Chapter 24
24
CRYSTAL
I didn’t really blame Gemma’s mum for being upset. I should have let Gemma know I was going to go round there, but it was a last-minute decision. I’d bought the present, and the cake, and had planned to call on her after work, but then I thought it would be a bit late for the cake, and I was so excited to see Poppy on her birthday that I suddenly decided to ask for the afternoon off and go straight there. We weren’t too busy in the design studio and it wasn’t difficult to take the time off, and – well, to be honest, I just didn’t think it through.
As soon as I got to Gemma’s place and saw the strange car outside, I guessed whose it was. Of course her mum – Poppy’s grandma – would be there on her birthday. I should have realised. Perhaps I should have also realised that I wouldn’t be particularly welcome: the unexpected guest; the bad fairy at the birthday party, from Gemma’s mum’s point of view, anyway. In that particular scenario, three was company – their little family, together for Poppy’s birthday – and four was going to be a crowd. I should have turned the car around and headed home, or I should, at least, have called ahead and asked if it would be OK to pop in. Instead, I decided to just go right on and brazen it out, knowing it was going to be awkward, but too desperate to see my little Poppy, to care.
I should have taken the hint and gone home instead of going with them to the park, but I didn’t, because Poppy was quite obviously so pleased to see me, despite Grandma being there, and well, I suppose I took a mean, perverse, kind of pleasure in that.
So I’d blown it, as far as my chances of being popular with Grandma went. And yes, I regretted it afterwards. I’d have liked to meet her in a more congenial way; at a more appropriate time, by prior arrangement like a normal, sensible, polite friend instead of an overexcited, slightly unhinged ‘auntie’, desperate to hug Poppy on her third birthday. It wasn’t nice of me to have upstaged her – she’d have resented that, from a random stranger she’d never even met before. And more importantly, it wasn’t nice of me to put Gemma in such an awkward position.
I decided to suggest to Gemma that we arranged for me to meet her mum again at a better time, fairly soon, and I’d apologise and hopefully we’d all be able to move forward. I wanted to get along with her. I had no reason to resent her or feel jealous of her. Because I already knew that I was more important to Poppy than anyone else… other, of course, than Gemma.