“Shh!” I put my fingers to my lips. “No one’s supposed to know that.”
“Okay, okay.” Aimee lowered her voice. “But you fall in love with Dale, and he wins that Battle of the Bands and gets all super-famous.”
“Not yet.” Dale smirked. “If I was super famous we wouldn’t be able to sit in an Olive Garden without interruption.”
Aimee ignored him. “Then that goddamned photographer—by the way, Dale, you should sue him. Take him to the cleaners. I won’t buy one wedding picture from him.”
“Aimee, don’t do that!” I exclaimed. “They’re your wedding photos!”
“My mom bought a bunch. I’ll get hers when she’s dead,” she replied. “Anyway, one picture in the paper and poof! Your real dad finds you!”
“I know.” Hadn’t I just been thinking the same thing earlier? “It is weird.”
“It’s fate.” Aimee insisted. “Like meeting Matt. If you hadn’t stayed after school that day—”
“Washing desks with Dale,” I reminded her.
“Then I wouldn’t have gone home with Carrie and Wendy. And I never would have met Carrie’s brother.”
“What about the bee?” Dale asked. “Was that fate too?”
“Bees are the devil.” Aimee shuddered involuntarily, glaring at him.
“Oh there’s a devil, but no God.” Matt rolled his eyes, getting another breadstick out of the basket.
“Besides,” Aimee said, waving her hand in dismissal. “Matt didn’t fall in love with me because of the bee.”
Matt swallowed and blinked. “I kind of did.”
“What?” Aimee clearly didn’t like hearing that.
“Tread carefully here,” Dale interjected, wagging his finger at Matt. “I don’t want to see you guys on Divorce Court.”
“I just mean… you were so cute, falling all over yourself trying to get away from that bee…” Matt stammered. He was started to turn red. “And you know, I had to get out and rescue you.”
“And no guy can resist rescuing a damsel in distress,” I weighed in.
“But you wouldn’t let me hear the end of it, Matt!” Aimee put her fork down. It clattered on her empty salad plate. “Oh, Aimee, sit here BEEtween me and Carrie. Oh, Aimee, I do BEElieve I see your house. Oh Aimee—”
“I told you, boys only tease you because they like you,” I reminded her. “Mrs. Stowe was right about that.”
“BEEsides.” Matt leaned over and kissed her cheek. “It was that stupid BEE who brought us together.”
Aimee crossed her arms, not looking at him, but I could tell she was relenting.
“You should thank him for giving his life, because the way you jumped in my arms, girl. I was totally…” Matt stopped, searching for the word, turning her face to his. “BEEguiled.”
“Okay, I give up.” She snorted, jerking her chin away and rolling her eyes.
“And then he asked you to marry him, so you were BEEtrothed.” I couldn’t resist.
“The most BEEutiful bride to ever BEEcome a wife.” Matt winked at me.
“Awwww.” I raised my eyebrows at Aimee and she grinned.
“You’re so mean to me.” She nudged him with her elbow, not so hard this time.
“You love it.” He grinned too, putting an arm over her shoulder and reaching into her lap his other hand. “And I love you. And the little BEEn.”
It took me a moment but I realized his hand was on her stomach.
“The little… what?” Dale frowned, picking croutons out of his salad and putting them on mine.
“Bean? Little… bean?” I sat straight up, gaping at them. “Aimee, are you pregnant?”
“Shhh!” Aimee elbowed him again, harder this time. “I wanted to wait until after dessert.”
“That makes sense,” Matt replied as Aimee dug through her purse. “Those ultrasound photos could spoil anyone’s appetite.”
“Shut up!” She laughed, handing a slippery piece of paper over to me.
“How far along?” I asked, looking at the grainy images. I couldn’t see anything. I leaned over and let Dale see but he looked just as puzzled as I was.
“About three months.” She started pointing things out. “This is the face. And this is the belly. These are the legs.”
“I told you.” Matt made a face. “I think she’s having an alien.”
Poor Matt had to get tired of that elbow.
“So you were pregnant at the wedding.” My eyes widened.
“Just a little bit.” She looked sheepish. “We’re telling everyone else a different date. Because you know… his mom and the whole Catholic thing.”
“Well I’ll BEE damned.” Dale sat back and looked over at me.
That made me snort Diet Coke.
“Which brings us back to God or Fate,” Matt reminded us.
“Or just plain coincidence,” I countered.
“Let’s not BEElabor the point.” Aimee sighed.
We all looked at her and cracked up.
“What? I can’t do bee puns?” She looked at us like we were crazy, laughing like hyenas. Then she smiled. “If you can’t BEEt them, join them, right?”
This time it was Dale who choked on my Diet Coke and I had to beat on his back with my fists to get him to stop. Finally, the waitress arrived with our food and I think we all must have been hungry because most of the conversation stopped except for the occasional, “Pass me the salt,” or “Oh my God, you have to try this!”
