Amy's View On Things

Amy laughed self conscientiously as she rubbed her belly. “Come on Anna, I’m not that huge,” she paused briefly before adding, “Am I?”

“No, of course not,” I lied, she was bigger than most of the pregnant women I’ve seen. “I just wasn’t prepared to see you full blown pregnant,” I told her honestly. “I mean you weren’t this far along the last time I saw you.” Amy gave me a nod; I wasn’t sure if she was agreeing with me or if she was just hoping to shut me up.

“So where are we going?” She asked once she was comfortably settled into the passenger seat of my car. “Nick said it was your idea to go for dinner?” When I told her it was, she told me that she was happy we were going out. “I really haven’t been in the mood to cook that much lately,” she told me. “I know Nick says it doesn’t matter to him but I know that he would rather have a real meal instead of soup and sandwiches or Kraft dinner or…”

“Whoa,” I reached out and squeezed her arm when I heard her voice crack. “Listen Amy, Nick may love food but I’m sure that he understands how you are feeling lately.” Amy sniffled and I smiled, “Besides, if he doesn’t, you tell him he gets to carry the next baby!”

She laughed, “He’s been so great Anna, I couldn’t have asked for a better…” I glanced at her and she dabbed her eyes with the tissue she held. “Do you know he tells me every day I’m beautiful?” She turned to me, “I used to think he would be turned off by -” she motioned to her belly.

“Oh! I remember!”

“Sorry about that Anna, I was a little -” she waved her hands around her head and mouthed the word ‘crazy’.

“Yeah. So…where did you want to eat?” I asked, purposely changing the subject.

Amy’s brow shot up, “I get to pick?” I nodded and she squealed, “It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a real restaurant,” she grabbed my arm. “Can we go to Nick’s restaurant? I want to surprise him and he says there are some really good dishes there.”

Ten minutes later, Amy and I were making our way to the restaurant bar to wait for a table. Nick’s second job was bartending, “This is kind of funny,” I whispered to Amy after we climbed up onto bar stools. “One of Mike’s extra jobs was bartender.”

“Mike did teach both the boys how to make drinks,” Amy pointed out as she watched Nick on the opposite end of the bar with his back to us. “What do you think those girls are doing? Are they…?” She started to get up when one of the girls touched Nick’s arm and laughed.

“Amy!” I grabbed her arm. “Sit down; he’s just making drinks for them.”

“She touched my husband! I’m going to kill her!”

I shook my head, “Oh good Lord Amy! It’s not like he’s touching her, he’s working. She’s probably just -”

“A skanky whore who better get her hands off my man!” I tried to stop her from getting up. “I want to go home Anna, I not hungry anymore.”

I rolled my eyes and looked back at Nick who had brushed off the girl’s hand. “Hey barkeep!” I called out as Amy tried to ‘shush’ me. “A round of JD over here!”

Nick looked over his shoulder and laughed, ‘one moment,’ he mouthed before turning back to quickly finish the drinks for the girls. While he was doing that, Amy and I had a little argument, she said she was leaving and I told her she was walking if she left.

“Fine!” She snapped, “It’s not like I need to live in the bubble that my husband only works around men.”

I laughed, “Oh come on Amy, Nick -”

“A round of JD?” Nick cut in with a laugh. “I don’t think so,” he grabbed a couple glasses and poured us both a glass of water and added a lemon slice. “I was hoping I would see you two tonight,” he slipped the glasses towards us and then took Amy’s hand in his. “How is the hottest woman in the world tonight?”

Amy smiled and batted her lashes at him, “Well if you are on the menu…”

“Yeah,” I jumped up. “I’ll give you two a minute alone.” I wandered off.

I was in the middle of washing my hands when Amy came bouncing into the washroom. “He kissed me!” She gushed. “He came around the bar and sat with me after you left. We talked and then when he had to get back to work, he gave me a kiss and told me he loved me!” She squealed and I laughed. “What?” She looked at me. “Why is that funny?”

“I just remember you doing that a few years ago when Nick first told you he loved you, it’s just nice to see.” I turned from the mirror, “So you are ok with -”

“Oh yeah, I was just being silly, Nick love me, I know this.” She grabbed my arm. “Let’s go eat, I’m starving!”

Dinner with Amy was interesting to say the least. There were things that came out during our meal that I didn’t think I would ever talk to Amy about. It all started when she told me that she saw Josh the day before. “He seemed a little sad,” she told me. “Is everything ok with you two?”

I debated just telling her that things were fine but I was tired of that, I wanted to talk to someone about what happened with Josh, someone who didn’t have an interest in who I was with. “No,” I told her. “Everything isn’t fine.”

“What?” she almost dropped her fork. “What’s going on Anna?” She looked around, “Nick didn’t tell me that there was something…”

“Nick doesn’t know,” I told her. “No one does. Well,” I sighed, “Zack and Mary know but they don’t know why.” Over the next couple minutes, I spilt the entire story to an extremely shocked Amy. I ended up telling her everything from the beginning just because I didn’t know how much she knew about my relationship with Josh. When I got to the part where I went over to his place in the middle of the night after I had the dream, she stopped me.

