Serendipity Strikes

6

Emmaline

Over the next couple weeks, Shawn and I took frequent walks. He had various commitments that he'd jet away for, like a music festival in upstate New York or a performance on some talk show, but he was never gone for long.

We'd been photographed together on several occasions, which of course irritated me. Thankfully I hadn't been identified and for the most part, no one made any assumptions about us since our body language screamed that our relationship was purely platonic. There was speculation that I was the person whose baby he'd help deliver, which led to people concluding we were friendly neighbors. This was the truth, so I wasn't too upset.

At the end of June, we were sitting in the Thompson Diner, located in the Thompson Hotel, on Bathurst. Having breakfast together had not been our plan, but a sudden rainstorm had driven us inside. I was eating a fruit bowl and oatmeal since my six week post-delivery check-up was rapidly approaching, and I wanted to have lost at least half my baby weight. Walking was definitely helping. I was also doing yoga a couple days a week at a studio a couple blocks away while Mike stayed with Jax.

Shawn, meanwhile, had a large platter of chocolate chip pancakes with a side of home fries in front of him. I'd seen him shirtless recently after Jax had spit up all over his shoulder, and my rockstar friend didn't need to watch what he ate. He was fit.

"Want a bite?" he asked, offering me his fork.

"Yes, but I'm going to resist. You're welcome to some of my fruit."

He took me up on that offer and chose a piece of pineapple.

"So," he said as he chewed, "I'm having a little party on Canada Day. It's going to be pretty chill, just a dozen or so friends. I'm getting barbecue catered and a mini-keg of Molson's because what else can you drink on that day? My patio has a great view of the fireworks."

"Sounds fun," I said.

"So you'll come? Mike and Jax are invited, too."

"Will I get to meet your mystery girlfriend?" I teased.

A week or so after our first walk, I'd dropped off a boxed set of my books at his condo, and he'd invited me in so that we could look at them together. When I picked up one of the couch pillows to prop under my elbow while feeding Jax, I'd discovered a condom wrapper. I tossed it at him and he turned bright red, stammering that he had no idea how it got there. I told him it was pretty clear how and why it was there and to chill out. It's not like I'd judge him.

"There's no girlfriend," he said with a scowl as he took another piece of fruit. "Can we not talk about this?"

At the risk of being stubborn, I wasn't letting this drop so easily.

"You don't strike me as the random hook-up type," I assessed. "And I feel like I know you pretty well at this point."

We hadn't been friends for long, but you learn a lot about someone when you spent as much time together as we had in the last three weeks. We talked constantly on our walks, and I felt I had a good sense of what type of person he was.

"It wasn't like that, either."

"Will she be at the party?" I asked.

"No, and I may uninvite you if you keep this interrogation up."

I decided to let go of the girlfriend thing even though I was curious about it.

"I'll come, but promise me your friends won't touch the baby too much. You know how I am," I said.

I'd actually relaxed a bit about the germ thing as I took Jax out more and more, but I still didn't like the idea of people's hands all over him.

"Do you want me to text Mike? Is it weird if you two come together?" he asked.