With the end of November slowly drifting into the beginning of December, the autumn leaves now dead upon the ground as the weather forecast starts to predict a light dusting of snow for the next few days, it was the perfect time to use their day off as a way of visiting as many apartments as Erin and Kim had found that matched her criteria. It was an all-day event, with the only break being for lunch with the two of them taking a seat in a booth in a nearby diner, "Be careful," she hears the waitress say as she carefully places a bowl of minestrone soup and a plate of onion rings down in front of Erin, "this is very hot."

"Thank you," she replies, before taking the offered plate of toasted baguette bread and setting it down beside her steaming bowl of minestrone soup, "This all looks so good."

Burgess lifts the top bun of her cheeseburger and adds a heaping amount of ketchup and mustard all while staring at Erin dip her onion ring in ketchup, "That's such an odd combination."

"Oh come on, don't do that," Erin pouts after stuffing the onion ring into her mouth, "I can't help it if that's what the baby wants. I'm a puppet and this kid is the puppet master. I do as the cravings demand me to do and for some reason, I've been craving onion rings a lot."

"…and minestrone soup?"

Erin shrugged and doesn't follow her friend's question up with a response. She wasn't regularly craving minestrone soup, she just had a taste for it today. It was a decently hot bowl of soup, one which she breaks off a piece of the baguette to dab into the bowl before bringing the scorching hot meal to her mouth, "I didn't come out to eat to justify my food decisions," she blows the piece of bread before sticking it into her mouth and chewing slowly. She makes a few odd noises and sucks in some air in an effort to cool it down more because her two blows of breath weren't enough, "and besides, all inquiries from this point forward about anything I eat in the next seven months will be forwarded to the baby upon its arrival."

If it wasn't for the large bite of burger that Kim had just taken, she probably would have laughed louder. She had to tone down the overwhelming urge to cackle because she didn't want to choke on her burger. She could barely chew her bite so she takes a sip of water to loosen it up enough for her to chew the rest even while chuckling, "I can't stand you," she laughs out the moment after she swallows, "you have to stop making me laugh while I'm eating."

"I didn't do it on purpose," Erin reaches for her lemonade to take a sip, "and you started it."

"That one glass of lemonade probably has so much sugar in it, and it's free refills here. If you get another, I'm afraid you'll go into a diabetic coma."

"…not you too," she rolls her eyes and sets her lemonade back down, "I hear enough about healthy eating from my mom. You saw the food she keeps filling your fridge up with, this is the only time I get to eat what I enjoy. And I might be pregnant, but my doctor gave me a list of food and drinks to avoid consuming and none of this," she waved her hand over her spread of food, "is on that list. Thank you very much for your concern, Kimberly Burgess, but I got this."

"…but-"

"I can't have coffee. The least I can do is have a glass of cold, refreshing lemonade."

"Are you sure?"

"I need you to get pregnant. Like ASAP. Because if you expect me to eat vegetables, whole grains and fruit 24/7 while I'm forced to watch you eat a burger that's so big you need two hands to hold it then you're about to be very disappointed. I stopped drinking alcohol and coffee. I can't have sushi anymore, Kim. Sushi! I increased the amount of water I drink every day. I snack on berries, yogurt, dried fruit and crackers while trying to convince myself that I'm eating candy, cookies and chips. It's an adjustment. A plate of onion rings won't harm anyone. So," Erin lifts another piece of bread and dips it into her soup, scooping up some of the chopped vegetables swirling around in the broth, "with that said, let's make a deal. I won't tell you how and what to eat when and if you decide to have children as long as you return the same courtesy to me." She stuffs the piece of baguette into her mouth, chewing pretty hard as she holds eye contact with her best friend.

Kim flops back, her back settling against the leather of the booth. The fry she was holding drops from her hand and lands on the table, "Ouch."

A silence passes between the two giving Kim a chance to clean up her small mess and Erin a chance to chew and swallow her meal. This lunch was supposed to consist of discussion surrounding the apartments they've looked at, not Erin's eating habits. She was just getting frustrated. It wasn't too often that Erin could enjoy the pleasures of greasy and fattening foods so the one chance she got to have it, she had every intention of taking it. Erin leans over the table to snag a fry from her friend's plate before popping it into her mouth, "Sorry."

"…for stealing my fry or for practically cursing me out?"

"I didn't curse you out. You'd know if I cursed you out," Erin reminded, smirking when her friend nods in agreement, "and I was apologizing for the way I spoke to you. Can we just pretend that was the pregnancy hormones talking?"

