Love And Miss Communication Part 18

"Jamie, I'm sorry, but it's just not going to happen. I am flattered though. Seriously."

"Whatever," he said, pus.h.i.+ng open the door to the supply closet. He looked back and whispered, "It's not cool to be a tease. Guys don't like that."

Dating advice from a high school student. And there she had it-she'd sunk to a new low.

"It's a boy!"

"What?" Evie asked groggily. She tried to focus her eyes on the alarm clock next to her bed but the red numbers just did a blurry dance. After painful squinting, she registered that the clock read 3:30 A.M. She clenched her fingers over the receiver in her hand and ascertained she was not dreaming the phone call.

"It's a boy," she heard again. "A perfect, angelic boy." She recognized Tracy's voice upon hearing it the second time.

"No he's not," Evie said defensively.

How the h.e.l.l did Tracy know what went down?

"Evie, trust me, he's a boy. He was circ.u.mcised one hour ago."

The baby. Tracy had a baby boy.

"Oh, the baby's a boy. That's amazing. Sorry, it's the middle of the night. I'm just so out of it."

"Well, get up and come meet him. I feel shockingly okay. Percocet's pretty awesome."

"Now?"

"Yes, now. You need to meet Henry."

"You named him Henry?" Evie asked, suddenly paralyzed.

"Yes. Cutest name, right? He's named after Jake's uncle."

Evie was speechless. She never expected to hear her father's name. Not in this context.

"You there?"

"Um, yeah. I think it's a great name," Evie said. "It was my father's name."

"Oh, Jesus, Evie. I'm sorry. I hope you don't mind. Honestly, we didn't even think about that. You don't mind, do you? We can both have Henrys. Someday."

Evie knew Henry was a common name. She couldn't very well lay claim to it, especially when it was unclear if she'd ever have a chance to use it for a son of her own.

"It's okay, really. Let me get dressed and I'll come see you guys. You're at New York Hospital, right?"

"Yes. And thanks, Evie-I hope my Henry is the kind of man your father was. You've always spoken so highly of him."

"I'll be there soon."

By the time Evie reached the labor and delivery floor, Tracy had transitioned from exuberant to unconscious. The new father was also asleep, his body scrunched into a sideways child's pose to fit onto the tiny hospital couch. The baby lay quietly in the hospital-issued ba.s.sinet against one wall of the room. Caroline and Stasia were already there, seated on mismatched plastic chairs they must have dragged from the waiting room.

"She just fell asleep," Caroline said with a big yawn. Nocturnal secretions crusted the corners of her eyes and lips. "You all are so lucky I had the girls in the daytime."

Evie approached the crib cautiously, worried that her footsteps would wake the baby.

"Don't worry, you won't wake him," Caroline said, intuiting Evie's concern. "They sleep like, well, like babies at this age."

Henry was swaddled in a fuzzy white hospital blanket and was wearing a tiny blue-, pink-, and white-striped beanie. She had to admit he was a cute newborn, with flushed cheeks and a thick swath of black hair visible from where his cap ended.

"Evie, you missed Tracy's very detailed account of the birth," Stasia said. "Before she pa.s.sed out she asked me to check if her v.a.g.i.n.a was still intact. I sincerely hope Jake isn't serious about making a doc.u.mentary. If I were Tracy, I would have smashed his video camera in two."

Jerome stumbled in at that moment, clearing his throat.

"Coffee, anyone?" He was carrying a full tray. Evie was surprised to see he had come along with Caroline to the hospital. She had presumed that rich people, particularly rich old people, didn't do things that weren't convenient for them, which would certainly include a middle-of-the-night trip to meet a new baby. But there he was, rubbing Caroline's shoulders after pa.s.sing out the coffee.

"Is Rick here?" Evie asked, noticing that Stasia was also eyeing Jerome's warm gesture to Caroline.

At that moment, Tracy's eyes flitted open and Evie jumped out of her chair to approach.

"Hi, Trace! Congratulations!" Evie said. "I hope I didn't wake you. How are you?"

"I'm fine, I think. I just felt a contraction. But he's out of me, right?"

Caroline laughed. "Yes, he's in the ba.s.sinet. You're having after-birth contractions. They really suck and will last for a few days."

