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“I wouldn’t,” Caz balked.

“Then what are you arguing? I don’t get it.”

Caz gulped down the wine. “I’m not arguing anything, I’m just thinking out loud, I suppose, and I think it’s best to get these questions out there, don’t you? I mean, won’t you miss sex?”

“Honestly, what I get from men, I can do myself with my trusty iVibe.” Grace grinned. “Generally, a better job and less complaining, and doesn’t need to be fed or cleaned for.”

Caz laughed. “I mean, that right there is a reason to marry a woman.” She went quiet for a moment, before brown eyes met the other brown eyes across the room. They were going to do this, weren’t they? “What would we tell everyone?”

“The truth. That we’ve realised there is nobody else we’d rather be with for the rest of our lives.”

“I don’t think people will get it.”

“Who cares if they get it?” Grace asked.

Caz shrugged. “I guess, I do.”

Grace sighed. “Then we will act like a couple. Let them see what they want to see. And in every aspect of normal day-to-day things, wewouldbe a couple.”

Caz thought about all the times when people would ask if they were together. She’d never really understood it, but now, with Grace pointing things out, she wondered if it really was such a crazy idea, especially after Grace spoke again.

“I love you. And you love me. And I don’t want to be knocking on fifty and wondering why my life ended up miserable when we have the opportunity to have it all.”

“Including a baby?”

Grace looked at her friend for a long moment. When she hadn’t spoken, Caz gave her ‘the look’ the one that said, “Well?”

“Yes,” Grace finally said. “I want a baby, maybe even two, I don’t know, but I’m thirty-seven and the likelihood of that happening naturally is pretty slim, and I don’t want to take any chances and end up—”

“Knocking on fifty and miserable?”

Grace smiled. “Yeah, and I think…even if I were doing that on my own, you’d be the surrogate parent anyway, wouldn’t you?”

Caz shrugged again. “Well, yeah, I’m not going to let you do it on your own, am I? That’s what friends are for, right?”

“Right. And you would be round my place every night after work to make sure I had support, was watered and fed, and generally taking care of the baby so I could nap, or have a bath, or—”

“Alright, fine, yes, I’d make the perfect parent,” Caz laughed, “but then I’d go home and live my life away from you and the baby, and you’d eventually start to get your life back and—”

“You could still live your life if we were married. I’m not going to be stopping you from doing whatever you want to do.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“The question is: Do you want to have a baby…with me? Or anyone? It’s a huge decision and one I don’t take lightly in asking.”

Caz dropped her head into her hands and stared at the floor.

“I don’t know that it has ever been something I’d considered possible before, but with you? I dunno. It feels like everything just slots into place and I can’t imagine not having a baby…” glancing up, she added, “with you.”

Grace’s face lit up, but she still said, “It’s okay if you don’t want—”

“I do. I think we should do it.”

Grace grinned. “You do?”

Caz nodded. “Yeah, I mean…you’re right, there’s no reasonable argument for why we shouldn’t.”

“Except sex?” Grace raised a brow. “Obviously, I get it that sleeping with me isn’t—”