She nodded, her expression chagrined. “I am.”

“Oh, my God, another baby? Congrats!”

Tess stood and hugged me weakly.

“Are you feeling okay?” I said as we took our seats.

“No, I’m not! This wasn’t supposed to happen, and now it’s no wine, no Advil, no brie, no hot baths. Pregnancy takes away everything that makes me happy.”

“It was the Advil that really pushed you over the edge, right?”

She scowled. “Don’t laugh!”

“I’m sorry, but it’s kind of funny.”

Her scowl deepened.

“Okay, Tess, it’s not funny, but it’s great! You love being a mom, and you’re awesome at it. You and Tim will be great with this one, too.”

She smiled a little. “I suppose you’re right. But Tim is getting snipped after this one.” She made a sadistic scissoring motion with her hand.

I sipped a white Bordeaux while we talked about her kids, Joy and Sammy, and the fact that Tess was depressed at the thought of getting “as big as a house.” Tess stared at my wine with undisguised greed. When our salads were delivered, Tess said, “Enough about me. Tell me what’s up with you.”

“I got the vice presidency.”

“What? And you let me sit here for twenty minutes talking about Sammy’s poops and my water weight? Congrats! When did it happen?”

“That’s the strange thing.” I told her about Blinda and the frog and about how, on Tuesday morning, I’d woken up to Chris’s affections and gone to work to find out I was a VP.

“It’s just a coincidence,” Tess said. “Your husband wanted some sex, good for you. And there just wasn’t an official announcement. That happens sometimes.”

“It was more than that. It was like everyone just assumed I’d been VP for a while, and I would always be a VP, even if I screwed up.”

“That’s just how you perceived it.”

“I don’t think so. And there’s more.” I told her about my mom’s postcard from Milan and how I seemed to have inexplicably gotten over my father’s abandonment.

“Well, thank God,” Tess said. “I mean really. You’ve been carrying that baggage around way, way too long, and let me tell you it wasn’t a pretty Hermès bag. It was a nasty nylon backpack that didn’t suit you. This is all good news, so why don’t you seem pleased?”

“No, I am, I am.” I took another bite of my salad greens. “There’s one more thing that’s happened.” I swallowed. “Evan.”

“Meow.” Tess had met Evan on numerous occasions and had found him as delicious as I did. “How is the Everlasting Crush?”

“He’s been flirting with me,” I said.

Her eyes widened. “What?”

“Yeah. You see what I mean? Everything happened in the span of twenty-four hours. I got everything I wanted.”

“I still think it’s a coincidence, but either way, you’ve got to tell me what’s been going on with Evan.”

“Well, last night…”

“What? What happened last night?”

I looked around the restaurant, at the soft light from the wall sconces and the patrons tucked into banquette tables. I turned back to Tess. “I almost kissed him.”

“Holy shit. Waiter!” She gestured frantically with one arm. When he reached us, she said, “I’ll need a glass of wine. Whatever she’s having.” She looked back at me. “I can have one glass, and my God, this story sounds like I’m going to need it.”

I laughed. “You won’t get flack from me.”

I’d always thought the pregnancy ban on even a drop of alcohol a tad too strict. My mother, for instance, didn’t realize she was pregnant with Dustin until she was almost four months along, having spent those months smoking and drinking Campari with my father in jazz clubs around Chicago. She drank while carrying Hadley, too. It wasn’t until she was carrying me that doctors cautioned pregnant women against alcohol. Her abstinence during the pregnancy with me was a problem, as I saw it. Dustin and Hadley were clearly smarter than I was, more ambitious and accomplished. Would I have been the same if my mother had stopped teetotaling and kept boozing?

Tess made me wait until her wine arrived before I could tell her about the Hello Dave show. I left nothing out, giving the tiniest of details, just like we used to when we were in high school and didn’t have jobs or husbands or kids to take our time away.

“And so that’s it,” I said. “I took off like the place was on fire. I had to walk five blocks to find a cab, and when I got home…Oh, you won’t believe it.”

“What?” Tess took the last sip of her wine. She glared at the glass, as if angered at it for holding such a small amount.

“Chris was waiting up for me. With champagne.”

“No.”

“And caviar.”

“No!” she said again. “God, Billy, did you tell him about Evan?”

I shook my head. “I started to, but I couldn’t. The picnic was so sweet of Chris. So seductive. I don’t think I’ve ever been turned on by two men within the same hour. And there really wasn’t anything to tell.”

She raised her eyebrows as if to say, maybe, maybe not. “You know me. I usually don’t give advice, but I’ve got to say something.” She reached across the table and squeezed my hand. “I’m not sure what’s going on with you, or why all these things have happened, but I do know something. You’ve got to be careful here, Billy. Real careful.”

I quickly switched topics, and Tess and I talked for another hour about this and that, everything and nothing. But in the back of my head, I couldn’t seem to shake her words. Be careful here, Billy. Real careful.

chapter seven

T he next day, at exactly eleven o’clock, my office phone rang.

“Hi, baby doll,” my mother said.

My heart bounced like a tennis ball. My mother was back from Milan and calling me at eleven on a Monday, just as she always did. It was like normal! “Mom, I miss you.”

“You too, sweetie.” But she sounded distracted. There was static behind her words, as if she was in a windy tunnel. “I’m on the plane coming home. We land in an hour or two.”

“Do you want me to pick you up? I could get out early.” The airport pickup was something my mother always desired, something I rarely did, but I wanted to see her badly.

“Oh, no. You keep working.”

“Well, I could come out tonight, and we could make dinner.” There was nothing that made my mother happier than the thought of having one of her girls home with a pot simmering on the stove. The sad fact was this dream rarely became a reality.

“How about tomorrow night, sweetie? We can go out.”

“Out?” I said.

“I’ll meet you at Milrose. That way it’ll be right off the highway for you.”

I was shocked into momentary silence. Milrose was a restaurant and brewery in Barrington, and it was, just as my mother had said, right off the highway I would take from Chicago. I had suggested dinner there numerous times before, but my mother said the bar was too crowded and the food too pricey, so we always got together at her house.

“Do you want me to pick you up?” I said.

“No, no. I’ll see you there tomorrow. 7:00?”

“Okay. I won’t bring Chris, so we can have some girl time.”

The static grew louder, and then she was gone.

Later that morning, Evan stuck his head in my office. “How’d you feel yesterday?” His eyes twinkled mischievously.

“I assume you’re referring to the vodka, but I can hold my own.” I said this in a pompous voice, while I fiddled with a few pens, sticking them in the mug on my desktop.

“Since when?”

“You haven’t gone out with me for a while. You’re really too much of an amateur, so I had to move onto different pastures.”

“Oh, different pastures, huh?” He stepped into the office and leaned against the wall, one leg crossed, toe on the ground. He wore gray pants and a light blue shirt. “I thought your other pasture was at home in front of the TV with your husband.”

“Nope, that’s not the case.” And it wasn’t. Although he was right about the TV, he wasn’t right about Chris. Until the last week, we hadn’t spent much time together at all.