When Girlfriends Step Up (10 page)

“It’s beautiful,” I gasped.
 

Lara was by my side the instant Dr. Buschardi had handed me my photos. “So beautiful.”

“Congratulations, Robin. And what a wonderful friend you have here to support you.”

“Oh, Lara’s the best,” I gushed. “I don’t know what I’d do without her.”
 

Dr. Buschardi smiled, hands folded in her lap. “Well I’ll let you get dressed,” she said. “And then be sure to make your next appointment up at the front. The nurses will also supply you with all of the pre-natal vitamins and information you need. Oh, and before I forget—your due date.” She scribbled on my file. “We’re going to plan on your little bundle coming around…the seventh of December. Congratulations!”

Before Dr. Buschardi left the room she said, “If you have any questions, don’t hesitate a moment about calling me. You have my card. If for any reason I’m not available to take your call, I have a very reliable and wonderful team. You’ll be taken care of, Robin. Now, you’ve got some big news to share. Got to call up all the friends, mom, dad, the whole family!”

Mom. Dad. The whole family. I appreciated that Dr. Buschardi left out “and the daddy,” as my bringing along Lara probably tipped her off that there was no father. But my parents? In the frantic activity of everything I hadn’t even thought about breaking the news to my parents. Telling my dad wasn’t really a consideration, anyhow. I didn’t even have his phone number—only his office email address. He ran out on his fatherly duties when I was a pre-teen, so I doubted he’d give a flying flip that he was going to be a grandfather.

My mom, however, was another story. I was on some form of speaking terms with her, but they were terms of few words. My mom was rather aloof and seemed to think that now that her children were grown and out of the house, her motherly duties were over. That meant she didn’t feel the need to keep in regular touch with any of us.
 

My older sister, Kaitlyn, was married, had two kids, and lived out in the ‘burbs. My kid brother, Alex, younger by almost two years, was a Notre Dame graduate living in Atlanta now. Or maybe it was Maryland. Or Connecticut? Needless to say, Alex and I didn’t keep in touch outside of the occasional Christmas greeting card. Kaitlyn and I had a relationship that was a wee step up; we called each other on all major holidays and on each other’s birthday, and maybe we’d manage a visit one fleeting Memorial Day weekend or Thanksgiving, but nothing more.
 

No one in my family was very close. We had all gone our separate ways, with a father who was practically estranged, and a mother who was the last person I considered talking to just to shoot the breeze. Even considering contacting either of them about my being pregnant was a joke.

“You don’t have to tell your mom or your family any time soon,” Lara said on the drive from the doctor’s office to Forster & Banks. She could read my mind. She knew that Dr. Buschardi’s casual mention of sharing the exciting news with my mom and dad was preoccupying my thoughts.

“You don’t ever have to tell them, but I’m sure your sister would like to know,” she said. “And sooner or later your mom, and I guess dad, will find out. Might as well do it on your grounds and get it over with.” I looked over at her. “Whenever you’re ready,” she added.

Yeah, whenever I’m ready. I’d much rather think about anything else. Yeah, I’d rather think about my baby. About how exciting it will be to actually see it with my own eyes!

“Anyway,” Lara said after a brief silence. “I think a dinner out is in order, don’t you? We need to celebrate baby’s first pictures! I’ll plan something out for all us girls, okay?”

That sounded great. A nice dinner out with all the girls, celebrating, would be a lot of fun.

“Can we go to Lucky Lee’s?” I asked. It was a favorite all-American mixed cuisine restaurant not too far from Lara’s apartment.

“Lucky Lee’s it is.”

“And Lara?” Perhaps because of my slightly solemn attitude towards the whole parental/family thing, my voice was low. “Is it okay if I sleep at your place again tonight?”

She pulled up in front of Forster & Banks, patted my leg, and said, “You never have to ask.”

***

“Show us already!” Jackie squealed from the opposite end of our table at Lucky Lee’s restaurant that Friday night. “I want to see this baby already!”

“Patience, patience,” I said, bringing the ultrasound photos out from the large, bright yellow and blue patterned Vera Bradley handbag that Lara surprised me with that morning. She said it was a “congrats on the first doctor’s appointment and baby photos” gift, and that of course I could expect many more spoils as time went on, especially when the baby shower came.

