Carolyn Pierce was dressing for church. The job shouldn't have been difficult. She had only a few dresses formal enough for that setting, and -- as a member of the choir -- those were covered through most of the service. The problem was that most of those few dresses no longer fit. She should have gone for a more flowing style back when she'd bought them instead of the close fit to show off her narrow waist. This was the last dress that fit, and it barely did. She'd worn it last week, anyway. There was a revealing bulge at the front of her waist. She looked fat; indeed, she looked pregnant.

"I think," she told Bill who'd just come in from putting the dishes to soak and was getting his own suit, "that I show in this dress."

"Ihm hmm," he agreed. He kissed the bulge in her stomach. The gesture was warm, but the words weren't what she wanted to hear. Well, she'd wear that dress and depend on her robe.

When she got to the robing room, though, Gladys Hagopian was there before her. She greeted her warmly, but Carolyn could see her eyes take in the bulge. She hurried into her robe, and Gladys said nothing. She stayed in her robe until everyone else but Miss Armbruster had gone. Upstairs, though, Gladys and Dan were still talking with Bill.

"I think our secret's out," she told Bill in the car.

"Well, you couldn't expect it to last until you delivered. You are a slender girl, and it shows -- shows delightfully." Well, she was no longer a slender woman -- she hadn't been a girl for more than a decade -- but Bill was right. She didn't have the build to conceal a pregnancy. "What's the next step?"

"I suppose I need to buy some maternity clothes."

"Well, like to see you without any clothes, but I suppose you have to go out in public some times. That's another item that we didn't put in the budget, but we've actually got some savings, now. You didn't use much of your last TA earnings." She'd been a teaching assistant the last semester of the previous year. She was one again this semester. She hadn't told Prof. Kindle that she wouldn't be next semester, but she hadn't told him -- or almost anyone else -- about her pregnancy.

"Well, we'll go through that awfully fast." Bill thought of them both as pinch-pennies. She might be; he definitely wasn't.

She went shopping Monday. She thought of asking Gladys for advice, but wasn't ready to tell her just yet. Let her learn with the rest of the choir. The prices shocked her. And most of the dresses that would fit now wouldn't fit in two months. She couldn't see herself coming back and back for dresses she wouldn't wear ever again after this year. She finally settled for an empire-style dress which would drape right now and cover her for months more. The price was still twice what she had planned to pay, but nothing else looked more reasonable. The sales woman pronounced empire as 'Ompeer'; maybe that should have been a warning.

She got by in class and in her research by wearing her work jeans. They weren't stylish, but they had plenty of room. She wore her new dress to church the next Sunday. As luck would have it, she was among the earliest arrivals. Miss Armbruster wouldn't notice. A flat could bring her to tears, but she didn't really see what she looked at. Carolyn waited to put on her robe until Gladys came in.

"Carolyn. You look delightful. Is this an announcement?"

"I suppose it is."

"Congratulations. Bill must be ecstatic." Well, Bill wasn't the ecstatic sort, but he was happy enough. Several other women had heard the conversation, which was enough to guarantee that the grape vine would buzz with her news. After the service and their changing from their robes, Bill, Dan, and a few more were waiting for them. Dan must have noticed her dress.

"Well, Bill," he said, "tired of borrowing babies? Decided to grow your own?"

"Well," Bill said, "Carolyn has promised that I can hold him on days other than Sundays." Actually, she'd made no such promise, and Bill had better do more for his own kid than hold him occasionally. Well, she shouldn't worry. What Bill and Dan said to each other had little resemblance to the facts.

The comfort of the maternity dress was a vivid contrast to teaching and doing interviews in her work jeans. Maybe there were cheaper maternity dresses for work times. She thought of asking Gladys, but she didn't. After the service the next Sunday, though, Gladys talked to her.

"I still love that dress, but I was hoping to see what else you'd picked out."

"Well, Gladys, we have only so much budgeted for clothes. It seems a waste to buy stuff that I'll outgrow in a couple of months and never wear again."

"Well, yes, but wait 'til you're buying baby clothes. After all, you might decide to have another, but that baby will never be two months old again."

"Still..." And Gladys took that as a final answer. When they went up this time, Dan took her aside before either couple went out in the rain.

"So, how is your teaching going? Looks a little harder than you thought, doesn't it?"

"It's not all that hard. I just lead a discussion session; I don't do the lectures. Is that harder?"

"Only the first year. You know the old joke about the psychology professor? 'We don't change the exam -- we just change the answers.' Well, Poli-Sci doesn't change the lectures -- we just expect you to get different things from them. Anyway, you've told us. Have you told your students?"

"I don't really think it's necessary. They'll tumble sooner of later. It's not as if I planned to teach next semester."

"That's the due date?"

"Yeah, Sometime in April." The conversation went quite pleasantly. It was nice to have a real, live professor treat her as a fellow teacher. They turned back when Gladys called that she thought the rain was gentler now. It wasn't particularly, but Bill and Dan both went for their cars.

When their sunday dinner was at the dessert stage, Bill pushed back a little from the table, and started another budget discussion out of the blue.

"You know, the budget we planned out at the beginning has lasted longer than I really expected. Even so, the baby is going to sink it. Up to then, we said your teaching salary -- TA salary is what it turned out to be -- would cover any clothes you needed. Well, when we said that, we hadn't planned on your pregnancy. Is it still enough? do you need more? Does it have to be both this semester's and last semester's salaries to cover this semester's expenditures? Something else? I can't see how it could be something else, but it might." Well, the plan was for the TA's salary to cover the extra expenses of being a TA. That had been quite minimal.

