Girl's Day Out (Shelby)

With a smile that spaned her entire face, Cathy picked up a tiny little yellow outfit. It was so adorable! She held it up to the almost as tiny bump that had started forming on her stomach. She giggled. A perfect fit!

She put the little sleeper back on the shelf and moved on to another table. Here she found onsies of every color imaginable. Well, those were certainly needed. She'd given away all of her children's baby clothes when the twins were five. She'd not thought that she'd ever need them again. But now, she was expecting a baby with the love of her life, her fiancée Oliver. He was currently teaching at Hogwarts, and hopefully keeping their sons in line. Her Matthew and foster son Max, and his Ashton. This new arrival would be the connection to join both families, and she couldn't wait for it to come!

She smiled as she came to a little wrack of dresses. Oh, she was hoping that her baby was a girl. Oliver had a son, and while she did have two daughters of her own, he didn't. She wanted to give him that.

Cathy looked up and searched the shop for the person she'd been to meet and spotted her across the floor. Shelby Marks. The reason that she and Oliver had gotten together in the first place, and if she accepted, she was going to be Cathy's Matron-of-Honor. She crossed the shop quickly and stopped right behind her friend.

"You and I both know, there is nothing on these racks that are going to fit us."

“I can at least try, can’t I?”

Shelby smiled and gently nudged her friend in the ribs as she continued to look through the racks of adorable little clothes. God, it almost hurt every time she passed by a beautiful ruffled dress, Her husband wanted boys, mainly because he was afraid Evelyn would be more inclined to jealousy if a little sister came. And Shelby’s intuition told her that she was carrying two boys. She wanted a child so badly, she didn’t really care what they were. But she had always wanted a daughter. She loved her step-daughter very much, but she couldn’t dress her. Not only was Evie quite big, but when Shelby had outfitted her for her birthday, they had both gotten into trouble. Apparently, Shel’s taste in clothing was a bit too revealing for Randall and Alec to handle on a thirteen-year-old. Randall liked Shelby in revealing things in the privacy of their own bedroom, but he assured her that he did not appreciate the clothes she had purchased for Evelyn,

She sighed and pulled a gorgeous pink, ruffly, baby girl dress, which was slightly expensive, and put it in her cart. And then came a lovely purple one right behind. She gave Cathy an innocent expression as she patted the beautiful dresses.

“I might not know what I’m having, but I can always hope, right? Besides, odds are at least one of us is having a girl. If I don’t, you will. So this will either go in my closet, or a gift bag for you.”

She continued through the racks, wishing and praying that she would be able to accept whatever gender her husband had given her for her two children on the way. And then a pang of sorrow shot through her heart as she thought of the first child she had lost, just before she had gotten pregnant with her twins. Evelyn had had a dream then that the child was a little girl named Savannah; a tiny girl with beautiful blond hair, just like her mother. At the time, Shel hadn’t really wanted to hear about it. The thought of knowing what she had lost seemed to kill her slowly. But now she really wished she could have her own vision of her beautiful little girl. And now she was determined. If she was not going to have a daughter this time, she would keep trying until little Savannah came.

“Cathy, come here,” she said as she came upon the next section. “There is no way we can leave here without getting some of these tiny shoes. Randall may put me in timeout for how much I’m going to spend today, but I think it’s worth it.”

Shelby

455

It had been so long since Cathy had seen shoes this little. They would sit in the middle of her hand and she'd still be able to see her palm around it! She picked up the sweetest little pair of Mary Jane's and cooed for about five minutes. They went perfectly with both of the dresses that Shelby had put into her cart.

"These are so tiny! I don't remember my children ever having such little feet, even though I know they did. Matthew especially. You wouldn't know it to see him now, but he was the smallest of the four, and that was with Sarah and Susan being twins!"

She put the bitty little shoes in her cart, and pulled Shelby back to where she'd been before, showing her the rainbow of onsies that were on the shelves.

"Tell the truth, have you ever seen anything cuter than this?!" She held up a onsie that said, 'My Daddy Says I'm Adorable'. It went into her cart along with the shoes. She continued to search thorugh the shelves for a few more minutes, then remembered she was going to need all new maternity underclothes. The underwear she had on at the moment fit, but just barely.

"Ok, I have to know. Have you outgrown all of your underwear yet?" She moved over to the wrack of nursing bras and began searching through them, feeling that Oliver would never want to look at her, wearing this.

The thought started to take over her mind and in a few minutes, Cathy was sniffling and wiping tears from her eyes.

Shelby had giggled at all of the little things Cathy had shown her and she couldn't help but agree that she had not, in fact, seen anything cuter than the tiny clothing they were scoping out. But then her friend started talking about underwear not fitting and Shelby could see the emotions start. If there was anything Shel was beginning to understand, it was hormones and the awful swing of emotions felt during pregnancy. One minute was fine, and then the next was just a roller coaster. It was driving Randall mad, she knew that for sure. But right now, it seemed different. It might not have been just hormones for Cathy. She looked to be in actual turmoil, and Shelby couldn't help but turn to her friend and pull her into her arms.

"Oh honey, it's alright. Are you feeling upset because your clothes aren't fitting anymore, or is there something else?"

