‘Well, yes. But you’ve been up since?—?’
‘Five.’
‘Exactly,’ Bella said, making her point.
‘OK, you’re off the hook.’ Kitty laughed. Talking to her had been much more pleasant for Bella recently than it had been directly after the break-up with Pete. It felt as if her sister could see that she was managing and had backed off. She’d certainly stopped suggesting plane tickets and solutions.
‘How’s Ty?’
‘Lively.’
‘And Stuart?’
‘The opposite.’
Bella laughed. ‘So: situation normal?’
‘Yes, although I do have some news.’
‘Oh?’ Bella found she was holding her breath.Another pregnancy? A house move?
‘I’ve decided I’m going back to work.’
‘You are?’
‘Yes! Oh, I know I said I’d be a stay-at-home-mum till Ty was in school. But… if I’m honest, I need it. I don’t feel like myself when I’m not working.’
‘Of course. Well, good for you.’
‘There’s actually some talk of my being offered a partnership,’ Kitty added as if it were simply an afterthought.
‘Oh wow. That’s brilliant!’ Only for some reason, Bella felt strangely uneasy about her sister’s good news. ‘Well done.’
‘Thanks.’
There was a silence for a second, then, ‘Of course, that means I have to find a nanny for Ty, which I’m not looking forward to.’
‘Expensive?’
‘It’s not that. It’s the idea of choosing a person who’s going to stand in for me every day.’
‘Yeah, must be tough.’
‘Anyway, forget my boring life. Things are good with you?’
‘Yes. Going well.’
‘And are you going to tell me any more about this mysterious boyfriend of yours?’
Bella had admitted to being in something of a new relationship the last time Kitty had called, but hadn’t divulged any details. Because it would be hard to explain exactly what she was doing with a boy a decade younger than her. Kitty would have her big-sisterly-concern radar activated, might pick holes in the whole idea of her dating a younger man; might even want to meet him. None of these things could happen if Bella was to continue feeling good about how her life was going.
‘Not yet,’ she said. ‘It’s not serious.’
Maybe it would become serious, eventually.
Last night at the bar where they seemed to spend most of their evenings, she had felt freer than she had in so many years. Being there with the two of them putting the world to rights, she’d felt her troubles melt away – all the angst that had kept her up at night since she and Pete had split – all the self-recriminations and analysis had seemed not to matter.
Last night, she hadn’t been someone who’d taken a wrong turn. She hadn’t messed her life up. She wasn’t Kitty’s younger, more disappointing sister, or Pete’s ex-wife. She wasn’t even Bella, the youngster who lived in a shared house and had a minimum wage job, or Isabella, the executive manager. She was simply herself, stripped of all the emotional baggage she shouldered every day, and completely present in the moment.
