“What? About number three? No chance, not over the phone and not from the bathroom,” she explained.
“Number three?” Sara sounded surprised. “If she is number three what does that make me?”
“And me?” asked Amanda seriously.
“Sorry,” said Tasha and then tried to explain. “It wasn’t meant to be offensive, it was just that I didn’t know all of your names, but I knew the order you’d married Jim, so...”
“So?” Abby grinned broadly at Tasha’s discomfort.
“So, Sara, you are number one and Amanda you are number five, Maddie is number three, so I am only missing two, four and six to complete my set.” She hoped to lighten the mood.
“Well, six is a definite no, so you will never have the full set now.” Laughed Abby.
Sara and Amanda joined in with the laughter leaving Tasha feeling very relieved.
“You know Jim won’t be very happy about you meeting Maddie tonight,” Sara stated seriously.
“I know. He’s bad enough thinking I may talk to you lot, especially the exes.” She sighed.
“In case we compare notes and rate him?” asked Sara teasingly.
“Please, do not even joke about that in front of him. He would have a fit.” Tasha laughed then admitted, “Although I would still like to get what all of my predecessors had with him.” She noticed Abby staring at her so warned her, “If Jim ever hears of this via Bobby I will know exactly where it came from, Mrs Maybury.”
Abby laughed. “I promise. How weird is it that we’ve all had that name except you?”
“Mmm, very odd, but I think that will be my next battle with Jim, the whole name thing,” she told them.
“What’s to discuss?” asked Amanda.
“I think I may like to keep my family name for work,” Tasha explained, making Sara shake her head furiously while Amanda just frowned leaving only Abby to acknowledge her comment. “What?” asked Tasha.
“You will be Mrs Maybury,” said Abby finally. “My maiden name was Warner and I suggested becoming Abigail Warner-Maybury after I married Bobby and he hated the idea; he became all sulky and argumentative and compared to Jim he can be quite laid back.”
“So what did you do?” asked Sara.
“To start with I tried to screw him into submission!” Abby announced.
The others literally screamed with laughter, drawing attention from fellow diners including number three, leading to Sara suggesting, “Maybe we should move to the bar if everyone has finished eating?”
Without another word they all got to their feet and made their way from the restaurant.
Chapter 28
Once settled in the plush bar Sara urged Abby to go on with her story.
“Well, I tried the screwing thing for about a month, but Bobby was still refusing to even discuss it, so I saidI am an independent woman and my name, the name of my family is part of who I am and I want to represent that for the whole of my life.”
“Very impressive,” said Tasha.
“Not really, Bobby said if I felt that strongly then maybe I should remain Abigail Warner and unmarried.” Abby sounded as serious as she had that day while the others laughed at her expression.
“Shit. What did you do?” Tasha was intrigued to know how that wedding had gone ahead.
“I begged him to reconsider and went with screwing him into agreeing not to cancel the wedding and then told him I didn’t care about my own name, I wanted to be Abby Maybury.”
Tasha shook her head. “You are a push over, Abigail.”
“Yup.” Abby drained her glass and ordered another bottle of wine.