I made a dramatic reveal of the small black and white photos, shouting out, “Ta da!” loud enough for more than our table to hear.

“Oh my God!”

“It’s so tiny!”

“What am I looking at?”

“Is it a boy or a girl?”

“A girl maybe?”

“No, definitely a boy.”

I laughed as the reel made its way around the table. “It’s too early to tell. I have another appointment in August. They’ll tell me then.”

“This is freaking surreal, girl,” Jackie said. “I can’t believe this little thing is actually inside you.”

“Yeah, can you feel it move around yet?” Claire asked.

“Sometimes I think I do, but it’s probably only digestion. The doctor said I’d be able to feel it in about a month or so. Maybe sooner.”

“And the baby’s healthy?” Sophie asked. “Everything’s Grade A?”

“Yup. I’m going into my second trimester in a couple of days and the baby’s right where it should be in terms of growth. Healthy. It’ll really start growing noticeably larger soon. Which means—”

“Shopping!” Claire said. “We get to go out and get you maternity clothes!”

“Yeah, and baby clothes, too. Maybe?” I looked around the table at each girl, making sure my excitement about shopping for cute bonnets, tiny shoes, and the most adorable outfits wasn’t lost on any of them.

“Shopping trip, for sure!” Sophie said, eliciting emphatic yes’s from everyone.

Our meals arrived and everyone started diving in, all the while chatting about the best boutiques to find the cutest baby outfits and hippest maternity clothes. About the must-visit stores for baby items and furniture. About plans for a baby shower.

“I want to host the baby shower, if I may,” Claire offered. “At my house. I’ll kick Conner out and we’ll have a really fun, girly baby shower. Oh please let me do this for you, Robin.”

“All right,” I said, chuckling. “If you want to, go for it.”

Claire bounced up and down and started throwing out ideas for baby-themed games we could play, the decorations we’d have, the kind of food we could eat—“Sophie, you can make the desserts!” It was an all-out baby-talk dinner. And the best part was that once we feasted on our various plates of food, we all headed back to Lara’s apartment to continue the evening’s fanfare with some movies, dessert, and, of course, girl talk.

Sophie came out of Lara’s kitchen with a square, pink cardboard box and a handful of small, paper dessert plates and napkins.

“Dessert time!” Claire said, hot on her heels with the plastic forks and spoons in one hand, and a half-gallon of ice cream in the other.

“Oh you girls did not,” I said, not expecting an official dessert. I figured we’d snack on some Chips Ahoy from the pantry, or maybe pick at the box of leftover doughnuts and assorted pastries that Lara had brought home from work earlier that day.

“Girlfriend,” Sophie said. “This is a big-ass occasion here. You’re going to have a
baby! Of course we need to celebrate appropriately.”

“Yeah,” Jackie added. “And since you’re off the drinking train until this baby comes out—”

“Once it’s weaned from the boob,” Sophie corrected.

“Yeah,” Jackie said. “Since you’re off that train, we still wanted to celebrate in style. Just because we can’t go out and drink doesn’t mean we can’t have a kickass time. So bring on the cake!”

“And the ice cream,” Claire said.

Sophie said she hadn’t found the time to make me a homemade cake or one that she whipped up while at work, but she did pick up the next best thing from a delicious all-local-ingredients bakery near Waterfront.

“My word, this is amazing,” I said in between bites of the red velvet and cream cake.

“Your new craving now, huh?” Lara asked, smiling.

“You know, it’s the strangest thing, but it’s like the baby book says: The foods that make me nauseous aren’t really
so
bad anymore, and I
am
finding some new cravings.”

“Or maybe red velvet cake and ice cream always taste good,” Sophie said.

That was probably more like it, but I’d forgotten that earlier that day for lunch I’d had spaghetti and wasn’t made ill by the tomato sauce. And I’d sneaked in a cookie that had some cinnamon, and I wasn’t sick to my stomach.

“So, Lara,” Sophie said while flipping mindlessly through the satellite menu’s channels. She stopped the cursor on an episode of HGTV’s
House Hunters
. “What’s new in your neck of the woods?”

“Work’s going well; boring, but going well.”

