This is good. We're in the furniture shop. Sabine's acting normal. She's saying mean things about all the curtains. Then we're both saying mean things about the curtains, and it's nice to laugh together.

Finally, we end up on a shade that's some muted variant of purple. Sabine pays for it, and then we head out.

"I'm hungry." She announces, as I'm unlocking the car.

I look around. "There's a mediocre burger place just behind this."

Sabine thinks. "Sure. Burgers sound good."

So I drive to the burger place. She orders a beef burger, and I get a veggie patty.

She offers me a bite, but I shake my head. "I'm tryna stay off of red meat."

"Really, why?"

"Health?" I chuckle.

"Oh. Right. Sad." Sabine says. Then, "But cigarettes are okay?"

I roll my eyes. I finish swallowing a bite. "I go through one pack in, like, two weeks."

"Oh, great, guess you'll die at 77 instead of 74 then."

"Aw, you worried about me dying?" I tease.

"What kind of a question is that." Sabine says. "Are you dumb?"

I smile. I pick a lone fry, idly dip it into the ketchup. "Why'd you quit your job?"

"I wanted to come visit Maryann, that's why."

"They wouldn't have given you a few days of leave?"

"I dunno. I didn't check." Sabine shrugs.

I laugh incredulously. "So you just up and left?"

Sabine nods slowly, like we're talking about obvious things.

"Weird." I say.

Sabine arches an eyebrow. "What's weird?"

"You're lying." I say.

"Am I?" Both eyebrows go up.

"Yes." I nod. "It's so obvious."

Sabine smiles with one side of her mouth; her dimple shows. She sits back, folds her arms over her chest. "How is it obvious?"

"It just is. I can tell, you know." I smile smugly. "You look like you're dying to tell me what it is."

Sabine shakes her head. "No, I'm not." I just look. She huffs. "You are such an asshole."

I shrug my shoulders. Still smiling. Sabine's glaring at me. We're both smiling.

"Okay, fine. You want to know?" She asks like it's a challenge.

I widen my eyes, as if to say, yeah, go ahead.

Sabine nods. She sits up straight. Clasps her hands in front of her. "I'm pregnant."

I blink rapidly. My mouth slowly drops open.

Sabine pulls her mouth into a line. "Yeah. That's my big secret."

"Sabine..." I whisper.

"I'm gonna be a mom." Sabine says casually as she picks at the remnants of her plate.

"What the fuck..." I say, shaking my head in disbelief. "I mean, congrats." I chuckle incredulously. "I know you ... always wanted kids."

"That I did, that I did." Sabine nods. "I just didn't think it'd be this way."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"It was completely unplanned. Like ..." She widens her eyes to stress on the point she's trying to make. "Completely unplanned. I broke up with him the day before."

"Oh, my god." My mouth is wide open. I have to cover it with my hand. "Sabine..."

"Yeah." She says, and her eyes look so tired. The dark circles make sense now. She looks around at the moderately crowded diner. "Can we go outside now?"

*

We walk to my car. I almost take out a cigarette, then remember.

"Ohh." I say suddenly. "This is why you quit?"

Sabine laughs. "Yeah, genius."

"Damn." I say. "I don't know if I would've been able to quit like that. Just out of the blue?"

"Yeah, well, I'm planning on being the best mother in the world." Sabine says, smiling girlishly. Her dimple shows. I smile, too. But I have a strange feeling that I can't shake off.

I watch her shadow stretch out on the ground below. She's wearing worn-out Vans. The same kind she used to wear when we were kids. I look into her face. She looks at me, too.

She has very pretty eyes.

I don't feel the need to look away, like I would with someone else.

"Hughes..." Sabine says.

"Yeah?"

"Don't look at me like that."

I want to ask what she means, but instead I ask, "Why not?"

"Because it's not fair." She says emphatically, but her voice is not louder than a whisper; it doesn't have to be; we're standing pretty close to one another.

I take a reluctant step backward. I look up at the clear sky, exhaling deeply. My breath comes out as mist. I want to hug her. But I don't think we're quite at that point yet.

I look back down at her. "You wanna go see a waterfall?"

"Yes." Her eyes brighten. "Obviously."

"Okay." I grin. "Get in the car, mum-to-be."