Chapter 43
FORTY-THREE
SEVEN MONTHS LATER
I was woken by what sounded like a herd of horses galloping through the flat, but I knew was only Milton zooming around chasing one of his toy mice.
I lay with my eyes closed for a few minutes, listening to him, until what I knew would eventually happen happened, and he took a flying leap onto our bed, waking Sam, before settling down to wash himself.
‘What the hell?’ Sam muttered drowsily. ‘Crazy cat.’
‘But look how cute he is.’ I sat up. One of Milton’s extra-toed paws was spread out next to his face so he could get the gaps thoroughly clean. Outside, I could see sparkling blue sky, and I could smell the freshness of recent rainfall through the open window.
‘It’s a gorgeous day,’ I told Sam.
‘It’s Sunday, right?’ He smiled sleepily.
‘Yup.’
‘What shall we do?’ he asked.
I said, ‘You know perfectly well what we’re doing. But first…’
‘What? I don’t need to put the bins out, do I? It being Sunday.’
‘Not that.’
‘Iron a shirt for later?’
‘No, doofus!’ I swatted him lightly with a pillow.
He grabbed my arms, flipped me over and smiled down at me, his hands on my shoulders, his knees straddling my thighs. We were both gasping with laughter and something else that the laughter was about to turn into.
‘What, then?’ he asked. ‘What do we need to do first?’
‘I think you can guess…’
‘Hmmm.’ He lowered his face and kissed my collarbone lightly, his lips gliding downwards over my skin. ‘Maybe this?’
His breath was warm against my shoulder, but his touch still made me shiver.
‘Yes.’ My voice came out slightly hoarse. ‘That.’
His mouth was on my breast now, his lips finding my nipple before moving to the other. ‘And then this?’
My arms were still trapped by his hands, but my calves wrapped around his hips, pulling him close to me. His hands left my arms and moved to my legs, parting my thighs as his mouth moved lower and lower.
‘And this?’ he asked, but his words were muffled, and I wasn’t capable of answering him any more.
Afterwards, we lay in each other’s arms, laughing again, satiated. Just a few months before, this would have felt awkward and tentative – risky, almost. But it didn’t any more. It felt like the most natural thing in the world, which is what it was.
‘Now what shall we do?’ I asked.
‘Someone wants his breakfast.’ While we had sex, Milton had turned his back in disgust, but now he was back, his furry face accusatory.
‘And I want a coffee.’
‘On it.’ Sam jumped out of bed, pulling on his discarded boxer shorts and padding through to the bathroom and then the kitchen.
As I listened to the familiar domestic sounds – Sam’s electric toothbrush, Milton’s enthusiastic meows as breakfast approached, the hum of the coffee machine – contentment washed over me.
Pushing myself up on the pillows, putting off the moment when I would need to get out of bed, I reached for my phone. Zahra and Okan hardly ever contacted me on weekends, but when they did, I liked to respond as soon as I could because they were so easy-going the rest of the time.
Today, though, there was no email from either of them. I checked my WhatsApp and there were no updates there either – the arrangements for later that day were unchanged, and we had plenty of time before we needed to leave.
Snuggling into the pillows more comfortably, I flicked to Gossip Guru. I rarely checked that any more either, but it had become a bit of a guilty pleasure when I had time on my hands.
And today, I was rewarded with some juicy scandal from my old life – a video story that linked to an article in a tabloid newspaper. Curious, I clicked it.
Trent Wallis arrested after bar brawl, I read.
‘Coffee.’ Sam put the cup down next to me and dropped a kiss on my forehead.
‘Amazing, thank you.’ But my eyes didn’t leave the screen.
Footie star Trent spent the night in his local nick following a punch-up in a swanky Chelsea club.
We can reveal that the striker, 28, was at the centre of a love triangle involving his on-again-off-again girlfriend/fiancée/quite honestly no one has a clue any more Rosie-Mae and a mystery man who was seen earlier canoodling with her on the dance floor.
When contacted later at the ￡28-million Hyde Park penthouse she shares with Trent, the curvy blonde responded, ‘No comment.’
But who is the bearded Lothario whose looks are likely never to be the same again following Trent’s powerful right hook?
