AN: I do not own these characters. All rights go to E.L. James

Chapter 1

"I don't believe in miracles," Ana said, looking at her best friend with her lips pressed tightly together. Sunlight shown on Ana's shiny-clean face, making her look like the "before" photo of a model without makeup. But lack of makeup only revealed perfect skin, high cheekbones, and the most extraordinary powder blue eyes.

"I never said a word about miracles," Kate replied, her voice showing her exasperation. She was as dark as Ana was fair, half a foot taller, and voluptuous. "All I said was that you should go to the Christmas dance at the club. What's so miraculous about that?"

"You said that I might meet someone wonderful and get married," Ana answered.

"Okay, so shoot me, I apologize." She took a look at her once-beautiful best friend; Kate found it difficult to believe that she used to be eaten up with jealousy over Ana's looks. Now Ana's hair hung lifeless about her shoulders, with split ends. She hadn't a trace of makeup on and with her pale coloring; Ana looked like a teenager without it. Instead of the elegant clothes she used to wear, she now had on an old sweat shirt that Kate knew had belonged to Ana's deceased fiancé.

"You used to be the most gorgeous girl at the club," Kate said wistfully. "I remember seeing you and Jose dance at Christmas. Remember that red dress you had, slit so high your tonsils were visible? But how you and Jose looked when you danced together was worth it! Those legs of yours had every man in the room drooling. Every man in Seattle was drooling! Except my Treavor, of course, he never looked."

Over her teacup, Ana gives a faint smile. "Key words in that are 'girl' and 'Jose'. Neither of which I am or have any longer."

"Give me a break!" Kate wailed. "You sound as though you're ninety-two years old and should be choosing your coffin. You turned twenty-five, that's all. I hit twenty-seven this year and age hasn't stopped me." At that Kate got up, her hand at her back, and waddled over to the sink to get another cup of herbal tea. She was so hugely pregnant she could hardly reach the kettle.

"Point made," Ana said. "But no matter how young or old I am, that doesn't bring Jose back." When she said the name, there was reverence in her voice, as though she were speaking the name of a deity.

Kate gave a great sigh, for they'd had this conversation many times. "Jose was my cousin and I loved him very much, but Ana, Jose is dead and he's been dead for two years. It's time you started living again."

"You don't understand about Jose and me. We were…"

Kate's face was full of sympathy, and reaching across the table, she clasped Ana's wrist and squeezed. "I know he was everything to you, but you have a lot to offer some man. A man who is alive."

"No one understands" Ana said sharply. Jose was more than just my fiancée, we were business partners. We were equals. Jose asked my opinion about everything, from the business to the color of his socks. He made me feel useful. Can you understand that? Every man I've met before or since Jose seems to want a woman to sit still, look pretty and not have a brain. The minute you start telling him your opinions, he starts checking his phone and asks the waiter to give him the check."

There was nothing that Kate could say to dispute what Ana was saying, for Kate had seen firsthand what a good partnership they'd had. But now Kate was sick with seeing her beloved friend hide herself away from the world, so she wasn't about to tell Ana that she'd never find anyone who was half the man Jose was.

"Alright," Kate said, "I'll stop. If you are bound and determined to commit yourself to forever morn for Jose, so be it." She gave her friend's back a hard look and decided to move the conversation to another subject. "Tell me about that job of yours." Her tone of voice told what she thought of Ana's job.

Turing away from the window, Ana laughed. "Kate, no one could ever doubt your opinions on anything. First you don't like that I love my fiancée and second you don't approve of my job."

"So sue me. I think you're worth more than eternal spinster hood and death-by-data entry."

Ana could never bare her best friend any animosity because Kate truly did think Ana was the best there was, and had her best interest at heart. "My job is fine," she said, sitting back down at the table. "Everyone is well and everything is going fine."

"That boring, huh?"

Ana laughed. "Not horribly boring, just a little bit boring."

"So why don't you quit?" Before Ana could answer, Kate held up her hand. "I apologize. It's none of my business if you, with all your brains, want to bury yourself in some administrative assistant job." Kate's eyes lit up. "So anyway, tell me about your divine, sex on legs, beautiful gorgeous boss?"

Ana smiled and ignored the reference to her boss. "The other women in the office gave me a birthday party last week." At that she lifted her eyebrows in challenge, for Kate was always saying snide things about the six women Ana worked with.

"Oh? What did they give you? A rocking chair and a couple of cats?"

"Support hose," she said, then laughed. "No, no, I'm kidding. Just the usual things. Actually, they chipped in together and got me a very nice gift."

"And what was that?"

Ana took a drink of her tea. "An eye glasses holder."

"A what?"

