When Girlfriends Step Up Read Online Free PDF

baby was official. The first doctor’s appointment was official. It was high time to break the news to my girlfriends. Oh, yeah, and Brandon. Minor annoying detail there.
    “Another challenge; one step at a time,” I mumbled to myself, causing Janet to turn in my direction. She asked me what I was talking about and I didn’t dignify her with a response. It was none of her damned business. I was going to have a baby. I was going to be a mother. And I was also going to get that PM position. I just had to!

    ***

    I looked up from my computer screen, tearing my eyes away from the practically blank digital canvas I was working on for a new mystery novel, and checked the time. It was near closing time for the day and I wasn’t anywhere near where I wanted to be on this darn cover. My creative juices weren’t flowing very well; it was difficult to think of an appropriate image for a book filled with neighborhood robberies and a high stakes kidnapping when I had my first ultrasound on the brain.
    What would the baby look like? Would I already be able to see its little hands? Its little feet? What about its face? Could I tell if it was going to look like me? Or like Brandon… Would it be a little boy? Or a little girl?
    Enough was enough. Another thirty minutes or even an hour at my current project wasn’t going to make the slightest bit of difference. I would come in early the next morning and get a jumpstart on it. Until then, I needed to round up my girlfriends and set up a get-together. And I deserved to go home. It had been a rough day, having already thrown up twice—once after a turkey sandwich for lunch and once after I mistakenly had a bite of an oatmeal raisin cookie from the break room. Cinnamon was still off-limits, at least until my second trimester rolled around, at which point my morning, afternoon, and all-times-of-the-day sickness would pass. That is if that baby book knew what it was talking about.  
    “Going home?” Janet asked, while I started to power down my computer. “Already?”
    Oh she could get on my nerves. I calmly replied with, “Got done what I needed to for today.” She looked at me skeptically and went back to her business.
    Before gathering my belongings I typed on my cell phone: Must do girls nite!! Dinner+drinks Thur at my place? I scrolled through my directory and selected “Claire,” “Jackie,” and “Lara,” then hit send. Hopefully all of the girls could make it. I had some big news to share. The thought of having to wait a couple of days until Thursday night was driving me bonkers.
    “Have a nice night, Janet,” I said, toting my stuff out of the office as I began dialing Sophie’s cell number.
    Janet made some response, but I was distracted by Sophie’s chipper answer.
    “Hey, Sophie,” I said. “Guess what?”
    “You got your raise?” Sophie’s voice was full of excitement.
    “Yeah, I wish. That’s not until the next month or so. Still a ways off. But I did get myself a doctor’s appointment.” I tossed my purse and files into the back of my car, then quickly surveyed the parking lot beforehand to make sure no one could overhear my baby-bundle news. “And guess what? I’m getting my first ultrasound then!”
    “Oh my God! Like, baby’s first picture?”
    “Yup,” I said, smiling ear to ear. “I’m so excited.”
    “I was going to ask how you’re feeling about all of this. This is some heavy stuff, girl. But it sounds like you’re really positive about it. Like you’re happy.”
    “Well, ‘happy’ might be a little bit of an overstatement right now. I mean, I guess yeah, in a sense, I’m happy. This is a pretty crazy thing happening to my body. To my life. Getting to see this little guy’s picture—”
    “It’s a boy?” Sophie shrieked.
    “I don’t know yet. I was just saying—guy, girl—whatever.”
    “Ah, okay.”
    “Anyway,” I said, “It is exciting and crazy what’s happening, but I’m still really…scared. I guess it’s