The billionaires claim

ONE:

Astrid walks over to her friends' table, taking a deep breath mentally preparing herself for all the barrage of questions and probable excitement from the news.

She finally takes her seat after sighing, their gazes fixated on her and hesitates before she starts talking "So it came out positive and I think I'm going to keep it" she gives that information some seconds to settle, a series of reactions came from them all ranging from shock to wide eyes and excitement, after some time and the initial reactions wear off, they all start talking at the same time and it got too loud before Astrid quiets them down.

It becomes calm after a moment, one of her friends, Katelyn speaks up first "Okayyy, first of all congratulations love, and I'm going to spoil your kid silly, just so you know" some chuckles make their way around the table and the atmosphere got lighter.

Katelyn is one of those people that love kids and just likes to be around kids, so it doesn't come as a surprise when she stated that.

All of her friends express their heartfelt congratulations and she knew they were so genuine about it, in her heart of heart she knew there's no other set of friends she'd rather do this with.

"Yeahhh, thanks guys, this is all cute and all but now how do I find the guy, I mean this is also his kid right?, how do y'all think about me looking for the guy and informing him of the news?"

This question makes the table a little silent before another of her friends, Desiree voices out her opinions. "I think that we should find the guy and let him know, and if he decides whether or not he wishes to be in the kids life, you know that you did your best" Astrid internally approves her opinion since she'd actually thought about that before she even found out about the pregnancy.

Astrid nods her head in agreement, a few "yeahhs" go around the table too, besides I'm sure her friends know her well enough to know that her conscience wouldn't let her be at peace until she made that information known to him.

"So where do we begin, I mean it was really dark that night and I have no idea what his name is much less how he looks like" Some of them ponder this before another person makes a statement responding with "There were CCTV cameras around the bar you both sat that night, right?" Donnie, ever the journalist and investigator, the CCTV cameras were most definitely there, I mean no one else but Donnie noticed that.

"Donnie definitely saw them for sure, always so observant, we love you girll", as though Katelyn read my mind, we of course love Donnie, so many times we could've been kidnapped but thanks to her vigilant outlook, we were protected.

Donnie smiles in appreciation, and that's it, Donnie has always been the really quiet one in the group and we do not take her for granted.

"We should start from there and what if they don't let us access the footage for privacy purposes of course and we understand that but this is really important" Eva finally speaks up after almost certainly a lot of thinking, Eva always quick to finding solutions to any problems anyone could ever have in the group.

And just like that, 'Operation find the Daddy' has commenced. As if Astrid just recalled that she's still got work which she's starting very soon, in thoughts, is she going to have to take a maternity leave just as quick as she got the job?

"My job though? How am I going to make it work? I just got this job and I'm starting in a couple of weeks" Her distress has become obvious and Eva takes the initiative to pat her back being the one closest to her and rubs it gently in circles,

"Breathe darling, we're going to figure it out, we always do" and that relaxes her by a ton because that is actually the most accurate thing anyone's said at the table this evening.

"Okay, okay, we'll figure it out" Everyone at the table is looking at her with beaming excitement and it's contagious so she cracks a smile and it's clear that she's going to be okay even though it seems scary, she's got her friends who are basically her claimed sisters and that's all she needs.

The air at the table feels calm and happy so much that they all slip into other conversations catching up with each other being that they all have busy schedules so it's hard for them to meet up most of the time. There's only so much that face times can do and the energy is different over the phone and in person for real.

It's wonderful that this news brought them together and that they all dropped whatever the other was doing, because this was very important and this can be seen as a win for them all.

After some hours have passed and it's starting to stretch into midnight, they all decide to call it a night so everyone could get ready for work tomorrow, thankfully they did not have alcohol, since they all drove here. Hugs and kisses were shared before they all went separate ways.

Astrid makes it to where her car is parked by the valet, gets in and drives home while all the previous conversations and plans made earlier is swimming in her head. Everything makes sense and hopefully it all works out.

She drives up to the underground parking of her apartment complex, she strode to the elevators pressing the button for her floor, after it dings for the stop, she walks to her door and slides the key card to open. Closing the door behind her, she slumps on the sofa letting the exhaustion of the day seep into her body, taking over. Not letting her body surrender to sleep, she makes sure that her make-up is taken off, hops into the shower washing away the day's tiredness, does her skincare routine and slips into bed sliding her comforter over her body.

As soon as her head hits the pillow, she drifts off. The thought of tomorrow being better takes her mind into a deep sleep.