Page 62 of Best Friend Burden

“Ernie,” Natasha said, “I'm going to be upfront with you about this. If you're thinking of changing this to make it more palatable to the average listener, that's not happening.”

He shook his head. “It needs a little bit of mastering, but I think we keep it more or less as is instead of trying to turn it into something it's not.”

“I'm going to hold you to that,” I told him.

We shook on it. This was really happening.

* * *

That night, we went to a lounge out in the Valley. We figured we wanted to get away from what we were used to and go somewhere special for a special occasion. It was the three of us: me, Natasha, and Jackson. The two of them may not have been in love, but they were at least in strong like, and I was envious of that. Strong like didn’t take control of your life. It just gave you something to feel good about. We should all be so lucky.

“I told you,” he said to me. “Remember, I said she wasthatgood, and you were like, 'Oh, well, I guess we can give her a tour.'”

I nodded and laughed along with his terrible impression of me. He was right, and I was a big enough man to admit when I was wrong.

But things had changed significantly since I'd first met her. Back then, I was envious of her talent. Now, I was envious of what she had with Jackson. I was jealous that she and Jackson had each other, and I was all out on my own.

I didn't let that feeling show, though. I maintained a smile because now was a time to be happy for them and happy for Natasha… and also happy for myself. It was Natasha's name and probably her face that would be on the album cover, but I had a large part in making it, and I was proud of what we'd put together.

All at once, as we were eating, I saw the smile drop from Natasha's face.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

It wasn't nothing, especially since Jackson's smile dropped almost immediately afterwards.

They were looking at something behind me and as I started to turn, the two of them tried stopping me, but it was too late.

There was a TV on over the bar with Melody on it. She was giving an interview.

And she was extremely pregnant.

CHAPTER27

***MELODY***

Iwasn't sure what to expect from the interview. It was perfectly possible that nobody would see it and we wouldn't have any more business and, honestly, that's what I expected. On the other hand, a part of me was scared the food court would overflow with people, and the other food truck operators would get jealous.

As usual, the answer was somewhere in between. Business was a little bit better the next day. But then the next day was even better than that. And so on until, just a couple of weeks later, Kalle called me in because she needed help.

It was, by far, the best day we'd had since coming out to California. In my current state, I was able to stay on my feet and take orders, though I didn't feel comfortable doing any cooking. It was okay, though, because Kalle just needed a small amount of assistance. She only had two hands and two feet and could only be in one place at a time. I offered just enough help to keep things moving steadily.

Even with the limited work I was doing, I needed to take breaks when things got too hot. I'm sure I could have pushed myself through, but I'd been handling the pregnancy responsibly up to this point, and I wasn't about to drop the ball at the five-yard line.

“If this keeps up like this,” I told Kalle, “I'm going to need to get another assistant to help out.”

So long as I was there helping out, all the tip money went to her. It seemed rude to be taking tip money from her, with all the work she was doing and how little I was paying her for it. If there was another employee, they'd need to split that jar 50/50.

It wasn't her decision, of course, but I thought to myself that if I did hire an additional employee, I'd give her a raise to make up for it. After all, I couldn't imagine handling all of this on my own. An extra set of hands could make a world of difference.

I looked down at my belly, thinking about my baby’s tiny hands, and that one day those little hands would be helping me out in the kitchen and that I wouldn’t be alone. I couldn’t help but think about Kiefer. I know keeping this from him was a shitty thing to do. I should call him and do the mature thing, instead of waiting for the universe.

But just like divine intervention does, it surprised me, and he just showed up at the food truck. I didn't see him at first. Kalle thought he was a customer.

“Sorry, we're closed,” she said.

“That's okay.”

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