“Ugghhh!” cut in Shaundra, the wife of Alex’s business partner, Nathanael. “Please, spare me the poop talk.” Naisha had only just met her, but was already liking her a lot.
Sienna, Jacyn’s best friend, agreed. “If the conversation heads in the direction of upchuck, you ladies are on your own.”
Jacyn patted her bulging tummy and grinned. “Trust me, girl. It sounds gross until you find yourself in my situation. Then all of a sudden you realize that literally nothing can gross you out if you’re doing it for your kid.”
Shaundra rolled her eyes. “Well, Nathanael and I have been married three years, and being child free suits us.”
Shaundra and Sienna turned to one another with happy grins and gave each other a high five. But Jacyn wasn’t letting her girlfriends get away with laughing at her baby-mania. “The baby fever will catch you both one day, you’ll see.”
Naisha chimed in, grinning. “My grandmother is from the Caribbean, and they have a saying there: ‘The moon runs until daylight catches up with him.’ You can’t escape your destiny.”
Shaundra scoffed. “Babies? My destiny? That’ll be the day!”
The girls dumped their purchases into the trunk of the car, with Jacyn joking that they should have hired two town cars, one to carry their loot and the other to drive them around. They were all hankering for a nice lunch after a morning of shop-hopping, but Jacyn had one more stop in mind before they called it quits. The legendary Hamleys on Regent Street.
The toy store was one of the oldest in London. It stood seven stories tall and offered more than an acre of floor space. It was a wonderland of toys and games, and the moment Naisha crossed the threshold she felt as if she was eight again.
The place thronged not just with eager tourists but with young shop attendants in superhero capes and ballerina skirts who engaged customers as if their bonuses depended on it. Blowing soap bubbles into the air, inviting them to plunge their hands into bowls of glittery slime, and making an almighty racket on drums and horns.
Naisha made a beeline for the incredible array of Paddington bears on display, with the little guy dressed up in his trademark blue mackintosh and red hat, as well as all manner of costume, from Santa suits to Queen’s guards, with their big furry black hats. She bought the biggest one she could carry, thinking again of how sweet Willa was to want to make her kid brother happy.
The other women gave her curious glances, but she merely shrugged it off. “Don’t ask.”
Jacyn had no idea whether she and Alex were having a boy or girl. She’d refused to let her OBGYN tell her, looking forward to the surprise instead. But she grabbed a cart and began loading it with toys, not just for babies, but gadgets indicated for kids as old as five or seven, until Shaundra and Naisha had to gang up on her and drag her kicking and screaming out of the store. “Curb your enthusiasm,” Naisha advised.
“But everything’s so necessary!”
“We’re hungry!” Naisha, Sienna and Shaundra yelled in unison. “If you don’t feed us, we’re taking a cab and leaving you here on the sidewalk.”
“Fine,” Jacyn grouched, and they all happily went over to Harrods, to enjoy a shamelessly touristy girls’ lunch.
“What about you, Naisha?” Jacyn asked over their dessert of pastries topped with cream and fresh fruit.
Naisha gave her a clueless look, sheepishly patting away her crème pâtissier moustache. “What about me, what?”
“Do you want to have kids?” She rubbed her round tummy again, as if inviting her baby to advocate for the idea.
“Oh, sure.” She’d always wanted to be a mom, she knew that. It was just a matter of time. And planning. She would turn thirty soon and realized that she would need to take the plunge. “Saving up for it as we speak.”
She’d pawned most of the jewelry she’d received from suitors over the years, as well as clothing that had been gifted to her from designers. She’d amassed a tidy sum from that. By the time this job with William was over, there would be enough in her savings account to live off the interest and not have to work for someone else ever again. She could even move to Guadeloupe since her family already owned a massive five-bedroom house there to cut her cost of living all the way down.
“And do you have a candidate in mind?” Shaundra wanted to know, her eyes sparkling in anticipation of juicy gossip.
“Candidate?”
“For the dad! You dating anyone? Do you have anybody waiting for you back in the States?”
Naisha felt her face heat up. The only person “waiting” for her back in the States was the one person she didn’t ever want to see again: her ex, Abe. Other than that, there was nobody she could think of who would be a suitable candidate to father her future child.
Nope. Nobody.
Not a soul.
She laughed uneasily. “Only if you can consider an anonymous sperm donor a daddy.”
The other women gaped at her. “Whaattt?” Jacyn exclaimed.
Naisha nodded, as if convincing herself that this decision was the best way for her to go. She wished she could give her child a two-parent household, since that’s what she had growing up. But at this point, it was looking like an impossibility. “Yup. I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. Soon as this governess gig is over, and I’m back home, I’m going to take the plunge. I’m going to be a mommy and raise my kid myself.”