Go-between

As Maria made her way back to the office, she called Laila to tell her about her unexpected meeting with Jake. When Laila finally picked up after almost six rings, she answered with a hastened, "Hiya, can I call you back in a bit. I am currently at the doctor's office." Although this of course worried Maria instantly, she had to settle for a later answer with the comfort that Laila at least sounded well.

She was about to step inside Steve's office when her call was returned. Maria answered the call as she opened the door and waved hello at Steve before taking a seat to talk to Laila. Laila started the conversation by saying, "Sorry for hanging up so quickly. I was just waiting for the doctor to get the gel when you called, so I couldn't talk in that moment but wanted to see if it was an emergency on your part and to let you know I was okay." Maria scoffed and said, "Well you might have succeeded in the first, but you definitely failed in the latter. How is 'I am currently at the doctor's office' supposed to let me know you are okay?? The first question in my mind was, and quite frankly still is, why were you at the doctor's office? Are you okay? Is my godson okay?"

While Maria's questions had caught Steve's attention as well, perking his ears as he was packing up, Laila let out a chuckle and said, "Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to create such a mystery, but I thought that you knew. It was just a check-up as I entered the third trimester. The baby and I are both doing fine. He is growing like I won't have to push him out of the birth canal haha." Maria was surprised to hear this and asked, "What about Noah? Did you go to this appointment all on your own?" Laila replied to the affirmative. "He has been so incredibly busy these days. Now that Steve has finally returned to take some of the load off his shoulders, I don't want to take away from his work time by bringing him to appointments like these. That will only result into more pileup of his work and another late night. I much rather he gets some more rest at home."

This seemed to have struck a nerve with Maria. Her face instantly turned into a frown and she counted to ten in her head before replying, "What kind of nonsense is that?! He is your husband and the father of that child. One more short night won't kill him. Why do you have to spare him the effort upfront when you are doing the real hard work here??" Laila smiled as she said, "It's okay. He will be more upset at not being there than I could possibly be. That is why I had someone film the entire thing and also had the doctor make a copy of the sonogram video. Noah is always so busy taking care of everything, including me. I want to be the person he can come home to and feel at rest with. So, if that means I have to go to some visits alone, I will."

Although Maria still didn't agree, she didn't want to continue on the subject and potentially upset Laila over it. If she was fine with it, she needed to accept it for now. So, she changed the topic to what she had initially called Laila about. "Well, if you say so, I will drop the matter for now. But at least call me the next time you want to 'spare' Noah the trouble of coming along. But enough about that for now. The reason I called you earlier is because I ran into Jake at the mall. He still hadn't heard from you about what your decision regarding the friendship is and it had been bothering him quite a bit. He tried to hide it. Pretending he was fine. But the moment I pressed a little harder, he admitted that the waiting was becoming quite hard for him."

Laila was clearly surprised to hear about Maria running into Jake and was fairly quiet during their call except for an occasional "I see,... what did you say?" Maria told her about what she had agreed to do and also about the conversation she had shared with Noah a while back, when he and Laila had come to see Steve. It was a lot for Laila to take in and she felt bad for Jake, but she couldn't and wouldn't seek out contact with Jake as long as Noah wasn't okay with it. She was happy to hear that Maria had offered to take her place for the time being and be their go-between as far as staying in each others lives goes.

"Please tell him that I am sorry and that me pushing matters now, will only decrease the chances of this ever happening." Maria nodded and said, "Yeah, I told him that already. The more he focusses on this, the more miserable the waiting will making him. He should have gone into this without any expectations instead of the desperation he is holding on now."

While Laila and Maria were wrapping up their conversation, Steve's expression had changed from his happy go lucky self, to a more serious tone. Waiting for the call to end, so he could have a conversation of his own...