Page 43 of Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake

“Hi,” Indira said back, crossing the space to wrap her arms around Lizzie in a hug. “We’re sorry,” she added, placing a kiss on Lizzie’s temple.

Lizzie pulled back, tucking her hair behind her ears as she stared down at the floor. “Nothing to be sorry about,” she said. “I’m the one that’s the idiot.”

“You’re not,” Harper said, giving Lizzie a similar hug. “We were surprised and caught off guard and definitely didn’t say the right things… Right, Thu?”

Lizzie glanced over at Thu, who still hovered across the room, looking down at the ground. After a beat she looked up, meeting Lizzie’s eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said. And Lizzie almost fainted from the shock of it. Thu wasn’t one to apologize, whether she was wrong or not.

“You really don’t have to be,” Lizzie said, waving her hands to dispel the tension. She would rather not talk about it. She would rather avoid revisiting the words said between them until the day she died. Then she wouldn’t have to feel them.

“No, Lizzie, I do. I was judgmental and bitchy, and I know that… Harper and Indira have made sure I know that,” she said, flashing the friends a sheepish grin. “But I… I worry about you… That maybe you won’t make the best decisions for yourself, and the last thing I want is to see you hurt. But it isn’t my place to judge you. I’m supposed to be your cheerleader, not your mother.”

Lizzie swallowed past the lump in her throat, doing a full-body shake to rid herself of the choked-up feeling. She walked across the apartment and gave Thu a giant hug.

“Thank you, Thu-Thu.” Lizzie pulled back, looking around at her friends. “I’m really fucking scared,” she admitted.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Harper asked, pouring herself a cup of coffee at the counter then moving to the couch. The rest of them followed suit.

Lizzie plopped down on the cushions, all the air leaving her body in a massive sigh. She launched into how she met Rake and their resulting two-night stand. She explained about the condom and taking the pregnancy tests and calling Rake. She told them everything except for the teeny-tiny, minuscule, probably-just-indigestion pangs of feeling in her chest for him. Because Lizzie didn’t do relationships. She’d been told her whole life what a burden her feelings were to others, and she’d rather die than subject a partner to that.

“So where did you and Rake leave things?” Indira asked.

“Well, we decided to coparent and stuff. One of his parents is originally from the U.S. so he has dual citizenship, apparently. He also mentioned some job opportunity here that he’s going to take.”

“And what will coparenting look like?” Thu asked.

Lizzie shrugged. “Uh, well, I think maybe it’s going to look like he and I… uh… living together?” Lizzie shot a quick glance at Indira to see how she was taking the news. The pair had known each other since high school and lived together for the last five years, taking many drunken vows to die together in their apartment.

Indira nodded, unlatching the iron grip of nerves around Lizzie’s heart. “I totally get it.”

“Are you two, like,together?” Harper asked.

Lizzie shook her head. “No. Definitely not. We don’t… I don’t think we… We don’t feelthat wayfor each other. It’s moreof a totally-platonic-roommates-who-happened-to-have-had-really-great-sex-a-few-times-and-then-made-a-baby situation.”

“Pretty run-of-the-mill stuff,” Thu added dryly, smiling at Lizzie.

“I know it isn’tnormal,” Lizzie said, adding air quotes around the last word. “But I think it kind of makes sense… right? We’ll both be around to raise le bébé, split finances, et cetera, et cetera. And if it totally sucks, then we get our own places or whatever. I don’t know.” Lizzie pressed one hand over her thrumming heart and the other over her rolling tummy, feeling overwhelmed.

“And are you going to bone this platonic roommate?” Indira asked, arching a perfect, thick eyebrow.

“We haven’t talked about it, but I’m not exactlyopposedto the idea,” Lizzie said, plucking at the couch. The truth was, she’d been dreaming about Rake, naked and sweaty with his head between her thighs, every night since they’d met, and the idea was creeping into her daytime psyche too.

“That sounds a bit messy,” Thu said, a soft warning in her voice.

“When am I not?” Lizzie said with a laugh. “And it’s just sex. We’re both adults. It’s fine.” The room was quiet for a moment while they all turned that over.

“When are you guys leaving?” Lizzie asked Thu and Harper.

“Thu’s flight leaves tonight, and Dan and I are taking the train back to New York at five.”

Lizzie nodded, sadness poking at the soft spot between her ribs at the impending goodbye.

“I actually better get going,” Lizzie said, glancing at the time on her phone. “I have an interview at a bakery in Fishtown—I’ll clean up the kitchen when I get back, Dira,” Lizzie said, standing and taking in the mess she’d made. “Thank you guys for…” Lizzie flapped her hands at them, feeling overcome with emotions again.

“We’ll always be here for you, Lizzie,” Harper said, standingto give her a hug. Thu and Indira latched on, and they stayed like that for a few heartbeats, their golden thread of friendship weaving and buzzing through their veins, binding them together.

Eventually, Lizzie disentangled herself, grabbed her purse, and headed for her interview.

BERNADETTE’SBAKERY WASin a squat, yellow building off the main strip of Fishtown’s thriving, eclectic neighborhood. Pushing through the heavy front door, Lizzie was hit by the familiar smell of sugar and bread and comfort, the constant perfume of her job. She could get high off the sweetness.