Ana's eyes twinkled. "A holder for my eyeglasses. You know, one of those string things that go around your neck. It's a very nice one, eighteen-karat gold. With little, ah, cats on the clasp."

Kate didn't smile. "Ana, you have to get out of there. The combined age of those women must be three hundred years. And didn't they notice that you don't wear glasses?"

"Three hundred and seventy-seven." When Kate looked at her in question, Ana said, "Their ages total three hundred and seventy-seven years. I added it up one day. And they said they knew I didn't wear glasses, but that as someone who spends so much time looking at my computer screen and working over the weekend that I would soon need them."

"For an ancient like you, support hose are just around the corner."

"Actually, Miss Anderson gave me a pair last Christmas. She's sixty-one and swears by them."

At that Kate did laugh. "Oh, Ana, this is serious. You have to get out of there."

"Mmmmm," Ana said, looking down at her cup. "My position does have its uses."

"What are you up to?" Kate snapped.

Ana gave her friend a look of innocence. "I have no idea what you mean."

For a moment Kate leaned back against the bench and studied Ana. "I think at last I am beginning to understand. You are too clever to throw away everything. So help me, Anastasia Steele, if you don't tell me everything and tell me now, I'll think of some dreadful way to punish you. Like maybe not allowing you to see my baby until she's like ten-years old."

When Ana's face turned white, Kate knew she had her. "Tell!"

"It's a nice position and the people I work with are…."

Suddenly, Kate's face lit up. "Don't you dare play the martyr to me. I've known you since you were eight years old, remember? You take extra work from those old biddies so you'll know everything that's going on. I'll bet you know more about what's going on in that company than Mr. Grey does." Kate smiled at her own cleverness. "And you let your looks go so you don't intimidate anyone. If that Miss Parker saw you as you looked a couple of years ago, she's find some reason to fire you."

Ana's blush was enough to tell her that she was right.

"Pardon my stupidity," Kate said, "but why don't you get a position that pays more than being an administrative assistant?"

"I tried!" Ana said vehemently. "I applied at dozens of companies, but they wouldn't consider me because I don't have a university degree. Four years of managing a hardware store means nothing to a personnel director."

"You only quadrupled that store's profits."

"Whatever. That doesn't matter. Only that piece of paper saying I sat through years of boring classes means anything."

"So why don't you go back to school, finish your remaining year and get that piece of paper?"

"I am going to school!" Ana took a drink of her tea to calm herself.

"Look, Kate, I know you mean well, but I know what I'm doing. I know I'll never find another man like Jose who I can work with, so maybe I can learn enough to open my own business. I have the money from the sale of Jose's half of the hardware store, and I'm managing to save some or most of what I earn from this job. Meanwhile, I am learning everything about running a company the size of Grey Enterprises Holdings, Inc."

Ana smiled. "I'm not really an idiot about my little old ladies. They think they use me to do their work, but truthfully, I'm very selective about what I agree to do. Everything in that office, from every department, goes across my desk. Since I always make myself available for all weekends and holidays, I always see what's most urgent."

"And what do you plan to do with all this knowledge?"

"Open a business somewhere maybe in retail. It's what I know, although without Jose there to do the selling, I don't know how I'll cope."

"You should find a man and get married!" Kate said forcefully.

"But I don't want to get married!" Ana shouted. "I'm just going to get pregnant!" After she'd said it, Ana looked at her friend in horror. "Please forget I said that," she whispered. "Look, I better go. I have things…"

"Move from that seat and you're dead," Kate said levelly.

With a great sigh, Ana collapsed back against the banquette chair in Kate's sunny kitchen. "Don't do this to me. Please, Kate."

"Do what?" she asked innocently.

"Pry and snoop and generally interfere in something that is none of your business."

"I can't imagine what you could be referring to. I've never done anything like that in my life. Now tell me everything."

Ana tried to change the subject. "Another gorgeous woman came out of Mr. Grey's office in tears last week," she said, referring to her boss, a man who seemed to drive Kate mad with desire. But Ana was sure that was because she didn't know him.

"What do you mean, you're 'going' to get pregnant?" Kate persisted.

"An hour after she had left, a jeweler showed up at Mr. Grey's office with a briefcase and two armed guards. We all figure he was buying her off. Drying her tears with emeralds, so to speak."

"Have you done anything yet about getting pregnant?"

"And on Friday we heard that Mr. Grey was engaged…again. But not to the woman who'd left his office. This time he's engaged to a redhead." She leaned across the table to Kate. "And Saturday I typed the prenuptial agreement."

That got Kate's attention. "What was in it?"