Shelby knew that her own greatest fear was that pregnancy would change her so much, that she wouldn't feel like herself anymore. She was already so big, what with carrying twins, that she knew Randall would soon lose all attraction for her, if he hadn't already. Maybe this was what Cathy was going through as well. It wasn't her first pregnancy, but it was the first one with Oliver. Maybe she felt the same way Shel did, and she was scared she was no longer attractive.

"I think I know what's going on, and I know just what we are going to do to fix it. Come on, let's pay for this stuff and then go. Come on, we have four more months to buy baby clothes. Right now, we're doing something different."

She took Cathy's arm and walked up to the cash registers. It didn't take long for the cashier to ring it up, and for Shelby to cringe at the amount. She would most definitely be getting a little talking to by her husband about that later. But for now, she only worried about her emotional well-being, as well as the same for her best friend. Randall would have to understand. And if not, well he could just be pissed and swim around in it for a little while.

Once they were all finished, Shelby turned to Cathy once more.

"You and I are going to the spa...and we are having the works done, I don't care how much it costs. We are going to feel like queens today, my friend. What do you say?"

Cathy sniffled a few times and wiped her eyes. The woman behind the counter had given her a few tissues and a sympathetic smile. She, too, was obviously pregnant. She wiped her nose, blew it and was slightly shocked when she saw the amount of money that they had just spent. Baby clothes hadn't been this expensive when the twins were born. Of course that was almost ten years ago.

She took the bags containing her purchases and smiled at Shelby's suggestion that they go have a Girl's Day at the spa. That sounded wonderful, and just what she needed to get her mind off her current problems. The problems of her clothes not fitting, that she was going to have to wear tent dresses again, and that Oliver wouldn't want to touch her.

"I like the sound of that, actually, Shelby. But it's more than my clothes; it's also that I'm going to be so fat and disgusting soon. I shouldn't be having this baby, I'm thirty-six. Oliver isn't going to want me in another month. I'm going to be a blimp!"

Cathy sat on a bench just outside the store, breaking into tears again. She knew it was just her hormones talking, having been pregnant three times before, but it was so damn convincing! She blew her nose again and looked up at Shelby.

"Oh, that does it. We're going for that spa, and we're going to spend an obscene amount of money!" She felt much better at this decision, as it made her smile and laugh.

Shelby sat next to Cathy and pulled her into her arms, gently rubbing her back and allowing their tummies to touch. Maybe the kids would get some prenatal bonding done while their mommies were emotional wrecks with each other.

“I know exactly what you are going through. But look at you...you are gorgeous, Cathy! And after every baby and pregnancy, you've looked marvelous. You are fantastic at charms. But even if you weren't, it wouldn't matter to Oliver. I've seen the way he looks at you. He is madly in love. And you are going to be gorgeous! Especially because, as you said, we are going to spend an obscene amount of money at the spa today.”

Shelby smiled and took Cathy's hand, then led her the two blocks it took to get to the spa. She walked right in, placed Randall's credit card on the counter, and before Cathy could offer to pay for anything, Shelby had ordered two of every relaxing thing they offered.

“We're both pregnant, we're both emotional, and we're both very much in need of being pampered,” she grinned.

Cathy wiped her brown eyes as she listened to what Shelby was ordering. A mud bath, seaweed wrap, massage, facial, hair, makeup, manicure, pedicure, waxing. It appeared that her friend was ordering everything the spa ordered!

Cat didn't even have the chance to offer to help pay for anyhthing but she knew it was only fair, what Shelby was payong for was extremely expensive for one person, much less two! She giggled softly to herself as she was whisked down a corridor and changed into a luxurious, fluffy white robe with matching slippers that felt like she was walking on a cloud. There were more than two that were getting the pampering, there were three little ones that were certainly going to benifit from their mummies relaxing. It would possibly also lift Cathy's mood. She knew that her hormones were going haywire now, and she tried to keep poor Oliver, Ashton, Max, Matthew and Susan from having to deal with them. Especially the senior Michaels man.

She loved Oli so much, and she had Shelby to thank for bringing him to her and thought maybe now was the time to ask about the wedding, right there as she was stripping off the robe and having one of the spa technicians cover her swelling tummy with a mineral and magic enhanced mud.

"Shelby? I wanted to ask if you would be in mine and Oliver's wedding? As my Matron-of-Honor?"

Shelby looked up with wide eyes as the spa technician finished wrapping her feet in some sort of algae and seaweed wrap. Her eyes immediately filled with tears and she reached over and took Cathy's hand.

"Oh my God, Cathy...I would be honored. Thank you so much."

She smiled and would have hugged her best friend, but she was already being whisked away for a mud bath. And once she was in that mud, and her face was covered in a mask, she couldn't help but let her entire body relax. But her mind was now racing with bridal shower plans. A bachelorette party would be a little difficult when the bride and her matron of honor were both expecting, but it wouldn't be out of the question to at least plan a small get together. Maybe with a male stripper involved. Oh, Randall would love knowing his wife had planned for that. She smiled to herself and sunk deeper into the therapeutic mud.

She looked over at Cathy, and smiled a very relaxed smile. She hadn't been so content in a long time. And she felt her babies playing happily inside of her belly. Life was good. At least until her husband saw the bill. But she had been better about spending money recently. She hoped he would be okay with just one day of misbehaving, especially if it was in the name of comfort for two very needy pregnant women.

"I don't care how expensive this is, it is bloody well worth it. What's next, the massage? Heaven help me, I'm never going to want to leave this place!"