Rhys was up again for work a couple of hours later. Feeling drained after he left, I lay back and closed my eyes, only to be woken five minutes later by Megan grizzling. I prepared myself for high-pitched wailing again but picking her up for a cuddle instantly placated her. Phew!
It was my day off although I suspected that a day with Megan, when I hadn’t a clue what I was doing, was going to be far more demanding than the toughest of days at work.
Despite Izzy’s apology the evening before, I wasn’t exactly comfortable about turning up at hospital with Megan but no Rhys. I wasn’t exactly comfortable in her house on my own either. Feeling like an intruder, I was grateful that the mugs and teabags were on display because I wouldn’t have felt right riffling through her cupboards to find them.
I felt much more relaxed in Megan’s nursery. It was beautifully decorated with a lilac and purple owl-theme contrasting against the white furniture. One of the walls contained a large decal of cute cartoon owls in a tree and there were various soft owls and owl-themed cushions around the room. Picking out an outfit for Megan to wear was great fun. Despite limited income, Izzy certainly made sure Megan wanted for nothing with a wardrobe and drawers bursting with clothes. I eventually settled on a cute purple cord pinafore with an applique owl on the front, over a pink top and striped tights. Lifting Megan off her changing mat and holding her pudgy cheek against mine, I felt broody again. Last night had been horrendous but it was worth it for the cuddles.
After feeding her, I sat Megan on her play mat with a selection of colourful wooden blocks and some plastic stacking cups. ‘Auntie Callie is going to make a phone call and then we’ll get the bus to the hospital to see your mummy,’ I told her. ‘Would you like that?’
Megan grinned at me as she knocked over the pile of cups I’d just stacked. I sat on the floor beside her and stacked them again as I waited for the call to connect to Maria’s mobile. I wasn’t sure if she was still working at The Chocolate Pot or whether she’d have finished at Christmas, being heavily pregnant at that point. After ringing out for ages, it connected to voicemail. Knowing I’d make a mess of it, I decided not to leave a message.
‘Let’s stack these for you again,’ I said to Megan, but the little monkey swiped at them, giggling, before I’d even managed to build half the tower. ‘Cheat!’
I gave it another ten minutes then tried Maria again. This time it cut off before reaching voicemail, suggesting she’d disconnected the call herself.
As I pushed Megan’s buggy up the street towards the bus stop, I tried one more time. This time, Maria answered.
‘If a person doesn’t answer, don’t you think that’s a pretty big clue that they’re not interested in speaking to you?’ She sounded exhausted rather than angry.
‘I know, but I’m worried about you. I wanted to check you’re okay and that Tony’s…’ I paused. How could I phrase it? ‘That Tony’s treating you well.’
‘When will you get it through to your thick skull that we’re not friends anymore and therefore it’s not up to you to worry about me?’
‘I know, but I still care, and it’s just that—’
‘It’s just that you have to fix people, don’t you? You want everyone to be happy and for life to be perfect but, do you know what? It isn’t like that. Ever. Life is full of liars, cheats, and people who let you down and it’s about time you accepted that instead of childishly believing you can change people and help them live happily ever after.’
‘Has Tony done something to you?’
‘Like what? Tony loves me. He left his wife for me and we’re going to get married after the baby’s born.’
‘But I thought… well, you talked about liars and cheats and I wondered if…’ I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t even hint at it. How useless was I?
‘What is it with you and Tony?’ she snapped. ‘Is gardening boy not man enough for you? You can’t have Tony back, you know.’
I recoiled. As if I’d want him back after what he did. But there was nothing to be gained by slagging him off. ‘I’m really pleased it’s all working out for you and I won’t call again, but I wanted you to know that, if anything happens in the future… anything at all… and you need a friend, you can still call me.’ There was silence for a moment and I wondered if I’d been cut off. ‘Hello? Maria? Are you still there?’
‘I’m still here,’ she said, sighing. ‘Right. I need you to listen carefully and don’t interrupt. Got that?’
‘Got it.’ We’d arrived at the bus stop so I stopped walking and gently rocked the buggy back and forth.
