Tasha comes over the next day

Tom puttered around the house that evening. Very little seemed different except for the obvious signs of Sarah's **** - cards, flowers, and food from sympathetic friends and family. He did see a few indications that he and Sarah were closer friends to Natasha and Christine in this life; after all, in his 'real' life they had never asked Tom and Sarah to be godparents. He wondered how Sarah was doing as Natasha, but he resisted the urge to reach out. She had provided a justification to see him regularly, so he decided to be patient and follow her lead.

He slept in the next morning and woke to the sound of his doorbell. Bleary eyed, he **** himself out of bed and opened to the door. Tasha - 'No, Sarah,' he reminded himself - was standing in the doorway with a bright smile. She had on casual oversized blue shirt and comfortable-looking striped pants. "Good morning Tom!" she said cheerily. "Christy had an early shift so I thought I'd come visit. Brighten up your day!"

Tom blinked and wiped the sleepiness from his eyes. "Oh, uh, come in, please," he responded after a short pause.

"I'm sorry, did I get you out of bed? I didn't mean to wake you," she apologized.

Tom brushed it off. "No, it's no problem. I shouldn't sleep the day away...." He looked around the room. "Make yourself comfortable. I'll fix some coffee," he offered.

"That would be great. Thanks Tom," she said, taking a seat on the sofa. "Oh... better make mine decaf. Don't want to get him going," she added with a small laugh and patted her stomach.

Tom made some coffee for them both and came back to find her with a laptop on her lap. "Working?" he asked.

"Hmm?" she responded distractly. "No, not on the weekend. I'm looking at ideas for the nursery. We need to start getting things ready." She looked up. "You're not going to back out are you? You promised to help us with the furniture and painting."

Tom of course had no idea what she was talking about but went along. "Of course, I'm glad to help." He glanced down at his disheveled appearance - he was still in his tshirt and boxers and definitely needed a shave. "I guess I should get cleaned up. I'm not really dressed for company."

"Tom, you know you don't have to do anything special for me. I think you're just fine the way you are." He heard something in her voice but couldn't quite read it. He gave an awkward shrug and said "I won't be long" as he went to shower and shave.

Questions about Sarah dominated his thoughts the entire time he was getting ready. What was she playing at? Did she genuinely want to live ONLY as Tasha for awhile? She had arranged things for them to spend time together regularly - was that an indication she wanted to play around while she was Tasha? He was at a loss but decided he needed some sort of answer from her. Otherwise the uncertainty was going to drive him crazy.

He found Sarah stretched out on the sofa talking on her phone when he returned. She was just finishing her conversation: "Oh no, that late? .... Okay then....No, I'll be fine with Tom. I'm sure he can take care of anything I need..."

She looked directly in Tom's eyes as she said that.

"Yes, okay... I love you too babe. Bye!" She hung up and sighed, perhaps a bit overdramatically. "That was Christine. She has to work a double at the hospital today, so she won't be home until late tonight. So I'm all alone today Tom. Whatever shall we do?"