Coffee

Part Eighteen: Stuck In The Middle

I went on with my day as if I wasn't bothered by Lauren's wannabe romance with Max. Not to my surprise, as I'm heading out for the night, she catches me in the atrium with a big smile on her face.

"I assume coffee went well."

"Extremely." She says giddy with her experience. "We went to Parker's up on 3rd and he paid...despite my protesting."

Of course he did. How charming of him.

"That's exciting." I say trying to genuinely sound happy for her.

"Yeah...so Bulldog's? It's Wednesday night." Wednesday's the day of chicken wings and beer and gossip. I can't possibly imagine enjoying it tonight.

But, I can't say no to Lauren because she's having a great day so far and to ruin it would make me a horrible person.

"Sure." Walking out of the Dam, Lauren clicks away on her phone and just keeps grinning.

"So my Domino Chain is shaping up. Friday is looking better and better the closer we get." I say and she doesn't even look up or really acknowledge it. "I'm trying to have a baby..."

Why not let that out of the bag. She isn't listening anyway. She's most likely talking to Max. Based on her smile- she seems a text away from asking him to the school dance so long as they dance with fifteen inches of space between them and don't get too handsy.

"Wait...what?! This is news to me!" She finally looks up as we make our way down the walk. She grabs my arm and hangs onto it.

"Yes....I've decided to do IVF and hopefully it goes well enough for me to have my own child." She beams in a proud parent kind of way and gives me a side hug.

"That's so exciting!!! Eeeee!!! Are you gonna have Tinder Guy be the donor?" I was until I gave him up for you.

Although how interesting would it be to have Max be the donor while he's dating Lauren and then they get married, have their own kids and our kids are half siblings?

God no!

"No. I'm going to look at donors and find one I like the most."

"You know who's going to make a good dad?" Here we go.

"Hmm... Daryl Dixon?" I state and she furrows her eyebrows.

"First off, Daryl is a lone wolf and his true love is already dead because that idiot hospital cop shot her..."

"They weren't an item."

"You don't know that. Reading between the lines they were!" Rolling my eyes, we keep walking and she continues. "And secondly, I was talking about Max."

"Oh... yeah." I know- who else are you talking about all of a sudden?

"Yeah. We were talking today and God! He is such a nice guy and sweet and compassionate and God is he funny! I couldn't stop laughing at some of the stuff he said." I know all of this. I know Lauren because I had him three weeks before you did and I gifted him to you for your self esteem and less so because I was bored like one would've suspected if they knew about us.

"Is he?"

"Yes! And his smile! Gah...I had to stop myself from jumping over the table and taking a taste of it."

"However did you manage?" I can be as sarcastic as I want. She's not listening to my responses. She could careless what I'm saying right now. She's in her own Max filled day dream. She's lost on him and frankly, I don't care to send a search party out for her. Walking into Bulldog's I go to sit at our normal spot, but when I turn, Lauren is at a booth in the corner. Walking over to her, I just stand at the end of the table and stare at her. "What are you doing? This isn't our seats."