Hope in a Jar

by Beth Harbison

  “You’ll never hear the end of it,” Allie assured him. She was feeling pretty good about the way this conversation was going. Noah had his head on straight, he wasn’t planning on making any rash moves in reaction to the pregnancy. He was being logical.

  Way more logical than Allie could have been if she were him.

  So she had to hand that to him. So far this was going well.

  “But back to the point,” Allie went on. “You’re planning to tell Vickie that the relationship is over?”

  “I’m going to tell her that I will be there for her and the baby any time they need me and I fully expect to be a part of the child’s life.”

  “Admirable. But what if the baby’s not yours?”

  Noah looked at her. “It is mine.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because Tori told me it was. We’re not teenagers, Allie, I don’t think she’s trying to trap me.”

  She looked at the beige carpeting next to the bed. Berber. She liked Berber as long as you didn’t have a dog walking around snagging it all the time.

  “Allie.” He touched her arm. “You’re not too good at hiding stuff so why don’t you tell me what’s going on?”

  She looked him in the eye. “I don’t think the baby’s yours.”

  He drew back. “Why not?”

  “For one thing, she’s eighteen weeks along. What did she tell you?”

  “Three months. More or less.” He frowned. “Maybe fourteen or fifteen weeks. I don’t know, though, I didn’t pin her down on it. And I can’t take your pregnancy information to the bank, since you don’t exactly have a lot of experience with it.”

  “What if she is eighteen weeks along?” Allie asked. “Were you even seeing her then?”

  “We must have been.”

  “Think about it, Noah. Were you? Because if you weren’t—”

  “Are you kidding me?” He cocked his head. “You don’t need to explain where babies come from, Al, I get it.”

  “And?” she pressed.

  “We didn’t exactly hold out on sex, but I don’t really want to get into that with you.”

  “Look, Noah, I’m not that eager to talk about it, either, but it might be important.”

  “Okay. That’s it. What are you not saying?”

  “That she’s sleeping with someone else. I think. Well, we’re almost sure.”

  “We?”

  “Olivia and I. Actually, it was Olivia who first figured it out.” That age-old impulse to give herself credibility by adding someone else still kicked in. “She saw Vickie sneak off with Lucy Lee’s husband during the reunion. They were apparently pretty . . . familiar . . . with each other.”

  “Is that right.” He looked off into space, as if trying to see the movie of the reunion night way off in the distance. Then he met Allie’s eyes. “Why didn’t Olivia tell me this?”

  “She didn’t think it was her place. She’s not a busybody like me, she just thought you and Vickie must have a casual relationship and that you knew you might not be the only one she was seeing.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Noah said, and now he looked hurt. “You of all people know I’m not that kind of guy.”

  She nodded. “I do. But Olivia didn’t even tell me. Not until I told her about Vickie’s pregnancy.”

  He looked as if he considered this for a few seconds before giving a reluctant nod. “I guess this gives me something to talk to Tori about, then.” He moved for his phone.

  “Wait,” Allie said. “Olivia’s talking to her now.”

  He stopped in midmovement. “She’s what?”

  It was funny, it hadn’t even occurred to Allie that this might not be a good idea until now. “She’s—they’re having lunch. You know how Vickie’s been leaving messages again and again wanting to meet up with Olivia. So Olivia figured this would be a good time to, you know, try and figure out what’s what.”

  Noah’s expression was dark. “Where are they?”

  “I don’t know, they were meeting at Vickie’s.”

  “When?”

  Allie looked at her watch. “About now.”

  “We are way too old for this, Allie.” He stormed around the room, pulling on socks, shoving on his shoes. “I can’t believe you two.”

  “Wait!” Allie scrambled after him as he left the room. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m going to talk to Tori myself,” he said, turning on her furiously. “It seems to have escaped your notice that we’re not in high school anymore. You and your cohort don’t need to double-team me and my girlfriend to try and drive a wedge between us.”

