Looking around at the smiling faces of my girlfriends, I could see how each of us had changed. We were all a little rounder, curvier. Somehow softer. Kim’s hair was her natural dark brown now instead of black. Becca’s hair was shorter, and less wild. Laura usually had her hair up in a tidy ponytail these days so that her kids didn’t pull it. We all had slight smile lines setting in, but that made sense. I could see in each pair of eyes that my friends were incredibly happy.
As always, the conversation circled around in frantic loops as we were all so excited for each fresh bit of news.
Joanna showed us a photo of three-year-old Alicia, making a mess in the back garden as she picked her first carrots. Dean ’s proud smile made each one of us swallow hard to choke back a tear.
Laura reported that Jerrica and Jason were both taking karate lessons, so their entire playroom was now a warzone. Becca’s Darby and my little April were both nearly four, and fascinated with coloring books.
Every month or two we’d get the whole gang together in someone’s backyard for a rowdy barbecue, or laid back pizza party. We’d all dropped any pretenses about being perfect mothers long ago, and agreed that keeping our kids healthy, happy, and with a steady stream of books was good enough.
Kim signaled for another round, and we waved our orders to the new server, Stephanie. She’d only been here for a few months, but knew our hand signs well. She also appreciated that since we still had a standing tab, we were incredible tippers. Most of us just threw up a “W” twice, for our usual white wine. I didn’t know what Kim’s princess wave meant, but Stephanie nodded and smiled.
“Oh right,” Joanna said, turning to Kim. “Did you hear about that project?”
Kim’s grin lit up the whole table. “Ladies, you’re looking at the new exclusive video content producer for the museum.”
A string of squeals and congratulations circled the table.
“And Kate,” Becca asked, “That new album you’re working on. Didn’t you say something was up with that?”
My smile was so huge that my face felt stretched. “Yeah. It’s being licensed for a movie soundtrack.”
“What?!” Laura shrieked.
“It’s a movie about a singer, so they need songs that she supposedly wrote throughout the story. They’re hiring an amazing professional singer to record the tracks, but they’ve purchased the whole thing.”
“Damn,” Joanna shook her head. “Well, April’s university tuition will be taken care of.”
“Ladies,” Stephanie murmured as she set drinks in front of us, and cleared away the empties. “Enjoy.”
We thanked her as she left, reaching for our glasses. We didn’t do shots anymore, or get tipsy. Two or three was plenty for us these days.
Four of us were drinking white wine, but Kim’s martini glass was garnished with some floating frozen grapes, an orange slice, and a little umbrella.
“Fancy,” Laura laughed. “What are you drinking?”
“Ginger ale with a pinch of orange and cranberry juice.” She was wearing her sauciest grin as she stared around the table.
It took about three blinks for us all to scream at once, “You’re pregnant!”
Hugs and tears and shrieking ensued.
“I actually set up a hidden camera to capture Devin’s face when I told him,” Kim laughed, “But it was so intense that I can’t share it.”
Becca reached out to grab Kim’s. “He cried. Tell me he cried.”
“Not saying a word,” Kim said, sipping her fruity ginger ale.
Becca’s hand instantly fluttered against her necklace as she blinked hard. “Why does it always choke me up when the tough guys tear up?” she sighed.
“Because they’re our tough guys,” I said, looking around the table while we all tried to dab at our eyes before our mascara melted.
“You know,” Laura said slowly, “When we first decided to look for boyfriends that summer, and we were joking about ‘friends before mens’, we didn’t really believe that was the summer that our lives would all turn a corner.”
“That’s for sure,” Joanna nodded. Then she giggled. “Oh, my god. Why didn’t we pick ‘sisters before misters’ instead?”
We all laughed. “Damn, that one is perfect,” Kim said. “Trust the poet to find the perfect rhyme.”
“Or,” Becca said softly, “Maybe it’s just ‘sisters and their misters’. We’re all family now. The whole crazy bunch of us.”