"Just when I thought I was done," Tracy said, rubbing her eyes. "Okay, I need to go back to sleep if I have a prayer of taking care of this kid. Wake me when Paul arrives, okay. I think he said he'd come. He and Marco want to get a handle on the newborn thing before Maya arrives."

So Paul and Marco already knew they were having a girl? Evie calculated that over a month had pa.s.sed since she'd spoken to Paul.

Tracy's eyes closed again, and everyone kept their voices down, even though they could see from her jerky wincing every few minutes that she was not asleep.

"Does this freak you out?" Evie turned to Stasia. "Seeing how much pain Tracy's in?"

"Why would it freak me out?" Stasia asked with a blank stare.

Let's see how you handle pus.h.i.+ng out a watermelon from a hole the size of a peach pit.

"Well, I'd be nervous if I was going to have a baby someday soon, seeing how tough it is," Evie hedged. Stasia still hadn't told her about the pregnancy so she treaded lightly.

"Well, I'm not pregnant. So nothing to worry about." Stasia offered up a close-lipped smile.

Maybe she'd had a miscarriage? Evie had been so sure Stasia was keeping something from her.

"Well, you and Rick are doctors. When the time comes, you'll probably both handle this in a much more clinical way. Rick was so nice, by the way, about my grandma. Is he coming?" Evie repeated her previous question. In the other corner of the room, Jerome and Caroline were silently looking through pictures on Jerome's iPad. She knew they were looking at the girls, because every time Jerome's finger scrolled to a new picture, goofy parental smiles would spread across their faces.

"He's not coming, Evie. Why do you keep asking?" Stasia's voice boomed, shattering the calm in the room.

"Okay, I'm sorry, I was just making conversation. Sorry if I was being annoying." Evie couldn't understand why Stasia was so rattled.

"Whatever," Stasia went on, choosing not to lower her voice from her initial outburst. "We're getting divorced, okay? Now you know." Suddenly the room was sucked of all its air, Evie suffering the most of all from foot-in-mouth suffocation.

"Does everyone else know?" It was a petty question, and Evie knew it. But it was the first thing she thought to say and her filter didn't operate well in the middle of the night.

Stasia started crying. She cradled her head in her hands and nodded her head. It was so subtle that Evie couldn't tell if she was trying to say yes or her head was just being moved in that direction by her hands.

"So that's a yes?" Evie asked.

This time Stasia nodded more deliberately.

"Why didn't you tell me? I could have been there for you."

By this time, Caroline and Jerome had stopped studying pictures and were listening intently to Evie and Stasia.

"It's not an easy thing to share. And honestly, you wouldn't understand." If Stasia was intending to be hurtful, she succeeded with her undue emphasis on the "you."

"I did have a terrible breakup with Jack after dating for two years. I'm not an as.e.xual amoeba, for G.o.d's sake. I know a thing or two about relations.h.i.+ps," Evie snapped.

"Hi everyone, what did we miss? Something about s.e.xuality?" Marco asked as he and Paul swooped into the room, carrying armfuls of shopping bags tied up with curly ribbons.

n.o.body answered.

"Awkward," Marco said and settled the presents down gently. Even so, the sound of crinkling tissue paper was jarring.

"I told her," Stasia said, looking directly at Paul.

"Oh."

"Told me?" Now Evie was steaming.

"Yeah, told you. About the divorce," Paul said, his voice the temperature of ice water. Marco motioned for Evie to follow him outside of the hospital room.

"What the h.e.l.l was that ambush?" Evie demanded of Marco when they were stationed in the hallway. Stasia flew past them in the direction of the elevator with her coat tucked under her arm.

"I'm just going to say it," Marco said. "Paul is pretty angry at you."

"What, why?" She tried to appear flabbergasted but had more than an inkling of what was coming.

"When was the last time you talked to him?"

"I don't know, a couple of weeks ago," Evie lied.

"Much longer than that. Not since he told you we were having a baby. We invited you to this baby shower c.o.c.ktail thing at our place and you didn't show. And he said you were less than enthusiastic about our family plans."

Evie's toes curled. She hated being wrong. And worse, she hated being called out on it. She a.s.sumed a defensive stance.

