Chapter 3

Helping A Friend

Later that day, after Billie – Rae fed the baby and put him to sleep surrounded by large pillows, in Richard’s large double bed, the young man looked at her with a raised eyebrow and asked:
“Andy?”
“We’ve got carried away?”, she retorted.
He didn’t answer and there was silence for a few minutes.
“When Dr. Pyne told us that I’m the father, I asked you if you would help me …”, Richard said in a low voice, “Now I’m asking you again: will you?”.
“I’m trained to be a doctor, not a nanny”, she answered.
“If I had needed a nanny, I would have called a nanny agency, not my best friend”, he stated calmly. She didn’t answer and so he went on:
“I don’t want you to be his nanny. He doesn’t need one. He needs a mother, I need a mother for him. And I need you for that!”
“Richie …”
“No, let me finish! If I had any doubts, which I don’t think I had, earlier at the hospital when you let Louise believe that he is ours, I knew it for sure. What I felt when you handed Andy to me convinced me that he couldn’t get a better mom than the one he would have if you agree to help me!”
“You called him Andy … “, she said in a small voice.
“That’s how his mommy calls him”, Richie answered smiling.
“Very funny”
“Rae … seriously, I know I’m asking a great deal of you, but I don’t want his birth certificate to spell “mother unknown”. I’m saying please here… Please…”
“Ok. Let’s say I go with you and declare him my son. What are we going to be? A modern man and a modern woman that got carried away and had a baby and now share custody of him? Oh, and I assume that implies living together, too? And I’ll be one of those ‘nature’s curiosities’ who had a baby without having sex.”
“That can be arranged. The sex part, I mean,” Richie said playfully.
“I’m being serious here. You’re not.”
“Rae, will you … “
A baby’s cry interrupted him. Billie – Rae rushed to the other room. She picked the baby and talked to him.
“Hey, cutie! What is it? You’ve had a bad dream, haven’t you? And there was no one when you woke up. Shhhh… I’m here. It’s ok. Mo … “, she stopped as she felt Richie’s hand on her shoulder.
“Why don’t you say it?” he asked watching both of them tenderly.
“S-say what?” she whispered.
He came closer, his lips touching her ear, and whispered back “Mommy’s here”.
“You’re emotionally blackmailing me. You do realize that, don’t you?”
“If that’s what it takes to keep you here, yeah, I am. And I’m proud of it, too.”
“Richie?”
“Yes, sweetie pie?”
“What will people say?”
“About what?”
“Us, raising a baby together”.
He slowly turned her around so that she could face him. “Since when do you care about what people say?”.
She gave him a smile. “Do I get to name him?”
He smiled back. “Haven’t you already?”
“Andy’s just a nickname. It could be Andy for Andrew or for Alexander”.
“I like Andrew. And I was thinking of asking Damien to be his godfather. He’s my best friend after all”.
“Might help him grow-up and think more mature if he has the responsibility of a godson”, she joked.
“Yeah. And if we ask your best friend, Carolyn, to be the godmother we might actually get them to admit that they like each other”.
Billie – Rae laughed.
Damien (who had been Richard’s best friend since kinder garden) and Carolyn (who was actually one of their ex-classmates from med school) went out together a few times but Carolyn “declared” Damien highly immature and refused to see him again, although both her friends (Richard and Billie – Rae) noticed she kind of liked him and point it out to her.

Two days later, baby Zeller finally got an identity. He became Andrew – Damien Zeller, born July 27, 1990, son of Wilhelmina – Rachel Winston and Richard – Vincent Zeller.

It was autumn. Billie – Rae and Andy were taking their afternoon walk in the park. It was part of their daily routine. Billie – Rae pushed the stroller all around the lake and then she sat on a bench near a rose bush and picked Andy up. Sometimes she talked to him for almost an hour, about nature, the trees, the leaves, the lake, about how much she loved him and how grateful she was to have such a beautiful baby boy. She often told him about how much she loved his daddy, how she fell in love with him the moment she first saw him, how he became her best friend and she secretly kept loving him, for five years, although he always saw her like a little sister … Sometimes she wondered if she still loved him … But she preferred not to answer that (or was it admit?).
She only saw Richard when he was just in front of her.
“Hi!” she greeted him smiling.
“Hey! How are my favorite two people doing today?”, he asked.
“Fine. Enjoying the autumn sun. How about you?”
“Well … I remembered that this is the second week of October and that soon it would be November 1st…”
Billie – Rae smiled. “You haven’t forgotten …”
“I’ve never forgotten your birthday. Except for maybe our first med school year”.
She smiled again.
“Rae … I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, but waited for the right moment …”. He reached his pocket and handed her a little black velvet box. Then he looked into her eyes and spoke: “Will you marry me, Rae?”
Her eyes widened in disbelief while she struggled to open the box with one hand (she was still holding Andy). The ring was … perfect. She looked at him with teary eyes and spoke:
“Are you sure this is what you want?”
“You are a wonderful woman, the mother of my child, my best friend, of course it is what I want!”
“Ok, then”, she smiled, choosing not to think about the fact that he didn’t even mention love, “You think I can call my family and Carolyn to let them know they’re invited?”
“Defiantly!”, he answered her and planted a soft kiss on her lips.