Page 29 of Oops, I'm Having My Best Friend’s Baby!

Jess smiled at her, a little bit of warmth returning to her face. “Thanks, Amy. You’re really nice.”

Amy blinked in surprise. “You think I’m nice?”

“You don’t think you’re nice?”

“Well, not particularly…” she said awkwardly, but it was the truth. “I’m a little too, you know, abrupt for most people’s tastes. A little too prickly. I don’t think I’ve been called nice before.”

“Well, I think you’re nice,” Jess said firmly, and Amy felt tears prick at the sentiment. She didn’t really know what to say after that, and Jess still seemed so down, not her usual bubbly self, so Amy pulled her in for a hug. With the way they were sitting side by side it was awkward, and it was doubly awkward because Amy wasn’t used to all of this affection with people she barely knew. But when Jess hugged her back, she was glad she did it.

“Are we interrupting a moment?”

Kai and Jason had finally appeared, each of them holding two beers and looking like they were about to back away at any moment, all they needed was the appropriate signal.

“One of those better be for me,” Jess said to Jason, and he dutifully handed the bottle over to her. Kai sat down opposite them, next to Jason, and handed Amy a beer as well.

“Welcome to the joys of the paparazzi,” Kai said to her with a tired sort of cheerfulness and a sarcastic toast of his drink.

“Thanks,” Amy said just as sarcastically. “I hate it. Please unwelcome me.”

It made Jess laugh at least, and the sound of her tinkling laugh was enough to lighten the atmosphere on the deck, enough at least that Amy felt like she could relax back in her seat.

“Does that seriously happen all the time?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“Pretty much.” Jess sighed, seeming less downhearted now at least. “Usually, it’s only one or two though, not a whole flock of them.”

“Ravenous seagulls,” growled Jason with a shake of his head, taking a swig of his beer.

“It’s probably because we’re not in our usual habitat,” said Kai. “They’ll take any sort of fodder they can and then spin the most ridiculous story out of it.”

Like how there was one photo of me and Kai at a high school reunion and suddenly we’re pretending to be engaged…But Amy kept her mouth firmly shut and didn’t say that out loud. But yes, she could see how wildly out of context the simplest things could be taken.

“The headline will probably be something wild,” Jess said with a roll of her eyes. “I’ll be infertile, and Amy has agreed to be my surrogate.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time you being supposedly infertile was a headline,” muttered Jason.

“Oh my God, really?” Amy asked, disgusted.

“Jess gets it far worse than either of us do,” Kai said.

“The joys of being a woman,” she said with a raise of her drink. “Getting rumors printed about whether I’m pregnant or not because I stepped outside the house in flat shoes instead of heels. But I’m sure Amy can sympathize, can’t you?”

“Not to that extreme…” Amy said. “God, that’s so terrible.”

All three of them, Kai, Jess, and Jason, shrugged in unison.

“What can you do, man?” Jason asked, not sounding like his usual spritely self. “It just comes with the rest of it, you know? Nothing in this life comes for free, and with this sort of scrutiny, I guess that it’s the price we have to pay for our success.”

“Still,” Amy said, unsettled by the whole thing. “It’s gross.”

“You’ve always made fun of me for constantly saying ‘I’m having a meeting with my lawyer,’” said Kai with a grin. “But this is why. There’s always a cease-and-desist letter to send out to someone, somewhere.”

“Don’t get me started on the blackmail threats,” said Jason, and Jess laughed.

“They’re not even good threats. Like, come on.”

“You’ve been threatened with blackmail?” Amy asked, growing more horrified by the second. Mostly she was horrified about how blasé they were all being about such serious offenses.

“Yeah.” Jason sighed. This was all old news to him, after all. “Some guy sent a bunch of emails saying that I needed to pay him an outrageous amount of money or he would leak photos of me and my mistress.”

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