With a light, late spring snow falling outside the next day, Yvonne was standing in front of her fireplace, debating whether or not to light a fire. The last time a fire had been lit had been when Zadid was at her apartment, and she was loath to remove those ashes. A part of their Christmas magic was still sitting in those black embers, and against all rational thought, she wanted to keep it there for as long as she could.

Her phone rang, then, and she lifted it to see Mackenzie calling. She grinned as she answered the phone.

“Mack! Are you still employed?”

“No thanks to you, but yes, I am! Meanwhile, you make it back from the Middle East and neglect to tell me or give me news of any kind. I ask you, how’s that for friendship?”

“Sorry, Mack. It’s been a rough couple of days.”

“I imagine so, especially since you came back basically the day you got there, right? I want to know what happened, but I don’t want to know it over the phone. Brunch? We still have one whole day to not deal with John, so we might as well take advantage of it.”

With the news of her pregnancy delivered to Zadid, Yvonne couldn’t wait to confide in her friend. At that moment, she needed a friend more than ever.

“Absolutely. Do you want to meet somewhere?”

“No need. I’m in your apartment lobby right now. Figured I’d convince you, one way or the other.”

Yvonne laughed.

“You have always been a master at convincing me to do things I don’t want to do.”

“Then it’s a good thing you want to do this, because you are not getting a choice. I need details, woman! I’m in the elevator now—see you in a sec.”

“Okay, see you soon,” Yvonne said with a chuckle.

It felt good to laugh. It wasn’t something she had done all that often in the past few months. It wasn’t something anyone around her had done, actually. John had thoroughly seen to that. Yvonne was in her bedroom getting dressed when she heard a key in her door, Mackenzie letting herself in.

“Robbery!” Yvonne yelled from the bedroom as she slid a dress over her head.

She had opted to go for dresses and leggings for as long as possible, as they tended to better hide her condition. Without pressing it to her body, it was still questionable whether she was carrying three babies or had just eaten a big burrito for lunch.

“You make it pretty easy to rob you when you stash a key under your welcome mat,” Mackenzie observed.

Yvonne stepped out into the living room, reaching for her purse as she approached her friend with a warm hug.

“You know I’m a serial key-loser. If I don’t keep one under the mat, I’d be the one breaking in here every other day. It’s a miracle I’ve lasted a week without having to access my emergency key.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard it all before. Are you ready for bottomless mimosas?”

Yvonne hesitated for just a moment, not wanting to tell her friend quite yet. She decided that, after the way things had gone with Zadid, perhaps it would be better to break the triplet news to people when they were sitting down. Though, even as she thought that, she remembered the warmth in his eyes as she’d told him he was going to be a father.

That warmth had died the moment his fiancée strutted into his arms.

Feeling another jolt of heartache, Yvonne brushed those nasty thoughts aside. They would do no good, in the grand scheme of things. What mattered now was keeping herself healthy in order to keep her babies healthy. That wouldn’t happen if she was constantly thinking about Zadid.

“Bottomless mimosas here we come,” Yvonne agreed.

Mackenzie lifted an eyebrow at her but said nothing, instead opening the door back up and sliding the key into place under the mat once more.

“You have your other keys?”

“Of course I do,” Yvonne said.

“Just checking. We don’t want you having to go under the emergency mat after you’ve been so good.”

Yvonne smiled at her friend’s gentle teasing.

“We wouldn’t want that,” she agreed, closing the door behind them.

Mackenzie drove, her car parked on the curb outside of Yvonne’s building. They stomped snow off of their shoes before sliding into the car, Mackenzie turning it on and blasting the heat.

“I don’t know why it still has to be so cold—it’s almost April, for heaven’s sake!”

“I like it,” Yvonne said, thinking of the arid heat of Abu Algar. She would much rather be in the cold than that cursed place with its glorious cliffs and stunning palace and wonderful people. Yvonne reminded herself that she hated Abu Algar, especially a certain prince-like jerk who was probably already married by now.

“So, you need to tell me what happened, now,” Mackenzie said, not mincing words as she pulled into the street.

“You need to update me on what the office was like while I was away first, and then we can talk about my thing.”

“Ugh, fine. You are such a tease when I want information out of you. The office has been hell, of course. John met with some political guy and decided he liked him, so he assigned Jesse to the contract, even though Jesse doesn’t work in political finance. That’s a totally different office. He had to have simply picked an email from the list at random and then made it happen. Jesse’s interviewing for another firm this week, so we might not have him for much longer.”

Yvonne frowned.

“I wish that didn’t have to happen. Jesse is a great guy, and so easy to work with. We worked on a team together several times to get contracts done. It was awesome.”

“Yeah, well, he’s on his way out. I mean, everyone is, really. No one wants to stick around. We knew how good we had it, and it was taken from us. Now, we have to figure out what to do next.”

