She, on the other hand, was becoming really familiar with loose, concealing clothes since the morning sickness had hit her hard and fast. Elastic was her friend.

“You do look kind of bad.” Allison leaned over and peered at her. “Maybe you should take a nap. But hey, at least you’re not puking all the time anymore.”

“Yippee, lucky me.” Mandy tried to peel herself off the wall, feeling emotional and crabby. It was the idea of going to the Caribbean with Damien Sharpton, spending days and days in his company in the hot sun, blue sky and ocean waves lulling her, music wafting over the sand. And her trying to pretend she wasn’t pregnant and alone.

“Remind me never to get pregnant,” Allison said, shifting her clutch from one hand to the other.

Suddenly, without warning, Mandy felt tears well up in her eyes. “It’s not like I did this on purpose, you know! Ben was using protection and yet I still got pregnant, and now this poor baby is stuck with a mother who doesn’t know what she’s doing and can’t even walk up the damn stairs!”

Allison’s eyes widened as Mandy sobbed, swiping at her cheeks. She didn’t know why she was crying except that it just seemed as though there had been so little in her life she’d been successful at that the odds were against her being a stellar mother as well.

“Oh, shit, Mandy, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…” Allison stuck her head in the open door of the apartment. “Jamie, come fix this! I made Mandy cry.”

“I’m fine,” she said, even as her eyes swelled up and her cheeks went damp with tears.

But she didn’t protest when Jamie came and put her arm around her and led her into the apartment, clucking and cooing. “What’s the matter, honey? Did that nasty boss of yours do something horrible to you?”

She nodded, plopping onto the couch and hugging a velvet sage green pillow when Jamie gave her a gentle push down. “He’s making me go to the Caribbean with him for a week.”

“The bastard!” Allison said, then pressed her lips together when Jamie shot her a dirty look. “What? I would kill to go to the beach and get a real tan instead of paying fifty bucks to get sprayed with fake color. What’s wrong with going to the Caribbean? It’s been a lousy spring. It’s May, and most days it doesn’t even crack fifty degrees.”

“It doesn’t stop you from wearing a sundress, though,” Jamie remarked, bundled up in a chocolate brown hoodie and pants.

“I have to show off this fake tan.”

Mandy tucked the pillow under her chin. “I know it sounds stupid, but the thing is, he doesn’t know I’m pregnant. I’m not sure I can hide it for a whole week.”