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Margot: You’ve been awfully quiet.
Me: Always am, Margot. How’s Robby?
Margot: Misses you terribly. Did you get my email with the pictures?
Me: Haven’t checked my email since I got home. I’ll do it later, I promise.
Margot: It’s a Saturday, what else have you got to do?
Me: You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.
Margot: Try me.
With a sigh, I leaned against the bench along the back wall of my small pole barn. The work bench in front of me was covered in spindles and stain samples. Set along the side was the large bottom piece, the edges sanded down to a rounded lip. Tacked up on the wall behind it was the simple sketch I’d started with, Ian’s scrawled notes in the margin almost completelyillegible.
Me: Working on a project for a friend.
Margot: Suitably cryptic. You give the girl the letter yet? Living out your happily ever after?
Me: Were you always this nosy?
Margot: Yes. You were just too tired to notice. Come on, give an old lady something to be excited about. I might die tomorrow and then you’ll feel like shit.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, that hollow ache behind my sternum blossoming into something big and uncomfortable. I’d gotten used to it since I’d arrived home, almost able to ignore its presence, but it was screaming at me now.
Me: It’s complicated.
Margot: How?
Me: Came home. Found out she was pregnant. It’s mine. She had a boyfriend while I was gone, she just broke up with him and the one thing she needs from me is friendship. So.
Margot: My goodness. You’re joking, right?
Me: I am not. Got any parenting book recommendations because I finished the only one I have right now. Stayed up until 2am reading last night.
Margot: Did it make you feel better?
Me: Not even close. I feel like I’m going to throw up all the time.
Margot: Should I call you and be a kindly voice of reason right now?
Me: Please don’t. If you’re mean to me right now, I might cry.
Margot: When have I ever been mean a day in my life?
Me: Weren’t you the one who told me to quit my ‘whinging’ and pull my head out of my ass when I wanted to take a break on the second to last day?
Margot: Yes well, that was necessary. I find men respond much better to firm instruction.
Me: I’m not touching that statement.
Margot: I can send you some book ideas. Our neighbour just had a baby and she read everything. But Jax, it’s really quite simple. You feed it when it’s hungry, rock it when it cries, keep the nappy dry, and don’t drop it on its head. Even you can manage that.
Me: Your confidence in me is inspiring, thank you.
Margot: What are you going to do about the girl?
Me: Nothing. I won’t fuck this up by pushing her if it’s not want she wants.
