Chapter 31
Red opened her front door looking just annoyingly good – glowing face with dewy make-up, braids tied into an elaborate ponytail.
‘How do you always manage to look so amazing, it’s very irritating!’ Bella said.
‘Thank you, I think! You look much better than the last time I saw you,’ Red replied.
‘Still room for improvement though.’ Bella looked down at her outfit, which involved a faded blue shirt of Don’s and a pair of her shorts with a generously elasticated waist.
‘Oh, he’s asleep,’ Red said, looking down at Markie in his buggy as they came in the door. ‘Shall we leave him in the hall?’
‘Yeah, that’s fine,’ said Bella.
‘So come on in.’ Red pointed Bella in the direction of the sitting room.
On entering, Bella was surprised to find the quaintest little room this side of Little House on the Prairie. The walls were covered in faded flowery wallpaper, while the sofa and armchairs were large and chintzy. Antique wooden bookcases and a solid sideboard filled much of the space and there were toys and books everywhere.
On the floor, a small dark-haired boy was squatting down, scribbling on paper.
‘Jamie, this is Bella, say hello,’ said Red.
‘Hello,’ said Jamie without looking up.
‘He’s going through an intense drawing thing at the moment,’ said Red. ‘Maybe we should sit in the kitchen, it’s not so calamitously untidy.’
She led Bella into a red kitchen, again crammed to bursting with table, chairs, a pine dresser, bunches of herbs, a bookshelf and an antique drinks cabinet.
Bella pulled up a chair at the table and estimated there were at least thirty little cars and trucks scattered across the surface.
‘It’s a bit different from your beautiful Zen home!’ said Red apologetically.
‘It’s lovely,’ Bella insisted.
‘Believe me,’ Red put on the kettle and hunted for clean mugs, ‘I would love to live in your house, but it’s just impossible, I’d drive Jamie and Zander insane asking them to tidy up all the time…’ she tailed off.
‘It looks really homely and lovely here,’ Bella said. ‘I may have overdone the white,’ she confided. ‘There may be some repainting ahead.’
‘Homes do seem to evolve around you, never quite the way you planned them,’ Red said, bumping mugs down on the table in front of them. ‘Anyway, how are you?’ She sat down, propped a hand under her chin and looked at Bella directly. ‘And the truth please, not the “I’m an amazing new mum and I’m totally coping with every single thing” version!’
‘I’m not too bad,’ Bella admitted with a smile. ‘Our nanny starts next week, so I’m going back for my first half-day on Friday, then work on a new project with a client begins two weeks later – quite a scary prospect.’
‘I’m glad you found a nanny, is she lovely?’
‘Ummm… to be honest, I haven’t warmed to her straight away. But I think I’m probably being overprotective,’ Bella admitted. ‘But her references were excellent, so we’re doing a trial month.’
‘And are you looking forward to going back?’
Bella definitely felt conflicted about this. ‘I think I’ll be OK. But I’m so worried about Markie. I worry about how he’ll adjust and if he’ll miss me and I even worry that he won’t miss me!’
‘You’ll have to wait and see,’ Red said. ‘You’ll only know once you’re back. Probably best to try not to fret about it too much.’
‘Right now, I really envy you, Red,’ Bella said. ‘But don’t you miss work just a tiny bit?’
‘Well, I do work part-time just to remind myself how boring accountancy is,’ Red joked, ‘but you know what I do miss? The whole getting dressed up, going to the office, meetings, colleagues, team effort sort of thing. And I miss the way I could forget about everything else in my life and just work. But, let’s face it, as soon as you’re a mum, everything becomes a compromise.’
She put the teapot down in front of them.
‘But,’ Red added, ‘I really wanted to be with my son and now the baby, more than I wanted to be at work, so it made sense to leave. The downside – I don’t have nearly as much money or the “oooh how impressive” status that went with the job.’
She took a sip of her tea, adding, ‘I love being at home, teaching Jamie how to draw, reading to him, building sandcastles, all those small things that are so important to him, and I’ll be able to breastfeed Ellie for months. But it’s a sacrifice to stay home – financially, career-wise, status-wise. I’ve just learned to live with that – for now.
‘Maybe I’ll feel different in a few years’ time and want to go back. I just keep telling myself that life is long and childhoods are pretty short. Right,’ Red smacked her palm onto the tabletop. ‘Here endeth the lesson for today.’
They both smiled.
‘I just don’t know how I’m going to have the energy to do it all,’ Bella said. ‘I’m functioning reasonably at the moment because I sleep for two hours in the afternoon.’
‘Look, try not to worry about it. You’ll have to figure out what’s going to work for you when you get back,’ Red soothed.
‘Yeah, I hope so,’ said Bella.
Jamie came into the kitchen.
‘Hello, sweet pea,’ Red greeted him, and her toddler son scrambled onto her lap.
‘Juice please,’ piped the little voice.
‘Of course.’ Red got up and, holding Jamie in one arm, with impressive biceps, Bella noticed, she deftly rinsed out a beaker and filled it up with apple juice from the fridge diluted with water.
Jamie sat on her lap and gulped it down.
‘You’ve got to come upstairs and meet Zander,’ she said when Jamie had finished.
‘Oh, he’s here, is he?’ Bella was definitely interested in meeting Red’s other half.
‘Yeah, he’s always here, slaving away in the office.’
Red led her up the tiny, narrow staircase to the top floor and pushed open one of the doors.
‘I’ve brought Bella up to say hello,’ said Red, and a head turned round from the large computer screen which dominated the small floral room.
‘Hello,’ said Zander with a wide smile and Bella took in this surprisingly young and gorgeous man with dishevelled jet-black hair and dark eyes, dressed in chinos and a floppy blue T-shirt.
‘Hello there,’ she answered, suddenly feeling over-conscious of her terrible outfit, particularly the shorts.
‘I’m sorry I’m so busy, otherwise I’d come down and be sociable,’ he said and grinned again.
‘We’ll leave you to it,’ Red told him after a little small talk had been exchanged.
‘I’ll meet you properly another time, I hope,’ said Zander as they left the room.
‘Wow.’ Bella grinned at Red on the way down the stairs then whispered, ‘He’s a total dish.’
Red giggled. ‘I know and five years younger than me!’
‘So don’t tell me – he’s twenty-four… twenty-five?’
‘No,’ Red looked incredulous. ‘He’s twenty-nine.’
‘Bloody hell,’ said Bella. ‘You look too young.’
‘How old are you anyway?’ Red asked, smiling at the compliment.
‘Twenty-nine like Zander and I know, I look ancient.’
Red laughed, then a baby started crying. For a moment they listened, then Bella knew it wasn’t hers. Weird, she thought, how you could tell the difference.