Page 67 of Maybe in Another Life

“Everything is going to be great, you know,” she says.

I breathe in and out. “I hope so.”

“No,” she says. “Say it with me. Everything is going to be great.”

“Everything is going to be great,” I say.

“Everything is going to be great,” she says again.

“Everything is going to be great.”

You know, I almost believe it.

Gabby turns the light off.

“When you wake up in the middle of the night, terrified because you remember that you’re pregnant,” she says, “wake me. I’m here.”

“OK,” I say. “Thank you.”

Charlemagne snuggles up between the two of us, and I wonder if maybe it’s actually Gabby, Charlemagne, and me who were meant to be.

“Mark and I have started talking about when to have a baby,” she says.

“Wow, really?” Even though I’m actually having a baby, I can’t quite wrap my brain around people having babies.

“Yeah,” she says. “Maybe soon. I could hurry up and get pregnant. We could have kids the same age.”

“We’d force them to be best friends,” I say.

“Naturally,” she says. “Or maybe I’ll just leave Mark. You and I could raise your baby together. That way, I don’t even need to have one. Just me and you and the baby.”

“With Charlemagne?” I ask.

“Yeah,” she says. “The world’s most adorable lesbian couple.”

I laugh.

“Only problem is, I’m not attracted to you,” she says.

“Ditto,” I tell her.

“But just think of it. This baby would be raised by an interracial lesbian couple. It would get into all the good schools.”

“Think of the pedigree.”

“I’ve always said God made a mistake making us straight women.”

I laugh and then correct her. “I’m trying to believe that God doesn’t make mistakes.”

Henry checks some stuff and puts the clipboard down.

“Dr. Winters says we can try the wheelchair,” he tells me. His voice is solicitous. As if we’re doing something taboo.

“Now?” I say. “Me and you?”

“Well, the female nurses can’t bench-press as much I can. So yeah, I’ll be the one lifting you into the chair.”

“You never know,” I say. “Maybe every single one of those nurses can bench the same as you, and you don’t know because you never asked.”

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