  What? Wasn’t there already a wedge between them? And, “Girlfriend?” was all Allie could say.

  He rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean. This isn’t Olivia’s business and frankly it’s just barely your business.”

  “We slept together!”

  “And I’m being honest with you.” He stopped and turned to her, putting his hands on her shoulders. “That wasn’t just a fling, or a mistake. But it was between you and me. Only. I had no intention of being with Tori again, but that conversation was for me to have with her. Not you and not Olivia.”

  “I’m sorry!” He was right. Completely right. She could see that now. She, or better still Olivia, should have had a conversation with him and then let him take care of it himself.

  Instead they’d acted like children in the middle of a good, juicy drama.

  He stormed out of the apartment with Allie close on his heels. “Go home!” he barked at her.

  “No, I’m going with you.”

  “How many ways do I have to tell you this is none of your business?”

  “I won’t say anything to Vickie,” she promised. “You’re right, that’s none of my business. But I have to go and help Olivia out of this mess I helped her into.”

  He considered for a moment. “Fair enough. But I want her out of there and the two of you gone. Tori and I are going to have to talk this over alone.”

  “Fine.” She didn’t mean to sound petulant but she did. “And, Noah.”

  He turned angry eyes on her.

  “I’m really, really sorry. I can’t tell you how sorry I am. I wanted to help. I know that sounds hollow and stupid now, but it’s true. I love you, Noah. I wanted to help you, not hurt you.”

  His expression softened slightly. “I love you, too, Al. But damn if you’re not going to drive me crazy.” They reached his car and he unlocked it. “Get in. And for God’s sake, try and resist the urge to help me any more between now and the time we get there.”

  Twenty-five

  Because you’re worth it.

  —ad for L’Oréal

  Olivia arrived at Vickie’s town house in Kalorama ten minutes late, thanks to a cabdriver who didn’t seem to know north from south.

  “Come in!” Vickie threw open the door and leaned in to kiss the air by Olivia’s cheek. “I’m so thrilled you could come.”

  “I thought it was important,” Olivia said carefully. This was not the time to bait Vickie or play any unfair head games. She was going to approach this in as straightforward a way as she could manage.

  “This way.” Vickie led her through a short hall and up a flight of stairs to an ornate living room. “Our reservations aren’t for twenty-five more minutes so I thought we’d take our time.”

  “Perfect.”

  “Have a seat.” Vickie gestured toward a black leather sofa positioned in front of a fireplace over some sort of animal-print rug. It was ghastly. “Would you like a drink?”

  “As a matter of fact, that sounds like a good idea. I’d like to talk to you about something.”

  Vickie nodded knowingly. “The baby?” She patted her stomach.

  “Yes, actually.”

  “Noah couldn’t wait to let everyone know, I guess.” She took two glasses out of a polished wood cabinet, then lifted a blue bottle of Tynat drinking water.

  Olivia was careful not to agree. “He told
Allie. Allie told me.”

  “Whatever. Good news always travels one way or another.” She appeared unperturbed. “Water?”

  “Yes, thanks.”

  Vickie poured into the two tumblers. “Is it the wedding you want to talk about?” she asked eagerly. “Don’t tell me you have some great connection that could get us into St. Patrick’s.”

  “No—”

  “Because I would move the wedding to New York in a heartbeat for that, believe me.” She handed a water glass to Olivia.

  “No, Vickie, please. It’s not about that.”

  “Call me Tori.” Her voice hardened almost imperceptibly as she sat down on the sofa with Olivia. “Please.”

  “The thing is,” Olivia said, “I wanted to talk to you about the reunion.”

  “The reunion?”

  Olivia nodded. “And Todd Reigerberg.”

  Vickie set her glass down on the coffee table very deliberately. “Todd Reigerberg. The anchorman.”

  “I think you know him as more than that.”

  Vickie lifted an eyebrow. “Yes. He’s Lucy’s husband.”

