Chapter 2

It took Greg and Byron another month to finally wear me down enough to have me call Sarah. I still thought calling her and inviting her over was a bad idea, but I was in the minority. Byron finally convinced me to call her though, when he promised that none of us would do more than talk with Sarah when she came over.

At first, everyone was a little strained as we sat around our dining room table. It was as though none of really knew how to start the conversation. Sarah looked very big by then. She was a bit more than seven months pregnant, and her belly was already huge. I didn't mention this to her, not wanting to hurt her feelings.

"So Sarah, what are you planning to do after the baby comes?" Byron finally spoke up. He was always the best of us at doing social things.

"I guess I'm moving back home with my mom. She agreed to watch the baby while I'm at work." Sarah worked in Cupertino, for a children's dentist. She took care of his billing for him.

"Rich, Greg and I talked about it, and if you need any financial help for the baby, we'd be happy to provide it. Like child support, you know?"

"Thank you. I probably will need a little help setting up a nursery at my mom's house. I never knew baby furniture was so expensive. Redecorating that one room, with everything, is going to cost me almost two thousand dollars. Can you believe that? I'm going to have to come up with another thousand just for my medical co payment at the hospital too. I wouldn't have ever asked you, but, since you just volunteered, I'll accept whatever financial help you guys can manage."

It was pretty obvious that Sarah was uncomfortable talking about money with us. She wasn't really aware of how much money the three of us had. She knew we had to have some, just from our cars, and the house we lived in. The three of us tried to never talk to anyone about the windfall we got from Dennis, or the killing we'd made with our investments.

I went to get my checkbook, and wrote her out a check for three thousand dollars. Greg and Byron went off to get their own checkbooks soon after that. They each wrote checks for the same amount and tried to get her to take them. She had taken my check, but wouldn't accept any more than that.

"You should take those other checks too, Sarah. Put the money in your checking account and buy whatever you need. Babies are expensive, and we don't want you having to worry about money, or to go without things you might need for the baby. We have enough money to comfortably do this, okay?"

I wanted her to have enough. It was bad enough that she was pregnant without being married, without her having to worry about money too. I felt a lot better when she reached out and picked up the other two checks from where she'd dropped them on the dining room table.

"I didn't come over here to get money from you. I mostly wanted us to talk about what happened before, and how it seems to have ruined our friendships."

Sarah's eyes started tearing up as she spoke. Her facial expression told us how upset she was becoming. For some reason, Greg and Byron started looking at me with angry frowns on their faces. Of course, like one of Pavlov's dogs, I reacted.

"I don't think any of us thought we'd ruined our friendship with you, Sarah. When I told you that you shouldn't keep coming over here before, it was because I was afraid what was happening would end up hurting you and making you feel bad. I didn't want us to keep taking advantage of you like we were."

"How were you taking advantage of me, Richard? Did it look like I wasn't happy with what was happening?"

Now she really was crying, and I was feeling terrible about it. Greg and Byron were no help to me either, still sitting in their chairs, scowling at me. Of the three of us, I felt I was the one most sensitive to other people's feelings. I was the last one they should have chosen to represent our side in these discussions. I was heedless of the obvious fact that it was Sarah who had chosen to address her conversation solely at me, rather than towards all three of us.

"I really wish you wouldn't cry, Sarah. Crying only makes the situation worse. We want to help, not make you feel bad."

"Why don't you answer my question Richard? Did I look unhappy those times when I was over here before?"

"I'm not sure. I remember you were pretty quiet while we were doing the sex things. You never said anything then. How was I to know what you were feeling?"

Sarah stood up then. Now she looked at me angrily too. When she stood up, Greg and Byron stood also. I was the only one still sitting, and both my friends, and now Sarah, were giving me these very angry looks.

"I need to cook something. Do you still have some ground beef in your freezer? If you do, I'll make us some spaghetti again. I remember you all liked my spaghetti the last time."

A few minutes later, Greg, Sarah and Byron left to go grocery shopping. When they looked in the freezer there wasn't anything edible in there. It sure needed defrosting though. It was supposed to be a frost free freezer compartment too. I wondered what happened?

As soon as the three of them left, I went back to my bedroom to lick my wounds. I had no idea why I was suddenly the bad guy here. It was never my intention to make Sarah feel bad. If anything, my friends were mad at me for telling her I thought she'd be better off staying away from us. I was trying to protect her. Now, it seemed I'd made her angry too. I just didn't understand what it was I did that was so wrong.

It was at least four hours later that the three of them returned to the house. When I came out of my room, they were all in the kitchen, emptying about fifteen bags of groceries into the refrigerator and the built in storage cabinets. All three of them were laughing about something. Sarah got out our biggest pot and started opening cans of tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste into the pot.

"Rich, guess what? Sarah has decided to move in here with us. She's going to take my bedroom, and we're going to turn the downstairs study into a bedroom for me." Greg excitedly said.

Greg's bedroom was the master bedroom. It was a lot bigger than the other two bedrooms, and Greg had won the right to it when we played Ro Sham Bo (rock, paper, scissors) for it when we first started moving into the house. I could see where that room might be big enough for a bedroom and a nursery for both Sarah and the baby, when it came.

I noticed Sarah looking at me closely. I guess she was waiting to see how I'd react to this new plan they'd come up with. I didn't really know how I felt about it. If this was what Sarah really wanted, then I guess it was okay.

I was surprised that Greg was offering up his bedroom though. He really liked all the room it had in there. The study was pretty small too, and it had a really tiny closet, and no en suite bathroom, like the other three bedrooms had.

"Where are you going to shower, Greg?" I asked.

"We'll get a builder to come in and expand the bathroom and the bedroom. With about another five hundred square foot addition, the study will be just as nice as my old bedroom was. As big too. Sarah isn't going to move in with us until a couple months after the baby comes. She wants to stay with her mom until she learns how to take care of the baby by herself."

This addition that Greg talked about us having built, ended up costing us just under a hundred thousand dollars before everything was finished. In the end, we decided to have a separate nursery adjoining the old study, so it ended up being a total of an 800 plus square foot addition. The new bathroom was very large and spacious too, with an elevated jacuzzi bathtub that was big enough for at least three people. That was also Greg's idea. The shower was also big enough to hold at least three people, with multiple shower heads too.

The three of us stayed in our own bedrooms, and, three and a half months after the baby was born, a girl that Sarah named Angelica, Sarah and her baby finally moved into our house.

Sarah and the baby had been living with us for about a week when Sarah walked into my bedroom. Up until that time, none of us had done anything sexual with her since the weekend where we all believed she'd gotten pregnant.