"Well, Bill, the salary was supposed to cover the extra clothes of being a TA. That didn't include this dress, which I don't plan to wear to class."

"Okay. Does that mean that the extra cost of having a baby starts now? That's okay. We have some savings, and we have tons of credit. I don't want to use the credit for things we'll keep needing, but it's going to be extra for the baby. If it's going to be extra for the pregnancy, too, so be it."

"You don't know how much maternity clothes cost. And it's so much for things you'll only wear for a short period."

"As a matter of fact, I won't wear them at all." She stuck her tongue out at him. "But, that isn't what's critical. Look, last year you were a graduate student who taught a course. This year, you're a faculty member. Why are you teaching?"

"Remember? I told you that Kindle won't recommend me for a teaching position until I do some teaching he can see."

"And that means that his recommendation of you as a faculty member is based on what he observes you doing as a junior faculty member. So the wardrobe is part of the investment. It's annoying as hell that this investment will be expended for clothes that can't be worn the next year, but that can't be changed. So -- and this is horrible budgeting, but so be it -- first you buy the clothes you need now. While you're at it figure out how much more you'll need, and price them. Then, sometime next week, we'll add that to the budget. I still don't think we'll have any budget left on the day of the delivery. We'll have to start over. Fine. As I said, we have tons of credit. And the Andalusia top execs will look with favor on that sort of borrowing. Being a spendthrift is one thing; being a parent is another."

"You're saying buy maternity clothes?"

"I don't see the alternative. Do you? Really, you know, I could keep you in the apartment barefoot and pregnant, and in this apartment more than your feet could be bare. I don't think, though, that that would really match your career objectives." Bill was never very convincing in his cave-man role. And, actually, he was only laying out that program to show how silly it was.

"All right. I'll go shopping Monday." Or, she'd call Gladys Monday for her advice. She might shop that day; she might shop some time that Gladys would come with her.

When she called, Gladys was full of good advice and the names of shops. She didn't offer to accompany her, and Carolyn didn't ask. Half he shops she named had gone out of business -- Gladys's experience was two decades old, after all -- but some of them were still open. And she was an expert researcher in the Yellow Pages. She set a week apart -- aside from class times -- for comparison shopping. Friday, she made three purchases. She wore one outfit to dinner that night with Bill.

"I must say, Mrs. P, that you look stunning," he said as he helped her on with her coat at the end of the meal.

"You want to be stunned, wait for the bills."

"I bet it cost less than half what this suit did." It wasn't a bet she would take. On the other hand, he could wear that suit next year.

They each had things to do, and she worked in her office until it was time for bed. When she came out of the office, her picture of the dissertation looked like one solid thing instead of a random set of ideas. Bill was already in bed.

She'd not spoken to him much for hours, but Bill had been nice this afternoon, and he was really a nice man -- when you avoided certain topics. When she came to bed that night, she was feeling very loving. With Bill she always felt desirous. And, even though she was getting less desirable by the day, that hadn't affected his desire for her yet. When she came to bed, their fist kiss started as sweet and ended as sexy with him exploring her mouth with his tongue.

After that came the ritual kiss to her bulge. From there, he trailed kisses up her stomach to her breasts. Meanwhile, his hands stroked her thighs until she spread them. He held her outer lips in his hand and raised his head to look at her.

"I love you."

"Oh, Bill."

He lowered his head to her right breast and resumed his kisses. Soon his hand had parted her lips. When he stroked her clit, he sucked on her nipple. He licked, sucked, and stroked until she flew.

When she relaxed, he kissed her left nipple briefly. Then he kissed a trail down to her bulge again. He was stroking her lips, although not her clit, the entire time. He moved until he was kneeling between her knees. He kissed her thighs, then started a trail of kisses up the inside of her left thigh. Knowing where he was heading only intensified her arousal. When he licked her inner lips open, she was close. When he first licked her clit, she was closer. He teased her clit with his tongue tip until she flew. His sucking it only intensified her experience.

When she relaxed, he moved up above her. He kissed her nipples for a minute, but he wanted more. So, for that matter, did she. He paused for a moment looking into her eyes while Little Bill was just at her entrance.

"Yeah," she said as he came into her, spread her, filled her.

"Ihm hm," he agreed. He stopped there for a moment on top of her. She raised her right knee up readiness. He rolled them onto that side, not all the way but maybe half way between on her back and on her side. He had his hand where it could hold her right breast like this. Then he was taking deep, slow strokes within her. The rubbing of his long shaft against her lips as it came out was arousing. The feeling of being filled as he drove into her totally was satisfying.

As she got close again, she needed to push against him. It was hard to do in this position, but she hooked her left heel behind his leg and pulled as he was coming in. She got closer, and she pulled harder and thrust her hips forward. Then she flew.

"Oh, God!" he said as he pulsed within her. He soon rolled off and drew up his knees. Her leg was confined within his, but there was almost no weight on it. Much later, he clicked off the lamp and turned on his side. She scooted off the wet spot and into the spoon position. She was almost asleep when he spoke.

"Y'know, you're still a grad student, but you're also my wife. You're used to dressing like a starving grad student, but there is nothing wrong with dressing like the wife of an executive."

"Hm?" That long statement probably meant something, but she was too sleepy to decipher it.

"Seems to me that the dress shops have more maternity clothes for the wives of executives than for starving grad students. Sensible of them, don't you think? So go with it. Dress like you're actually married to me. After all, the pregnancy would be a scandal if you weren't."

He seemed to think she should buy more clothes. Well, she'd have to buy more soon enough. It still grated, but it seemed that she had only internal opposition to that extravagance, not disapproval from Bill.