"You and Amy seem to be spending a lot of time together the past few months. Have you met her son yet?" Leonard asked his roommate while they were both staring at the dry erase boards set up around their apartment.
Sheldon glanced at the shorter man and rolled his eyes. "How many times do I have to tell you? Amy is a friend who is a girl, but she is not my girlfriend. I could understand needing to meet her son if we were dating, but we are just friends. Have you met the offspring of all of your friends?"
"None of my friends have kids, so no, I don't know the offspring of my friends. I don't know what you do when you're not here. I wasn't sure if maybe she'd brought him for one of your trips to the zoo or the train store. She's never mentioned her childcare arrangements when she's been over here. I didn't know if she only comes over on Tuesday nights because he's with his dad or something like that."
"Her parents help her a lot and there's a teenager in her building who babysits sometimes. Amy's parents are willing to watch Max whenever she needs, but she doesn't like to ask them to watch him more than once a week. She hates feeling like she's pawning her kid off on someone else so she can have a social life. If you must know, Max's father isn't in his life. Amy doesn't even know his father's name," Sheldon informed Leonard.
Leonard's jaw dropped at this revelation. "Wow. I know I don't know Amy that well, but she never really struck me as the type to not know the name of the father of her kid. Do you think Penny knows that? She and Amy have been talking more lately."
"Grow up, Leonard," commanded Sheldon. "It's not like that. I shouldn't even be sharing this because it was Amy's decision, but it will shut you up about this, so I guess I don't have much choice. Amy doesn't know Max's father's name because she went to a sperm bank three and a half years ago. She's going to let Max decide when he's older if he wants to look up his father."
"I did not expect that. It seemed like a good idea at the time to get some extra money, but I'm kinda glad we didn't go through with donating sperm that time a few years ago. I can't imagine not knowing if I have a kid who's going to show up at my door years from now," Leonard noticed the change in his roommate's expression. "What's with the face? Let's get back to work."
Sheldon picked up the marker he had set down, "Yeah, that would be crazy to not know if you have a kid out there. I think we can solve this problem before bed if we quit the chit-chat."
Across the hall, Sheldon was unaware his neighbor had invited his new friend to join her girls' night with Bernadette. "I've never been to a girls' night before. What do you normally do?" Amy questioned her new friends.
"You never had a girls' night before? Not even in high school or college?" Penny was shocked by this as girls' nights had been a regular occurrence since adolescence for herself.
Amy sheepishly shook her head. "I never had a lot of friends growing up; I was pretty focused on my studies in college and grad school. I did have two close friends, but we grew apart pretty quickly after I had Max. Even with them, we'd go to lectures or book signings, never anything like this."
"Did you have a fight with them or something?" Bernadette sipped her wine.
"Just at different places in life, I guess," shrugged Amy. "The entire time I was pregnant, they would ask me how it was going and say how excited they were to meet Max and help with him. They came to see me in the hospital after Max was born. My cousin William was there and overheard them talking in the hallway. They were saying they thought I was making a huge mistake by deciding to be a single mom and that I was making my life more difficult by not waiting to meet a man to start a family."
"They sound like bitches if you ask me. I've had a few friends get pregnant and decide to keep their babies. Sure, they don't have as much time to hang out as before, but I would never say any of them made a mistake by having a baby," commented Penny.
Amy reached for the popcorn on the coffee table. "I asked them about it a few weeks after Max was born and they admitted to saying those things. I stopped replying to their messages; I needed some time to think about the kind of people I want to be around my son. By the time I tried to reach out to them, I guess too much time had passed because I never heard back from them. I'm serious, though, what goes on during a girls' night?" Amy repeated her earlier question.
Penny smiled as she poured herself a second glass of wine. "We talk, drink wine, eat junk food, sometimes we'll watch a movie. What do you want to do? Do you want some more wine?"
"No, thank you," declined the brunette. "I've got to drive home later, so I better not. I limit myself to only one glass when I have to go home to Max."
The other women exchanged a look. "We didn't know you had him tonight when you said you were free to hang out," mentioned Bernadette.
"Of course, I'd have Max tonight; I have Max every night. He's with a sitter right now, but I need to be home to relieve her by ten. Who did you think he'd be with if I didn't have him?" Amy was confused about what the other girls were referring to.
"We thought maybe he was with his dad or something. Sheldon hasn't told us much about you so we didn't know how involved Max's dad is with him," Penny shared.
Amy shook her head, "No, I don't know who Max's father is, so there's no way he could be involved in his life."
"Amy!" Penny exclaimed. "Look at you, working it under those layers of wool and polyester."
"Oh, god. No. It's not like that. I've, um, never slept with anyone before," Amy looked at the other women who were trying to figure out how Amy had a child, but hadn't slept with anyone. "I didn't have the greatest relationship with my mother growing up, and I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that she was an older mother- she was in her forties when I was born. I decided I wanted to have a child while I was still young. Since I wasn't having much luck on the dating front, I went to a sperm bank to try to have a child on my own."
"Wait a minute," Bernadette was still processing this information. "When you say you don't know who the father of your child is, you really don't know who the father of your child is?"
Nodding, Amy spoke, "That's right. I went through a ton of donor profiles before I chose one. I was given basic physical characteristics, major medical history, and a few baby pictures. I don't even have a name, just a number in the registry. I'll be open with Max about it and let him decide if he wants to get in contact with him when he's older."
"Does Sheldon know any of this? I know the two of you have been talking a lot the past few months," questioned Penny.
"He knows the same thing I just told you."
Bernadette smiled at their new friend. "Do you think we could meet Max? Maybe Penny and I could meet you at the park with him or something? We just learned a lot about him and you've talked about him quite a bit when you come over for dinner every week. When we say we'd be willing to help you with him, we mean it."
The brunette smiled back at the blondes. "I don't know. I've only known the two of you for three months. I've been friends with Sheldon for seven months and he hasn't even met Max yet. This is the first time I've spent any time with the two of you without Sheldon or the other guys. After what happened with my friends when Max was born, I hope you can understand my hesitancy to bring a lot of new people around him until I get to know you better."
Author's note- Thanks again for all of the reviews. I hope this chapter answered more of your questions about why Amy closed herself off to people around her.