“When you can tidy your own room, wash your own clothes, iron them, and be safe enough to make a cup of tea.” That would equate to never, if she took after her Auntie Olivia. She had no idea how to even plug an iron in.
“I’ll tidy my room tomorrow.”
“That will be a start. Now lie back down and close your eyes.”
“Can I have another story? One about a dog?”
For the love of all things holy.
“How about you tell me one?”
“Can you lie down next to me then?”
My daughter: the negotiator.
I lay down next to her and listened to a story that combined a lost puppy, with a princess named Rose and a troll that lived under a bridge. She was mid-sentence and I think Rose was about to take the puppy home when she fell asleep.
Using every one of my stealth powers, I slipped off the bed and left her bedroom, the only light from the bedside lamp that was on a timer. At some point, I needed to decorate her room, but that meant either a weekend where I didn’t have work, she didn’t have any parties, or I paid someone. Another thing to add to the list.
Olivia was asleep on the sofa, a reality TV show playing that she’d deny watching when I asked. I ignored her; she slept on the sofa more often than she slept in her bed.
My phone was still in my bag, where I'd managed to drop it just before Rose jumped on me. I pulled it out to check for messages, knowing there would be at least one from my mum.
There was, plus one from college friend and another from a number I didn’t recognise. I checked that first.
Hope everything was okay this evening. We can catch up in the morning with what we couldn’t cover today. Seph.
I put the phone down on the side and closed my eyes, trying not to think about the man I was sharing an office with. He was just a colleague.
A partner in the firm where I was.
That was all.
Chapter Six
Georgia
By the time the alarm rang on Friday morning, we’d developed some sort of routine. I woke Rose earlier than I needed, mainly so we could at least have breakfast together rather than a mad rush and me barely seeing her in the evening. She loved nursery, just like she’d loved it where we’d lived before, and every day she came home with various stories about the other children. My child was a gossip, something I put down to her inheriting from her aunt. She also loved Elspeth, which was a godsend, as I wasn’t entirely sure I would’ve coped without her myself.
“Mummy, can we have eggs for breakfast?”
Over the last four years, I’d become a morning person. To be honest, I’d become a whenever-my-daughter-needs-me-person, which also included mornings.
I checked my watch. I had just about enough time to scramble some eggs and toast some bread before we’d need to walk to Elspeth’s. The journey between work, the child-minder’s and home was going to work a miracle on toning my legs.
“Sure, sweetheart. But when Auntie Liv moans about the pots in the sink, you need to explain why they’re there.”
There was a littleaha,which basically meant she wasn’t listening anymore as she was back looking at her book. Elspeth had loaned her a book of fairy tales and she’d become obsessed with it, something I could definitely live with as it had distracted her from the idea of the dog.
I cracked the eggs, mixed them with a dash of milk and put butter in the pan. Rose burned off food quickly, and the extra fats wouldn’t do her any harm. She’d been three weeks premature and a tiny baby, and she hadn’t yet caught up size-wise to most other children the same age.
Holding Claire’s baby on Monday had reminded me of Rose at that age. I’d never thought I’d be so consumed with my child, or fall so completely in love, but I did and the whole baby smell and the feel of Niamh in my arms had pulled at the maternal feelings that were still there.
But for now, there was no chance of having another baby. That would require a man, which would require time, and that time was better served making my daughter breakfast.
“Here you go.” I put the small plate with one piece of buttered toast and a pile of yellow scrambled eggs in front of her and was rewarded with a big smile and her book being pushed away.
Twenty minutes later we were leaving the house, only slightly later than I wanted, but it was Friday and on the whole, it had been a good week. Seph hadn’t held my dashing off against me, nor had he asked what the problem had been. There’d also been no reason to tell him that I was a single mother, because aside from checking my phone to see the photos sent by nursery of what Rose was doing, and the texts from Elspeth reassuring me, my day focused on work, and there was a lot of it.
