Page 71 of Hale Yes
“Ma, of course, was completely offended that I would dare to insinuate something like that about her precious baby girl. Pop…” She sighs and stares into her drink again. “Pop has always been kind of like an ostrich. If he keeps his head buried in the sand, nothing bad can happen. If he doesn’t want it to be true, then it must be a lie.”
“He didn’t believe you either.” My words are a statement rather than a question because I can see it in the dip of her head and the slump of her shoulders.
“It was the only time my father has ever yelled at me.” Her voice is so low, I can barely hear it. When she lifts her eyes to mine, I see the fierceness I normally only see when she’s working on a difficult problem in the lab. “I knew what was happening, but no one would listen to me. We got into a big fight, and I left early to go back to school.”
“Where did you stay?” I ask.
“I’d made friends with the resident adviser in my dorm. I had tutored her in biology, so she let me sleep on her futon until I was able to move back into my room. It was only about a month until the fall semester started.”
“Did your parents contact you?”
Nicolette shrugs and takes a long sip of her drink. “Pop did the next day. He apologized for yelling but told me I couldn’t just go around saying things like that.”
“Jesus, it’s not like you posted it on Facebook for the whole world to see. You just had a private conversation with your parents about your concerns for two family members.”
She blows out a sigh. “Exactly. Anyway, I told him not to worry. I’d never bring it up again.”
“Not your circus, not your monkeys,” I say, and Nicolette laughs. I love seeing her laugh.
“I say that in my head all the time.” Hooking her straw through the hole in a piece of ice, she lifts it to her mouth and slips it inside before crunching it. “My mother’s always been like she is, but that whole blow up changed how I thought about my father. I was still hurt months later, so I chose to go home with a friend for Christmas break my sophomore year and didn’t even go back to Jersey. Same with Spring Break.”
“Did you ever go back?”
She shakes her head. “I thought I was going to have to for the next summer, but I was offered a paid internship at Aquarius. There was a host family that I stayed with in New York.”
I’m truly amazed by her. She was still a teenager then and yet more independent than most thirty-year-olds I know. “So how does that relate to the baby cuddling program?”
“Ah,” she tells me with a lift of one brow. “I almost forgot what we were talking about.”
“Because you’re so much older than me,” I tease. “They say memory is the first thing to go.”
Nicolette holds up her index finger and pretends to glare at me. “One year, whippersnapper. I’m one year older than you.”
A chuckle rumbles my chest. “Okay, fine.” Then I mutter so she can hear, “Some people get so testy in their old age.”
She gasps and playfully kicks my shin beneath the table. “I’m going to need to speak with your mother, Dr. Hale, because I know she raised you better than to make fun of a lady’s age.”
I think of that text from my mother asking to meet my “new girlfriend” and laugh again. “You two would probably get along really well.” My coffee is cooling, so I drain the rest of it and set down the yellow mug. “Go ahead and finish your story. I’m sorry I interrupted with my abhorrent rudeness.”
With a sniff, she says, “Thank you for acknowledging your mistake.” She stirs her straw around the almost empty glass.
“Do you want another coffee? Something to eat?”
Nicolette’s mouth twists in thought. “It might be a little late for more coffee. Just water will be fine.” Her hand goes to her stomach, as if she’s testing to see if she’s hungry. “And maybe something light to eat?”
“They have a huge club sandwich here. We could split it.”
When she nods, I flag down a server and place our order. She returns shortly with our waters, and Nicolette takes a long drink.
“Okay, the baby thing,” she says, setting her glass down before inhaling and exhaling slowly. “So I told you I was in New York for the summer.”
“I remember.”
“Well, I heard through the grapevine that Zoey was pregnant. I’d unfollowed her on all social media accounts because she was always posting wild pics of her and Angelica. It made me sick to see them like that.” Her voice turns soft with thoughtfulness. “Zoey was a year older than me, so between me and my sister. She was always nice to me growing up, and it was hard seeing her throw her life away.”
Nicolette nibbles on her bottom lip and runs an absent finger up and down the sweat forming on the side of her water glass. “Anyway, that summer I got a call from Pop that Zoey went into early labor, and the baby wasn’t doing well.”
I’m starting to see where this is headed, and my guts clench.
