chicating | Continued Original Fiction...

“Sure.” Jess said. “Maybe we’ll take two; they’re small.”

“Um, wow,” Ana said. I wasn’t surprised; she was a lawyer, if not a fancy one. “Can we have some privacy for a moment, please?”

“Of course, “ I replied. “Not like I can tackle you or anything.” I tried to laugh… it didn’t help.

I guess they just wanted the illusion of privacy because they just moved away into the hall. I turned up the TV for a moment, barely registering the phony-seeming argument of the sitcom couple on the screen. They provided enough cover so it didn’t look like I was eavesdropping, though, so I kept them on.

“So, what was that?”

“We talked about it.”
“Yeah, before the fed-ex driver made her special delivery, we talked about it. I’m not sure now.” I flipped channels and pretended to be interested in an uptick of wrong-way drivers on the local news

“I thought you were getting over that!”

“I am…or at least, I will be. But a baby isn’t…clothes, right? You can’t just take her in case you use it.”

“I didn’t mean it that way…you know I didn’t. How great of a mom would you make?”

“Gender aside, I sort of liked the thought of being Dad. Breezing in to do the fun stuff after I did my awesome job that the world gives me tons of credit for.”

“I’m gonna tell Justin you said that. Even if I think that’s Daddy Warbucks and not most real people.”
“Don’t. I have to be at work on Monday, and I would never hear the end of that shit.’

Then, just as I was feeling drawn in to my own personal cable drama, my own phone rang. The couple, as if remembering that I was there all over again, stopped talking, and I had the nerve to be disappointed as if the cable went out mid-sentence. My nightstand was a nightmare from trying to keep everything on it so by the time I found my phone the last ring was fading from my ear.