“Of course.”
They watched the waves for a while, side-by-side, and it occurred to Tabby that she didn’t know anyone Maisy’s age. She had never even had a coffee with someone from the same generation as her mother.
“I wish we’d met before now,” she blurted. “I could have used someone to talk to about all this stuff. I mean, I can talk to my sisters and my friends, but not anyone who has perspective on this kind of thing because they’re...” she hesitated, not wanting to say ‘older’ or ‘middle-aged’ or anything that might offend the woman who’d been so kind to her.
Maisy just smiled. “You can say I have perspective because I’m old, dahling. Believe me, I know. It’s costing me an absolute fortune.”
They both laughed, and Tabby pressed a hand to her lower belly, caressing the space where her and Toby’s tadpole was growing.
“I’m so scared to be a mum. I want it—I’ve thought about it for ages—but my mother issucha ballbag.”
“I’ve heard,” Maisy said with a sad smile. “They often are, dahling. But to your point earlier about not knowing anyone my age, I think that in an ideal world, we’d live in communities. A mix of people of all ages and backgrounds, all caring for one another and doing the laundry, and gathering mushrooms and what have you.”
Tabby grinned. “You sound like my dad.”
“Then he must be a very intelligent man. But it is devastating how we’re all so cut off from one another in this day and age. Again, in an ideal world, you’d have more than one mother figure to turn to if one was as abhorrent as the woman you came out of. And that way, old chickens like me could help raise children even if we couldn’t have them ourselves.”
Tabby heard Maisy’s voice throbbing with sadness, and though she was terrified of another Nix-style freakout, she knew she had to ask: “You couldn’t have kids?”
“No, dahling. It was quite distressing.”
“I bet,” Tabby said, again thinking of Nix.
“But it got easier with time, and I have my friends and my freedom, and a lot of interesting things to occupy me. Most of the time, I find it’s not too painful.”
“You can babysit my kid,” Tabby said. “I mean, if you want to?”
Maisy flashed a wide smile. “I would absolutely love that, dahling.”
“Really?”
“Of course. I love babies. And Toby is really like a son to me. A gorgeous, largely naive son.”
“Yeah, he’s a sweetie. Shame I fucked him over so bad.”
“Did you? Or did you just get your wires crossed for a little while there?”
“For two years? More if you count the time we were mates?”
Maisy yawned, pressing a manicured hand to her mouth. “I know it might be hard to believe, but from the perspective of an entire lifetime, that’s not very long.”
“And what about the perspective where we’re going to go from having casual sex to having a baby?”
“I don’t see the problem, dahling.”
“I’ve forced him to commit to me,” Tabby said. “For forever, basically.”
“Oh, but he was already committed to you. Everything he did was for you. The house, the car, even that little podcast he had, all he ever wanted was for you to listen to it. Did you?”
“Yeah, I thought it sucked.”
Maisy laughed. “Yes, well, they can’t all be winners.”
Tabby squinted at her. “Are you the one who helped him pick out his clothes?”
“Yes, dahling, and I did a rather wonderful job, if I’m being honest.”
“True.” Tabby thought for a moment. “He liked dating and stuff, didn’t he? He liked being single?”
