Elizabeth swung open the front door and was greeted by Carrie's warm smiling face. "Liz!" Carrie exclaimed, throwing her arms around the shorter, smaller woman. Elizabeth returned her friend's hug and with laughter in her voice replied, "It is good to see you too." Elizabeth took Carrie's coat and hung it on the coat rack by the front door, before moving into the living room with both women chattering excitedly as they went.
"I can't believe you live in this huge, gorgeous house!" Carrie exclaimed with astonishment in her voice. Elizabeth smiled at Carrie and said, "Wait until I give you the grand tour." They spent the next thirty minutes touring the house with Carrie stopping every few seconds to admire something and to remind Elizabeth how lucky she was to be living here.
After the tour had finally ended, the two women found themselves in the kitchen sipping hot coco. They talked about old times and reminisced on good memories about their pasts, just enjoying each others company.
Elizabeth had decided to avoid the question of what to do about a doctor for her unborn baby, not wanting to spoil the happy atmosphere that surrounded her and Carrie. There was no need to drag Carrie into her problems and make her worry and fret also. Elizabeth cleared her thoughts and brought herself back to reality. She needed a distraction to get her mind off of her problems for now. She turned her attention back to Carrie and hoped that her presence would be enough to provide that distraction.
"So, what should we do now?" She asked Carrie, tucking a stand of hair that had escaped her loose french braid behind her ear. Carrie smiled at her friend and suggested, "How about dinner?" "Sure." Elizabeth answered. "What do you want me to cook us?" Carrie laughed, "I don't want you to cook us anything. Let's go out to eat, my treat."
After a few minutes of begging Carrie to let her pay for her own dinner and getting no where, Elizabeth reluctantly agreed to Carrie's dinner stipulations, but insisted that she pay for the movie they planned to see later that night after dinner.
After the arrangements were made for who was going to pay what, the two women gathered their coats and headed out the front door, for a girls night out. The night went wonderfully for the two women. They went to the new chinese restaurant that had just opened up in town last week and were delighted to find that it served the best chinese food they had ever eaten.
The movie they saw was a chick flick and they both enjoyed the sense of humor and love story it displayed. After the movie they drove back to the house, their excited chatter and the steady rumble of the car engine breaking the still of the night.
They pulled into the driveway a little after 10:00 pm and both women were equally surprised to find that there were lights on in the house. Why were there lights on in the house? Elizabeth was pretty sure that they had shut off all the lights before they had left. Who had entered the house while they were gone and turned them on?
As if she were reading Elizabeth's thoughts Carrie spoke, "Who's here? I thought that you said you were the only one home until tomorrow evening." "I am supposed to be the only one here." Elizabeth said, starring out the car window at the big glowing house. Who was in the house?