The word on the street is that Jamie Baldwin, celebrity fixer at blue-chip concierge firm Devereaux Partners, is currently out of office – and out of a job.
Jamie, who attended Buckhurst School (fees ￡45,000 a year) along with fellow poshos, including the Duke of Altminster, was recently spotted boarding a flight to Vilnius, Lithuania, a favoured destination for cosmetic surgery abroad.
A coincidence? We couldn’t possibly say. Watch this space for more.
‘What are you smiling about?’ Sam asked.
‘Oh… nothing much. I’m just happy.’
Jamie’s comeuppance wasn’t as epic as he deserved, I thought as I stepped under the warm needles of the shower.
But it was something – a humiliation, a job loss, reputational damage, not to mention the financial and physical cost of a full set of dental veneers.
It was nothing compared to what he’d done to Ava and to a lesser extent to me.
But living well is the best revenge, I told myself firmly.
And Jamie and Jasper simply didn’t matter to me any more. They were part of my past – a past I was in the process of not so much putting behind me as assimilating into my present, learning from and keeping the parts that were worthwhile and letting go of those that didn’t serve me.
That was how Elizabeth put it anyway, and I was grateful for her wisdom. But I wasn’t going to think about the past now – I had a future to focus on that was far more important, even though it wasn’t entirely my own.
‘Wasn’t he good?’ Molly said two hours later, snuggling Arthur in her arms, then putting him down so he could crawl across the grass and investigate a clump of spring daffodils. ‘He hardly cried at all, even when the vicar chucked water over his head.’
‘He could be a deckie on a yacht one day,’ I teased, ‘since he doesn’t mind getting wet.’
‘I’m not quite sure that’s the example I want you to give him as his godmother.’ Molly smiled. ‘But actually, he can be whatever he wants. He’s got his whole life to figure it out.’
‘I never thought christenings could be so fun.’ Ava came over to us holding a glass of champagne. She was wearing a violet dress that clashed with her hair, and she looked stunning. ‘So many of the old crowd from uni are here. It’s like a wedding only without hats.’
‘We weren’t sure whether to do it,’ Molly admitted, ‘but it seemed like a great excuse for a party, and besides, my mum was really keen, so I decided to pick my battles.’
I grimaced. ‘That’s a good strategy when it comes to mothers.
I had an epic one over Dad’s wedding, but I insisted on going.
It meant she didn’t talk to me for two weeks, but she’s over it now.
And Emily’s really nice. It’s weird having a stepmother at my age, but I think we’ll end up being friends. ’
I thought back to that day, just a few weeks before.
Emily, radiant in her white dress. My father, glowing with pride as he posed for photographs with an arm around each of us, calling us ‘my girls’.
Maybe the marriage would last and maybe it wouldn’t, but I hoped he’d learned enough from his unhappy marriage to create a happy one.
As for my mother, I couldn’t see her ever being happy, but I’d realised that her happiness was out of my control and her unhappiness not my fault.
‘Your arms are looking incredible, Ava,’ Molly was saying. ‘Totally ripped. What’ve you been up to?’
Ava grinned. ‘I’ve joined a gym. I can bench-press thirty kilograms now, and I’ve been going to boxing classes.
Twice a week, I get to kick the crap out of whoever I’m partnered with, and then they kick the crap out of me.
It’s great. I’m feeling so much more confident, and I’m even thinking maybe I’ll try dating again soon. ’
She lost one of the people in her audience as Molly ran across the grass to stop Arthur eating a butterfly, but I was still listening.
‘That’s really great, Ava. Do you think you’ll…’ I trailed off, not sure whether she would want to talk about more serious things than her workout routine.
But she lowered her voice and leaned in to me. ‘I’ve been thinking a lot about what happened to me that night, Georgia.’
‘I’m sorry.’ I touched her arm. Molly was right – her muscles were incredible. ‘It must be so hard to keep reliving it.’
She shook her head. ‘It’s not like it was.
I don’t have flashbacks any more, and hardly ever nightmares.
I think maybe I’m strong enough now to report it properly.
There was CCTV in the club that night, and even if the footage doesn’t exist any more, I told some of my friends what happened.
Maybe I can prove he was there that night – I don’t know. But even if I can’t…’
‘You’ll have tried.’
