The Kiss Plot by Nicole French

Twenty-Seven

Icombed through the rack of dresses from the stylist for what had to be the tenth time that morning. Sadie had sent them over a few days ago—all ready-to-wear since there really wasn’t time for proper fittings. Originally, I’d wanted to make my own clothes for tonight; I’d come back from Europe with a sketchbook chock-full of ideas. But five days wasn’t anywhere close to enough time to make something that I was comfortable with being splashed on the front page of every major paper. And this was arguably one of the biggest days of Eric’s life. I needed to look perfect.

Despite his extended absence, the board unanimously voted him chairman, as well as voting through an addendum restoring larger fiscal powers to the position. In just a few minutes, Eric had assumed full leadership of his family’s company as well as a higher position than even the CEO he had been shadowing for the last several months.

The board considered it a boon. Celeste had long been the face of DVS, appearing at public events, but she’d been stretching the truth when she’d promised Eric that the chairmanship was little more than a figurehead position. In fact, prior to her illness, Celeste had maintained quite a bit of power in the operations of DVS following her son’s death. Once her illness had kept her from working, the CEO had apparently been doing the job of two people and so was more than happy for Eric to remedy that situation.

And so, the board and public relations team were thrilled that Eric was now the face of DVS. His own work experience combined with his general legacy seemed to assure shareholders of the company’s future. Stocks had already gone up, and the announcement hadn’t even been made official.

It also didn’t hurt that the guy was handsome, I supposed. I’d get on a boat with him any day of the week.

The public announcement was tonight, at the company’s annual New Year’s Eve gala.

My only question was how, exactly, I was going to be presented. I glanced toward the back hall, where the office neither of us used contained our creased marriage certificate. I had locked it back in the second drawer after we arrived home. Eric hadn’t mentioned it. I hadn’t mentioned it. But I was keenly aware that in exactly two days, the certificate itself—and thus, our entire marriage—would be nulled under New York State law. It was, after all, a question on the New York Law Exam I’d taken on my computer just yesterday before filing for bar admission.

Yes, I knew the answer to that question. I just didn’t know the answer to my own.

My iPad rang on my work table. Skylar, calling to check on our progress. My friend had been neurotically obsessed with calling after barely hearing from us for over a month. I didn’t really mind. I missed her too.

“Hey,” I greeted her once I opened the video chat. I returned to the rack, looking over my choices.

“Ready for the gala?”

“I will be after I make my choice. Are you guys staying in tonight?”

Skylar nodded. “We’ll light some sparklers with the kids and watch the ball drop. I just want a night in. Has Yu Na called you back yet?”

I frowned, wishing away the sadness in the pit of my stomach. My mother still hadn’t forgiven me for taking off like I did for a month. She’d barely returned any of my calls, and only with texts.

“No,” I said. “She’s pissed. I’m pretty sure it’s going to take a trip to Chicago and some pretty serious groveling to earn back her trust again. But I think buying her a house might sweeten the pot. I don’t know. How do you feel about bribery?”

Skylar shrugged. “It works on my five-year-old. Well, sometimes.”

I sighed. I needed to make amends with my mother. This strange grudge match between us had gone on long enough.

“So, what are the dress choices?”

I raised a brow. “Since when do you care about fashion?”

“Since I couldn’t talk to you for a month. Can we for once have a conversation that’s not about our crazy families or the psychotic man spying on you?”

I relaxed. “Sure. And if he’s listening, we can bore him to death talking about hemlines.”

I turned the webcam to the rack of dresses against the wall and started pulling out my favorites, holding them up against my body and modeling them for my friend. “My makeup is done except for lip color. Which one should I choose?”

“You need to wear the red one,” Skylar said immediately.

I pulled out the deep scarlet Valentino strapless column dress with a slit up to mid-thigh. “You don’t think it’s a little too on the nose? Eric’s Asian bride all dressed up in red?”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” Skylar said. “But I know that color looks absolutely amazing on you. And this is your debut as a unit. You always tell me that red is a power color.”

I looked down, considering. The truth was, I wasn’t sure I wanted to stand out the way this dress would—it was Eric’s night, after all. But at the same time, I did like the idea of showing a united front against all the haters.

