"Yes! Women have a small fertilization window each month, so save all your sperm for me."
"Does that mean you're quittin' caffeine then?"
She shoots me a murderous glare, and I chuckle.
"So...during this window, sex every day?"
"Oh, multiple times a day," she confirms. "Each time I lose an egg, my ability to get pregnant decreases. Eventually, my ovaries will stop doing that, so time is of the essence."
"You're gonna psych yourself out if you don't relax and stop stressin’ over it."
“Easy for you to say.” She blows out a breath as her head falls back on her shoulders. "I'm just anxious now that we're going to actively try. It's blowing my mind a little."
"Really? Because it's blowing my mind a lot."
She snorts. "Just wait until we have to tell my family."
"Speaking of that—"
"We had a drunken one-night stand," she says. "And decided to co-parent as friends."
"Your father is gonna murder me—or worse, chop off my nuts."
She shrugs. "They'll get over it. Either that or you'll get a free vasectomy."
I narrow my eyes at her, unamused.
Then I work up the courage to ask another big question. "So if we're really pursuing this, perhaps you should go ahead and move in with me? When you get pregnant, I’ll take care of you. That way, it won't be suspicious when we have to sneak around during your ovulation week, and our drunken hookup story is more believable. We'd be able to co-parent under the same roof and not worry about custody schedules."
Though I brought it up the first time we discussed this, I want her to know I was serious about it.
"You'd really want to live with me?"
"Of course...kinda weird you aren't already, considering how much you're here, but now's the perfect time."
"Yeah, that’d be so much easier than trying to make room for a baby at my parents’ and juggling him or her back and forth. And bonus, it finally gets me out of my childhood bedroom," she says with an unamused laugh.
"Yeah, I agree. We can take turns on night duty. Plus, it kinda gets lonely coming home to an empty house."
Kaitlyn nearly leaps into my lap when she wraps her arms around me. "Thank you, Payton."
"I should be the one thanking you." I hug her tighter.
"Can I move in now?" she pulls back and asks.
I laugh at her eagerness. "Yeah, whenever you want."
"Perfect. I'll start packing right away and break it to my parents. It'll allow us to get to know each other even better."
I reposition myself closer to her on the couch. "You don't think we know everything about one another after almost a decade of friendship?"
"There are some things I don’t know..." She hesitates before continuing, "Mostly stuff about your past and life before you moved to Eldorado."
Oh, that.
"There's not much to discuss." I shrug. It's not something I like thinking about, nonetheless, talking about it. "Anyway, you hungry? I haven't made dinner yet."
"Yeah, I could eat! Have any pasta?"