Page 6 of Oops, I'm Having My Best Friend’s Baby!

“Nope, no staff,” Amy said, busying herself with tidying up the tables. “Just a solo catering company.”

“But it’s not really a company, then, if you don’t have staff.”

“I didn’t know you were so concerned about what tax bracket my business falls into.”

“Oh, I know which tax bracket you’re in. It’s the lowest one. That doesn’t seem to have changed.”

Amy ground her teeth together and nearly bit her tongue in the process.

“Are you going to eat any of my food, or are you just bored because your minions are occupied?”

Kirsty only revealed the faintest twitch of an eyebrow to show she was annoyed. “I’m still not sure if this is safe for me to eat, you know?”

“Lily is still alive, so I think you’ll be fine.”

“I don’t know…” Kirsty continued, and it was obvious she was just trying to drag this out for her own sadistic pleasure.

Amy picked up a tiny taco and held it out under her nose, close enough that Kirsty went slightly cross-eyed as she looked at it.

“Here,” Amy said. “Do you want me to chew it for you too?”

Kirsty scrunched up her nose.

“Ew,” was all she said before turning and walking away. Amy ate the taco she’d picked up, suddenly realizing she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. She was finishing her bite of food and preparing to take a stack of empty platters back to the cafeteria when she felt someone take her hand from behind. Amy was so wound up that she was about ready to pull her hand free and slap whoever it was across the face in a weird spurt of self-defense. It was lucky she didn’t, though.

“Kai?”

He was standing there, her hand in his, looking tired and ruffled, the sleeves of his business shirt rolled up casually around his elbows, his dark brown hair swept back from his face. Amy could tell it was because he’d been running his fingers through it.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said, giving her hand a squeeze.

Late?

“You’re not late because you said you weren’t coming. There was a meeting, remember?”

“It got delayed at the last minute,” he said quickly, shrugging it off. “Came over as soon as I could. How’s it all going?”

Amy thought she might actually cry at that point because it was going terribly and she’d hated every second so far. He had been absolutely right that no job was worth this sort of psychological torture, and therefore, Kai was also within his right to give her a big, fat “I told you so.”

But of course she couldn’t even begin her own mental breakdown without getting interrupted.

“Are you sure these are seafood-free?” said Kirsty’s airy voice, punctuated by the click of her heels, accompanied once again by Jade and Shelley who had released the poor photographer. “Things can have traces of fish, you know, from manufacturing equipment. So what measures have you taken to ensure that I’m not going to end up in the hospital…”

She drifted off into a silent sort of surprise when she noticed Amy hand in hand with Kai. Amy was about to pull away and tell her to go look through the trash if she wanted to check the ingredients herself, but Kai, sensing violence, tugged on her arm and pulled her into a sideways hug, his large hand warm on her shoulder.

“Amy would have thought of that,” he said confidently. “No need to worry.”

The three girls just stood there for a second with their mouths hanging open like a school of particularly stupid fish. Then Jade spoke up, the first time she’d spoken in Amy’s presence all evening.

“Hey, Kai,” she said with an edge of a giggle in her voice. It made Amy’s spine crawl, and she instinctively leaned harder into her sideways hug with Kai in case she needed to protect him from these piranhas.

“Sorry,” Kai said with a shake of his head. “I don’t know if we’ve been introduced?”

Their faces fell slack again, all three of them offended, and Amy had to bite down on a smug grin.

“Um, you remember us,” Kirsty said confidently, once again taking the lead. She gestured at Jade and Shelley beside her as if it were obvious. Amy was amazed that she didn’t flip her hair like it was a teen show from the nineties or something.

Kai said nothing, just tilted his head a fraction and blinked slowly. Very, very slowly. Amy could have kissed him.

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