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I’d picked a place in Gramercy so I could walk her by the house after dinner and tell her the news. Now it was just an inconvenient half hour Uber ride downtown in traffic. But whatever. I’d be sitting next to my girl. Nothing else was as important.
At the restaurant, we shared two dishes—fettuccini carbonara and caprese-stuffed balsamic chicken. Neither of us had room for another bite, but when we saw Oreo cheesecake on the menu, I had to try.
Devyn leaned back in her chair with her hands on her belly. “I can’t eat another morsel.”
“Well, you’re going to have to eat one more spoonful. Then I’ll tell our little pipsqueak she can’t have any more. Hopefully she’ll kick you.”
Dev rubbed her tummy. “I’m starting to wonder if what I felt was gas, not the baby kicking.”
“Oh great,” I teased. “Now you tell me?AfterI’ve stuffed a pregnant lady with food. I’m using a different blanket tonight so I’m not stuck under your smelly one.”
Devyn tossed her napkin at me with a laugh. “Jerk.”
A few minutes later, the waitress brought out a huge hunk of Oreo cheesecake. I’d been joking around when I ordered it, but I did really want to feel the baby move. So I scooped a heaping mound onto the spoon and held it out to Devyn. “Open up.”
She opened her mouth wide, and I pulled back the spoon. “Hang on. That’s all it takes for you to open like that? I think I’ll save the dessert and use it at home later…”
Devyn squinted. “Give me that now.”
“Oh, happily…”
Unfortunately, the baby didn’t care that Devyn only got one bite of Oreo cheesecake. She didn’t bust a move. We left the restaurant full, but happy anyway. Outside, I pulled out my phone to call an Uber.
But Devyn reached over and stopped me. “Let’s take a walk. I need to burn off some of that dinner, and this neighborhood is so pretty.”
“Okay.” I nodded in the opposite direction of the brownstone. “The park is around the corner.”
“Actually, could we walk that way?” She pointed. “The houses are so nice.”
I was still sour over losing the property, but there wasn’t much I wouldn’t do to make Devyn happy. So I shrugged. “Sure. Of course.”
We walked down East 19thStreet side by side, talking about taking a trip to California now that the kids were out of school for the summer. Devyn needed to have some meetings, and she wanted to get a few things from her apartment. We still hadn’t figured out how things would work long term, with her having to go back and forth for business.
“I was thinking,” she said. “I’m friendly with a woman who owns a competing casting agency. Her name is Suzie. She got married last year, and I know she wants to have a family someday. Maybe I’ll reach out and see if she might be interested in joining forces. She lives in L.A., so she could probably handle a lot of the in-person stuff, and I could take on more of the Zoom meetings and admin work. I don’t think it would totally alleviate my need to travel to the West Coast, but it would help. Plus, we could cover each other when we had kids and stuff.”
“That sounds great, if you’re okay with it. But if you aren’t, I can work my schedule so I can take care of the baby whenever you have to be out there. I’ll do whatever you need. You’re giving up a lot to make New York your primary home.”
Speaking of which, the home I’d hoped we’d call ours was only two houses away. I wondered if Devyn would notice.
She shook her head. “I think I’ll reach out. Suzie might not be interested, but I’d like to settle in here, and to do that, I need to know my business is covered. Also, I need a place to live. There’s no room for me with Vera back.”
“You can stay with me.”
“Actually…” Devyn stopped. “I was hopingyou’dstay withme.”
“Where?”
She pointed to the brownstone. “Here. I loved this house when you took me to see it. But I was too afraid to make a commitment back then.”
Shit. I hated to tell her it was too late. I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry, babe. It’s sold already.”
Devyn grinned. “I know. I bought it.”
My eyes popped open. “You what?”
She bit her lip through a big smile. “I bought it for us.”
“What are you talking about? When?”
