I bent down and rubbed her back. It all clicked now. “Candie, this is great news. Is Zachary your doctor?”
She nodded. “We’re due in six months.”
A laugh bubbled out of me. “Sorry, I was just thinking how funny it was that I thought you and Zachary were having an affair.”
“Me, cheat on Wil with Dr. Robot Zach?” Wrinkles formed between her brows as she frowned at me.
“I know, it was a stupid thought. But wow, six months! My game will be released in six months, too, just before the holidays. We’ll be giving birth at the same time.” Stroking her hair, I added, “Jane will be fine. She’s probably just worried about her foiled bridesmaid dress plans because you’re preggers now. But I have to ask . . . I thought Wil was superreligious and didn’t believe in sex before marriage.”
She lifted her eyes from the floor to my face. “Yeah, we abstained while we did the long-distance thing, but one night we got really drunk and, well, all those years of pent-up angst blew the fuck up, and we crammed a lot of sex into a short period of time. He was so horny that we broke the—”
I cut her off before she got too pornographic and made ME vomit. “Oh geez, I don’t need to hear all that. I just assumed you guys were all Puritan-like and, well, you aren’t.”
“Yeah, we are definitely not. Not anymore.” She pulled herself upright, using my arm as leverage. “Do I look okay? Let’s go back to the dinner. I’ll be fine.” As she washed her hands she said, “Oh, wait, I had one more thing to say.”
Between Asher’s dinner cameo appearance and Candace announcing her pregnancy at Jane’s prerehearsal dinner, I couldn’t imagine anything else surprising me.
“Wil went out and bought me a ring.” She pulled a tiny drawstring satchel from her purse’s inner pocket. A classic square-cut solitaire ring its only contents. Exactly Candace’s style. Good job, Wil.
She continued. “I didn’t put it on because I didn’t want to upset Jane at her special dinner, you know how she is.” It was a good plan, except for the fact that the accidental baby announcement turned out to be an even bigger deal than Jane’s engagement. Our Candace bringing a human into this world? What a huge fucking deal!
“I really am so excited for you! Wil is an amazing guy. I know you’ll be happy together! And that little guy or girl will be gorgeous, I bet.” Wil was Chinese, Candace was Caucasian. They’d have a cute little happy hapa baby.
She smiled and hugged me. “Thanks. I . . . I know it’s crazy to ask, but . . . um . . . would you be the godmother for the baby?”
What did godmothers do? Babysit? Attend all birthday parties? My only godmother context was Cinderella. And that involved ball gowns, fairies, and step-bitches.
“I guess? Could you let me know what that means? And are you getting married first?”
She nodded and sighed. “We’re going to do a courthouse wedding soon, because I don’t want to look huge in all the pictures. I know, it’s totally shallow. But I hope you’ll come to that. I can’t imagine getting married without you by my side.”
My eyes brimmed with tears. We’d been through so much since our freshman year of college together, and I loved her so much. Plus, she was pregnant and no one should be mean to pregnant people. “Yes, of course I’ll come. And I’ll be the godmama. I would be honored.”
She squealed and hugged me again so hard my arms may have bruised. “I was thinking about asking Jane to be at the courthouse ceremony, too, but I might give her time to sit with my baby news first. I think my engagement news on top of that baby announcement might be a lot for her to handle. Since the pregnancy and engagement were unplanned I’m hoping she doesn’t see this as me upstaging her somehow.” Candace put her ring back in the satchel. Really? We couldn’t celebrate this amazing news out of fear of hurting someone else’s feelings? She and Jane grew up together, and they became roommates after college. I met Jane through Candace. We’d all gone through a lot together and I had hoped by now that none of us would be trying to one-up each other.
We stayed in the bathroom a while, chatting about the pregnancy while we freshened up. When we were ready