"Only if you let me have an onion ring…"

"Can I have a few of your fries? They were pretty good."

Kim rolls her eyes and snatches a few napkins from the dispenser on the table. She hands half of the small stack to Erin and keeps the other half for herself, "Save me some please," she extends her plate to her best friend after divulging her plea because she's heard myths -many that she refuses to share with her currently pregnant friend- about leaving food around pregnant women. She doesn't want her plate of fries to fall victim to that myth. And while Burgess helps herself to one onion ring, Erin picks up a couple of the crinkle cut fries and sets the few she grabbed onto the napkin. Erin watches her closest friend squirt ketchup all over the one onion before lifting it up and sticking it into her mouth, -they're very different when it comes to eating styles. Kim is the type to spread ketchup over all of her fries -and onion rings- while Erin is the type to dip her fries -and onion rings- into ketchup, so with a small look of disgust at the messy fries already covered by ketchup, she tries to ignore the feeling of the sauce covering the crunchy fries as she places one in her mouth.

"I forgot you're a dipper."

"…and I forgot you like to practically drown your fries in ketchup." Erin throws another fry in her mouth. The fact that they're actually still having a conversation about food is ridiculous.

Kim chuckled, shaking her head in amazement, "I forgot how much I hate the way you eat fries."

"Why do you even have an opinion over the way I eat fries? Do we not have enough interesting things to talk about that you have enough time to focus on how I eat them?"

"Even with the most interesting conversation, anyone would find it odd that you eat fries one at a time. I mean…who does that?"

"They say how you eat fries tells you about your personality."

"…and what do they say about yours?"

Erin shrugged, "Don't know," she eats the last fry that she grabbed, "I never clicked on the article to read it. I guess I'm not as fascinated about the different ways to eat fries as you are."

Before resuming her actual meal, she washes down the taste of the salty fries with a sip of her lemonade, making eye contact with Burgess as she drinks it since she knows her friend is passing judgment, -in a loveable kind of way. Erin grabs another onion ring, dipping it in ketchup with a contented smile knowing that her fingers won't be covered in the condiment like Kim's fingers are, "Would you judge me for getting an order of onion rings to go? They make them just right."

"After you almost ripped my head off the last time I commented on your food intake, I think I'd hold my judgement for something that doesn't involve your pregnancy or symptoms that come from said pregnancy." Kim dropped a handful of fries into her mouth, eating them the complete opposite way in which Erin was eating hers.

Breaking off a piece of baguette and dropping it in her bowl of soup, Erin whispers, "You said all that to say…" she didn't know what Kim was getting at. That's another difference between the two of them; Kim beats around the bush and Erin gets straight to the point.

"No I won't judge you," Kim reassures, reaching across the table to settle her hand over Erin's only for her friend to quickly move her hand away and eye the ketchup decorating her fingers, "but if you do take some home, you have to share with me."

"…then I'll get two orders of onion rings to go."

"My treat…you need to start saving your money for bug anyway."

The onion ring she's holding drops and lands back onto the plate, rejoining her few remaining onion rings. Bug. She tosses that nickname around in her head as she lifts her spoon and scoops up the soggy piece of bread she dropped in her soup seconds ago, "Bug?" She says the nickname out loud before sticking the spoon in her mouth, eating the bread and the drops of soup that was balanced carefully on the silverware.

"I'm testing out nicknames," Kim goes back to her burger now that her fries are gone, "So far that's top three."

"What are the other two?"

"Little E," which is self-explanatory, "and the Chosen One."

"The Chosen One," Erin repeats, not fully understanding the origins of that nickname.

"Yeah, just think about it," Burgess swallows the bite of burger she had just taken and then clears her palette with a sip of water before continuing on with her explanation, "You're not in a relationship, you weren't planning to have kids and yet you're pregnant now," Erin still needed further clarification, "Out of all your eggs, that one," she points towards Erin's belly, "was fertilized by one of his many sperm hence the Chosen One."

"I hate that nickname. That's not sticking around," she briefly cuts herself off, "thank you," she whispers to the waitress when the woman refills her glass of lemonade, "Now, how about we change the conversation? We need to discuss the places we looked at and the places we're about to go see, not my baby's conception or anything remotely close to that topic."

For a brief moment, a flash, a blink, she remembers that night. The way his hands felt clenching onto her waist, the way his nails dug into her skin, the way her fingers clawed into his back as they reached a moment of absolute pleasure that very few are lucky enough to experience once let alone multiple times in one night.

"Earth to Erin," Kim waves her ketchup covered hand in front of her best friend's face.

