LIZZIE walked ahead of Rake into the restaurant, her eyes adjusting to the dimly lit space as she scanned the crowd of people waiting to be seated.
Over by the bar, she spotted her four favorite people in the entire world.
Indira was leaning against the bar, while Thu stood in front of her, sipping a cocktail. Harper was perched on a barstool, facing them, with one arm wrapped around Dan’s waist. Lizzie watched them for a moment, absorbing the way Thu said something that made Indira throw back her head and laugh. How Dan’s body molded against Harper as though he couldn’t help but be pulled in closer. Dan stooped to whisper something into Harper’s ear, and whatever it was made Harper turn and beam up at him then brush her hand across his cheek.
They were so in love, it was almost tangible, like a delicate force field existed around their happiness. The sight of their pure, open adoration rattled something in Lizzie’s chest and tightened her throat. It wasn’t jealousy—no one deserved love and happiness more than Harper—but an acute sense of want. And loss. Like she was peeping through a window and seeing something she would never get.
Harper’s eyes flicked away from Dan and landed on Lizzie. A goofy grin of excitement filled Harper’s delicate features as she started waving, gaining the attention of the rest of the group. All four of them moved toward Lizzie, and it took every ounce of Lizzie’s minimal self-control not to break into a dead sprint across the restaurant for a hug.
The four women threw their hands around one another, giggling as they tangled in a tight hug that eased the squeezing feeling in Lizzie’s chest. Lizzie eventually freed herself long enough to give Dan his own hug.
“I’m not letting you guys go back to New York,” Lizzie said, fixing Harper and Dan with a stern look. “Or you to California,” she added, swinging around to point at Thu. “Consider this the beginning of your kidnapping. I’ve missed you all way too much.”
“We’ve missed you too, Lizzie,” Dan said, giving her shoulders a final squeeze.
Thu cleared her throat, making the subtle yet universal face that said, There’s someone weird lurking around us, causing Harper, Dan, and Indira to shoot glances over Lizzie’s shoulder.
Guilt hit her as she realized she’d forgotten Rake’s existence in her excitement. She was always doing that. Getting so lost in a feeling, social norms and niceties flew out the window.
She turned, grabbing Rake’s arm and pulling him to stand next to her. “So, uh, I’m sorry I didn’t mention this sooner,” Lizzie said, starting to swing her and Rake’s clasped hands, “but this is … um … this is my … uh, Rake, and he’s here to join us for dinner.”
“Your what?” Thu said, her head snapping back.
“Rake,” Lizzie repeated, her leg starting to bounce as she mentally prepared for the onslaught of questions Rake’s presence would no doubt cause.
“I’m confused. Are you calling him a rake like a gardening tool?” Indira asked, looking between them.
“Oh, he’s a tool, all right,” Lizzie said, making herself snort at her own joke. Rake couldn’t stand any stiffer at her side.
“My name is Rake,” he clarified. “Like the tool,” he added, shooting Indira a weak attempt at a smile.
“Yes. Rake. This one is named Rake,” Lizzie continued to babble. Her friends sent her a questioning glance. Lizzie waved her hand toward him. “He’s my, um…” She let the words dangle, shooting a helpless look at Rake, who was similarly at a loss for what they were.
An awkward moment of silence settled around the group as Lizzie’s friends continued to stare with open confusion. A light dusting of color spread across Rake’s cheeks under the attention. Lizzie had never done anything close to introducing a guy to her friends without at least a prefacing text along the lines of “I’m bringing along the guy I’m screwing tonight,” so their confusion wasn’t much of a surprise.
Dan broke the tension first, reaching out a hand to Rake. “Rake,” he said, nodding at him.
“It’s, uh, nice to meet you,” Harper said, also reaching out to shake his hand. Thu and Indira followed suit.
“I’m so glad to meet you all,” Rake said, his hand hovering in the air after the shake like he didn’t know what to do with it. “Lizzie’s told me so many wonderful things about you.”
This wasn’t a line. Lizzie had spent the entire trip to the restaurant gushing about her friends.
Silence stretched after the greetings, and Lizzie had the uncontrollable need to fill it.
“Rake’s Australian,” she said. Harper and Dan nodded, looking at her with almost pained expressions. Indira and Thu pressed their lips together in an attempt not to laugh. “He’s, uh, tall too. What, like, six-two?” She looked to Rake for confirmation, her eyes going a little wonky and wild as she scrambled to force a flow of conversation. “Big muscles.”