She took another gulp of her champagne. ‘That’s it. It’s the right thing to do. There might be other people – other women he’s done that to.’
My shoulders braced and straightened under my flowery dress. If Ava was brave enough to stand up and tell people what Jamie had done to her, I would be too.
‘I’ll do whatever I can to help,’ I said. ‘It might not be much, but I want you to know that.’
‘Thanks, Georgia.’
She smiled at me, and, for the first time ever, I reached out and pulled her close to me in a hug. Sam’s ex was an even more unlikely person for me to have as a friend than my father’s new wife, but I knew in that moment that a friend was what Ava had become.
‘Sorry about that.’ Molly returned to us, Arthur roaring with annoyance on her shoulder. ‘When I wouldn’t let him scoff that butterfly, he went for a daffodil, and now he’s seriously pissed off he couldn’t eat either of them. Thank God, here’s Ben.’
Grinning, Ben came over and retrieved his son, talking nonsense to him as he carried him off to join a group of men that included Sam, Jared and Molly’s brother.
Ava laughed. ‘You don’t get to take your eyes off them for a second, do you?’
Molly rolled her eyes. ‘You don’t know the half of it. But I mustn’t say that in front of Georgia – I don’t want to put her and Sam off.’
‘Put us off what?’ Sam appeared next to me, a beer in his hand.
‘I guess Molly means having babies,’ Ava explained. ‘But you two are going to get married first, aren’t you?’
I looked down at the ring sparkling on my finger. I’d been wearing it since Christmas Day, and it no longer felt unfamiliar there, but still, every time I noticed it, it made me smile.
‘Yes, come on, you two,’ Molly urged. ‘Have you set a date yet, or what?’
Sam smiled at me, and I grinned back at him.
‘Do you want to tell them, or shall I?’ he asked.
I looked at the happy, expectant faces of my friends. This was Arthur’s day, but Arthur was too little to care if someone else stole his moment – especially if the someone else wasn’t even here yet.
‘Actually,’ I said, ‘there’s been a change of plan.’
‘If you can even call it a plan,’ Sam cut in.
‘Fair,’ I agreed. ‘More a derailment of plans. Turns out we’re going to be doing it the other way round after all.’
There was a moment of silence while Molly and Ava took in this development. I could understand that – it had taken a while for me to take it in too. Then the two of them squealed with excitement and threw their arms around Sam and me.
The four of us – my husband-to-be and father-to-be of our child, my oldest friend and my newest one – had a group hug in the spring sunshine.
Then one of the old university friends came over with a fresh glass of champagne for Ava, and Ben’s sister approached with her baby to ask Molly about putting cabbage leaves on her breasts, and Sam and I drifted away from the others.
‘Best I don’t hear too much talk about cracked nipples,’ I warned him. ‘That really would put me off.’
Sam winced. ‘Not just you.’
‘Hey! It’s not your boobs that’re going to get shredded and not your vagina that’s going to—’
‘Stop, please.’ He put his hands over his ears. ‘I can’t cope.’
I laughed. ‘Well, you’re going to have to. I am anyway. And I was kind of hoping you’d be there to give me moral support.’
He moved his hands and put his arms around me, pulling me towards him. I couldn’t feel it yet – I wouldn’t be able to for weeks yet – but I could imagine the tiny life inside me, already safely held close by the bodies of its mother and father.
‘Don’t worry.’ Sam’s voice was muffled as he kissed my hair. ‘I don’t plan on going anywhere.’
‘I know,’ I told him. ‘It’s not like I didn’t try my best to scare you off, and yet, here you still are.’
‘Here I am,’ he agreed. ‘With you and with our baby, sticking around for the long haul.’
I looked up at him. His eyes, paler than the sky but just as clear, met mine in a gaze that was so full of love it made me go weak at the knees.
But at the same time, it made me feel stronger than I’d ever felt before. Strong and secure and confident, knowing that we’d come through awful times together and if there were more in our future, we’d come through those too.
I knew I was the person I’d become and the mother I was going to be not just because of the work I’d put in on myself but because he’d been there with me the whole time.
And I knew he was going to stay.
* * *
If you loved reading Georgia’s story, don’t miss out on Sorry Not Sorry, Sophie Ranald’s bestselling romantic comedy.
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