25 minutes later, the car pulled into Greg's driveway. Kelly, now armed with the information that Tabitha had given her, was even more nervous. So nervous, in fact, that she didn't even realize she had left her car at the lab.
"I'm going to have to talk," Tabitha said. "I'm the only person she'll recognize."
"If she even recognizes you anymore," said Kelly.
Tabitha scoffed. "I don't look that different. Just enhanced. The worst thing she could do is accuse me of having plastic surgery."
"Alright," Kelly said. "Let's do this."
They walked up to the front door. Tabitha rang the bell and they waited for Brianna to answer it. A few moments later, Brianna answered the door. "Tabby," she said, surprised to see her this late. And, of course, surprised by her new look. "What are you doing here?"
"My friends and I were in the neighborhood," Tabitha smiled. "We wanted to stop by and see how you were doing."
"Sorry, you just caught me unprepared," Brianna explained. That was obvious. She was wearing a pair of slippers, pajama bottoms and a sweatshirt. "Come in, come in." She stepped out of the way so the four women could enter. "You all must be having fun tonight."
"We have been," Tabitha said. "Let me introduce you all. This is Ricki, Brenda, and Kelly." A quick laugh escaped from Brianna's lips. "What?" Tabitha asked.
"Nothing," Brianna said. "Just 'Ricki' and 'Brenda.' Kind of funny that those are almost the names of your husband and son."
"Yea," Ricki said. "She's told us that."
They all moved down the hall to the living room. "Sorry again that I'm not dressed," Brianna said. "I'm waiting for Greg. He's late and he hasn't called." The wear of worry was clearly evident on Brianna's face. She had a few slight wrinkles here and there on her face, which was encased by a short mane of blonde hair. Much like Tabitha previously, the bright shimmer of youth was gone from her tresses. Her blonde was dull and depressing, much the same way her personality had become in the last few years.
"Oh, we don't care," Tabitha said. "I told them you'd probably be waiting up, so they knew." Brianna did not notice that Tabitha expected her to still be awake. If Greg had come home on time, she would already be asleep. "So let me get to the point. My friends here are all a little concerned for you. Even though they haven't met you, when I was telling them your problems, they got upset."
"You told them my problmes?" Brianna asked. She didn't look too pleased.
"Yes, I'm sorry," Tabitha said. "But we were out and they said it looked like I wasn't having any fun. I told them that it was because I'm worried about you, and I guess I couldn't shut up about it."
"OK," Brianna said. "So why did they want to come over here?"
"To hear you say it," Tabitha said. "They didn't believe everything I said was true. But please tell them, because they think I'm paranoid."
Brianna threw up her arms. "I don't know, Tabby. I don't really feel comfortable doing this."
"Please," Tabitha said. "It can only help to say them."
Brianna exhaled deeply. "OK, then. The problem is that I feel my husband never wants to have kids. And I do. The problem is I've gotten to the age where my window of opportunity is closing. I've talked it over with a lot of people, and they told me I should get out. But I don't want to because I love Greg. I love him completely." She paused for a moment to catch her breath. "But a couple of weeks ago, things took a bad turn. We were talking about it again, and he said he couldn't possibly think about kids right now, because his work was entering a critical phase. To me, it sounded like his work would always come before me. So I said to myself, give it one more year of trying, and if he doesn't come around, I have to go. Because I need to have children. It's the only thing I've ever really wanted in life. And I feel like I'm not getting the chance for it."
Tabitha looked down at Kelly. There were tears welling in her eyes. She couldn't hold them back. She put her face in her hands and started to bawl uncontrollably. A look of bewilderment washed over Brianna's face. Ricki pushed a box of Kleenex towards Kelly, who took one.
While still sobbing, Kelly said, "I had no idea you felt that way. That strongly."
Brianna, still extremely confused, asked, "Why would you?"
Kelly looked up. She wiped the tears out her eyes and tried to bring calm to her face. "Because I am Greg."