Chapter 1
I walked back from the restroom and found my best friend sitting on my husband’s lap.
Nearly thirty people had gathered at a restaurant for Lena’s birthday. Music played. Glasses clinked. Megan’s empty chair stood beside Daniel, close enough for her to touch without leaving it.
She had left it anyway.
One arm circled his neck. Her face was inches from his. Daniel was smiling until he saw me.
Megan saw me too.
She tightened her arm and smiled wider.
I had known her for twelve years. She helped me choose my wedding dress. She sat beside me when my mother died. She knew that Daniel and I had spent the past year trying to have a child.
I wanted to believe I had walked into a harmless moment.
Her chair made that impossible.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Daniel’s smile disappeared.
Megan laughed.
“Claire, relax. We’re joking.”
“Right,” Daniel said. “It’s a joke.”
Neither of them moved.
I looked across the table at Megan’s husband, Ryan.
“Okay,” I said. “Then I’ll sit on Ryan’s lap.”
Megan stood so quickly her chair rocked backward.
“What? Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Why?”
“You know why.”
The table went quiet.
I pulled out my chair and sat down.
“You had your arm around my husband. If I did the same thing with yours, that would be the same joke.”
“That would be inappropriate,” Megan snapped.
“Yes,” I said. “It would.”
Ryan looked at his hands. Daniel did not look at me.
Megan’s face hardened.
“You’re making a scene over nothing.”
“You stayed there after you saw me.”
“I didn’t think you’d act like this.”
I heard a few people shifting in their seats. No one laughed anymore.
I stood again.
“I need some air.”
Megan picked up her purse.
“After twelve years of friendship, you should know I’d never do anything wrong.”
“If we’ve been friends that long, you should have known that would hurt me.”
I started toward the door.
“So dramatic,” she muttered.
I turned around.
“Explain the joke.”
She blinked.
“What?”
“What was funny about sitting on Daniel’s lap? You watched me come back and chose to stay there. Tell me what I missed.”
Megan opened her mouth. Nothing came out.
Outside, the cold air hit my face. I walked beneath the restaurant awning and tried to stop my hands from shaking.
Daniel followed.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Why did you let her stay there?”
“I didn’t want to cause a scene at Lena’s dinner.”
“You let me walk into one.”
“I know.”
I looked at him.
“Has she done that before?”
“No. Not that.”
“What has she done?”
He rubbed his forehead.
“She’s made comments. Once she said she’d take me in if we ever divorced. Another time she said you were lucky I still looked good after marriage.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I thought she was trying to be funny.”
“You kept deciding that for both of us.”
He went quiet.
My phone buzzed.
Megan: I can’t believe you humiliated me in front of everyone.
Another message appeared.
You’ve always hated it when anyone else gets attention.
Daniel read over my shoulder.
“That isn’t true,” he said.
Through the window, I could see Ryan standing near Megan. His shoulders had slumped. He looked like a man who had reached the end of a conversation he’d had too many times.
Months earlier, after Megan argued with a server, he had said to me, “There’s a difference between jealousy and asking someone not to disrespect you.”
I had thought he meant himself.
The door opened. Lena came outside.
“I’m sorry to bring this to you on my birthday,” she said. “But I heard something before you came back.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“Megan leaned toward Daniel. She didn’t know I could hear.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“Lena,” he said.
“What did she say?” I asked.
Lena looked at him, then back at me.
“She said, ‘I’m late. Tell Claire tonight, or I will.’”
I stared at my husband.
For months, I had been taking pregnancy tests alone in our bathroom. Now the words “I’m late” seemed to echo through every quiet room in our house.
May you like
“Daniel,” I said, “tell me she wasn’t talking about a baby.”
He could not meet my eyes.