“Why did you go to his place?” She asked, “Were you going to break up with him for Jordan?”

“No!” I exclaimed. “I just wanted to talk to him about what happened with Zack earlier. I wanted to talk to him and tell him that no matter what Zack told him, I loved him and I wanted to be with him.”

“That’s good though!” Amy said excitedly before realizing that I wasn’t happy. “But…? What happened? Why are you looking like that now and why was he looking like…oh no,” she gasped. “You guys broke up!”

I nodded sadly, “Yeah. He was going on and on about how much Jordan was better suited for me and that I should go to him. I didn’t understand why but then he told me about Tracy.”

“Tracy?” Amy frowned, “Who’s Tracy?”

“Tracy is the one night stand he had after we split up the first time -”

“Well that’s not a big deal, if you weren’t together.”

“She’s pregnant Amy. He slept with her and not she’s carrying his baby.”
Amy was quiet for the longest time, she would start to say something but stopped before the first sound was out of her mouth.

“Come on, what are you thinking Amy?”

She shrugged.

“You can be honest with me Amy, I need you to be. I blew it didn’t I? This is all my fault. My relationships always fail and I’m the reason why.” I shook my head in disgust. “Josh and I were doing good and then I kissed Jordan. We broke up, Josh slept -”

“Ok stop right there!” Amy held up her hands. “This isn’t your fault Anna. You and Josh were broken up, he was free to do what he wanted, and you didn’t make him have unprotected sex with some skanky whore.” I told her he said he wore a condom and she shook her head. “Well that’s not 100% either, just look at me! Nick and I were using condoms.”

“Oh,” I sighed. “It doesn’t matter now though, he made it very clear that the baby was his first priority and I didn’t even measure at all. He wanted to break up with me so I let him.”

“You didn’t want to break up?”

“No,” I shrugged. “What was I supposed to do? He was talking like it was the end of everything we had, I didn’t want to…”

“You didn’t want to what Anna?”

“I didn’t want him to be with me when he didn’t want to be,” I told her. “So I lied, I told him it that I loved him but I wasn’t in love with him and now…” I gestured helplessly.

“Now you have to act like it,” she finished for me. I nodded. “Oh Anna,” she sighed. “Why do you make things so complicated?”

“Because nothing is simple here Amy. I do love him but some thing always seems to come between us. I thought the worst of it was the kiss with Jordan but that was only the tip of the iceberg. Do you know everyone thinks that I should be with Jordan? And I don’t know anymore if I should or not.”

Amy closed her eyes and sighed, “Anna I don’t think that you should date Jordan.”

“Thank you,” I smiled. “You are the only one.”

She opened her eyes and looked at me, “No, you don’t understand. I don’t think you should date him until you’ve had a few other dates with other men. Jordan can’t be your rebound, it could hurt both of you.”

“Don’t look at me like that,” she said when I just sat there staring at her. “I've seen you with Josh, and I really don’t think that it would work in the long run, he’s got too much going on. He’s all over the place and he doesn’t make you laugh and smile like Jordan does. He makes you all sad and depressing, I don’t like it.”

I wasn’t sure what shocked me more, the fact that Amy would actually think Jordan and I should date or the fact that she seemed concerned about me.

“Jordan is seeing someone,” I pointed out.

Amy rolled her eyes, “Olivia,” she scoffed. “That girl has nothing on you. I honestly don’t know what Jordan sees in her, she’s a complete airhead. Everything is cute or adorable. Ekk,” she cringed.

“But he is making plans to go see her this year.”

“Yeah, I know, Nick told me. Tell me, do you see Jordan leaving here to live in California with some airhead when his daughter and the woman he’s been in love with is here? I don’t see it. He might go visit her but I’ll bet money that it doesn’t work out.”

I chuckled, “Ok,” I held out my hand. “How much do you want to bet?” Amy thought about it for a minute and then told me she’d bet me $1000 that it doesn’t work out. “Wow,” I pulled my hand back. “That’s a lot of money, why are you willing to risk it?”

She gave me a knowing smile. “I’m willing to risk it because you haven’t met her.” She explained further when I shot her a confused look. “Jordan had plenty of time to introduce her to you but each time he could’ve he made some excuse not too.”

“That doesn’t prove anything.”

“No?” Amy raised a brow. “You two have always gotten each others opinion on potential dates. I remember Jordan and you both turning down dates because the other didn’t approve. Where I sit, I think Jordan didn’t introduce Olivia to you because he knows she isn’t for him but he wants to you think he’s moving on.”

I told her she was crazy. She told me to prove her wrong. “Date,” she said. “Anyone at all, and I bet you Jordan won’t like it. Even more, I bet he forgets about Olivia and the trip in all of his brooding too.”

“I’m not playing that game Amy, I’m not about to do something stupid just to prove you wrong about Jordan.”

“Fine,” she shrugged and picked up her glass of water. “I don’t really want Jordan over my place moaning about the guys you date and how he could make you happy if you only gave him a chance.” She took a sip and smiled at me. “It gets old.”