Baby Be Mine

this arvo?’
    I hesitate for all of two seconds. Johnny’s going out tonight, so he can hardly have a problem with me going out today. He’s got Dana for company – and that’s something I won’t fight him for.
    ‘Sounds good.’
    Kitty and I meet on Melrose Avenue at one of our old haunts, an Italian coffee shop which does some of the best pasta dishes I’ve ever tasted. She’s already there when I walk in, struggling to carry Barney and my oversized bag.
    ‘Oh my God!’ she cries, getting to her feet and rushing over. ‘I cannot believe you gave birth to that!’
    I laugh. ‘He wasn’t this big when I squeezed him out.’
    She checks me over. ‘You look amazing!’
    ‘I tried not to let myself go,’ I joke. I’m wearing skinny jeans, brown leather boots and a fitted navy-blue military peacoat, which Mum bought for me as an early birthday present.
    ‘Here, let me help you.’ She relieves me of my bag and leads the way through the cramped space to our table. I sit Barney on my lap because there are no high chairs. He immediately reaches for the salt and pepper shaker.
    Kitty still looks the same, albeit a little older. She’s wearing a stripy chocolate, beige, army-green and hot-pink dress, teamed with a purple cardie and a chunky green belt. She must be thirty-three now; she was thirty when I met her three years ago, and I was only twenty-four then, so she’s always been older and wiser than me. She stares at Barney and shakes her head, her dark-brown ringlets bouncing around her shoulders.
    ‘He’s so big now! He has your hair.’
    ‘And Johnny’s eyes,’ I say. I wasn’t planning on dropping the bombshell in quite such an offhand fashion, but it just sort of came out. It takes a few moments for the news to sink in, and, when it does, her jaw practically hits the table.
    ‘Pardon?’ I’ve never heard her say pardon before.
    ‘He’s Johnny’s,’ I tell her. ‘Strictly confidential, of course.’
    ‘He’s . . . He’s . . . Johnny Jefferson has a son ?’
    ‘Yep.’ I lift my fingers up and point at the top of Barney’s head.
    ‘Holy shit, Meg!’
    ‘Oops, no swearing.’
    She clamps her hand across her mouth and her wide-open eyes stare at me. ‘He’s Johnny’s ?’
    ‘Yep.’
    ‘What about Christian?’
    My nonchalance dries up. I take a deep breath and sigh. ‘I thought – hoped – Barney would be Christian’s. But as you can see, he looks nothing like him.’
    ‘Is that why you split up?’
    ‘It’s a pretty good reason, don’t you think?’
    ‘So what are you doing back here?’ Again she clamps her hand over her mouth. ‘You’re not back with Johnny?’
    ‘No, no,’ I brush her off. ‘No, he’s with Dana, hook, line and sinker. But he didn’t take the news about Barney as badly as I thought he would. He wanted us to come here and spend some time with him.’
    Bump goes her jaw on the table again.
    ‘Sorry, are we talking about the same Johnny Jefferson?’
    ‘Yeah, I know,’ I smile wryly. ‘It came as a surprise to me, too.’
    ‘Hang on, hang on, let’s backtrack a bit. What happened? Was it just a one-night stand?’
    ‘No, it was more than that.’ I explain to her about the whole shebang and finally come to the part about him asking me to go and live with him in LA.
    ‘And you said no?’ She looks at me like I’m mad.
    I screw up my nose. ‘You wonder why?’
    ‘But he’s Johnny Jefferson, Meg! How could you have said no to him?’
    ‘I didn’t manage to say no to everything.’ I indicate Barney with my fingers once more. ‘As you can see by Exhibit A.’
    ‘Holy shit! Sorry.’
    The waitress belatedly comes over to take our order. We’ve been too busy talking to realise we’ve been ignored all this time. I haven’t had a chance to look at the menu so I order an old favourite – lasagne – plus some penne pomodoro for Barney.
    ‘What’s been happening with you?’ I ask casually when we’re alone again.
    ‘No. Uh-uh.’ She shakes her head. ‘Nothing’s been happening with me. Nothing that even remotely compares to what’s been happening with you.’
    ‘I’m sure that’s not true. Still working for Rod?’
    ‘Yep, but who cares, right? You’ve got Johnny Jefferson’s son on your lap! I cannot believe this hasn’t hit the press yet.’
    ‘Shh! It’s only a matter of time with you talking that loudly!’
    ‘Sorry!’
    I giggle, then fall serious. ‘Really, though, I’m sure it is only a matter of time.