  This was harder than Olivia had anticipated. It was one thing to tell Allie over the phone that she thought the two were having an affair, but now, face-to-face with Vickie, she got the distinct feeling she might have a real fight coming.

  So Olivia took a gamble. “I saw you two that night,” she said, setting her own glass down, half anticipating a hasty exit. “Outside . . .” She let the word linger in the air, hoping it would sound as if she had more solid evidence than she did.

  Apparently it worked, because all the color drained from Vickie’s face. “You were spying on me?”

  “Of course not! I went out to get some air. Obviously I didn’t think I was going to see . . . that.”

  It was easy to see the thoughts whirling around Vickie’s mind. Finally, whether it was part of the ploy or just crazy hormones, Olivia didn’t know, but Vickie’s face crumpled and she started to cry. “It was the only time.”

  Olivia was instantly uncomfortable. “Is Noah really the father?” she asked quietly.

  Vickie whirled on her. “How dare you ask me that!”

  “I dare because Noah’s my friend and I don’t think you’re being honest with him.”

  “This is none of your business.”

  Olivia’s hackles rose. If Vickie had nothing to hide, it would have been so easy to put an end to this. “I guess I’m making it my business.”

  Vickie narrowed her eyes at Olivia. “Have you gone to Noah with this?”

  “No,” Olivia answered honestly. “I wanted to talk to you first.”

  Something in Vickie relaxed fractionally. “No one’s said anything to Lucy or Todd?”

  Funny, that hadn’t even occurred to Olivia. Or, as far as she knew, Allie. “No.”

  “Then I’ll tell you something. Yes, I’ve been with Todd a few times. We knew each other a long time ago, and you know how those things go sometimes. You have a few drinks and one thing leads to another.”

  Olivia thought about it for a moment. “You weren’t drinking at the reunion.”

  “Obviously, I had the baby to consider.”

  “So you knew you were pregnant even then.”

  Vickie paled. “I wasn’t feeling well.”

  “That’s not the same as being worried about the baby.”

  “Well, now I know there was a baby.”

  This lying was absurd.

  “You’ve probably already had CVS or amnio,” Olivia said. “So can they do a paternity test from what’s already been done or do you have to have a new test?”

  “I don’t intend to have any testing.” Vickie stood up. “I think you should leave.”

  Olivia stood, too. “That’s fine, Vickie. I think you’ve given me my answer.”

  “How do you figure that?”

  “Good-bye.” She started toward the stairs, but Vickie grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her around.

  “I said, how do you figure that?” Vickie’s eyes were flashing with some very ugly emotion.

  It was obvious she was nervous, and it was equally obvious that she wouldn’t have been nervous if she didn’t have reason for it.

  “You’re scared,” Olivia said. “I can’t think why you would be if you were confident Noah was really the father. In fact, if he were, you probably would have told me to go to hell and sent me on my way as soon as this conversation started, but instead you needed to find out what I knew first.”

  “Spoken just like Nancy Drew.”

  Olivia shrugged. “Unlike Nancy Drew I’m going to leave this investigation to the experts now.” She took another step away.

  “I can’t believe you’re doing this to Noah!”

  She stopped and turned back. “I beg your pardon?”

  “He’s looking forward to being a father. This gives his life meaning. Can’t you see that?”

  “His life already had meaning!”

  “He wants this. Are you really going to take it away from him because of a biological technicality?”

  “A biological technicality?”

  “Yes. He’s going to be a great father. Responsible, upstanding, active in this child’s life. Why do you want to screw that up?”

  “I’m not trying to screw anything up, I just want Noah to know the truth.”

  Vickie scoffed. “I hardly think you’re the kind of person who needs to go around telling other people how to live.”

  “Probably not,” Olivia agreed, not rising to the bait. “But I’m the kind of person who thinks that however people decide to live, they should do it armed with the facts.”

