“Oh, hey.” Gina and I had been friends since childhood, but out of the group of gal pals I had made in my adolescent days in Riverside, she and I were probably the least close. It wasn’t that we had any animosity for each other, we just led very different lives, and Gina was notoriously bad at picking up the phone and answering texts. It was easy to drift apart from her. “Did you text me?”
“No,” she said. “Why?”
“I just—never mind.”
“You weren’t expecting me to call, I know,” she said. “But I’m calling anyway. Is now a good time to talk?”
“Sure,” I said. “I’ve always got time for you.” And I meant it. Even though Gina and I didn’t speak much outside of group events, I really did love her, and I was happy to hear her voice after so many months of not hearing from her at all. “How are you?”
“I’m good,” she said. “Er—I’m fine. I don’t know. Feeling a little lost in life, but what else is new? I tried calling Lily to talk to her about it, but she’s so distracted by her new fancy San Francisco life these days, I never seem to have her undivided attention.”
“I know what you mean.” I sighed. “But she’s pregnant, and she’s planning a wedding so I think it’ll be a while before she has time for any of us. We just have to be supportive.”
“When is she due anyway?”
“A couple weeks I think!” I frowned and made a mental note to look at my calendar to double check. “Geez. I really should know that for sure. But I know it won’t be too long now.”
“Wow.” Gina whistled. “No wonder she’s ignoring all my calls. I don’t blame her, but in the meantime…”
“I’m your back-up friend?”
She laughed. “I hope that’s okay.”
“I’ll take what I can get. So—where are you nowadays? I feel like every time we talk, you’re living in a new city, or getting ready to go for a vacation somewhere cool and exotic. Please tell me you’re not calling from somewhere outside of the country though, because I haven’t gotten my first paycheck from Matt yet and I don’t know if I can afford a long-distance call.”
“Nah, I’m in the country,” she said. “I’m actually thinking about coming to San Francisco soon. You know my brother lives in Santa Cruz, which isn’t too far away. I could visit him, and maybe see you and Lily while I’m in the area.”
“That would be great! I haven’t really made any friends here yet, and like you said, Lily’s been a little… distracted. It would be nice to go out for a night on the town with a friendly face.”
“I’m sure it would. Moving to a big city where you don’t know anyone is really hard. But brave too. I was actually pretty impressed when Lily mentioned you were leaving Riverside.”
I smirked. “I know, I know. I’m just the small-town girl who never seemed to want to leave the place she was born. Or at least, that’s how you and the rest of the girls have seen me.”
“That’s not true,” she said. “I always knew you had a little adventurous-lust inside you somewhere. I’m just happy you finally listened to it! So tell me all about your new life! I hear you’re also working for a Becker brother! How weird is that? Are you working for the younger one by any chance? I think his name is Ezra.”
“No,” I said. “My boss is named Matt. He’s the second oldest I think? I don’t really know, it’s hard to keep them all straight in my head.”
“I hear you.”
“But why do you ask about Ezra?”
“Oh. No reason.”
“Did you meet Ezra in Hawaii or something?”
“Er—I don’t really know. I had a lot to drink that night, so honestly, who can say? I’m not even totally sure where I pulled the name Ezra from. Is that one of the Beckers? Or is his name Eliot? Whatever. It’s not important. You like working for this guy? Matt?”
“Yeah,” I said. It was obvious there was more to the story there, in regards to Gina’s relationship to Ezra, but she wasn’t the type of person who responded well to being pushed for details. So, I let her turn the focus back on me. “I mean, I’ve only been on the job for a week, but so far, everything has been going really well. His son is an angel, and I get to live in his house, which is obviously much nicer than any place I’ve ever spent the night.”
“You’re living with him? Isn’t that… odd?”
“No,” I said. “It’s really common for nannies to live with the families they nanny for.”
“Yes, but isn’t it also common for nannies to have affairs with the husbands of the families they nanny for?”
“That’s a very rude stereotype,” I said. “One that really isn’t that common at all. I don’t know a single nanny who has had an affair with a dad.”
“At least, you don’t know a nanny who wouldadmitto having an affair with a dad.”