^“Fancy seeing you here,” a familiar voice says behind me, and I turn to see Todd’s sister, Annie. She looks lovely, in a long, white jumper and black leggings with cuts in them. Her hair is up in a ponytail. She pulls me into a big hug, and I hug her back before pulling away. I look at her wondering what the hell she’s doing in Mothercare. I finally decide to buy some baby things, and Andre lent me his car after telling me he put me on the insurance. I tried to tell him I would pay him back, but he wouldn’t have any of it.

“Todd called and told me you were shopping alone because of a leak at the club, and Andre couldn’t come with you. I love shopping, so I thought I might help out,” she shrugs.

“You don’t have to,” I say, and she laughs.

“You haven’t shopped with me yet, you might want to run away now,” she says.

“I was looking at these,” I say as I turn around. There’s a row of four cot beds, and I really like the wooden one in front of me. It’s simple and not too expensive. It has a matching changing unit and wardrobe for a good deal.

“It’s nice, you should get it. Let’s go and look at the baby clothes and a car seat,” she says and hooks her arm in mine.

“I forgot about the car seat,” I say.

“Well, they usually have one that comes with a pram, and attaches to it,” she tells me.

“I didn’t know that, how do you?” I ask her as we walk to the other side of the massive store.

“I helped a lot with my sister’s kids,” she says, and it makes sense. We look through the clothes, and Annie is a big help when she suggests Babygro’s as they are easy to change. She even knew which baby vests to get and how many she thinks I’ll need. We get everything in neutral colours, and I can come back to get more things after the twenty-week scan.

“So, which one are you dating?” she asks me as I put a baby sleepsuit in the trolley.

“What?” I ask, trying to avoid this question. Holy ducks, she’s going to run away from me if I tell her the real answer.

“You’re living in a big house with four sexy strippers, you must be at least interested in one. I mean I know you and Andre–” she stops when a woman walks past with her little one.

“I’m dating all of them,” I blurt out and she looks at me with wide eyes. I don’t know why I told her, I full well know she’s going to say that’s wrong and run out the door.

“That’s . . .,” she says and stops.

“It’s cool if you want to go. I’m used to it,” I say and look back at the clothes. I’ve always been used to doing things alone in my marriage and even in my friendship with Liz. I try to hold in how upset I feel. It’s just too soon–after Liz–to lose a friend before I’ve even made one. I wonder if Todd will be mad at me for telling his sister about us all. I wonder if they want me to stay a secret.

“What? No,” Annie says putting her hand on my shoulder, and I turn to look at her.

“Look, it was just a shock to hear that, but I’ve never seen my brother this happy before. In fact, all of them look so happy when I see them. If being with them all is what you want,” she shrugs, and I nod.

“Anyway, I read this one book, where the girl was with five guys, and they made it work. It’s called reverse harem, I think,” she tells me. I didn’t even know there were books written about girls falling for more than one man. I’ll have to get some for my kindle app later. I wonder if there are any about strippers.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you. I just found my only friend in the world in bed with my ex-husband,” I tell her, trying to explain.

“What a bitch!” Annie says loudly and a few people look over, unfortunately, they stay glaring at her.

“Sorry about my language!” Annie shouts, and a few people give us dirty looks as we laugh.

“Anyway,” she says pushing the trolley as we walk over to the row of pushchairs and car seats.

“Have you spoken to her?” she asks me, and I shake my head.

“Holy ducks, I wish I could, but no. Whatever friendship we had is lost,” I say sadly as I run my hand over the blue pushchair in front of me.

“Holy ducks?” Annie chuckles out, and I blush. I explain why I say that, and, thankfully, she understands and doesn’t think I’m crazy. We get the rest of the things we need, and the shop offers to deliver it next week to the house.

I exchange numbers with Annie, and I know I’ve found a friend with her. It takes away a little of the sting of losing Liz.