The Babysitter and the Sisterly Trio/ChapterVIII/At Girls House

Mike gets up come to open the door for me, but he barely has it open before all three girls push past him and throw themselves at me, all trying to hug me at once.

"Rei!" they whoop with glee. "You came!~"

I laugh and pat them on the their backs awkwardly, self-conscious of the fact that their father is watching. "Hey, Mike. How was your day?"

"Pretty busy. Our company is going through a big merger right now and everything is chaos." Grinning, he tells his girls "Alright that's enough. Let poor Rei go so he can come inside. We're letting all the bugs in."

Reluctantly the girls all let go of me and trot back inside. Mike beckons for me to come in, and I step past him. It looks like the family was watching some TV together in the den before I got here.

Laura stands up a little bit stiffly and comes over to greet me. "Rei, good to see you dear." She holds out her arms and gives me a hug. I return it awkwardly, surprised (but not uncomfortably so). My own mother was never much of a hugging person. With her body pressed up against mine, I suddenly notice that she has more than a little bit of a pot belly, which shocks me. She's a very skinny woman, I don't see why she would have a fat belly... Then I understand.

Mike interrupts my revelation by raising his voice. "Girls? Why don't you get your things and head downstairs. Rei will be down in a minute, we just want to talk to him first."

After the girls all race upstairs, I turn to Laura and casually ask: "Laura? Why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?"

Laura and Mike look at each other, startled. "How did you know?" Mike asks hesitantly.

I feel a blush creep across my face. Was I not supposed to know? "Um, when Laura hugged me I noticed the, uh... bulge. I... was I not supposed to know? I'm so sorry..!"

Laura pats me on the shoulder. "It's okay, Rei. With the big merger our company is going through, now isn't a good time for our coworkers to find out so we've been trying to keep it under wraps."

Thinking back to all the time I've seen Laura, I realize that I'd only ever seen her wearing very baggy and loose-fitting clothing...

I swallow hard and lick my lips. "Oh, I get it. I won't tell anyone, honest. I just felt that I should, err, offer my congratulations."

"Oh, you're so sweet. Thank you, Rei!" Laura hugs my around the shoulders.

"We're usually so careful..." Mike adds. "All three of our girls were deliberately planned during quiet times at our company, but this one was quite a shock to both of us and couldn't have come at a worse time."

"How far along are you?" I ask. "I mean, unless that's too personal... S-Sorry."

Laura laughs. "Oh calm down, Rei. We're not going to lock you up in our closet because you found out, haha. We leave you alone all day with our precious little girls. I'm sure we can trust you to keep our family secret."

I nearly flinch when she mentions "trust" and "leaving her girls alone with me", but I catch myself (barely).

Laura continues: "I'm about 6 months in, actually. It's getting very hard to keep this a secret."

"Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" I ask.

Mike rolls his eyes. "Yet another little girl. Don't get me wrong, I adore our daughters, but one son would've be nice too."

Laura pats him on the back. "You know I'm always open to having more children, dear. Remember that it was you who wanted to stop at three."

Mike grins at his wife. "We can barely manage three girls, now we're going to have four and you still want more children?"

I'm starting to feel kinda awkward, and am getting the impression that they want to be alone. I clear my throat. "Well, congratulations. If you need any help with the baby when she comes, I'd be more than happy to help out if I can."

Both parents thank me and tell me how amazing I am. I blush crimson, and excuse mumble something that might have been "thank you".

"I, uh, I'll go hang out with the girls in the basement." I tell them. "If you two want to spend some time alone, I can take it from here. I'll make sure they don't stay up too late."

Laura and Mike thank me again, and say they're probably going to turn in early. I grab my bag and make my escape down to the basement.

Downstairs...

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