Laura took a deep breath, drank about half of a glass of water, and gave Josie a giant smile. “Oh, well, maybe I’m just a little dehydrated.”
Or maybe you’re just about to have a baby, Josie thought, but smiled back with the same fake look. “Okay,” she said.
She was saying that a lot lately. It was about all she could say because what she really wanted to say was, “Jesus f**king Christ, Laura, get in the goddamn car and let me take you to the hospital right now.” But she wouldn’t. She would be Nice Josie and keep her mouth shut.
“So, this business proposition,” Laura said. “As you know, Mike and Dylan are filthy stinking rich.”
“I kind of noticed, and most of Boston knows that too, now that there was the news report.”
“Yeah.” Laura just shook her head. “Hell of a way for me to find out, right?”
Josie softened. It was hard to realize it had only been a couple of months ago. “Right.” When Laura had met Dylan and Mike they'd kept the fact that each had inherited more than a billion dollars from their late lover, Jill, from Laura. She'd found out from a local newscast. Not the most romantic way to begin a relationship. Shortly after, she'd discovered she was pregnant. The reunion had been rocky. So far, so good, though, and the three had carved out a most unusual, though thriving, relationship.
Something about Laura's demeanor put Josie on alert. It was the silences, the pauses, that were getting to her, not the actual words in between. The crafty part of her brain started to feel suspicious. She’d had a feeling that this conversation was coming, but she hadn’t expected it to be so soon.
“Mike and Dylan have given me…some…”—Laura stumbled over her words—“leeway in spending some money.”
“You mean they give you an allowance,” Josie said bluntly.
Laura pursed her lips. “Yeah.” As if in retribution, she leaned over and speared the last fried green tomato and shoved it indelicately in her mouth.
“Why fight it?” Josie said, waving her arms in an expansive gesture. “You’re with two billionaires. They make more money every year off the interest of that trust than most baseball players or football stars. Just go with it, Laura.”
About seventeen different emotions flashed across Laura’s face. Fortunately, for now, none of them was pain. A furtive glance showed Laura’s belly higher and tighter. That was good. As long as it didn’t suddenly drop lower, this was still fine. Avoiding a mad run for towels and shoelaces to boil in the back here at Jeddy’s was her short-term goal. Although, if the baby was born here maybe they could name her Jeddy.
Josie stifled a giggle and tried to look serious as Laura was saying something to her.
“And so I figure all you’d need is an office, very little advertising money, and maybe an assistant, a computer system with software—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Josie shook her head as if in a fog. “What are you talking about?”
Madge interrupted them. “Anything else?” She tore the bill off a pad, which Josie found puzzling. They used a computerized system for everything, and yet Madge still wrote out all the bills by hand. Slapping the paper down on the Formica, she said, “You need something, you flag me down.” She started to run away, stopped herself, turned around like a robot, and marched back. Squatting down slightly, Madge put a hand on Laura’s shoulder and caught her eyes. “It’s going to be okay, hon. You’re going to do a great job.”
Laura’s eyebrows raised high, and her bright green eyes watered, seeming to thank Madge without words. Josie felt tears fill her own eyes, the compassionate gesture catching everyone off guard. Satisfied that her words had helped, Madge’s impossibly clay-like face cracked into a semblance of a grin.
She stood up and said, “Besides, everybody forgets the pain of shitting out a ten-pound turkey.”
“Bring me a hot fudge sundae. NOW!” Laura gasped.
Madge cackled as she typed the order into her little device and ran to the kitchen.
Josie just rolled her eyes. “What is up with that woman?”
Laura waved her hand. “Eh, forget about it. I don’t want to talk about her. I don’t want to talk about shitting an eight-pound football.” Laura frowned. “Does it really feel that way?”
Josie pointed to herself. “How the hell would I know? I’ve never had a baby.”
“I still think it’s barbaric,” Laura said through gritted teeth. Oh boy, here we go, Josie thought. For the past month Laura had ranted about how barbaric birth was, and how unfair it was that biology had designed women's bodies this way. Why couldn’t there be a better way? And on and on and on. Even Mike—calm, peaceful, mellow Mike—was getting tired of the rant. It was born (pun intended) of fear. They all knew that. None of them had ever given birth, and two out of the three of them weren’t even capable of it.
Josie could just watch and observe and cringe on the inside as she imagined what Laura was about to go through. She knew all the arguments that the suffering was worth the baby, but the pain, the loss of control, and the sheer horror of just imagining the pain, had consumed Laura recently. The three of them might be there to support her, but they really couldn’t offer anything but a few clucks of sympathy and what they hoped were helpful factoids.
“I don’t want to talk about that,” Laura said, shaking her head, her voice clipped and no-nonsense. “I want to talk about this business idea.”
“You want me to go in on a business with you?”
Laura snorted. “I don’t exactly need capital funding for a business project, Josie.” Madge delivered the ice cream sundae and Laura absentmindedly took a bite. “I want you to run the business,” Laura said, her voice low and serious suddenly.
“What business?” Josie asked.
Laura cocked her head and took a deep inhale, her upper body lifting higher as the rest of her stayed in place, like she was two parts of one being. “The business I was just describing.” She tried to lean forward and whispered, “I can’t be any more discreet because I can’t reach forward more.”
“Why do you have to be discreet?” Josie hissed back.
“Because the idea is for a dating company that…you know…” Laura motioned as if it were a secret or something to hide.
Josie mimicked Laura. “You know what?”
“A threesome dating service,” Laura whispered.