Page 25 of Goodbye Again
I nod, unable to stop smiling. I break eye contact and take his hand as we walk toward the crowd of tables. I notice name tags on each place.
“I thought this was hors d’oeuvres and dessert for a gender reveal?” I ask.
“I thought it was a BBQ, but like, fancy,” he comments, flapping his tie between two fingers.
I laugh, pinching the gold leaflet paper with my name in calligraphy. He eyes the one next to me with a sour face and switches it with the one at the adjacent table.
I narrow my eyes. “What are you doing?”
“Switching mine with the one next to yours. Sarah will be fine moving for the sake of little old me.”
I cross my arms. “You can’t do that.”
“Yeah, I can. I’ve known Sarah for years. She loves everyone. She’ll have a real good time chatting it up with Steven.” He half smiles.
My mouth falls open. “Mom put me next to Steven!?”
“A little bird told me Austin has a very difficult mother-in-law.”
I roll my eyes. “My mom loves Austin.”
He winces. “But does she love you?”
I snort out a laugh and swat his shoulder. I should be more offended than I am, but somehow joking about my relationship with my mother is easing the tension pent up inside me.
We smile at each other for a moment until Austin speaks up at the front of the lawn.
“Thank you for coming, everyone,” he begins. “As you know, Emily and I are absolutely thrilled to be starting a family and we’re so thankful all of you made it out today for the big reveal. Now, we know it doesn’t matter what we’re having, because that baby is already so loved by me. By Emily. By our wonderful friends and family.”
“But the suspense is fun!” Emily adds, clasping her hand around Austin’s arm.
“The suspense is killing us!” Brenda shrieks from the crowd, and a laugh rumbles through each table.
“All right, all right,” Austin says, looking at his wife. “You ready?”
Emily smiles, knife in hand. “Ready.”
Austin wraps his hand over hers and they slice the cake together like they did on their wedding day. Maybe the party is frivolous and over-the-top, but they really are so sweet together.
The knife slices through the white frosting and slides out. Guests strain their necks to see what color appears on the knife.
“That’s pink!” someone yells.
“Nah, that’s blue!” another says.
They slice the other side of the triangle and slip the spatula under. “Count of three?” Austin asks, and the guests shout ONE-TWO-THREE.
In unison, the couple pulls out the slice of cake and plop it on a plate. Their elated smiles fade to confusion then slack to shock. A moment passes and guests start standing to see what they’re looking at.
Then finally Austin and Emily erupt in laughter as my sister says, “It’s green!”
“What does that mean?” Brenda asks, and Ed’s baritone laugh rattles through the crowd. Everyone is reacting to the mishap in their own way. Laughing. Shouting, “Oh no!” or “Maybe it’s both!” “Twins!” another person says.
But above the crowd, everyone hears, “Well, isn’t this just the most Julia thing to happen?” She barks out a melodic, rich-person laugh over the sound of the crowd. “Oh, I swear Julia is just full of mix ups. It’s her signature.”
My chest deflates and my cheeks burn as I turn to my mother, though all fifty guests have zeroed in on me, whether they actually blame me or are experiencing secondhand embarrassment due to my mother’s belittling joke is beyond me. I’m too focused on not crying to be able to tell.
JP’s hand grips my thigh and he shoots fire at my mom with his stare.