Lara was an advertising associate for a big agency in Downtown, and before long she was going to become an executive. We all knew it. She was the MBA-holding, very driven, and successful career woman. Total Type-A when it came to business. And sometimes her personal life too. Her ad agency kept her well compensated (hence the sexy little Audi she’d recently purchased), her colleagues loved working with her (Paul, too, though perhaps a little more than the rest of them?), and she was on a great path to becoming a woman with a lot of power in her branding strategies department.

“Might be traveling again soon,” Lara said. “The last trip I took to Spokane went really well with the client. We might have to go back there again and make some more big decisions and exciting deals.”

“We?” Sophie asked.

“Well, yeah…” Lara said. “Like…yeah, me, we…we as in the team. The whole team. My team and me. You know.”

I wondered if Lara would bring up the topic of Paul in the middle of her stammering (perhaps he was part of the “we” team?) and how he was making things a bit more interesting at work. Was there a potential love affair, or was Lara misconstruing things as I may have done with Bobby? Lara dropped the topic of work, saying there was nothing exciting to share other than another possible trip to Spokane, so I forgot about it and turned my attention to Sophie as she was catching everyone up on her life’s events.

“The café plans are going slowly right now because it’s major wedding season. I’ve got so many cake and catering orders going Katie needs my full attention at work.”

“But you’re still going to try to set up your own shop?” I asked. Sophie had a lot of potential. I’d hate to see her give up on it.

“Oh, of course. I’m still doing some small things like market research and even scoping out possible storefronts. But…I’ve got enough on my plate right now at
Katie’s Kitchen
.
And
, my brother John is going to London before the end of the year!”

“Ah, I’ve always wanted to visit London,” Lara said dreamily. “You’re going to visit him, aren’t you?”

“Hell yeah! Not until after the baby’s here, of course,” Sophie said, catching my furrowed brow at the mention of “before the end of the year.” “I’m hoping for a trip in the spring, perhaps. Well after Robin’s little bundle of joy arrives.”

“That’ll be a fun trip,” Lara said. “But don’t give up on these bakery dreams, girl. You have the potential, and the opportunity is there. You really need to give it a try.”

“I know.” Sophie casually waved a hand at Lara. “I’m still figuring things out. And I
am
still bumming off of Claire.” Sophie rolled her eyes.

Claire gave Sophie a shove and told her that she wasn’t bumming off her at all. Rather, she liked having Sophie back as a roommate.

“All right, so ‘bumming’ isn’t the right word,” Sophie said. “I wouldn’t feel right opening up a shop and still unable to get on with my life…get a place of my own…”

Lara nodded and added, “Well, I still think you should seriously pursue the shop. And soon.”

“I will. But I’ve
got
to go to London.” Sophie was trying to dismiss the topic. “
Ob
viously.”

“God, think of the men there in London!” Jackie said. “Men with sexy accents. Oh, yummy. I want to come along.”

“All right, all right,” Sophie said. “Fill us in on the new man, Jack. Who is he? What does he do? There must be a new one. Am I right?”

Jackie filled everyone in on her new job, making it clear, contrary to Sophie’s assumptions, that so far her hopes about finding a man to snag were fairly dashed.
 

“I am beginning to wonder when the supposed jackpot of hot and available men will appear,” Jackie said. “All the girls I work with say that that jazz bar is a goldmine of hot bachelors, but I haven’t found a soul yet. They’re either young and obviously attached, or they’re way too old with nothing to offer to make dating someone my dad’s age even worth it.”

“No money, no looks…no good, eh?” I said. I hit it on the head.

“But the job pays a little and it’s steady work. And I’m optimistic. That reminds me!” Jackie looked at Lara, who didn’t need more than a second to catch her drift.

“Some cash?” Lara asked indifferently.

“My cell bill’s way larger than I could have imagined,” Jackie explained. She puffed out her bottom lip, like a small child begging for that teddy bear in the toy aisle, then broke out into a large grin when Lara conceded, as a parent occasionally does. “Thank you so much, girl!”

Lara gave me a sheepish smile then typed a reminder into her BlackBerry to deposit funds into Jackie’s account.
 

“All those late-night call boy centers racking up your bill?” Claire teased.

“Ha. Ha.” Jackie tossed a crumpled napkin at her.

After a few of us tried to hint to Jackie that she should drop the search for a man as her reason for keeping up employment (our efforts clearly flying over her head), Claire struck up a conversation about the baby shower. “When do you think we should plan it?”