“Diane. I asked for no games.”
“Games!”
“Oh, this one’s harmless.” She waved me off and pulled out a spool of ribbon. “Guess Mommy’s Belly Size!”
Nearly forty people, most of them strangers, stared at my stomach while I stood there like a prize pig.
They tugged off lengths of ribbon. One woman held up a piece the size of a hula hoop, and the room howled.
I stood there like a prize pig.
Diane laughed hardest.
I smiled. It felt like pulling a muscle.
Levi was beside me before the laughter died.
“We’re leaving.”
I looked past him. The gifts stacked on the table. My two best friends, who’d driven across town for me.
Diane laughed hardest.
Diane in the middle of the room, flushed and happy, surrounded by people toasting her first grandchild.
“No,” I whispered.
“Mel.”