"Well, things have been crazy for me. I was basically unemployed, my grandmother had major surgery, and I've been taking care of her. You know Jack got married out of the blue. It's just been a really s.h.i.+tty time. So I think it's pretty understandable that I didn't have time to hear about crib shopping." The coffee Jerome gave her was seeping into her veins. Mixed with her lack of sleep, the caffeine high was making her the lethal combination of anxious and hyper. She continued her rant, transitioning from a.s.sumed defensiveness to legitimate anger.

"And what the h.e.l.l? I never got invited to any baby shower."

"We sent an Evite. Actually, it was Paperless Post. Paul said Evites are pa.s.se."

"Well, news flash, I don't use the Internet anymore and you both knew that."

"Which is why he also called you and left a message. Paul said you never returned the call. He also said you practically hung up on him when he told you about the baby. I mean, you said congratulations and all, but apparently it was very half-a.s.sed."

Evie didn't answer. The voicemail from Paul was still on her phone, unlistened to, as it had been for a while already.

"But tell the truth. Would you have wanted to be there anyway?" Marco asked, his eyes penetrating whatever facade she was foisting on him. It felt like having her insides skewered.

"Of course," she bellowed on impulse.

"Well, we weren't so sure. You were jealous, Evie. And that's okay. But Paul doesn't quite get it. You know my older sister Paola is still single so I'm more understanding of these things."

"These things?" She was outraged. Was Marco saying that single people are given a pa.s.s on egregious behavior because of their pitiable state? What year was it? 1950? "Well, I'm not jealous, so I guess you don't have me quite as figured out as you think."

He ignored her protest.

"And this thing with Stasia. I know she was planning on telling you about the divorce. But it was like you had this exalted view of her marriage. I think she knew you saw her and Rick as perfect, and it killed her to have to admit to the person who idealized them so much that the envy was misplaced."

Evie looked at her watch. It was close to 5:00 A.M., but she could see out the window that it was still pitch-black. Had Stasia ventured out or was she huddled in the hospital cafeteria, waiting for daybreak? Evie wished it was lighter outside, so she could flee down the hallway and run the whole way home to seek refuge in her bed. Marco read her inner monologue.

"It's the middle of the night. Go back into Tracy's room. Talk to Paul. You set us up. He can't stay mad at you forever."

Evie inhaled deeply, letting her body communicate her a.s.sent to Marco. They walked back down the hallway together. Tracy's parents had arrived in the meantime, and the new grandparents were busy cooing at the baby in the ba.s.sinet. Paul was next to Tracy, deep in conversation. Whether they were trading secrets on baby bottles or he was venting about the fight, she didn't know. He didn't glance up when she entered. Jerome rose to offer her his seat next to Caroline, which she gratefully accepted. It was as if her legs had turned to jelly. She was finding it hard to support the weight of her body, let alone her stress.

"This night is insane," she whispered to Caroline. With Tracy basically out of commission for the next forty-eight hours, or more likely the next month, Caroline felt like Evie's only friend.

"It'll be fine. Stasia's just going through some really rough times. He was cheating on her, you know?"

"Wow, I didn't know. She never so much as uttered a single complaint about him to me in all the years they were dating or married."

"You know she thought he was in love with you, don't you?"

"Me?" Evie was honestly in shock.

"I guess he used to suggest including you a lot. It made Stasia paranoid."

Evie remembered Stasia's call to her a few months ago while she was in line waiting to have her computer fixed: Rick wants you to come see a movie with us. There had been many more invitations like that in the past. She recalled Rick's eagerness to talk to her on the phone and his message checking in on her. And the time she heard him saying in the background that she shouldn't go on the blind date with the orthodontist if she wasn't feeling up to it.

"But Stasia's gorgeous. If he was cheating on her, it was probably with a supermodel. He wouldn't have wanted someone like me," Evie countered with genuine modesty.

"Evie," Caroline said wearily, shaking her head from side to side. "We can all agree that Stasia is smart and beautiful. But so are you. You just don't know what you have, do you?"

"I have nothing."

"I'm not dignifying that with a response."

"Marco accused me of being a jealous person. Do you agree?" Evie hoped her eyes were conveying how much she was counting on Caroline to give her an honest answer.