The Year I Met You. Cecelia Ahern

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       5

      ‘He’s beautiful,’ I whisper, looking at the tiny baby in my friend Bianca’s arms.

      ‘I know,’ she smiles, gazing at him adoringly.

      ‘Is it amazing?’ I ask.

      ‘Yeah, it’s … amazing.’ She looks away, her smile a bit wobbly, her eyes sunken into the back of her head from two nights’ lack of sleep. ‘Hey, have you started a new job yet?’

      ‘No, I can’t – you know, the gardening leave thing.’

      ‘Oh yeah,’ she says, then winces and goes quiet for a moment. I don’t dare interrupt her thoughts. ‘You’ll find something,’ she says, giving me a sympathetic smile.

      I have grown to hate that smile on people. I am in the Rotunda Hospital, once again finding myself visiting somebody as they do something else. It has occurred to me lately that most of my visits have been this way. Calling into a friend at work, dropping by one of my sister’s classes to watch, seeing my dad while he is busy with Zara, chatting to friends while they are watching their children swimming or dancing, or at a playground. Every time I see people lately it is me interrupting their life, them busy with something – distracted heads that have one eye on me and another on their job – while beside them or across from them I am still, patiently waiting for them to finish what they’re doing to answer me. I am the still person in every scene of my life and I have started to see myself from afar each time it happens, like I’m outside of myself, watching myself be still and silent while the others move around, tend to their work, their children. Since realising this, I have tried not to meet anyone during the day when they are in the middle of something and I am not. I have tried to make appointments for nights out, dinners, drinks – times when I know we can be on even ground, face to face, one on one. But it is difficult, everybody is so busy, some can’t get a babysitter, we can’t seem to synchronise a night out that suits everybody, and so we struggle to arrange anything. It took me weeks to organise a dinner party in my house this weekend. Then I will be busy, and they can be still. In the meantime, here I am in the hospital, sitting at the bedside of one of my dearest friends who has just had her first baby, and while I am happy for her, of course I am, and was secretly delighted about the nine months maternity leave so that I could have company for the remainder of the year, I know the reality is that I will not see her very much, or if I do, she will be busy and I will be still, I will sit opposite her or beside her and wait for her to be ready, holding half her attention.

      ‘We were thinking, me and Tristan …’ Bianca breaks into my thoughts.

      My body turns rigid as I sense what’s coming.

      ‘He’s not here, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me asking you …’

      I feel dread but I fix my face into what I hope is the perfect look of interest.

      ‘Would you be his godmother?’

      Ta-da. Third one in two months, it has to be a world record. ‘Oh, Bianca. I’d love to,’ I smile. ‘Thank you, that’s such an honour …’

      She smiles back at me, delighted by her request, one of the most special moments in her life, while inside I feel like a charity case. It’s as if they’ve all made a pact to ask me to be godmother in order to give me something to do. And what will I do? Go to the church and stand by their side while they hold the baby, while the priest pours water, while everybody does something and I stand idly by.

      ‘Did you hear about your friend’s son?’

      ‘What friend?’

      ‘Matt Marshall,’ Bianca says.

      ‘He is not my friend,’ I say, annoyed. Then, deciding it’s best not to argue with a woman who has just given birth, I ask, ‘What did his son do?’

      ‘He put a video up on YouTube telling the world how much he hates his dad. Mortifying, isn’t it? Imagine talking about a family member like that.’

      The baby in Bianca’s arms lets out a scream.

      ‘This little fucker keeps biting my nipple,’ she hisses, and I’m immediately silenced as her mood swings again and darkness descends in the hospital room.

      She moves her three-day-old son into a different position, holding him like a rugby ball, her enormous breast bigger than his head and looking like it’s smothering him. The baby sucks and is silenced again.

      It is almost a beautiful moment, apart from the fact that when I look at her she has tears streaming down her face.

      The door opens and her pale husband Tristan ducks his head in. He sees his firstborn and his face softens, then he looks up and sees his wife and his face tightens. He swallows.

      ‘Hi, Jasmine,’ he steps inside and greets me.

      ‘Congratulations, Daddy,’ I say gently. ‘He’s beautiful.’

      ‘He’s got a mouthful of fangs, is what he has,’ Bianca says, wincing again.

      The baby screams as he’s pulled away from her chapped red raw nipple.

      ‘Seriously, Tristan, this is … I can’t СКАЧАТЬ