I stared at a yellow onesie with a duck on it.
“You know what, Karen? You’re right.”
“Besides,” she added, lighter now, “the gifts are for the baby. That’s what really matters, right?”
I looked across the room at Ben, who had clearly been listening.
He set down his beer.
“Ben,” I said quietly, “your mother is telling me not to come to my own baby shower.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Nic. Come on. Just let her have this one day. You know how she gets. It’s not worth the fight.”
“I knew you’d get it.”
That was Ben’s answer to everything involving his mother: let her have it, don’t make it bigger.
After thirty-four years of keeping Karen happy, he barely noticed he was asking me to do the same.
Something inside me went very still.
For six years, I had. Not anymore.
I brought the phone back to my ear. “You know what, Karen? You’re right. Have a wonderful time. Take lots of pictures.”
Karen was hiding something.
There was a startled pause. Then she’d braced for tears.
“Oh. Oh, sweetheart, thank you for understanding. I knew you’d get it.”
“Of course. Enjoy your morning.”
I hung up.
Ben’s shoulders dropped in relief. “See? That wasn’t so bad. You’re amazing, babe.”
I kissed his forehead and told him I was going to take a bath.
“She actually told you not to come?”
I sat on the edge of the tub with my hands on my belly, trying to figure out why the call had felt wrong beyond the obvious.
Wanting the spotlight was one thing.
Needing me physically absent from my own shower was another.
Karen was hiding something. I thought about it all day.
The more I did, the less Karen’s explanation made sense.
“Nothing fancy.”
Then I realized there was one person who could tell me what the “surprise” actually was: Ashley, Ben’s sister.
We’d always been close.
She answered on the second ring. “Hey, Nic. Everything okay?”
“Not really.”
I told her what Karen had said.
“What? She actually told you not to come?”
“Why forty-three guests?”
“Yeah. So, since I’m not going anymore, you can tell me what the surprise is.”
Ashley went quiet. “What do you want to know?”
“Everything.”
“Well, it starts at ten tomorrow morning. It’s at Mom’s house, in the backyard.”
“At her house?”
“Yeah. It’s basically a potluck. Nothing fancy.”
I heard exactly what I needed to hear.
I almost laughed. “Okay, that sounds more like her. Karen hates spending money.”
“Mom’s been weird about money lately, too,” Ashley said. “I saw some bank letters at her house last month. She snatched them off the counter before I could read them.”
“What kind of letters?”
“I don’t know. Chase, Discover… I didn’t think much of it.”
Tomorrow’s baby shower is canceled.
That only made me more confused. “Then why forty-three guests?”
She exhaled. “Okay. There’s something Mom told everyone that you probably need to know.”
And then I heard exactly what I needed to hear.
The reason Karen needed forty-three guests. The reason she needed me nowhere near that backyard.
Suddenly, everything clicked.
‘Small change of plans.’
I thanked her, hung up, and stared at the ceiling for a full minute.
Then I opened my laptop.
Karen had never revoked my access to the guest list.
Every phone number and email was still there.
With Ben asleep in the next room, I messaged everyone I didn’t recognize.
I was just ruining Karen’s plan.
‘Hi everyone!
Tomorrow’s baby shower is canceled.
Karen lied to all of you and misled you. Nothing will be happening tomorrow.
I’m sorry for the short notice, and thank you for understanding.’
I hit send in batches. Almost forty messages went out between midnight and 1 a.m.
The second message was shorter.
“What have you done?!”
It went to my mom, my sister, three friends from work, Ashley, Aunt Denise, and two cousins on Ben’s side I actually loved.
