The brakes squeal as I stop the car short and throw it into park in the first vacant space I can find. I told Kelly what happened at the fire, how Desi got pinned and then lost consciousness.

She kept asking me if he’s okay. I told her he would be, but the truth is, I don’t know. I’m no doctor, and I don’t have X-ray vision. There’s no way of knowing if Desi’s body is broken or if he’s going to walk away lucky.

We don’t speak as we walk hand in hand into the emergency room. The big automatic doors slide open for us and we pause. I can hear Kelly taking the same deep breath I am, preparing herself for the worst.

I guide her over to the administration desk and her hand clamps down on mine tight.

“Excuse me.” I lean over and talk to the late shift nurse. “We’re here for our friend who was just admitted a couple hours ago. His name is Desmond Connors. He’s a firefighter.” I look at her hopefully.

The nurse’s blank stare turns into a toothy smile. She almost looks like she has too many teeth in her wide grin. “Oh, you’re looking for Desi?” She shakes her head and chuckles. “You can’t miss him. He’s been cracking up the nurses and patients for the last half hour. He’s a funny dude.” She laughs again and points over my shoulder.

Kelly and I turn around and I see him standing in the middle of the emergency waiting room, like a comedian doing his routine up on a stage, talking a mile a minute and making people around him burst out laughing.

“Thanks,” I call over my shoulder, not able to take my eyes off my normally serious and somewhat reserved friend.

We slowly walk toward him. I can see that his shoulder has been bandaged up, but other than that there are no signs of injury. In fact, it looks like he’s having the time of his life.

“Okay, here’s one for ya. There ain’t children in here, are there?” He gives a quick look and sees that it’s only adults waiting to be seen by the doctors tonight.

“Nope.” An older man with dark brown stained teeth and a wild comb-over encourages him.

“Good. ’Cause this one’s for grown-up ears only.” Desi covers his own ears exaggeratedly and snorts. “So there’s this guy on a plane, right. He’s heading home from some kind of business trip or something. He’s tired, he’s annoyed, he just wants the plane to get moving so he can count down the time left until he can sleep in his own bed, right?”

“I know the feeling,” a middle-aged Asian woman with a bright red sweater interrupts him.

“Exactly. So, he’s sitting there when this gorgeous girl walks in. I mean, she’s just like nothing he’s ever seen. She’s got long, cascading brown hair, big bedroom eyes, and a perfect pout. He’s amazed when she sits down in the seat next to him. Utterly amazed.”

I can’t help but wonder if he’s describing the most beautiful woman he knows when he tells his joke. That description sounded very much like Kelly. I look over at her and she’s watching Desi with a sparkle of amusement in her eyes.

“The guy, he’s thrilled, right? Here he was thinking this was going to be the worst couple hours of his life, but now, he’s giddy. He wants to talk to the girl, but he’s trying to sound casual. So the guy turns to her and asks how her trip went.”

“Tell me more about the girl.” The old man licks his dry lips and I can’t help but laugh. It’s good to see we never really lose our interest in the most important things as we age.

“She’s amazing. Big tits, big ass, just gorgeous,” Desi answers. “Anyway, the woman tells him she was at a sex conference. The man can’t believe his ears. What luck. A beautiful woman and she was just at some kind of sex conference? He asks her what she was doing there and she tells him she was giving a lecture about how our ideas about sex are based on myths and she tried to set the record straight on them.”

Desi is postured like he’s standing in front of an invisible microphone. The way he’s got the crowd, I mean his fellow patients, hanging off his every word, I can’t help but wonder if he’s got a secret talent for this that we never knew about. Even as I glance around, I can see a bunch of nurses and orderlies have lingered around the hall to hear his joke.

“The man asks, “What kind of myths?” He’s genuinely curious now and happy he has such a pretty gal to chat with. She tells him everyone has heard that African men have the biggest dicks, but that’s not actually true. She says it’s Native Americans who are dragging around the biggest dongs. Then she says that French men are said to be the best lovers in the entire world, but it turns out it’s men of Jewish descent that know how to rock a woman’s world. Finally she confides in him that the most shocking thing of all is that the best overall lovers who please the most women regularly in bed are actually rednecks from the southern United States.”

“I never heard that before,” one of the ladies whispers loudly to her friend and they titter.