‘We are not friends anymore and I don’t need you in my life. I have Tony and I’ll admit that it’s not perfect but it’s good enough for me because, as far as I’m concerned, happy ever afters don’t exist.’
‘They can. They—’
‘You’re interrupting,’ she cried. ‘Shut up for once. I’m not your pet project and I don’t need you to fix me. You’re always interfering in other people’s lives. Concentrate on your own instead. There’s only one thing I need from you from now on and that’s for you to leave me alone. Is that clear?’
‘Yes, but—’ But she’d already hung up.
‘Well, that went well,’ I said to Megan. ‘Oh well, ball’s in her court now. What she said was spectacularly unfair, though. I don’t interfere with people’s lives. I don’t make them my pet projects and I certainly don’t try to fix people.’ Even as I said the words, I felt my resolve crumbling. Ruby and Teddy were my latest pet project and, before that, I’d tried to interfere with Denise’s life and fix her. The thing was, Denise had needed me and, judging from yesterday’s conversation, Ruby needed me too. Maria was wrong. I wasn’t interfering in peoples’ lives. No. I was supporting those in need and, like it or not, Maria was in need. And having seen Tony with that redhead on the seafront, she might need me sooner rather than later.
Izzy looked a lot brighter and was delighted to see Megan, showering her with kisses and making the little girl giggle helplessly. Although the operation had gone well, her blood pressure was on the high side so they wanted to keep her in for another night. She was understandably gutted but a little relieved at having another day to heal.
My original plan for my day off had been to spend the afternoon with Mum. I couldn’t decide whether Izzy genuinely didn’t mind me taking Megan to Mum’s or whether she was just pretending it was fine because, right now, she needed my help. Either way, permission was granted. Mum got a bit emotional when it struck her that Megan would be her step-granddaughter when Rhys and I married. I think Mum would have been happy to spend all afternoon cuddling her, but Megan was captivated by the plaster-cast and seemed to want to sit on the floor instead, where she could stare at it and stroke it.
Rhys came straight to Mum’s after work, made us some dinner, then we returned to Izzy’s for the night.
Shortly before 9 p.m., my phone rang, flashing up Maria’s name.
‘Hello?’
Silence.
‘Maria? Are you there?’
Signalling to Rhys to mute the TV, I switched the phone to speaker mode.
‘Maria?’
Turning to Rhys, I whispered, ‘Can you hear crying?’ He nodded.
‘Maria?’ I called. ‘Speak to me. Please.’
‘Help me.’
‘Are you hurt?’
‘Baby’s coming.’
‘Okay. Keep calm. Have you called an ambulance?’
‘None free. Crash on A64. Argh!’
‘We’re on our way.’
Rhys was already sprinting up the stairs to fetch Megan. I pulled my boots on as I spoke. ‘Don’t hang up. Keep talking to me. Where’s Tony?’
‘Gone. Phone’s off.’
‘Have your waters broken?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Regular contractions?’
‘About four minutes apart. Argh!’
For obvious reasons, first-aid training focusing on the elderly hadn’t covered childbirt
h. I was aware that I sounded like I knew what I was asking, but the reality was I’d got it all from TV programmes. Four minutes? I had no idea what that signified but suspected it might mean the baby’s arrival was imminent.
‘We’re in the van,’ I said into the phone a few minutes later. ‘You’re in the same flat, yeah?’
‘Yeah.’
‘How will we get in?’
‘Buzz number two. Roger. Tell him I’m having the baby. He’s never out.’
‘Okay. Hang on.’ I gave the address to Rhys. ‘We’ll be about five or six minutes. Where are you?’
‘Kitchen. Floor’s wet.’
‘Don’t you have a number for a midwife or something?’
‘Lost it. Hurry. Argh!’
Rhys accelerated as we headed across town towards Maria’s flat.
‘We’re nearly there,’ I told her, trying my hardest to keep the panic out of my voice. Perhaps I’d have felt calmer if the baby was actually due around now but, as far as I was aware, Maria was only eight months pregnant.