We’d heard absolutely nothing from John Carson since we arrived in New York. Not a single word. No creepy messages. No snide messengers. Nada. Meanwhile, Eric had beefed up security. Gone were the days where I could take a spontaneous stroll through Central Park or meander around Soho for an afternoon. I mean, I could still do those things, but only with two giant bodyguards trailing me like oversized rottweilers. Eric, meanwhile, was escorted to and from his office, the gym, and anywhere else he had to be by an entire team of security headed by Tony. While I found it chafing, to everyone else, it seemed to make sense.

“Just try it on, Jane.”

I rolled my eyes. “God, you’re bossy.”

“Takes one to know one. Just do it.”

Without shame, I changed into the red dress and then stepped back in front of the webcam to model.

“Oh, Janey,” Sky said, her voice now full of admiration. “You look amazing. Eric is going to freak, and in the best possible way.”

“You think?” I stepped in front of the mirror and turned back and forth.

Immediately, I was struck by the sleek, flattering lines of my dress. Somehow, the combination of the classic silhouette and the loud color found an even mix of the different sides of my personality without clashing at all. I didn’t just look nice. I looked perfect, but I also looked like me. For maybe the first time in my life.

The idea overwhelmed, and soon, I found myself reaching for a tissue on the table.

“Are you crying?” Skylar was incredulous.

“What? No.” I dabbed at my eyes, careful not to smear my makeup. Hmmm. Maybe I needed to use the waterproof mascara. “What, can’t a girl have a reasonable span of emotions? That’s my right, Sky.”

“Jane.”

I turned to the webcam to find my friend watching me suspiciously. “What? I’ve sort of been through a lot recently.”

“Jane,” she said calmly, like she was talking to a crazed woman.

I narrowed my eyes. “Sky.”

She leaned in. “When was the last time you had your period?”

I frowned. “What? Why?”

“You know why. How long has it been?”

I rolled my eyes. “Dude. I am not pregnant. To start, we use protection.”

She did not look impressed.

“Second,” I rattled on, “I’ve been irregular my entire life, so I honestly don’t know when the last time was. I’m still not pregnant.”

Skylar moved in closer, staring ominously into the webcam.

“You know that angle makes your forehead look about the size of Greenland,” I remarked through a knot of tension that had just taken up residence in the pit of my stomach. Damn Skylar and her suspicious, practical mind.

My best friend didn’t move, just blinked her big green eyes at me like a redheaded owl.

“Pregnancy usually manifests like PMS in the beginning,” she said. “I know you know this. You’re the one who handed me a test the first time I got pregnant. Your cousin, the OB-GYN, had nothing but bad news through you.”

I cringed on her behalf. That definitely hadn’t been the easiest time in her life. And Suejean did wonder why I was asking so many baby-related questions.

“Do you have any tests there?” she asked.

“What? No. I don’t exactly keep them on ha—” I broke off quickly. As a woman who had had enough sex to have a few pregnancy scares, I did potentially have a pregnancy test somewhere in one of those boxes in the back room I still hadn’t unpacked from Chicago.

Skylar watched knowingly. “Go do it.”

I swallowed. “I can’t. Eric’s going to be here in about an hour, and we have to leave. I—”

“Just do it,” Skylar ordered again. “It will take two minutes, and you won’t think about anything else for the rest of the night anyway if you don’t do it now.”

“Yeah, but if I’m pregnant”—my entire body quaked at just the thought—“if I’m pregnant, I won’t think of anything but that for the rest of the night anyway.”

“Honestly. Sometimes you are such a baby.”

I gaped. “I am not! I’m sorry, who was the one who literally smacked her husband three separate times for giving her gifts?”

“That was five years ago,” Skylar countered. “We’ve grown up since then. We’re not kids anymore, Jane. You’re thirty years old. You’re married—”

“Not officially—”

“You basically are,” Skylar continued irritably. “But more than that, you and Eric are a family. A unit. Right?”

I opened my mouth, ready to argue, but found I couldn’t. While I still worried that Eric and I might kill each other as often as we loved each other, Skylar was right. He wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was I.

“If your family is growing, you need to know,” Skylar said. “And take it from me, Janey. So does he. Don’t hold that back from him.”

My heart squeezed. She did know about the cost of secrets like that, more than most.

I sighed. “Okay. Wait here. I think I know where one is.”

