I whirled at Claire’s angry voice. “I am!”
It was an immediate response and not at all true.
Claire’s gaze narrowed. “You’re lying, and I think you need to work out what’s going on with you, because this is not about me.”
I threw myself back down onto the couch, deflated from my hissy fit, tears in my eyes. “I thought you were like me, you know…”
“No, I don’t know what you mean. In what way?”
“Married to your job. Single. You know… not into men.”
Claire’s eyes opened wide. “Oh, I’m not gay… is that what this is about? Because I’m sorry if you thought…”
That snapped me out of my doldrums, double time. “Oh, no. No! I’m not a lesbian or anything, it’s just…”
I heaved a sigh. I didn’t know what was wrong with me.
I dashed away the tears on my face and took a deep breath.
“Let’s start this again. Hi, Claire. You look amazing. Obviously living in the woods and not working agrees with you. Your skin is glowing!”
Words I never thought I’d say, but there they were. Out in the open.
Claire was the job, as I was. There was nothing else in my life that I relied on except my work.
Claire smiled and her eyes went suspiciously glossy. “I’m pregnant.”
To who?
“That’s brilliant… are you happy about it?” I didn’t know how else to ask.
Claire coughed over her laughter as tears slid down her face.
I rushed over to her couch and took her hand in mine. “I’m so sorry for being such a wreck. You know me and my issues. I didn’t mean to push them all on you.”
Claire laughed properly this time, and wiped at her tears. “Oh, I’m not sad. Don’t worry, just emotional. Bloody hormones.”
Well, at least it wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t stand the idea of causing Claire harm. “So, you’re... happy about the pregnancy, then?”
Claire turned on the couch and squeezed the hand she held. “Yes, definitely. Look, as far as the world is concerned, I’m dating Taylor. Dexter and Jay are just our housemates. But as my friend, I wanted to be honest with you. I love them all, and they love me, which… you will see soon enough, because I think I hear them coming.”
I jumped up and ran across the room to my previous seat as the door banged open and a flurry of testosterone and muscles c
ame in the door.
I looked for the men I’d seen this morning, but they were nowhere to be seen, and amazingly I recognised a twinge of disappointment inside of me.
“Hey, baby, what’s wrong? You okay?” one of them asked, his concern obvious as he moved towards Claire.
There were three of them, just as Claire had said. Small, medium and large.
The small one went straight to Claire’s side and cupped her face to look at her tears.
She nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay. You know what I’m like at the moment.”
The small one smiled and dropped a tender kiss on her lips. “I do.”
Then suddenly he looked up and saw me. “Oh! You said you had a friend dropping in. Hey, I’m Jay.”