47
Maria’s baby arrived kicking and screaming at 9.37 p.m. on Thursday the 29th of December. I delivered a baby. I actually delivered a baby! Rhys held onto Maria’s hand while I knelt on the floor taking telephone guidance from a midwife contacted through the NHS Helpline.
It was far from the most dignified of births, on the wet kitchen floor, surrounded by all the towels and sheets we could find, yet it was the most movingly beautiful thing I’d ever experienced.
‘It’s a girl, Maria,’ I sobbed, checking her mouth was clear before wrapping her in a towel and handing her over. ‘She’s so beautiful.’
I looked at Rhys who opened his mouth, but no words came out. Eyes sparkling, he simply nodded and wrapped a towel around Maria’s shoulders.
‘Have you thought of a name?’
Maria nodded. ‘Sofia.’
‘That’s lovely. It suits her.’
‘Sofia Callie Fernández,’ she said, fixing her eyes on mine. ‘After the best friend I ever had but didn’t deserve.’
I lost it at that point, only managing to pull myself together when the midwife on the helpline reminded me I still had the placenta to deliver. Until that point, I hadn’t realised this was something that actually had to be delivered although I’m not sure what I thought happened to it. Thankfully the paramedics arrived so they were able to take over.
It turned out that Maria had been a little over thirty-seven weeks pregnant so there weren’t too many risks. Sofia seemed to be a good size and we later found out that she was 5lb 11oz.
‘My bag,’ Maria said as they took her out to the ambulance. ‘It’s in the lounge.’
Rhys grabbed it for her, checking on Megan at the same time. How she’d slept through the drama, I’ll never know.
Finally lying on a stretcher in the ambulance with Sofia enjoying skin-to-skin contact under a blanket, Maria reached out and took my hand, her eyes wide with fear. ‘Will you come with me?’
I smiled. ‘If that’s what you want.’
Tears filled her eyes. ‘It is. I’m scared. I think I might need you after all.’
Rhys picked me up from hospital a little after midnight. He’d cleaned up the kitchen, bundled the soiled towels and sheets into a couple of bin bags and taken them back to Izzy’s where he put them through the wash. Exhausted, I hadn’t relished going back to Maria’s to clean up so was thrilled to discover he’d already tackled it.
We’d no sooner settled into bed than Megan’s screams awoke us again and we were back out for an early hours drive along the seafront.
I was on a two-till-ten shift on the Friday and Rhys had a day off so we headed up to the hospital in the morning and then went our separate ways. Rhys to Izzy and me to Maria.
My heart thumped as I made my way along the hospital corridor towards the maternity ward. Maria had been very emotional the night before, understandably, but what if she’d woken up hating me again? What if she regretted naming her daughter after me? What if she thought I was interfering and told me where to go? She’d called me for help, though. That had to mean something.
My footsteps slowed. What if Tony was there? He was the father and he had every right to be. Or did he? His repeated infidelity and disrespect of the mothers of his children certainly didn’t suggest so. I tentatively approached the ward, clutching onto the new baby balloon and soft pink teddy I’d picked up that morning during a quick dash into town. Then I froze.
Maria was out of bed, fully dressed, and packing a few items into her hospital bag. Tony was sitting on the bedside chair but he wasn’t holding Sofia, which struck me as strange, although maybe she was asleep and they hadn’t wanted to disturb her.
I hesitated but Maria looked up and smiled at me. Taking a deep breath, I made my way over to them.
‘Happy new baby.’ I handed over the balloon and teddy.
‘Thank you.’ She took the teddy and gave it a cuddle before placing it in the crib beside her sleeping baby. ‘Look, Sofia. Your first presents and guess who they’re from? Daddy, you say? Don’t be daft. They’re from Auntie Callie. Daddy was too busy screwing around to be there for your birth so he’s hardly going to have made it to the shops, is he?’
My stomach flipped. So she knew. How? I sneaked a sideways glance at Tony.
‘It was a one-off,’ he muttered, eyes narrowed at her. ‘I told you it didn’t mean anything.’
Maria took the balloon from me with a smile and tied it to the baby carrier resting on the bed. She turned to Tony again. ‘I bet you say that to all the girls.’
