Page 58 of Single Girl in the City
“Itwasstupid.” The door opened. “Iwas stupid and mean.”
“And a first-rate bitch,” Abi added, sticking her foot in the door just in case Dotti decided to go into ostrich mode.
“That too.” Dotti blinked. “Wait. Why are you here?”
“I’m on fish duty.”
“Even after our last conversation?”
“Even then.” Abi kicked the door with her toe. “Are you going to let me in or have the neighborhood gossip mill take bets on if I’ve finally lost it or if you’ve finally kicked me out?”
Abi handed over the box of doughnuts and Dotti stepped back to let Abi enter. “You brought me doughnuts.” Dotti snapped the lid shut and her eyes filled with panic. “You brought doughnuts! The kids will sniff out the sugar and destroy the house. Depending on how much icing they eat, they might even burn it down.”
“Which is why I bought two plain cake doughnuts. Low in sugar and icing free.”
“You’re a god among mortals.” Dotti put the box on the top of the fridge, but not before taking a big bite of a blueberry cake doughnut. She groaned. “This is the closest I’ve come to an orgasm since before Lemon-Marie was born. Wait there was the one time we hired a sitter and instead of going to dinner we had sex. In the minivan.”
Abi plugged her ears. “Since when do we share personal info like orgasm timelines and soccer mom sex-capades.”
Swoosh swish.The music continued repeatedly.
“It’s the pregnancy hormones. They make me do terrible things.”
“So, it’s official? You and Hank are pregnant?”
“I’mpregnant.Hankis at the golf course for his nine a.m. tee-time.” Dotti’s eyes filled. “I wish people would have told me before I decided to become a mom, not that I would trade them for the world, well, maybe a dozen blueberry cake doughnuts, but people tend to leave out the hard parts.”
“Yeah, I know the feeling,” Abi said. “Everyone told me I’d be okay, but they lied.”
Dotti froze. “Was I one of those people?”
“You still are.” How’s that for honest? “And it sucks. Having my sister doubt that what I’m going through is real, sucks. Sleeping on the couch sucks.”
Not sure what to say to that, Dotti poured them both a cup of coffee. “I didn’t mean what I said last week.”
“Yeah, you did. But don’t worry, I won’t be sleeping on it again.”
Dotti’s face paled. “You’re not coming home?”
“Eventually yes. And Iwillhave my bedroom back. All of it or I will stop playing nice guy and burn Hank’s office to the ground.” Abi wasn’t sure where that stood on standing up for herself, but she felt pretty damn proud right then.
“How about tonight?”
“I found a temporary place to stay.” Which was as much of a relief as it was a ticking time bomb. Even though she and Owen hadn’t kissed, they’d crossed a line that couldn’t be undone.
“I tried calling,” Dotti said, offering Abi a cup of coffee. She took it and sat at the kitchen counter. “You didn’t answer.”
“I wasn’t ready to talk. I’m still not.”
Dotti’s face scrunched like she’d eaten a hormone laced lemon and was trying not to cry. She didn’t try hard enough because a single tear spilled down her cheek.
“No, no, no. No way. You don’t get to do that,” Abi snapped. “Not this time.”
“Do what?”
“Cry so that I feel bad for you.”
“That’s not what I’m doing,” Dotti said, and Abi lifted aliar-liarbrow. “Fine, maybe I am. But this time I really do feel bad for kicking you out and for the way I talked to you.” She sniffed. “Are you ready to talk now?”