He gave her an imploring look, an almost imperceptible shake of his head, begging her to stop. She wanted to. She wanted nothing more than to shut her mouth.
But the word-vomit was overwhelming, a projectile coming before she could stop it, completely out of her control.
Silence did this to her.
“Huge dick too.”
If Lizzie was uncomfortable in the silence before, it was nothing compared to the silence that struck the group after.
“Oh, Lizzie,” Harper whispered, ducking her face to her hand to shield her from the secondhand embarrassment. Indira let out a huge laugh before slamming her mouth shut.
Rake gaped at Lizzie, his face turning white, then pink, then red, then purple. He looked like he wanted to strangle her.
She wished he would.
Her absolute anguish must have been obvious because his anger softened a degree. He screwed up his face tight, eyes squeezing shut, forehead creasing with deep lines, then visibly relaxed like the snap of a released rubber band. His eyes opened, and he gave her a tense but understanding smile.
“And this is Lizzie,” he said, keeping his eyes on hers. “She’s American. Average height. Great tits. Lovely ass. Likes to embarrass me. We’re … friends.”
“Really great friends,” Lizzie added. The type of friends who were so close, they made a baby after knowing each other for forty-eight hours! Yay friendship!
A thick cloud of awkwardness hugged the group, no one knowing what else to say. The tension of it made Lizzie want to scream, but instead, she shuffled her feet, concentrating on keeping them in a single square tile on the floor in an odd little jig of uncomfortableness.
Dan’s eyes flicked from her feet to her face, and the kindness and understanding in his look allowed Lizzie to let out a breath. Dan gave her an almost imperceptible nod.
“Table for Dan?” the hostess called from her stand, gathering menus.
“Oh, thank God,” Lizzie burst out, her shoulders drooping from released tension. “This was getting a little awkward.”
“A little?” Thu said, fixing Lizzie with a look before turning and following the hostess, Harper, Indira, and Rake trailing behind her. Dan laughed, bringing Lizzie into a side hug and walking her toward the waiting hostess.
“I’ve missed you saying exactly what everyone’s thinking,” he said, giving her a squeeze. “Don’t worry, it can only get better from here,” he added, before releasing her as they walked to their table in a single-file line.
Once they were seated around the table with drinks ordered, conversations started to flow. Harper filled everyone in on the gruesome surgeries she’d performed recently, describing them with a grin like the bloodthirsty little angel she was. Thu talked about how much she hated Los Angeles but was glad she’d found a friend in her residency program. Dan said something boring about numbers that made Lizzie’s brain groan but had Harper smiling at him like he placed every star in the sky.
And through it all, Lizzie’s phone buzzed nonstop on her lap, rotating messages from Indira, Thu, and Harper flooding the group chat so aggressively Lizzie couldn’t comprehend how they were also carrying on a verbal conversation.
Indira
Lizzie, who is this guy?
Thu
what fresh hell is this dearest Elizabeth?
Harper
Lizzie!!!!! Do you have a boyfriend???
Thu
Indira, has Lizzie brought him to your apartment before?
Indira
I’ve never seen him. She’s never even mentioned him before
Indira
he hot AF tho
Thu
answer us Liz
When it became obvious Lizzie wasn’t going to answer their texts, Thu decided to slap her metaphorical dick on the table and get straight to it.
“So, how long have you two known each other?” she asked, taking a sip of wine.
Rake and Lizzie flashed each other a glance before looking down at their plates. “A few weeks,” Lizzie said, dragging her fork along the tablecloth.
“How’d you meet?” Harper said.
“At a bar,” Lizzie responded, craning her neck to look for their waitress. Having food to cram into her mouth would be ideal at this moment. She felt the truth scrambling out of her throat, and she instinctively knew its delivery would be less than ideal.
“Do you live in the city?” Dan asked Rake.
“I don’t, actually. I live in Sydney.”
Her friends shot her a curious look at that news.
“And what are your intentions with our lovely Elizabeth?” Indira said, a hint of a laugh in her voice. “You better not whisk her across the globe from me.”
Rake cleared his throat. “Uh. We…”
“What was that?” Thu pressed, sensing his discomfort and pouncing like a tiger on meat. Lizzie’s pulse started to punch painfully at her throat, her leg jiggling below the table.
“We’re … Lizzie and I…” Rake trailed off, looking at Lizzie.
“You’re…?” Thu repeated.
“I’m pregnant,” Lizzie blurted out. And the impact seemed to freeze her friends in place, a piece of bread falling from Indira’s fingers, Harper’s wineglass halfway to her mouth, Dan’s eyes large and dazed as he stared at a spot on the table.
