“No. I’ll be free in about an hour though.”
“Ok that sounds good,” I said.
“Let’s go to J’s.”
My stomach flipped at the mere mention of it.
“Okay,” I said. “J’s in an hour?”
Lauren hung up the phone without even saying goodbye, and it broke my heart. The wall she had up was thick. I could hear it in her voice. Feel it in the way she addressed me. But she had called me and agreed to meet so I still held out hope that things would be okay. I took a shower just in case some of Levi’s cologne had rubbed off on me, then I got dressed and headed to J’s Waffle Place.
I got us a booth in the corner away from the kitchen, hoping it would quell the rolling of my stomach.
I watched Lauren come in, and her eyes connected with me. She didn’t look angry, but she sure as hell wasn’t happy to see me. I smiled at her anyway as she came and sat down, then she promptly placed her order with the waitress. A cherry coke and an order of chicken and waffles. Extra powdered sugar.
I felt bile creeping up the back of my throat.
“How was your honeymoon?” I asked.
“Fine,” she said.
“Did you enjoy the beach?”
“I always do. You know me.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I do.”
She nodded but didn’t say anything else. “I didn’t do a very good job of explaining myself in the hotel room,” I said.
“That’s a relief. Because I could’ve sworn my best friend told me she fucked all my brothers at once.”
My jaw dropped as her drink was set down in front of her.
“I mean, it wasn’t planned or anything,” I said.
“Oh, that makes it better.”
“Lauren, you’re not listening.”
“I am. I really am. My best friend screwed around with all my brothers on a weekend we were supposed to all be hanging together, and now she’s pregnant by one of them. And married, did you forget married?” she asked.
My eyes widened as she took a sip of her drink.
“How did you know? Never mind,” I said.
Fuck. This wasn’t good at all.
“I love you like a sister, Lauren. And I need you right now. I’m having a baby for Christ sake.”
“I know that Sam. But in all the years we’ve known one another, it doesn’t even occur to you why I’m really pissed,” she said.
“You’re angry that I slept with your brothers,” I said. “Because of that deal we made with one another.”
She shook her head in disbelief. “You think I’m angry because of some stupid thing we promised one another when we were twelve?” she asked. “Sam, I’m pissed because you hid it. Because all of you snuck around behind my back. And it wasn’t until I caught you and you had to tell me, that you finally fessed up.”
I just stared at her. She was right. I had kept everything from her and had only told her because I’d been forced to. And her own flesh and blood had done the same. “I was there when we figured out you were pregnant, and you didn’t say anything. I reamed my brothers for days over your disappearance and you running off to your parents. They didn’t tell me, and you didn't tell me. Sam, I should’ve been the first person you told!”
“I’m sorry,” I said.