Now the time is right

 Nora had never felt so frazzled in her life and she thought she'd never get out of pharmacy school. This was exhausting, going through adoption paperwork. Of course, getting a wedding together was a lot to imagine too.

"I don't have time for anything," she told her friends. As she looked around her kitchen, there were only two she actually worked with and that was Victoria and Christine. In the last few weeks, she'd gotten to know Poppy and Zoey too. It was interesting to see the variety in this group. Of course, Christine had never been married. Zoey was in no hurry to get married while Poppy could hardly wait and Victoria was already married.

"It'll all turn out fine, you'll see." Christine kept smiling. Somehow, Nora always trusted her instinct but now she felt so lost as she was entering her thirties. She winced when she looked at her age on the application. Of course, she yawned. As usual she got up by four these days and was in bed by eight. What had happened to her?

"Will it?" A part of her felt she was opening a spoiled can of something. "Maybe..maybe we should have just gotten married and you know, thought about this adoption stuff later."

"Oh, I think it's important," Poppy told her. "I really want to adopt somebody too." She talked of her own circumstance.

Zoey nodded in agreement. "You're doing the right thing."

Nora did her best to smile.

Poppy cradled her cup of tea and was in heavy thought while Christine dug into the strawberries and Zoey stuffed a blueberry muffin in her mouth.

"I know you're good for Gage. I think he's never had a family this devoted, you know," Victoria told her.

"How do you know?" Nora hugged herself as she wondered why Victoria would tell her this.

"Oh, Alfie talks a lot to me during breaktime. You know, Gage was a dumpster baby. He was in the foster system from the moment he was found. And he's always wanted to be there for Alec. He tried to make things work with Alec's mom, but somehow I still think he doesn't think he's good enough, maybe not even for you."

It was upsetting for Nora to hear Victoria's version of Gage. Tears welled in her eyes. She did love him, yet she felt he only wanted to give her a nice version of himself, not the whole truth.