  “Funny, as I recall, you didn’t want your mother to know the facts about her husband. And you.”

  Olivia froze.

  “Aha.” A mean glint came into Vickie’s eyes. “You can dish it out, but you can’t take it, huh?” She sauntered forward. “It’s been a long time, but as I recall, when your mother’s husband made the moves on you, all you did was snivel in the bathroom to Allison about how you didn’t want to tell her. Interesting that now you’re this great arbiter of truth.”

  Olivia didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t move. That Vickie could be this callous was shocking and proved Allie’s point more than any of the rest of this could have.

  Vickie had overheard Allie and Olivia in the bathroom that day, and she had been the one who had spread it all over school. Then—and this was the most incredible part of it—she’d held on to it in some little pocket of her mind for all these years so that eventually she could pull it out, just like this, and use it.

  “You are amazing, Vickie,” Olivia said. “But none of that changes the fact that Noah needs to know this child isn’t his.”

  “You know what I’ve noticed? I’ve noticed Noah hasn’t asked this question. So clearly Noah doesn’t want to know. And what he doesn’t know”—she had the gleam of triumph in her eyes—“won’t hurt him. Unless you decide to tell him.”

  “You stay here,” Noah ordered Allie outside Vickie’s. “You’re not coming in to the middle of this.”

  “I have to! What if she’s hurt Olivia?”

  Noah stopped and looked at her. “Really? Do you think she’s hacked her into little pieces and put her in the freezer?”

  “You don’t know Vickie like I do.”

  “Likewise.” He took out a key and unlocked the front door.

  She hated that he had a key to Vickie’s even though, obviously, he would. Still, there was something so . . . shared about it. Almost intimate.

  He pushed the door open.

  Immediately they could hear raised voices.

  “. . . as I recall, when your mother’s husband made the moves on you, all you did was snivel in the bathroom to Allison about how you didn’t want to tell her,” Vickie taunted. “Interesting that now you’re this great arbiter of truth.”

  Allie gasped. She felt as though she’d been punched in the gut. So it had been Vic
kie! God, that totally figured. Vickie was the only person Allie knew who might be cruel enough to take that kind of information and turn it on someone without a second thought.

  Had she just done it for her own amusement? Was it satisfying for her to hurt other people so severely? Or had she for some reason been jealous of Olivia, even back then?

  “You are amazing, Vickie. But none of that changes the fact that Noah needs to know this child isn’t his.”

  Allie was impressed at how calm and cool Olivia sounded on the heels of that bombshell.

  Vickie, on the other hand, was getting shrill. “You know what I’ve noticed? I’ve noticed Noah hasn’t asked this question. So clearly Noah doesn’t want to know. And what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Unless you decide to tell him.”

  Noah went up the steps. “I want to know,” he said, in a hard voice.

  “Noah!” Vickie looked shocked. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

  Allie followed close behind him. “I cannot believe what a bitch you are,” she said heatedly. All the rage from all the years collected in her and burst forth. “You ruin lives like it’s nothing!” She moved toward Vickie without thought, except to hurt her as much as she’d hurt everyone else.

  Noah grabbed her arm, hard. “Go, Allie.”

  “Did you hear what she said?”

  “What business is this of yours?” Vickie snapped, turning on Allie like a wild animal. “My God, Allison, you have always tried to horn in on my life.”

  Allie stepped back. “What?”

  “Oh, sure, like you don’t know exactly what I’m talking about.”

  For a moment, Allie was more baffled than offended. “I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

  “Does the Enchanted Forest ring a bell?”

  The Enchanted Forest? This was getting seriously weird. “That park, near Baltimore? That closed like thirty years ago?”

  “And you just had to have your birthday party there on the same day I was going to have mine.”

  Allie glanced from Noah to Olivia, but they were looking at Vickie with the same slack-jawed incomprehension she was feeling. “Vickie, that was more than three decades ago—”