Dessert was tiramisu. The boys didn’t order any so Aimee and I split one, both of us moaning and sighing over its pure deliciousness.
“She doesn’t even make those sounds in bed,” Matt grumbled, tossing his napkin on the table.
“Then you’re doing something wrong.” Dale laughed when I stuck a chocolate covered tongue out at him.
“I still can’t believe you’re going to have a baby.” I met Aimee’s eyes over our dessert.
“Well, you did it before I did,” she reminded me. “I still remember putting that stuffed bear on your belly and watching her kick it off. “
“Aimee!” Matt exclaimed, eyes wide. “Jeez! She doesn’t want to be reminded—”
“It’s okay, Matt.” I felt tears stinging my eyes but they weren’t sad ones, exactly. I felt Dale’s hand on my back, comforting. “It’s okay to talk about her. For a long time I didn’t, but Aimee was there, she knows. If we talk about her, if she’s remembered, then she still lives on, in some small way.”
Besides, if you believed in fate or God, then you had to believe the bad stuff had a purpose too. And while my pregnancy had come about in a truly horrific way, I never once blamed the baby I was carrying.
“She was unbelievable,” Aimee said, meeting my eyes. “Did the whole thing without drugs.”
“They didn’t do a c-section?” Matt blinked in surprise.
“No, they induced me.” I felt Dale’s hand rubbing my lower back. He was closer now. He’d heard this story. I leaned my head against his shoulder.
“They said recovering from major surgery would be harder than labor,” Aimee told him. “But I don’t know. It sure looked like it hurt like hell. And she did it all without drugs!”
“It did hurt.” Although I couldn’t tell them, any of them, even Dale, that it hurt far less than knowing the baby I was giving birth to wouldn’t ever take a breath. “But you can do it. I’ll be there with you, just like you were for me.”
Aimee picked up the last bit of tiramisu with her fork and put it to my lips. I took it, chewing and swallowing.
“Besides, the midwife said it was so hard for me because the baby wasn’t helping,” I reminded her.
“The baby helps?” Matt gulped his beer.
“Sure,” I replied. “The baby pushes with its feet and moves its head, arches its neck.”
“But Dharma didn’t.” Aimee picked up her napkin, dabbing it at the corners of her eyes.
“I didn’t know you named her,” Dale said softly.
I still had a box of her things packed away I’d still never shown him—the hospital bracelet they put on her, some booties, a hat. The nurses even took a lock of her hair for me—fine blond fuzz. They took Polaroid pictures of me and Aimee holding her. My mother refused. She waited out in the lobby and asked, “All done?” when I limped out. That’s all she ever said about it.
“Dharma Naomi.” I half-smiled at Dale’s eye-roll. “I know, my Tyler Vincent obsession is showing again.”
“Huh?” Matt looked at me, puzzled.
“Tyler Vincent’s oldest daughter’s name is Naomi,” I explained. “I was pretty far gone on him at the time.”
“How was dessert, ladies?” the waitress asked, picking up our tiramisu plate. We’d done everything but lick it clean.
“Great,” Aimee replied. “Can you bring separate checks?”
“Nope, just bring one,” Dale said, digging his wallet out. “I’m buying.”
“Big spender.” I made a face at him. “They paid him an advance but everything comes out of it. The recording sessions, the tour costs, everything.”
“We’ll make it back on the tour.” Dale handed the waitress his card. “Besides, we’re still number one, remember?”
“You’re Dale Diamond!” The waitress looked at the card and then back to him. “I’ll Always Come For You is my favorite song!”
“You can come here us live,” Dale said with a smile. “We’re going on tour at the end of August. We’re opening for Dark Wing.”
“Oh, I love them too!”
“Oh for pete’s sake.” I slid out of the booth, shaking my head at my rock star fiancé who was grinning from ear to ear. He still loved being stopped for autographs. “Go ahead and sign autographs. I’ll meet you in the car. Come on, Aimee, let’s hit the ladies room.”
“Are you okay?” Aimee asked when we were done using the facilities and standing at the mirror, fixing our make-up. “I was really scared about telling you. I didn’t want you to feel bad.”
“Bad?” I met her eyes in the mirror. “Are you kidding me? I’m over the moon for you!”
“And you’ll be there to hold my hand?” She reached out and squeezed mine.
“Every step of the way.”
Dale and Matt were waiting for us in the lobby, which had mostly cleared out. I made it all the way to the car, even waving as Aimee and Matt passed us, before I burst into tears. Dale wrapped his arms around me, stroking my hair, just letting me sob against his shirt.
“It’s so stupid,” I finally sniffed. “Crying over a baby that never should have been conceived.”
“Well that wasn’t her fault, or yours,” he reminded me softly, kissing my forehead.