Tony’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t respond. Instead he nodded in my direction. ‘What’s she doing here anyway?’
‘She’s Sofia’s godmother.’
‘Over my dead body.’
‘Don’t tempt me, Tony.’ Maria zipped her bag shut and stared at him. ‘Oh. I forgot to tell you Sofia’s middle name, didn’t I?’
‘We agreed on Grace.’
She planted her hands on her hips. ‘Funny that, because we agreed that I’d be the only woman in your life, but I came home early from work to find you in my bed with your dick in some blonde tart’s mouth.’
I gasped. Poor Maria. And, even worse than that, the woman I’d seen him with on the seafront had been a redhead. How many women did one man need at a time?
Tony stood up, eyes flicking round the ward, clearly conscious that the women in the beds either side and their visitors were listening to the exchange and not even trying to hide their interest.
‘Can’t we discuss this at home?’ he hissed.
Maria ignored him, looking like she was relishing the opportunity to humiliate him in public. Good for her.
‘Callie tried so hard to warn me that leopards don’t change their spots and would I listen to her? Would I heck. Here was me thinking that you genuinely loved me and wanted to spend the rest of your life with me. Only with me. So, come on, fess up. How many? Two, three, five, ten, twenty? Am I getting warm?’
Tony shook his head. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he growled.
She turned to me, her voice gentle. ‘You know something, don’t you? That’s why you kept warning me.’
Ground swallow me up. Now. I nodded slowly. ‘I saw him with a redhead in the early hours of Thursday morning and I know for a fact that his wife kicked him out on Christmas Day, not Boxing Day, because we were there when she did it. He must have been with someone else that night before he came crawling to you on Boxing Day making out that he was the one who’d demanded the divorce.’
Maria took a deep breath and nodded, then turned back to Tony. ‘The great thing about Callie is she never lies. Just yesterday, I had a real go at her for interfering with other people’s lives but that’s not what she does. What she does is care and try to stop people from getting hurt. Even when people treat her like crap and betray her in the worst possible way. Even when they don’t deserve her friendship or compassion. Even when they keep pushing her away,
she’s there waving her olive branch and letting them know she’ll always be there for them, no matter what.’
‘She ruined my life,’ Tony shouted.
‘Grow up! You’re forty-five, for God’s sake. Start behaving like it and take some responsibility for your actions. You ruined your life. You. Not Callie, not your wife, not me. You. You’re toxic and I don’t need someone like you in my life.’ She glanced towards the cot. ‘And neither does Sofia.’
‘You can’t stop me seeing her.’
‘If I thought you actually gave a shit about her, I’d be happy for you to see her, but you were the one who wanted the pregnancy terminated. You’ve done nothing but moan about me being pregnant and the inconvenience of having another baby and, since you got here, you haven’t touched her. You’ve barely even looked at her. So I think I’m doing you a favour, aren’t I?’ When he didn’t respond, she said. ‘You can come back tonight for your stuff.’
‘You’re kicking me out?’
‘Er, yeah. Obviously.’
‘You can’t do that. I’ve got a key.’
‘And Pete’s boyfriend is a locksmith. He’s at the flat right now.’
‘You bitch.’
‘Perhaps. But you made me this way. I’ll be in touch about maintenance payments. See ya.’
Tony shot her a filthy look then shoved past me. ‘I wish I’d never met you. Either of you.’ He turned to walk off the ward.
‘That makes two of us,’ Maria hissed.
‘Three of us,’ I added.
Tony shook his head and stormed towards the exit.
‘By the way,’ Maria called after him. ‘Sofia’s middle name? It’s Callie. Sofia Callie Fernández.’
Tony stopped but didn’t turn round.
‘Yes, you heard me right. Fernández, not Sinclair. Never Sinclair.’
Tony shook his head then left. Wow! Go Maria!
I watched with concern as she appeared to deflate before my eyes and slump onto the bed. Dashing round to her side, I crouched down beside her. ‘Are you okay?’
Making Wishes at Bay View Page 25
