‘I’m sorry.’ I flashed a weak smile at Maya, feeling my cheeks starting to burn. ‘He’s probably tired from the day in school,’ I said, making an excuse.
‘Don’t be. I think they both are. We forget what a big adjustment junior infants is for them. It’s going to take a while for them to get used to the longer day compared to playschool.’
‘Thanks for having us over, Maya; it’s been lovely,’ I said, lifting my bag from the floor. ‘We’ll head on.’
‘Are you sure?’ she asked. ‘I could make dinner for us?’
She seemed so eager. So desperate for company that I felt bad leaving her. ‘Jay is going to do a bolognese for us tonight,’ I said apologetically. ‘Maybe another time.’
‘Lucky you, having dinner cooked.’
‘Well, we’d all be poisoned if we had to survive on my cooking skills.’
Maya laughed as she walked us out to the front door. ‘Well, look, we should do this another time and hopefully, the boys will be in better form.’
‘Yes, let’s,’ I agreed.
15
LIV
Back at home that evening, Jay placed three plates of steaming bolognese down on the table and we all sat down around it.
‘How did the playdate go?’ Jay asked as he grated some Parmesan over his plate.
‘It was bad, Daddy. Elliot was mean to me.’
‘Oh yeah?’
‘He wouldn’t share.’
‘He was a bit territorial with his toys,’ I explained as I cut up Finn’s spaghetti.
‘Oh no,’ Jay said. ‘That doesn’t sound like much fun.’
‘Well, I enjoyed it.’ I passed the plate back to Finn. ‘It was good to get to know Maya a little better. You should see their house; it’s like something from a magazine.’
‘Mammy and Daddy?’ Finn piped up as he filled his mouth with a forkful of the bolognese.
‘Yes, love,’ I replied.
‘How do you know if you’ve a baby in your tummy?’
I lowered my fork and winked at Jay over Finn’s head.Here we go, I thought. We had reached this famed parenting milestone.
‘Well, your tummy starts to grow and gets really big and so you go to the doctor and they have a machine that can look inside your tummy and it tells you if there’s a baby there.’
‘Wow, that’s cool. Can we go to the doctor and check if you’re getting a baby?’
‘Well, no, my tummy is just a food baby.’ I laughed and patted my belly.
‘But how does the baby get in there?’ he went on.
I made eyes at Jay in a manner that told him it was his turn now.
‘Well… ehm…’ Jay fumbled. ‘The mammy and the daddy have… a-a…’ he paused for the right word. ‘They have a chat… yeah, so they have a chat… and then they decide if they want to have a baby.’
‘So can we get one?’