They pulled up to the curb in front of a trendy café. Mackenzie stepped out and paid the meter for a few hours of brunch, ready for a morning party. Soon, she would realize she had to drink mimosas for two on her own.

As they stepped inside, a techno beat was playing from the speakers, giving a pulse to the place that was a totally different vibe from Yvonne’s favorite mom and pop shop down the street. They were seated, a large jug of mimosa placed on the table between them.

“Bottom’s up,” Mackenzie said, pouring herself a glass and reaching to pour one for Yvonne.

“Wait!” Yvonne cried, and Mackenzie stopped before the liquid could tumble from the jug’s spout.

Mackenzie stared at her friend expectantly, waiting for her explanation as to why she was delaying their brunch party. Yvonne released a breath.

“I’m pregnant,” she quietly announced.

Mackenzie stared at her, the jug still hovering over the glass, suspended there as she processed that piece of information.

“You’re pregnant,” she said, finally setting the jug back down. “But you’re not seeing anyone.”

“Well, that is true…”

Mackenzie waited, staring at her silently as she waited for Yvonne to finally release her story. Shaking her head, Yvonne placed her face into her hands.

“This is so messed up, Mack. I’ve made a huge mess of my life.”

Mackenzie reached across the table and squeezed her friend’s shoulder, forcing Yvonne to look up at her.

“Tell me,” she said, her tone consolatory.

So, misty-eyed, Yvonne told her everything.

“At the night of the Christmas party I was on my way out when I saw Zadid looking really sad and alone. Turns out, he had no one to spend the holidays with, so I offered to make him a nice Christmas dinner. He came over on Christmas Day, the night of the blizzard, and got snowed in. We had a little champagne, but nothing too crazy, before we…um…”

Mackenzie lifted an eyebrow.

“Did the deed?” she asked.

Yvonne felt her cheeks go crimson.

“Yes, well. I thought that maybe it would go somewhere, but when we got back from break, I was late to work only to discover that he had decided to sell his share and move back home to the Middle East. He hadn’t told me anything about it.”

“Hmm, you did look really upset that day. I just figured it was because your crush was leaving. Had no idea you guys were doing the hanky panky.”

“All right, all right,” Yvonne laughed, tossing a napkin at her friend. “Anyway, I thought nothing of it after that,” she continued.

“Lies,” Mackenzie interrupted. “You were morose for weeks.”

“We were all morose,” Yvonne countered, and Mackenzie nodded.

“That is true, but I could tell there was something even more off with you. I thought tossing a suitor at you might help the problem, but of course, we all saw how that went, didn’t we?”

“Yeah…you can stop doing that, by the way,” Yvonne said, taking a sip of water.

“So, you were saying? Then you got pregnant?”

“Right, so I was working on moving on, and dealing with all the terrible stuff going on at work, and it didn’t yet occur to me that I had missed my period…twice.”

“Who doesn’t notice that?” Mackenzie interrupted, and Yvonne crossed her arms and glared at her friend, who put up a pair of defensive hands. “Okay, okay. My mouth is sealed. Continue, my dearest friend.”

“Thank you,” Yvonne sighed. “Anyway, I ran straight to the doctor’s office and they were able to confirm that I was, in fact, pregnant. The only man I’ve been with in the past year is Zadid, so…”

“The past year? Girl, we need to get you out more.”

“You are doing an exceptional job of missing the point,” Yvonne snapped.

“Uh-oh, angry pregnant lady, watch out!”

“And there, ladies and gentlemen, is the reason that I don’t tell Mack anything important!”

“Oh, so that’s the reason? You’ve always known my sense of humor, Yvonne. You’ll survive it. So, how’s the baby? What’s the gender? Can you know that yet?”

Yvonne took another sip of her water, making Mackenzie wait for her response. It was what she deserved, after such teasing!

“I’m having triplets,” she said.

Mackenzie choked on her mimosa, gasping for air as she coughed for several minutes while Yvonne waited for her little fit to subside.

“Triplets?” her friend wheezed. “Zadid has got something going on!”

“Yes, well. It took the two of us, you know.”

“Oh, I know. I’m not sure I want to hear all the details about that part. I respect you both too much on a professional level. But three babies at once! What are you going to name them?”

She was asking questions that Yvonne hadn’t even gotten to, stressed-out as she was over the whole situation.

“I honestly don’t know. I think a part of me was waiting until Zadid and I could decide that part together—you know, as a parental unit.”

Mackenzie took another sip of her drink to clear her throat from her previous shock.

“Right. Which brings us to the part where you tell me what happened while you were abroad.”

“What happened while I was abroad,” Yvonne hedged, not wanting to shock her friend into another choking fit, “was a whole other story altogether.”