Kit, Angus, Dana, Shane, Alice, Michael, James, Lisa, Marina, Jenny, Leigh, Val, Marcus and Francesca all sat around the living room listening as Bette explained the game. It sounded complicated but it was pretty simple. They were told that they had to guess at a phrase that contained 16 letters that spelled out 5 words. Each player had a fortune cookie and inside the cookie they found a piece of paper with a letter on one side and a number on the other. The letters corresponded to letters on a magnetic board. They had to solve the puzzle by unscrambling the letters to form words and then put the words in order to form the phrase. They broke up in two teams. Bette led one team and Emma led the other. The game began once all sixteen letters were revealed on the board Y W B N A H I G B R A E V A E A.

Bette’s team went first. Alice was the first player to give it a try. She had 30 seconds. Then Dana from Emma’s team went next and she had 30 seconds and on it went. Each team was able to spell several words using the letters but they couldn’t make out the phrase. They were drinking wine and beer and the more they drank the more hilarious the guesses.

Finally Bette and Emma decided they had to help them out so they asked each of them to retrieve their original letter from the magnetic board. They then called out the letter W which was Alice’s letter. She was told to stand up. Then they called the letter E which was Dana’s letter and they told her to stand to Alice’s left. Next was Shane with the letter A. She was told to stand next to Dana leaving a space in between. James had the letter R and Lisa the letter E and they were both told to stand next to Shane on her left with James in the middle. So far the remaining audience could read ‘WE ARE’ but still no correct guesses. The next six people lined up and spelled HAVING. The last five were Bette, Emma, Kit, Angus and Marcus. Before they ended the game Bette got her digital camera and hooked it up to the TV screen and turned it on. Everyone faced the camera and had a view of the screen. Marcus’ A was the next letter to be called and finally Bette, Emma, Kit and Angus displayed their letters BABY. Alice’s scream almost pierced Dana’s ear drum when she looked at the TV and made out the phrase. “WE ARE HAVING A BABY”.

***

Somewhere over the Atlantic

Peggy Peabody was sitting comfortably in the first class suite of a commercial airliner on her way back to New York City. She’d landed in London on Sunday morning and was now on an early evening departure from Heathrow to JFK. She’d been gone for almost two years but now it was time to end her sabbatical and head home. She had business to take care of and a grandchild to look forward to.

She couldn’t help the grin that creased her lovely facial features whenever she looked at the package Bette and Emma had sent her to announce the pregnancy. It was a small photo album entitled “Grandma’s Brag Book”. Inside on the first page was a sonogram photo with a caption “Hi Gram. My Mom told me all about you and I can’t wait to meet you. Please come home soon.” The next page held a photo of Bette and Emma smiling into the camera. They were both wearing matching T-shirt with their first sonogram picture of the baby stenciled on the front. Bette’s T-shirt said ‘Mom’ and Emma’s ‘Other Mom’.

Bette wanted to tell Peggy about the breakup with Tina in person but it was inevitable that she had to do it on the phone since she now had a new partner and a baby on the way. Peggy had been sympathetic and regretful that she wasn’t there for Bette but she was happy to hear that Bette had found Emma and was thrilled about the baby.

Bette and Michael had made arrangements to meet Peggy in New York City on Monday then they would spend two days with Allyn Barnes and Alyson Cabot before returning to Los Angeles on Wednesday.