* * *

Ten minutes later,I returned to the room wrapped in a bathrobe, the small plastic stick pinched between two of my fingers. Skylar, bless her pushy, redheaded heart, had waited with me the entire time, so while I peed on the stick and waited for the results, I was listening to her fold laundry and chatter with Jenny about the latest How to Train Your Dragon.

“Jen, go find Daddy,” Skylar shooed her daughter out when I reappeared in the frame.

“Bye, Aunt Janey!” cheered Jenny. “Don’t say ‘fuck’ too much!”

“Jenny!”

But Jenny had scampered out of the room before she could receive her mother’s wrath. Skylar clenched a dish towel and turned to me expectantly. “Well?”

“Oh my God,” I whispered as I sat in front of the iPad. “Sky, I’m—”

“I know, Janey,” she said. “I know.”

“Holy shit. What am I going to do?”

“What do you mean, what are you going to do? Do you not want to keep it?”

My head jerked up. “What? No! Of course I want it!”

The speed with which the words flew from my mouth surprised even me. It was funny. I had never considered the alternative. I had always considered myself very pro-choice, but anything other than having this baby wasn’t even an option for me. It just wasn’t.

I continued to stare at the two pink lines, unaware of the footsteps moving through the apartment on the other side of my work room’s door. Until, of course, the door opened, and Eric swept in, still brushing snowflakes off his cashmere overcoat. He blew a few adorably off his face, looking a bit like an elephant. The movement made his hair, which had been cut quite short to get rid of the terrible dye job, wave slightly.

“Hi, gorgeous,” he said with a grin. “Are you almost ready? Sorry I’m late.”

“Get out!” I squawked, tumbling around the room in a hurry. I slammed the door in his face with unnecessary force, then wrapped the test up in a spare scrap of muslin from my work table.

“Jane?” Eric asked from behind the door.

“I don’t want you to see me!” I screeched. “Stay out there!”

There was an audible chuckle. “We’re not getting married again, Lefferts. Our relationship won’t be doomed if I see you before midnight.”

“Just go!” I bellowed.

There was a pause, like he wasn’t sure whether I really wanted him to obey me or not. Then I heard the sound of Eric’s footsteps receding down the hall to our bedroom.

“I’m going to let you get ready,” Skylar said.

“Don’t you dare desert me right now, Sky,” I snapped, whirling back to the iPad.

But it was too late.

“Put your big girl pants on and face your shit, Janey,” she said and blew me a kiss. “Tell me how he freaks out later, okay?” She grinned, as if the thought of Eric’s horror brought her genuine joy.

Under normal circumstances, I might have felt the same way. But this…this wasn’t the same at all.

I sank to my knees in front of the tablet. “Sky. What if…what if he…” I couldn’t bring myself to ask the question that already made my heart sink. What if he doesn’t want it?

Eric and I had never talked about a family. I honestly hadn’t ever thought about kids myself, although in this moment, I knew without a doubt that I wanted this one. Maybe it would be a boy, tall with Eric’s gray eyes and my dark, wavy hair. Or maybe it would be a girl, a sweet blonde child with almond-shaped eyes a little too dark for the rest of her features. Maybe I’d push a stroller to the Met like all the other Central Park moms, sew baby clothes for the next nine months, and eventually do my best to raise a human who wasn’t a complete asshole.

It wasn’t a future I’d ever imagined for myself. But right now, it was the only one I wanted.

Skylar’s features softened as she leaned close again.

“Oh, my friend,” she said kindly. “I wish I could jump into this screen and give you a giant hug.”

Tears welled all over again. Oh, holy shit. I really was pregnant, wasn’t I?

“He’s going to want it, Janey,” she said. “He’s going to want it because that man only wants you and anything that comes from you. I have literally never heard him say a bad word about you. The only thing he has ever wanted was to make you happy. And I am one hundred percent positive that will extend to your baby.”

I considered her words and found I couldn’t argue.

There was a tentative knock on the door. I cringed. Eric, who had just had the door shut in his face.

“Jane?” he asked. “Are you okay? I’m sorry I’m late, but we really have to get going. It’s almost eight.”

Skylar waved at me sympathetically. I stared at her, practically begging the screen to magically transport her through it, just like we wanted.

“Good luck,” she said. “It’s going to be fine.”