art made of seashells. Jacob sat propped up in their four-poster bed, working on some of the footage they’d shot while scuba diving today.

“Honey?” Libby said.

“Sorry, gimme one sec.” Jacob dragged his finger slowly over the trackpad of his computer, barely a millimeter at a time. Libby recognized the movement from the thousands of times she had edited videos, trying to trim the clip at precisely the right tenth of a second.

“Okay, sorry; I’m done now,” he said, looking up at her. “What’s up?”

But the last bit was truncated, because Jacob’s jaw dropped when he saw the pregnancy test in her hand. “Is it…?”

Libby bit her lip and nodded.

“Oh my god!” Jacob jumped out of bed, nearly knocking his laptop onto the floor as he rushed over and cocooned her in a hug. “Really?”

Libby held him tight. “Really. Really! We’re having a baby.”

“We’re having a baby!” Jacob echoed. The ability to articulate anything more eluded them in the immensity of the moment.

Instead, they held each other and bounced up and down. Jacob had to wipe away the tears trickling down his face that were beginning to soak Libby’s hair.

After they’d collected themselves, he picked up the phone and dialed room service. “Champagne, please. We’re celebrating! Oh, hold on—no, not champagne.” He laughed at himself. “Something nonalcoholic.”

“And something chocolate,” Libby said, leaning into the phone.

Order placed, Jacob hung up and threw his arms around Libby again, bringing them both down together flat onto the bed. He pressed his forehead against hers, one of her favorite things in the world. Maybe it was because her parents had been absent so much in her youth that now, Libby wanted no personal space at all. But whatever the reason, Jacob loved being close to her, too, and that’s why they were so good together. Not every couple could spend all day, every day, working in such proximity to each other and then spending their little downtime together as well.

“I love you,” Jacob said. Then he moved down to kiss her belly. “I also love you, little bean. And the world is going to love you, too.”

Libby froze. Because there it was again. This baby was a gift but also the thing that would blow up their lives.

“Jacob…”