I smiled at him. He smiled back.

Morgan gagged.

“You guys are so gross,” she said.

Leaf snorted and waved his fork in her direction. “Says the girl who spends half her time diving for Erin’s lungs with her tongue.”

“Those are exceptionally sexy lungs, thankyouverymuch.” Morgan winked at Erin. “I love your lungs, beautiful.”

Erin poked herself in the side of the boob. “Yeah, you do. You love them a lot.”

“I didn’t even mean those!”

“Maybe not this time you didn’t.” Erin blew Morgan a kiss. Morgan pretended to catch it midair and devour it. It was pretty weird, but Erin giggled, so I guessed that’s all that mattered.

“You two excited for tonight?” Erin asked.

My cheeks went hot. Leaf shrugged.

“I’d say so, yes,” he said. “But, even if it’s just a friend date, we’ll have fun. We get along. I think it’ll be a good time.”

I nodded, swallowing past a lump in my throat that was not Leaf’s shared lamb and rice. “Yeah. I—yeah,” I said, because that’s all I could manage.

Morgan’s smile was slow and wide.

“You’re grosssss,” Morgan replied. “Soooooo. Verrrrry. Grosssss.”

What was also gross was cold goopy jelly smeared over a belly sporting new dark hairs that weren’t there the week before. Body hair in itself wasn’t a problem—razors existed. I was comfortable with the de-furring that went along with being a pale-ass Swede with thick black Hispanic hair. However, hair you didn’t notice until your pants were rolled down, when you had a doctor, your mother, your grandmother and your best friend gathered around you all staring at it? That was an issue.

I wanted to reach down and pluck them out one at a time. Alas, the pushy wand was there, cold and insistent as it skimmed over my firm, slightly rounded midsection. I was doomed to remain yeti-like until I got home.

“You know, this would be easier if you weren’t looking like you,” I said to Devi. “Like, here I am all lumpy and furry with my pants rolled down and you’re standing there being perfect. Be uglier, please?”

She smirked, but she really did look like a supermodel, with her cashmere sweater and designer jeans and who-knew-what-designer brown leather shoes. Her hair was covered by a beautiful purple scarf with gold medallions. Her ears rocked diamond studs she’d gotten for Hanukkah from her grandparents the year before.

Devi rolled her eyes.

“You look fine! You’re at the doctor’s office. No one’s pretty here.”

“You are, I bet,” I said. “And do you have weird belly fur? No, no, you do not.”

“Hair growth is normal during pregnancy.” Dr. Cardiff rotated the wand around and dug it in halfway between my belly button and pelvis. I winced, but she just kept right on pressing.