“Thanks for that.” Eric placed his utensils in the bowl and pushed it to the table’s edge. “I really don’t need to be picturing a woman I barely know naked.”
John laughed. “Lighten up. It was a joke.”
The waitress came back bearing their checks, and, again, looking at John. He pointedly ignored her, although Eric sighed, picked up his pen, and wrote his own phone number on the back of his receipt. “Might as well give her something,” he said.
“AS long as you didn’t put my number.”
“Nope. All mine, John.”
*
“Eric wants to go to dinner with us sometime,” John told Grace as they got into bed that night.
“Eric? Why?”
“Why not? We’ve worked together for awhile…he wants to get to know you better.”
“Mm hm.” Grace stuck a bookmark in Jude the Obscure and looked at him. “Isn’t he sort of…weird?”
John shrugged. “What is weird?”
“Different from you.”
“Yes. Very. But that doesn’t make him weird. Just makes him unlucky.”
Grace laughed. “Yes. It does.”
“So you’ll go?”
Grace stretched and put the book on her nightstand. “I guess.”
“I thought I’d have to twist your arm.”
“He’s your friend, John. And we’re leaving. How many more chances we will get?”
“True.” John hadn’t really thought about leaving his friends and family yet. His job, their apartment complex—leaving those was a thought he relished. But leaving everyone else…
“Have you talked to your mom?” He asked her.
Grace shook her head. “I don’t know what to say. ‘Hi, Mom, I’m finally pregnant, but we may have to leave the country and never see you again?’ Right.”
“Might as well wait until we know. The baby could be just fine.”
“She could be.” But John could tell Grace didn’t take this view of things.
“She’s got a75% chance of being fine,” John reminded her.
“I know. It’s just…I’m not used to the odds working in my favor. Usually they don’t.”
“I have a feel about this.”
“Are your hunches any good?”
“Sometimes. I knew I’d marry you,” he said. She hit his shoulder and laughed.
“All right. That was a good one.” She switched off the lamp and pulled the sheets over her. “Hopefully you’re right here, too.”
“And even if I’m not…” he said, wrapping his arms around her, “we will be fine. No matter where we end up.”
“I know.”
*
“Dinner on Saturday?” John poked his head into Eric’s cubicle the next morning.
“Sure. I’ll find a date.” Eric scrolled through his PDA and clicked. “Jamie. She’s always good for these things.”
“What, it she like your date retainer?”
Eric snorted. “No. Old college girlfriend. She still has a thing for me.”
“And you take an unfair advantage of that.”
“I do.”
“That’s wrong.”
“She’s pretty good-looking. If we’re both still single in a few years I could settle down with her.”
“I need to warn this girl. She needs to go far, far away.”
“Not a chance. Totally into me.”
John rolled his eyes. “OK. Is the Ocean Bar OK? It’s one of Grace’s favorites.”
“Sure.” Eric entered the date. “Time?”
“Probably about 6:30.”
“OK. I’ll call.”
“Thanks.”
“And then I’ll call Jamie.”
“Poor girl. I hope she’s busy.”
Eric reached for his office phone. “She won’t be.”
*
Eric was right—he showed up at the Ocean Bar with a petite, chestnut-haired woman on his arm, wearing a black silk dress. Diamonds were nestled in her ears. Eric had told John and Grace that Jamie did mergers and acquisitions for a multi-national company.
A jazz pianist was playing in the background as the group was shown to a booth that was tucked into a small, blue velvet draped alcove. The bar lived up to its name by being painted and adorned in various shades of blue, creating the feeling of being underwater.
“So, Jamie, how long have you known Eric?” Grace asked as she placed her napkin on her lap.
Jamie tossed an adoring look at Eric, which he missed. “Oh, since we were in high school. We were in AP American Government together.”
“Wow, awhile then.”
“Makes me feel old,” Eric added.
“Not that old, silly,” Jamie said. “We’re not that old.”
“ Didn’t say we were…just feels that way.”
Jaime smiled at him and opened her menu. “So what’s good here?”
“Hope you like seafood. It’s the specialty here,” Grace said.
“I would hope so, given the name.” Jaime’s eyes scanned the lists of offerings. “I think I’ll have the scallops.”
“I love those. Good choice,” John said.
“Steak and shrimp?” Grace asked her husband.
“Of course.”
“Steak?” Jamie wrinkled her nose.
“John loves a good piece of cow,” Eric said.
“Don’t you find that…disturbing?”
John looked at her askance. “Why?”
“Well, it’s a cow. It was probably mass fed in some dirty Big Ag barn somewhere. How do you know it’s any good?”
“Ohio has animal protection laws, Jamie,” Eric said, a bit annoyed. John knew he had been planning on ordering the lobster and filet special.
“If that law is actually enforced I’ll resign my job tomorrow,” Jamie said. “It’s just so inhumane.”
“How long have you been a vegetarian?” Grace asked.
“Since I was twenty.”
“A change of heart,” Eric muttered. “You used to love the pulled pork sandwiches at the fair.”
“Well now I know how it got there,” she said.
Conversation lulled as the couples decided on their orders. A white-shirted waiter came over to the table, his electronic device poised to record their orders. Grace and John ordered first.
“I’ll have the scallops,” Jamie said. “Does that come with asparagus?”
“It can,” the waited said. Jamie added that to her plate.
“I”ll have the fillet and lobster,” Eric said, handing his menu to the waiter. John flashed him a grin.
“Oh, Eric,” Jamie sighed. “Really.”
“Sorry. I like meat too much to give it up.”
“Men,” Jamie said, taking a sip of her cocktail. “Do you eat meat?” She asked Grace.