Desi continues, “The lady gets embarrassed and realizes she’s been talking on and on and she never even introduced herself properly. She holds out her hand and says, ‘I’m Charlotte, by the way. What’s your name?’ And the guy takes her hand, looks her straight in the eyes, and says, ‘I’m Tonto. Tonto Goldstein. But my friends call me Bubba.”

The waiting room bursts out into laughter as he hits them with the punchline. Even the staff are laughing as they shake their heads and move on. Kelly doubles over and laughs so hard I think she might pass out.

I walk up to Desi, interrupting his little one-man show. “Hey, man, we’re here to pick you up.” I grin at him. “Ya fucking goof.”

He turns and sees Kelly. That’s all it takes for him to abandon his crowd. Desi walks away from the patients and they groan. When we make our way over to Kelly I hear the man with the brown teeth loudly whisper, “That must be the girl from the plane.”

Kelly giggles again and I can’t help but laugh too this time.

“Hey, baby!” Desi reaches up with his good hand and brushes his fingers down Kelly’s cheek. “You look like a dream come true, you know that?”

She flushes but looks flattered at the attention. We have an audience as the people Desi has been entertaining in his clearly drugged up state all watch us.

“Thank you.” Kelly smiles.

“I can’t wait to have your baby. It’s gonna be so beautiful,” he slurs his words a little and the people listening in break out into another laugh.

“I think you’ve got that mixed up,” Kelly tells him gently.

“Nah, we’re all gonna have a baby, right, Zach? It’ll have my eyes and Zach’s nose and your big beautiful eyes, won’t it?” He nudges me with his good arm.

“Sure, man. Let’s, uh, let’s talk about this after. All right? Right now we gotta get you home.” I start to lead him out toward the exit.

“He’s fine, as you can see, but he did have a dislocated shoulder and he has a slight concussion.” A nurse catches us at the door. “As you can see, he’s a bit out of it. Thinking he can have a baby.” She laughs.

“I’m having a baby! Woo!” Desi yelps excitedly.

“Okay, bud. Let’s keep it down,” I urge him. However, anyone listening in just smiles. They have no idea what he really means.

“Anyway, he’s got to be careful with the shoulder and get his prescription filled as soon as possible. He’ll be as good as new in no time at all,” she reassures us.

“Sounds good.” I nod. “Thanks for everything.” I grab my friend and guide him out the door and to my car.

It takes more effort than I thought it would, but Kelly and I finally manage to get Desi in the back seat of the car, with his seatbelt secured and his shoulder protected. As I settle into the driver’s seat, I look at him in the rearview mirror and see he’s slumped over and out cold.

“What was he talking about?” Kelly looks over at me hopefully.

“The baby stuff?”

“Yeah, that.” Her breath hitches.

“Well, when we were at the fire, I told him I wanted to have a kid with you and him.” I look at her face. For a brief second, pure joy flashes over her features. But then, just as quickly a cloud rolls in over her eyes.

“Okay, but were you just saying that to make him feel better? Or…” She looks up at me from under her lashes and I can see how badly she wants this.

“No. I told him that because I realized what a complete and utter asshole I was when you brought it up earlier.” I grab her hand and hold it on my heart. “I love you, Kelly. And I know Desi loves you too. And I don’t care if it’s sudden or if we’re all just navigating this thing by the seat of our pants. It doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters to me is us. All three of us. And there’s nothing I want more than to help you have a baby and turn this into a family.”

Tears fall down her cheeks and a big smile tugs at her lips.

“I love you guys too,” she cries. “Both of you. And you have no idea how happy you just made me.” She leans into me and I cup her cheek. I kiss her quickly, softly letting my lips peck hers again and again.

“Awww, I love you guys,” Desi interrupts. Apparently having a moment of consciousness.

We both laugh. And then Desi joins in, even though I’m pretty sure he’s not certain what we’re laughing about.

“I love you guys too. Both of you.” Kelly looks at me, her eyes shining in the moonlight and then back at Desi.

“Hey, you know what? This is great,” Desi slurs. “I’ve got an idea. Do you guys wanna hear a joke? I’ve got a million of them,” he rambles.

“Sure, man. Tell us some jokes.” I nod as I turn the key in the ignition and pull out of the parking spot.

“Okay, you’re gonna love this one. So, there’s this guy sitting on a plane, right? He’s heading home after a long trip…”