Read When Girlfriends Step Up for Free Online

baby book said I wouldn’t be able to feel any movement until my fourth month or so. And even then it might only be very light and unnoticeable.
    “Probably just nervousness,” I said to myself, as I turned into my neighborhood. “Probably butterflies.”

    ***

    Sophie poured me another glass of cold, refreshing water as I dug into my Caesar salad.
    “Thanks for grabbing dinner on your way,” I mumbled through my mouthful of lettuce, parmesan cheese, and croutons. She told me not to worry about it, that I needed proper nutrition and strength since everything I did was for two now.
    Sophie took another bite of her salad while fanning through the pages of the baby book, then suddenly said, “Oh! That reminds me.” She pulled some items from her oversized bag. “I picked up some stuff for you today while I was out at the market getting some ingredients for work. Here.” She produced a bag of tea leaves, some dried Chukar cherries, a bag of mixed nuts and dried fruits, and a small bag of organic, gluten-free cookies.  
    I couldn’t help but chuckle over the healthy options Sophie scored for me. “Gluten-free and organic?” I asked her, looking bemusedly over the ingredients listed on the back of the brown, paper bag-like packaging. “Does it say somewhere in that book I can’t eat any gluten? Or that I’m restricted to eating cage-free only eggs or roam-free bird eggs or whatever the heck they are?”
    She playfully rolled her eyes and explained, “They just looked good. Figured you could try them out. They won’t do you any harm. But this other stuff is really good for you. And beneficial for the baby. Like this.” She held up the bag of tea. “This is decaf tea, Robin. You can’t drink caffeine while you’re pregnant, so try this.”
    “What?” I think I had heard somewhere long ago that pregnant women couldn’t consume caffeine, but I’d never paid much attention to it. Back then, it wasn’t like I was going to get pregnant any time soon and needed to heed anti-caffeine warnings.
    “Why not?” I asked, snagging the bag of less-than-appealing tea from her hands. “Why on Earth not? I’m still supposed to go to work, right? I’m still supposed to wake up in the morning and function, aren’t I?”
    “Chill, girl!” She snatched back the bag of tea. “The book says you need to stay away from caffeine. It’s not healthy for the baby. The book says that it can stimulate the baby, like it stimulates you.”
    “Well I hardly doubt one tiny cup of coffee is really going to stimulate the baby. It hardly stimulates me.”
    She gave me a childish headshake. “Baby comes first. No caffeine.”
    At first I conceded reluctantly, but the more I got to thinking about how this baby was relying on me for every single thing, the more comfortable I became with readjusting my life to suit the baby’s important needs. It wasn’t that I was going to be a mom. I was already a mom. Everything I ate, drank, and did would directly affect my baby.  
    So long, caffeine. Hello…decaf tea and…I guess I’ll give these gluten-free things a go. Why not?
    “It’s time we get down to business,” Sophie said, after we polished off a shared piece of apple pie she’d picked up while down at Pike Place Market that afternoon. “Time to talk shop and deal with Brandon.”
    I could do the decaf tea. I could manage staying away from the foods that made me sick. I imagined I could handle the plethora of unknown cravings that were headed my way. I was even convincing myself that I could deal with the whole “giving birth thing.” But contacting Brandon? Hell no.
    After nearly an hour of urging and finally insisting that I, as Sophie said, “grow a pair and pick up the damn phone,” I held my cell phone in one hand, my thumb poised over the first digit of Brandon’s number, and Sophie’s cell phone in the other, Brandon’s number burning into my eyes.
    “I’m here for you,” Sophie whispered. “I can take over