Page 21 of Oops, I'm Having My Best Friend’s Baby!

“What are you ladies up to?” Jason said, his loud voice carrying over the wind as he and Kai approached, having emerged from their business den. Amy was glad to see them both in one piece after she’d witnessed how serious they’d looked together at that table.

“I got a bunch of those work posts ready to be scheduled!” Jess said cheerfully.

“Well done, baby!” Jason congratulated her enthusiastically, kissing Jess on the top of her head and collapsing onto the chair beside her while Kai continued wandering over, hands in pockets.

“Amy helped,” Jess said, tapping his knee.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, look at these photos she took. I told her she’d make a great photographer.”

They continued debriefing each other about their respective mornings as Kai sat down next to Amy and nudged her with his knee.

“Glad to see you’re making friends,” he said with a tiny smirk that only she could see. She nudged him straight back.

“Well, you were busy.”

“Sorry, didn’t know you’d be such a clingy fiancée.”

Amy was interrupted from rolling her eyes when Jason wrangled them all together to have lunch, ushering them around like he was a mother hen at a kid’s birthday party.

Jason had thrown Amy off at first with his larger-than-life voice and mannerisms. She’d thought it was all an act, this cool-guy persona thrown on in order to be more “relatable” or whatever. But it turned out that he really was just an actual cool guy. He was loud and big and started half his sentences with “Hey, man.” But he absolutely doted on Jess; it was obvious that he loved her to bits. He always made sure that nobody was hungry or thirsty and that everyone had sunscreen if they needed it. And he looked out for Amy too, making sure to include her, to ask her questions, to give her attention or some space if needed.

In short, Amy’s first impressions of Jason and Jess had been entirely shattered. She actually liked them. That was the most unexpected part of it all. Amy was on this trip to help Kai out of the hole he had dug for himself, but if she achieved only one other thing this week, she was going to try hard to lower her walls. She was going to give these people a chance, and she was going to give herself a chance, too.

It was still weird sleeping on a boat. No matter how big it was, Amy could still feel the waves pushing them about and it was a disconcerting experience. Every time that she halfway drifted off to sleep, a larger than normal wave would come along and jolt her awake, making her feel like she was falling. At least she hadn’t gotten seasick at all. That definitely would have put a damper on things.

“Can’t sleep?” Kai’s drowsy, muffled voice drifted over from the couch where he was cocooned in sheets and blankets like a giant caterpillar. Amy flipped over in the bed so she could face him. It was dark without any lamps on, but through the small window there was enough moonlight shining in to highlight the edges of Kai’s face.

“Not really,” Amy said.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just thinking.”

“About what?”

“Lots of stuff. About how Jess is really nice,” she said, her voice quiet in the dark even though there was no way their conversation could be heard by the others on this massive boat.

Kai hummed in agreement. “She is,” he said. “She literally wouldn’t hurt a fly. Wait until she invites you to one of her dinner parties. It’s basically the equivalent of a ball from the eighteen hundreds. Apparently, at one there was a string quartet and everything.”

Amy pictured herself in a nice dress, standing beside Jess instead of off in a corner, separated from the beautiful people who usually took up all the space and attention in the world. She pictured herself being brave enough to step into a role like that, to think of herself as being worthy of all that attention.

“You think she would?”

“Hmm?”

“You think she would invite me?” And God, Amy knew how pathetic she sounded, like that high school kid being left out all over again and pretending it didn’t bother her. But if she’d learned anything from that reunion, it was that it did still bother her.

Kai shifted around on the couch so his face was more visible in the dim light. “Yeah. She really likes you. She was showing off those photos of you two from on deck trying to decide which one she was going to frame as, like, a memento for the trip. Jason was telling me how hard it’s been for her to make friends because she is so nice. She wants to give people the world and then people take advantage of her because of it. They just want her for her money or connections. They get that and then leave her in the dust. He said it’s happened so many times that poor Jess has some serious trust issues because of it.”

Amy didn’t know how to respond to that. Mostly because she felt guilty about her own first impressions of Jess, only looking skin-deep and assuming she knew everything about this woman. She could fix that, though.

“I’ll be her friend,” she said.

Even in the dark, even from this distance, Amy could see the smile on Kai’s face. “I think she would really appreciate it, Amy. And it would be good for you too, you know. Having a new friend.”

“I have you,” she said, but it was only met with silence. Just when she was about to properly start panicking about why Kai hadn’t responded, he started talking.

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