"God Kim, have you ever heard of a napkin?" She's frustrated, but she's smiling as she tears a few napkins from the dispenser and tosses them in her friend's direction, "they exist for a reason, the owner of the restaurant keeps a napkin dispenser on every table for a reason."

Burgess blushes. She takes the napkins and they start to crinkle up as she uses them to clean her hands, "Did you hear what I said? Where'd you go off to?"

"That's not important," casually, Erin brushes it off, "and sorry, I didn't hear what you said."

"I said, you know we'd probably find way more places if you looked at places that don't take pets."

Shaking her head pretty aggressively, she retorts, "You've lost your mind. I'm not getting rid of Milo." She doesn't even want to entertain the thought of that.

"I wasn't suggesting that. I was just thinking he can stay with me."

"I'm not getting rid of Milo. We're a packaged deal. If you want a dog, adopt your own."

Kim initiated this topic of conversation all wrong. She knew she had to be careful, she had to walk on eggshells because in the weeks that Erin and Milo have stayed with her, she's noticed their connection, she noticed how much they love each other, how protective he is of his person and how Erin practically looks at him as her first baby. She needs to take a step back. She needs to approach the topic of Milo in a way that'll probably make Erin see things from a different perspective, "I swear I'm better with my words," she dry chuckles to ease the tension but Erin doesn't find it funny, "Er, this is something that does need to be discussed. I thought the easiest way to do it, the beat around the bush way is to imply Milo was a hinderance in your ability to find a decent, affordable apartment. That's not really what I was trying to get at."

"What were you trying to get at then?"

"It sounds harsher."

"What were you trying to get at, Kim?" Erin repeats herself. Suddenly her food was of no more interest to her. She pushed her plate of onion rings away then followed it up with pushing her bowl of soup and plate of bread to the opposite side.

"How is he around babies?"

"I don't know," Erin is automatically on the defensive, "He's never been around one."

"And you're going to let your kid be a test subject for that?"

Her growing irritation was obvious, but Kim was comforted to know that there wasn't anything she could say that would permanently damage her relationship with her best friend. Erin takes a moment, she stalls by sipping on her fresh glass of lemonade before pushing that away as well, "What's been your deal today?" She notices the look on Kim's face; she's caught off guard by the question even though Erin truly feels like she shouldn't be, "Seriously, what's going on?"

Immediately, her hands fly in the air in surrender, "Nothing, really, I'm just concerned. I love Milo, you know I do, and I love Little E and I don't want anything bad to happen to either of them."

"Milo wouldn't hurt a fly!"

"I get that, but would he hurt a baby?"

If Erin wasn't sitting in a booth, if she wasn't in public, then she would definitely be pacing right now. She has an emotional support dog for a reason. She lays her hands down flat on the table, she shuts her eyes and bites down upon her bottom lip before slowly releasing it, "Kim, you don't understand how fucking stressed I am right now," she fidgets in her seat, trying and struggling to suppress her growing anxiety, "There's so much that needs to be done and thought about before the baby comes and I get you're asking these questions out of the kindness of your heart, but right now you're providing me with more problems than solutions. I'm going to read up on that. I'll just add it to my already long list of things I need to fucking do. I've never had a baby before and I've never had a dog before Milo. This is all new to me. And I just need a little patience…a lot of patience actually because of all the things you said isn't good for the baby, neither is making its mother stress out." She slides her hands off the table and drops them into her lap. Her hands begin to pull at a loose thread at the base of her sweater, "I'm barely showing. I have sometime before I need to have everything figured out," she stares down at the irritating piece of loose fabric, "I just need to focus on one thing at a time," she readjusts her grip and gives the thread a sharp pull to rip it off, "I have this mental checklist of things I need to do and nothing is checked off."

Kim starts to reach her hand across the table, only to hesitate and pull her hand back when she sees the remnants of her meal covering her fingertips, "I'm sorry. You know I don't mean any harm by anything that I'm saying. I just worry a lot, especially about you, especially about all of this. I'm always worried because you rarely talk to me about what's going through your crazy mind. You'd rather open up and vent to your dog."

"Are you jealous of Milo?"

Burgess tries to hold a straight face. Erin looks up to meet her eyes and even tries to hold it. Neither of them are successful when seconds later a smile and a soft chuckle breaks out between them. Her question was definitely a way to loosen the mood, a way to break the tension because both of them knew the suggestion of Kim being jealous of Erin's relationship with her emotional support dog was ridiculous. Despite what Burgess was saying, she had no ill feelings towards one of the reasons her best friend's mood is always so uplifted.