Grace cleared her throat. “Right now I’m trying to cut back. But normally, yes. I do.”
“She makes great burgers,” John added.
“Why are you cutting back?”
“She’s pregnant,” Eric said. “Don’t want to have too much red meat. All vegetables and stuff like that.”
“You’re pregnant?” The words dropped from Jamie’s lips like she was spitting them out. “Really.”
“ ‘Congratulations,’ is the standard response, Jame,” Eric said, drinking his lager.
“Well, sure, babies are great. If you go for that sort of thing.”
“Rather have cows?” John asked, a bit caustically.
“I just think there are too many people as it is.” She took a delicate bite of the bread that had just been placed on the table. “Look at India and China.”
“You do realize that vast portions of China are unpopulated,” John said.
“Because it’s uninhabitable.” She turned to Eric. “You know, I was just in Hong Kong. Amazing the changes that have taken place.”
“Always evolving,” Eric deadpanned.
“As long as we can provide for children, and give them a loving, secure home, I don’t see why we shouldn’t have them,” Grace said. “I love children. We both do.”
“We want to have a lot,” John added, taking Grace’s hand and squeezing it.
“It’s too bad we didn’t pass that population growth bill,” Jamie mused. “DIdn’t you work on that, Eric?”
“No. I just did some prelim research for the firm.”
“Good thing it didn’t pass. You can’t regulate people’s fertility like that,” Grace said.
“Oh, but we do,” Jamie said. “That new bill—I think it’s fantastic. We can’t have people bringing more diseased children into the world. We need fewer people in general, and if we’re going to have more at all, they should be extremely self-sufficient. None of this government assistance for ridiculous health conditions.”
“Ridiculous.” Grace’s voice was edgy. “Don’t you think people have a right to exist, even if they’re not perfect?”
“I believe in people being self-sufficient.” She finished her cocktail and signaled the bartender for another. “WE shouldn’t be giving birth to people who will just drain the system.”
“Charles Dickens had something to say about that,” Grace said.
“Who?”
“Charles Dickens. The writer?” Jamie looked at her blankly. “A Christmas Carol?”
“Is that a book? Oh, wait…it was a movie, wasn’t it? Back in the ‘80s?”
“It’s been a few movies, Jamie.” Eric said, embarrassed.
“Whatever. I didn’t study literature in college.”
“Did you read ever?” John muttered.
“The point is,” Grace said, “that we can’t just aarbitrarily decide who gets born and who doesn’t. IT’s wrong. All of us have a right to life.”
“Please. That’s so cliché. It went out the window in the 1970s.”
“Doesn’t mean that the new ideas are right,” Grace fired back.
“You should’ve been a lawyer,” Eric said as their entrees arrived.
“Almost was,” John said proudly. Grace had taken a few undergraduate law classes, with emphasis in constitutional law, but didn’t find the law school admissions process palatable.
“Look, Grace,” Jamie said, “I’m sure you mean well, but think about the ramifications. IT’s a huge burden on society. And no life that’s so handicapped can possibly be worth living.”
“Jaime,” Eric said quietly. “Stop.”
“Well it’s true.” She speared a scallop with her fork and ate it in one bite. “I’m just being practical.”
“No, you’re being an ass,” he said under his breath.
“Like you’d feel any differently.”
“I do,” he said, cutting his filet. “I feel much differently.”
Grace looked at his askance. She knew he wasn’t keen on the idea of her being pregnant. “What?”
Eric looked at her and John. “I mean, I think it’s great that you two are having a baby. No matter what, it’s a good decision. You’ll both be good parents. And the kid will certainly be good-looking.” Grace smiled.
“Thanks,” said John.
“As long as you can provide for it…I guess it’s all right.” Jamie took another scallop onto her fork.
“Well, thank you, Jamie,” Grace said icily. “I’m so glad we have your approval.”
“And anyway, if there’s anything wrong with it, you don’t have to worry. Sort of a win-win, eh?”
Grace’s eyes narrowed and John squeezed her hand under the table. “Not here,” He murmured in her ear.
“That was the worst thing you coud have said,” Eric told Jamie. “They’re Catholic, for pete’s sake.”
“Oh.” Jamie shot Grace a piting look. “Sorry about that.”
“We’re not,” Grace said fiercely. “We’re proud of it.”
“Too bad you won’t have a choice.”
“You always have a choice,” Grace said through gritted teeth. “It’s just a matter of making it.”
Jamie looked thoughtful. “True. I suppose if you knew that something could be wrong, you just wouldn’t get pregnant.”
“Everthing OK here?” The waiter interrupted, flashing a brilliant smile.
“We’re fine,” Eric said. The waiter took the empty glasses and left the table.
The rest of the meal was dominated by the men talking business, or, as Jamie called it, “talking shop.” She continued to fawn on Eric and ask him all sorts of questions about current law and the research he was doing. Grace picked at her food but was in a hurry to leave.
The bill came (after an interminable conversation on property rights), and Eric picked up the tab. “My treat, since I invited all of you,” He said, flashing his charge card. “No problem.”
“We should get going,” John said, after thanking him.
“We should. I’m tired. Lots of work going on here,” Grace said, patting her still small stomach.
“I bet,” Eric said. “See you tomorrow, John?” John nodded.
Grace turned to Jamie, who was on her fouth cocktail. “Nice to meet you,” She said.
Jamie nodded sloppily. “You too. Good luck with the kid.”
“Thanks.” John and Grace left the table and headed for their car. As John was opening Grace’s door, his phone beeped. He removed it from his pocket and found a message from Eric:
Removing her number from the list.
John laughed.
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