Page 40 of Roommates
Nathan nodded. “I feel for you. My great-grandma keeps almost having heart attacks. It’s terrifying when that happens.” He was totally buying the story. I hated myself a little bit for how good I was at fooling people. It wasn't like Iwantedto lie to Nathan or anyone. Adam stepped up to me and laid a hand on my shoulder as if he could sense the tension in me.
“Sorry about your great-grandma, Nate,” he said.
“She’s usually fine,” Nathan waved him off. “Bouncing right back and staring after the doctors or male nurses. It’s almost like she’s enjoying it, saying something like, ‘heart attacks help the people around me appreciate me better’.” Nathan stopped and shook his head as if he couldn’t believe his own great-grandmother. “Right now I’m not worried about her as much as I’m worried about you two.”
“Everything is going to be fine,” Adam said, and I wasn't sure if he was talking to Nathan or me.
“If you say so.” Nathan looked between Adam and me. “But what about—”
“It's been a really long day, Nate,” Adam cut him off. “We were kinda looking forward to just going to sleep now.”
“Oh, okay.” Nathan didn't lookhappythat he would have to wait even longer to get some answers from his friend, but he wasn't going to fight Adam on this. Good, because I truly was tired and I could only imagine that Adam felt the same way. I knew we would have to face the court of public opinion soon, but I was happy it didn't have to be tonight.
“I'll talk to you tomorrow,” Adam said, guiding his friend out of our room before turning back to me.
“Sorry he invaded like that.”
“You don't have to apologize for him. I'm just... I don't know... I hate that we have to lie.”
“I know it sucks, but you don't have to do it alone, okay?” Adam pressed a kiss to my forehead and I sighed.
“I know. I think I'm just going to sleep.”
Adam was right that it was better not to have to do this alone, but I was starting to wonder whether I still wanted to do this at all.
2 2
L U C A S
“Do you think it’s a boy or do you think it’s a girl?” Adam asked me one day toward the end of term when we were alone in our room. He’d been quietly looking at his computer for a while, so his sudden question caught me off guard.
Sitting on my bed, a text book in my lap, I looked up. “What?”
“The baby! Do you think it's a boy or a girl? I've been looking at names.” He turned back to his computer. “There's a lot of really weird baby names out there. Can you believe there's actually people who name their child Tarantula? “
“Seriously?” I stifled a laugh. It wasn't polite to laugh at other people's names, was it? “Poor babies.”
“Yeah, ours will get a kickass name, though. Not Tarantula. Something better.”
“Yeah?” I honestly hadn't thought about this at all yet. Part of me was still in denial that Ihadto think about this. I was only just at the beginning of my second trimester. Surely the birth was still an eternity away?
“For sure. We'll be the best parents ever, you and me.”
How could he be so sure about that? Neither of us had any experience with babies, and up until a few months ago, I'd thought I'd never have any. “How much do you know about babies?” I asked.
He shrugged, still grinning. “How hard can it be?”
I scoffed in disbelief. “You're impossible.”
“I'm not impossible.” He got up from his chair and approached me. “I'm just proud.”
“Proud?”
“Of you. Of us.” He pulled me up from the bed and ran his hands ran down my sides. “Of the life we've created.”
By the expression on his face, I knew that he was telling the truth. He was going to be a proud papa.
One of those people who'd talk about nothing but their baby's latest milestones for days no matter how often their friends had already heard it. The type to always have a dozen pictures on hand, just in case they run into someone who doesn't yet know how cute their darling is. The thought made me smile, but at the same time, it stung too.
