When Girlfriends Step Up Read Online Free PDF Page B

still surreal right now. Maybe it’ll become more real when I actually see the little guy. Or girl.”
    I didn’t know if it was the pregnant woman hormones that made me feel elated one minute, and scared to death the next about the pregnancy, or if it was the simple fact that I was going to be a single mom. And I had big baby-daddy problems ahead of me. One moment I’d be happy over this big life change and the chance to really do something special, like raise my very own baby, and the next I’d think about the whole mess of a situation and how none of it was ideal. It was an emotional roller coaster, and I was ready to get off and leave the park. Too bad I had another seven months to go.
    “The appointment is next week, on Thursday,” I told an eager Sophie. “You want to come?”
    “I was going to ask if I could, but that day’s no good. I’ve got a huge order that night. There’s no way I could ask Katie to let me off the hook.”
    Sophie worked for a bakery and catering company called Katie’s Kitchen over in Belltown, a bit of a ways from where I worked, across Lake Union. She had big dreams of some day owning her own bakery and café. And last I heard she was heavily pursuing them, trying to get a business license and all that stuff figured out. I hoped she did open her own shop up. She had the determination and ethics it would take to run a successful bakery in the competitive culinary capital of Seattle. And she made a mean pastry. And her cupcakes! I could be on my deathbed from eating too many sweets, and if she walked in with one of her vanilla-raspberry swirl cupcakes, I’d willingly die one happy woman.
    “I wish I could go with you, Robin,” she said. “I can’t get out of it at all. I bet Lara will be free. You should definitely call her.”
    Before Sophie could inevitably ask when I’d share the baby news with Lara, I said, “That’s another thing. I texted the girls that we need a girls’ night. Wanted to see if you were free this Thursday? After work? Dinner, drinks, whatever—my place? Figured I’d spring the news then.”
    “Count me in, girl! And I’m sure Claire can make it without a problem, too,” she said. “I’m pretty certain she doesn’t have anything going on this whole weekend, in fact.” Sophie was still temporarily living with Claire and Claire’s long-term boyfriend, Conner, since Sophie had moved out of Brandon’s apartment when they broke up. I thought Claire and Sophie hung out together all the time before, but now that they were roommates it was rare to see them apart. If they did have to separate, they were at least woven into each other’s planner somehow each day.
    “Oh and I’ll see you in a few, right?” I asked. “You’re still up for coming over tonight and helping me figure out the, uh, situation ?”
    “Thirty minutes sound good?” Sophie asked, ready to get back to our plans of telling Brandon the news.
    “See you then!”
    During my drive home, while getting three ebullient texts, all from the girls letting me know that they were certainly game for a girls’ night, I started to reflect on how I would approach Brandon with the news that I was carrying his child. Sophie would be meeting me at my apartment any moment to help me figure out just that, but I had no idea where to start, and we hadn’t gotten very far in our plans the previous night.
    What would I do? Pick up the phone, dial his number, and then once he answered just sit there, mouth agape, speechless? Or randomly show up on his doorstep and say, “Hey, guess what?” And what if he wasn’t home? What if he didn’t pick up the phone when, or if , I called? Would I gather enough courage to attempt a second time? A third? Would I ever be able to reach him? And how would he react if I did get the chance to tell him?
    At that moment, I thought I felt a tickle in my tummy, as if the baby was giving me a little sign that he or she was really there. It was probably silly, since my