Ana leaned back again, her face showing her distaste. "He's a bastard, Kate. He really is. I know he's very good looking and he's rich beyond imagining, but as a human, he's not worth much. I know these…these social butterflies of his are probably just after his money. They certainly couldn't like him…but they are human beings and, as such, they are worthy of some sort of kindness."

"Will you get off your soapbox and tell me what the prenuptial agreement said?"

"The woman, his bride, had to agree to give up all rights to anything that was purchased with his money during the marriage. As far as I could tell, she wasn't allowed to own anything. In the event of a divorce, even the clothing he bought her would remain with him."

"Really? And what was he planning to do with women's clothing?" Kate wiggled her eyebrows.

"Nothing interesting, I'm sure. He'd just find another gorgeous gold digger the same size that fit them. Or maybe he'd sell them so he could buy a case of engagement rings, since he gives them out so often like candy."

"What is it you dislike about the man so much?" Kate asked. "He gave you a job, didn't he?"

"Oh, yes, he has an office full of women. I swear he instructs personnel to hire them by the length of their legs and the color of their hair. He surrounds himself with beautiful women executives."

"So what's your complaint?"

"He never allows them to do anything!" Ana said with a passion. "Grey makes every decision himself. As far as I know he doesn't even ask his team of beauties what they think should be done, much less allow them to actually do it." She gripped her cup handle until it nearly snapped. "Christian Grey could live on a desert island all by himself. He needs no other person in life."

"He seems to need women," Kate said softly. She'd met Ana's boss twice and she'd been thoroughly charmed by him.

"He's the proverbial American playboy," Ana said. "The longer the legs, and the longer the hair, the more he likes them. Beautiful and dumb, that's what he likes." She smiled maliciously. "However, so far none of them have been stupid enough to marry him when they discover that all they get out of the marriage is him."

"Well…" Kate said, seeing the anger in Ana's face, "maybe we should change the subject. How are you planning to get a baby if you run from every man who looks at you? I mean, the way you dress now is calculated to keep men at a distance, isn't it?"

"My! But that was good tea," Ana said. "You are certainly a good cook, Kate, and I've enjoyed our visit immensely, but I need to go now." With that she rose and headed to the kitchen door.

"Ow!" Kate yelled. "I'm going into labor! Help me."

The blood seemed to drain from Ana's face as she ran to her friend. "Lean back, rest. I'll call the hospital."

But as Ana reached the phone, Kate said in a normal voice, "I think it's passed, but you better stay here until Treavor gets home. Just in case."

After a moment of looking at Kate with anger, Ana admitted defeat and sat back down. "All right, what is it you want to know?"

"I don't know why, but I seem to be very interested in babies lately. Must be something I ate. But anyway, when you mentioned babies, it made me want to hear all of it."

"There is nothing to tell. Really nothing. I just…"

"Just what?" Kate urged.

"I just regret that Jose and I never got the chance to actually get married and have children. We both thought we had all the time in the world."

Kate didn't say anything, just gave Ana time to sort out her thoughts and talk. "Recently, I went to a fertility clinic and had a complete examination. I seem to be perfectly healthy."

When Ana said no more, Kate said softly, "So you've been to a clinic and now what?"

"I am to choose a donor from a catalog," Ana said simply.

Kate's sense of the absurd got the better of her. "Ah, then you get the turkey baster out and…"

Ana didn't laugh as her eyes flashed angrily. "You can afford to be smug since you have a loving husband who can do the job, but what am I supposed to do? Put an ad on Facebook for a donor? 'One lonely woman wants child but no husband. That would sure bring out the cream of the crop of crazy weirdos."

"If you got out more and met some men you might…" Kate stopped because she could see that Ana was getting angry. "I know, why don't you ask that gorgeous boss of yours to do the job? He beats a turkey baster any day."

Ana tried to stay annoyed, but Kate's persistence thawed her…. "Mr. Grey, rather than a raise," Ana mimicked, "would you mind very much giving me a bit of semen? I brought a jar, and no, I don't mind waiting."

Kate laughed, for this was the old Ana, the one she'd rarely seen in the last two years.

Ana smiled. "According to my check up and charts, I will be at peak fertility on Christmas Day, so maybe I'll just wait up for Santa Claus."

"Beats milk and cookies," Kate said. "But won't you feel bad for all the children he neglects because he spent the whole night at your house?"

Kate laughed so hard at her own joke that she let out a scream.

"It wasn't that funny," Ana said. "Maybe Santa's helper could…Kate? Are you all right?"

"Call Treavor," she whispered, clutching her big stomach; then as another contraction hit her, she said, "The hell with Treavor, call the hospital and tell them to rush a delivery of morphine. This hurts!"

Shaking, Ana found her phone and called.