"That list in your head," Kim leans forward to say as Erin pulls her plate of onion rings closer to resume eating; it seems her appetite is back, "you should write it down, that way you can actually have a visual of all that you need to do AND feel the pleasure of actually crossing things off."

"That's probably a good idea."

Her onion rings weren't as hot, they'd definitely cooled off and are closer to the colder side of things than the warm. It didn't mean she wasn't going to eat them though.

"And," Burgess snatches an onion ring off her plate, leaving her with one left, "if there's anything on that list that your mom and I can help out with or do for you, that'll help take some of the weight off, I'm down and I'm pretty sure I can speak for Camille when I say she'll be down too."

This pregnancy was going to be a physical, mental and emotional journey for her. And even though she's only at the beginning of it, at the start of officially being ten weeks pregnant, she's already learning things, like opening up, allowing others in and accepting the help that is offered. It's nothing against her pride, it doesn't damage it, but it definitely takes some getting used to it.

She eats the last of her onion rings, the cold crumbs washing down her throat after she takes a sip of lemonade helps her to suddenly remember to flag down their waitress. She's definitely working to earn a sizeable tip because she's at their table seconds after Erin waves for her, "Is there something else I can help you with?"

"Yes, I want to put in two to-go orders of onion rings," the waitress pulls out her notepad and jots down their additional order, "put it on her tab," she nods to Kim, "and also can I have a refill." Erin purposefully doesn't look in Kim's direction, knowing that even if her friend doesn't verbalize her opinion on Erin drinking a third glass of lemonade then she'll definitely have it written across her face for everyone to clearly see and read. Kim gets back to eating the last quarter of her burger as Erin pulls her lukewarm soup and bread closer towards her, "And when you get a chance, can you bring the checks?" She might as well ask for it now just to have it already at the table.

This was their third day going apartment hunting. The first was the day Erin met Jay for their paternity test appointment, the second was two days later and now it's the third. And for some odd reason, Erin cannot find a place that she truly likes, nothing is standing out to her. But that doesn't mean she's giving up. She's not forcing a kid onto her best friend. This is her responsibility; Kim didn't screw up and therefore Kim shouldn't have to answer for Erin's screw ups.

She still has two more places to look at today. And if neither of them was the perfect fit then either Erin will have to adjust her requirements and expectations or stay with her roommate. Kim doesn't mind, she keeps telling her that, but Erin has limits on how much of a burden she wants to feel like and mooching off of her best friend while caring for a baby just seems overboard.

"The first apartment we saw today looked creepy," Erin spoke up after swirling her cold bread into the warm soup, loosening up the hardened crust.

"Yeah, that one is definitely not a contender. They should update the pictures on their website. I bet they were taken at least a decade ago," Kim chuckled after swallowing her last bite. She looks down and searches through her purse for her hand size bottle of hand sanitizer, "I thought the second apartment was nice."

"It didn't have a washer and dryer in the apartment," Erin watches as Kim squirts more hand sanitizer than she actually needs into her hand before setting the bottle down onto the table, already knowing that Erin is going to want some when she finishes her food.

Burgess knows that her friend usually isn't this picky and particular. She's just being overly cautious and choosy because of the baby, "Many of the ones left on our list for today don't, but they do have a laundry room on the ground level."

"How would it be possible for me to carry loads of laundry downstairs with an infant?"

"The baby isn't going anywhere. I'm pretty sure it can be left alone for a few minutes."

"Aren't you the same person earlier who judged me for drinking lemonade yet you're ready for me leave my kid high and dry while I attend to a basket of dirty clothes," Erin looks up and smiles when the waitress approaches, accepting her check with a warm smile as Kim did the same, "I'm not taking any parenting advice from someone who doesn't have children."

"You can always carry the baby in one of those baby carriers? Or I can come over? Or your mom? You have a village, Erin, you just need to use it."

Brief moments of silence pass as the two of them pay for their food, writing in a tip on the line above their signature. Once their food was paid for, they simply waited at the table for their onion rings order as their waitress took away their empty plates.

"Okay, let's go over this list of requirements you have to make sure it's realistic," Kim keys in her password to her phone before opening up her mail app, "you want at least a two bedroom apartment," Erin nods because that's not changing, "dogs allowed," she nods again because she has no intent on changing that either, "air conditioning, dishwasher, elevator in the building, laundry unit and good parking." When she read it aloud, it didn't sound like her friend was asking for too much. It was reasonable, especially in her price range.

"It's not that bad is it?"

