Chapter 4: The Pool

Vicki Hatcher came up to forty at noon with two sandwiches and her face red with anger.

She was my best friend on floor nine, a loud redhead who ate lunch standing up and kept a stapler in her purse for emergencies.

She dropped into the chair beside my desk and pulled a crumpled sheet of paper out of her cardigan.

"Do not read this on a full stomach," she said. "Eat first."

I read it anyway.

It was a sign-up sheet that had been taped to the break room cabinet.

At the top, in neat blue ink, someone had written: WHO'S THE DADDY? Twenty dollars a guess, winner takes the pot.

Under it ran a column of names.

The man from the mailroom was there.

So was a married vice president, a delivery driver and an intern.

Three people had guessed Nolan.

"Somebody got up at six this morning and taped that to the cabinet," Vicki said. "I got there first and ripped it down."

"How many signed?"

"Thirty-one."

Thirty-one people I had said good morning to for eight months.

I folded the sheet in half and the baby kicked, which I took as her opinion.

"Vicki, I'm fine."

"You're not fine. You're pale and you moved upstairs overnight, and I don't know why, and you won't tell me."

"I will tell you," I said. "I promise. Soon."

Vicki narrowed her eyes.

"That is the first lie you've ever told me, and I forgive it, because I'm taking this sheet to the chairman."

"The chairman is Nolan's father."

"I'll take it to him anyway."

"Vicki!"

The voice came from behind her, soft and breathless.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Everyone Mocks the Pregnant "Nobody," She's Secretly the Boss's Wife from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.