NEW YORK CITY, NY – KIRSTIN’S LOFT – FEB. 15TH, 2002 – Tuesday

     Ashley turned around on the bed and opened his eyes. He smiled seeing Kirstin sleeping beside him. She looked so peaceful. After their talk the night before, things between them were pretty good and she asked him to sleep with her. Grace, who had gone to sleep on the couch after Ashley’s and Kirstin’s talk, had left earlier that day.

     Ashley brushed a lock of Kirstin’s hair away from her face and took a better look at her. ‘God, I love her!’ he thought to himself.

     Then Kirstin woke up when she sensed a pair of eyes staring at her.

     “Hey…” she said while stretching.

     “Hey, baby.” Ashley pecked her lips softly.

     “Hm…” Kirstin smiled at his eyes “Where’s Grace?” Kirstin sat up and looked downstairs.

     “She’s not down there, so I’m assuming she left already.”

     “Yeah. She probably went to college. Man, I’ve missed so many classes. I’m gonna have to talk to the dean about that.”

     “I’m sure he’ll understand when you explain him the situation.”

     “Yeah…” Kirstin lay down again “But I have to go to work. Oh, man. Have to tell Andrew all about it.”

     “It’ll be fine.” Ashley caressed her belly.

     “What are you doing?” Kirstin smiled at his touch.

     “Nothing.” Ashley continuing doing what he was doing.

     “Yes, you’re doing something.” Kirstin still had the smile on.

     “No, I’m not.” Ashley looked up at her, but was still caressing her belly.

     “You’re caressing the baby!” Kirstin pointed out.

     “No, I’m not.”

     “Yes, you are!”

     “No, I’m not. I’m caressing you!”

     “No, you’re caressing the baby. You loooove it, don’t you?” Kirstin joked with Ashley.

     “Oh… shut up.” Ashley grinned and returned to his sleeping position.

     “No. Because you looove the baby already.”

     “Ok, ok, I admit it. I’m starting to get fond of it.”

     “Oh, that’s so sweet, baby.” Kirstin kissed his lips gently and placed her head on his chest.

     “Yeah, ok. Let’s just drop it, alright?” Ashley couldn’t hide his embarrassment.

     “Ash, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. You can confess you’re starting to like the baby already. That’s alright.”

     “I already told you I am. So let’s just change the subject, alright?” Ashley sounded serious.

     “Ok… Sure.” Kirstin didn’t want to upset him, so she agreed to his terms “I gotta call Tom.”

     “Oh, you’re calling him today?” Ashley frowned.

     “Yeah… I thought the sooner the better, you know? Just get it over with.”

     “Yeah… guess you’re right.” Ashley took a deep breath.

     “So… I think I’m gonna call him now. Later he’ll be on his way to work, so…”

     “Ok. Call him then.”

     “Ok, let me go downstairs. I’ll be right up.”

     Kirstin headed downstairs to talk to Tom and Ashley went to the bathroom and decided to take a shower.

     When he got out of the bathroom, Kirstin was getting changed to go to work. He embraced her from behind.

     “Hey.” he said, kissing her neck.

     “Hey, silly.” she turned to look at him, but they were still embraced “Hm… just a pink towel, huh?”

     “Yeah. Hope you don’t mind I took your towel. There was no other one.”
“Not a problem. I like it.” Kirstin smiled a bit.

     “You do, don’t you? I thought you would.” Ashley smirked.

     “Oh, you know me too well.” Kirstin pressed her lips into his and they kissed passionately.

     “So… how was it with Tom?” Ashley asked when they broke apart from the kiss.

     “Oh, yeah.” Kirstin continued to get changed and Ashley started doing the same “We’re meeting tonight. He got the night off from Luna and we thought of meeting tonight.”

     “Did you tell him what it was about?”

     “No, he was surprised to hear from me.”

     “Yeah, well…”

     “So, I told him we needed to talk about some stuff that I’d rather not discuss over the phone and he understood, telling me he’d have this night off, so…”

     “Did you tell him about us?”

     “No…” Kirstin looked at Ashley “Didn’t feel the need to. You’re gonna be there tonight, so… He’ll know.”

     “Yeah…” Ashley looked down and laced his tennis shoes “I bet he has no idea of what this conversation will be about.”

     “Yeah, well… who would know?”

     “Yeah…”

     “Listen, I gotta get to work now. But can you come here around 7 so we can go to the restaurant?”

     “Sure… 7?” Ashley asked Kirstin.

     “Yeah.”

     “Ok. No problem.”

     “Do you have work to do today?” Kirstin asked him.

     “Yeah. But I think it’s just some radio stuff. No studio today.”

     “Good. Then we’ll meet here and then we go.”

     “Yeah. Ok.” Ashley looked at the mirror and started to work on his hair.