"It's actually not, but I do think you may need to be a bit lenient on the laundry part. The next two are in decent neighborhoods, right in your price range, but the apartment units do not have individual laundry units. It has a big laundry room which looks beautiful in this picture, but it's on the ground floor."

Erin feared that she may have to settle or risk not finding an apartment but those fears were immediately squashed after getting a tour of the last apartment on their list of visits for the day. She stood in the empty living room, thinking about the neighbors that she just met, they were nice, decent and seemed to truly enjoy the amenities, the location and even the landlord. She wanted a good landlord, one who is attentive and does the job that is expected of him or her, -that should have been on her list of requirements. The apartment is pretty spacious, no marks in the recently replaced carpet and no scuffs in the wood in the living room.

It doesn't meet all of her criteria; it's a little bit over her budget but not much to do any damage to her pockets. She purposely went low so if places arose that was a few dollars above, it wouldn't be a deal breaker. Pets are allowed, -that would have been a deal breaker. She wouldn't have even toured this place if they weren't allowed. It has three bedrooms: a master bedroom, and two other rooms, one in which Erin will use as a nursery and the other she has no idea what she'll do with it.

"It can be a guestroom," Burgess whispers, following behind her as they walked into the spacious room. The walls were painted white, a ceiling fan hung above their heads. Erin tested out the door to the walk-in closet, making sure nothing needed repairs before she gave it her nod of approval.

She steps into the closet, flicking on the light to take in the size. It's not as big as the closet in the master bedroom but that's to be expected, "You're just saying that because you plan to crash here every other night," the two friends walk out of the closet then the room to find the landlord rocking on the balls of his feet, whistling as he allowed them to take their time and look around.

"You're going to be begging me to spend the night the second Little E comes home just so you can at least get an hour of sleep."

Erin wasn't going to deny that.

The apartment isn't walking distance to public transportation which Erin doesn't mind, it wasn't a requirement and it wasn't a deal breaker, and it doesn't increase the property value. Besides, she has a car and while they don't have garage parking, she's willing to sacrifice having to find street parking everyday just for the beauty that is this apartment. It's about compromise. She's going to hate herself when she has to lug a crying infant in her apartment from a parking spot down the block when all of the ones in the nearest vicinity are taken, but for today, she's going to pretend like that problem won't exist because you never know, it might not.

"It's not a bad drive from your parents," that's a relief because the second she has a mental breakdown and will need her mother's support, the sooner she gets to Erin's place, the better, "but your commute to work will be longer than the commute from my house."

"…not by much."

"Have you considered city traffic? You'll just have to leave out of the house at least fifteen minutes sooner than you typically do."

And in this current moment, it doesn't sound bad, but she's definitely going to regret that when her alarm clock goes off in the morning.

It's a decent neighborhood. It isn't the safest in the city but it's not the worst either.

Heat and air conditioning work which would have been a deal breaker. No one wants to be without heat during a Chicago winter. And with climate change, nowadays, no one can probably live during the summer without air conditioning.

"Are we able to paint the walls and change the flooring?"

At finally being asked a question, the landlord looks up, "Oh, yeah. You can take many creative liberties here as you like, you just can't tear down any walls. We've had a renter try that before, they wanted to combine two of the bedrooms so they tried to knock down the wall separating the two. It didn't end well. You can paint, change the flooring, replace doors, put in archways, pretty much whatever, as long as you don't attempt to tear down any walls."

"I really love this apartment," Erin whispered in one breath. So what she had to give up a few of her requirements, she wasn't going to find anything better than this.

"The building also has a pool, you can't see it from the windows in your apartment, but it's outside, it's opened 24 hours from April to September and something we must remind our tenants, there's no lifeguard, so drinking, running and diving into the pool when you can't swim is highly discouraged. Also kids should always be chaperoned when going to the pool. It's gated in, access to the pool can only be reached from the building, not the main street." It's purposely set that way so random people who don't pay the bills to maintain the pool aren't swimming inside of it.

"I'm interested in renting the apartment."

Kim looks her way, "Are you sure? There's no rush. We can keep looking." Even though she doesn't want Erin to move out, she wants her friend to be happy. And the rental process isn't a quick procedure, it takes credit checks, background checks, landlord references and many other things that'll take time. Erin won't be moving out tomorrow, next week and maybe not even next month, but at the idea of her moving out eventually was just more bitter than sweet.

"I'm sure. I don't want to lose this one."

"If you're sure then let's head down to my office," the landlord pulls out his keys to lock the door behind him before leading the two ladies down the hallway in the direction of the elevator, "this isn't your first time renting an apartment so you know how the process of getting approved goes."