“Today was a very special day, sweetheart. I went to see Dr. Henderson for a regular prenatal checkup and he insisted that we do a sonogram. I really wanted you to be there but it happened kind of spontaneously so…well, Jim, we’re going to have a baby girl!”

Glass raised, mind racing, I tried to act surprised, but with Mama Vermillion’s announcement still in my head, I made a split second decision to say, “Oh, Maggie, that’s wonderful!”

“And I’ve set her a place at the table, Jimmy. I just couldn’t wait to tell you! Isn’t this so exciting?”

Still thinking I’m just going to play along, I said, “I always hoped it would be a girl.”

Maggie and I sipped some wine, actually I gulped some wine, and then she said, “It’s our first special dinner with our baby and I know you’ve been so stressed out about all this, but it just seems so much more real now that we know it’s going to be a girl. So tonight I wanted to toast the three of us and make this our first special night together, our first special night with Layla.”

The room started to spin a bit.

“Layla?” I said. “Did you say Layla?”