Thu was the first to move, violently shaking her head as if she were removing water from her ears. “You’re what?” she said, her voice barely a whisper.
“Knocked up. Bun in the oven. Good ole Rake over here basted my turkey with that massive dong,” Lizzie said, nodding toward Rake on her right. She let out a booming laugh of discomfort that made everyone jump.
“What are you going to do?” Thu said, her voice rising. “What’s your plan? How long have you known? Why didn’t you tell us?”
Lizzie shrugged, dragging her thumbnail across the table.
“What are you going to do, Lizzie?” Thu repeated.
“Thu, come on,” Harper said quietly, putting a hand on Thu’s forearm. Thu whipped her arm away from her.
“Don’t give me that ‘come on.’ What am I supposed to say? Congratulations on your massive accident?”
“Hey!” Lizzie said, her voice rising. While, yes, le bébé was an accident, it was her accident. And she was already quite fond of said accident.
“No,” Thu pressed back, never one to beat around the bush or approach a subject with delicacy. “I’m not going to sit here and pretend with you all that this is some great news. You don’t even know this guy.”
“I know him!” Lizzie said.
“Yeah? What’s his middle name?”
Silence.
“How about his birthday? You know that one, Lizzie? Or does he have any siblings?”
Lizzie crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at her lap like a pouty child, shame pricking through her like needles.
“How did this happen?” Thu said.
“Well,” Lizzie said, eyes still fixed on her lap, “when a man and a woman get super horny and rub their naughty bits together—”
“Lizzie, stop.” Thu’s face was serious and stern. “You’re an adult. How do you not know the fundamental basics of not getting fucking pregnant?”
“Because I’m a moron, I guess!” Lizzie burst out, hot tears stinging at her eyes. “Because it never occurred to me to check the expiration date on a condom! It’s rubber, for fuck’s sake, not a carton of milk!”
“You have more sex than anyone I know. How did you even manage to let one expire?”
Lizzie opened her mouth to offer some weak excuse, but the low rumble of Rake’s voice cut her off.
“I think it’s time you stop talking.”
Lizzie’s head whipped around to look at him. He was staring straight at Thu, whose eyes widened in shock.
“Excuse me?” Thu said, fixing him with a terrifying glare.
“I mean this with as much respect as possible, but you need to stop. Now.”
The entire table was frozen in another stunned silence. Harper and Dan shared a similar mask of horror, while Indira’s jaw was almost resting on the table. No one ever told Thu to do anything, let alone stop talking. Rake had unwittingly stepped into a minefield.
Without warning, Thu threw her head back and laughed, making everyone jump. Ending the cackle as abruptly as she’d started it, she pointed a finger at Rake. “You don’t tell me what to do, asshole.”
Rake held up his palms in defense. “I’m sorry, but I’m not going to sit here and listen to you berate Lizzie like this. Do you really think she isn’t confused enough? That we aren’t confused enough? And scared shitless and asking ourselves all these same questions? Because we are. Was this planned? No. Do we have a plan? Not really, but we’re working on it. You shaming her isn’t going to make this process any easier. Lizzie doesn’t need someone pointing out all the reasons this situation is less than ideal. She needs a friend.” Rake turned suddenly, aggressively, to face Lizzie. She stared at him with wide eyes. “My middle name is Arthur. I was born on January 23. I’m an only child.”
Rake continued to stare at her, Lizzie blinking back, trying to process all the different signals vying for her attention. After a moment Rake cocked an impatient eyebrow.
“Well?” he pressed, waving his hand. “Tell me yours.”
Lizzie snapped out of it. “My middle name is Marie. It’s boring and common, and I’ve always hated it. I was born on April 1, and I have an older brother named Ryan. And a sister-in-law named Mary. She’s perfect.”
Rake nodded once. “Great. I look forward to meeting them.” Then, without preamble, he turned back to the table, clapping his hands together. “Now that Lizzie and I obviously know each other, I think it’s best if we go. You’ve sufficiently upset her, and I’d like to take her home to rest.” He stood, holding out a hand for Lizzie.
In a daze, she took it, looking between her friends. Indira’s mouth still dangled open, and Thu sat there with a blank look on her face, the first time Lizzie had ever seen her lost for words. Harper’s eyes flicked back and forth between Lizzie and Rake in a blur, but Dan met Lizzie’s gaze with an unabashed grin, one eyebrow giving the subtlest arch of approval before Rake placed his hand on Lizzie’s lower back and guided her to the door.