Page 27 of The Fallback

‘Well, I, er, I sort of agreed to it.’ Rosie said,

Jasmine dropped the dish she was wiping into the water with a splash. Bubbles sprayed up all over her beautifully tailored tunic but she didn’t bat an eyelid. Rosie’s eyes travelled slowly from the splash marks up to Jasmine’s face, waiting for the interrogation to unfold. But she was met only with Jasmine’s look of surprise.

‘Wow!’ Jasmine said. ‘I wasnotexpecting that.’

Rosie carefully tried to mop the marks on Jasmine’s top but was pushed away. ‘Well, this is certainly going to be interesting,’ Jasmine said, continuing to stare at Rosie.

‘You think so?’ Rosie asked uncertainly, wishing she had a better read on quite what Jasmine was thinking right now.

‘Don’t you?’ Jasmine asked pointedly. ‘I'm not sure you’ve really thought this through.’

‘Erm…’ Rosie carefully put the glass down that she had been polishing for the last three minutes and wondered whether to drop it on the floor to create a diversion. But she realised it was one of the set that Jasmine had been given when she’d been made partner at her law firm and no matter how much Rosie wished she could change the topic of conversation, this was not worth Jasmine’s wrath.

‘Rosie, seriously? Do you really understand what you’re getting yourself into? Babies aren’t something you just decide to have on a whim, with your friend.’

‘It’s not a whim.’

‘Really? Because you didn't seem so sure the other day that you actually wanted a baby. Let alone to go ahead with it with Mitch!’

Rosie said nothing. It was more than a whim, she knew that, but there was a kernel of truth in what Jasmine was saying, which made her squirm with discomfort.

‘So, I guess by Christmas we’ll either be inviting your new boyfriend to ours or we’ll be planning for a baby.’ Jasmine raised her eyebrow at Rosie. ‘It’s going to be quite the year, isn’t it?’ Rosie felt herself bristle, she really didn’t feel like dealing with Jasmine’s judgement right now.

‘Look,’ she said, ‘this is my life, all right? I know what I’m doing.’

‘I’m sure you do,’ Jasmine said, sounding as if she had zero confidence that Rosie really did know what she was doing, or had indeed thought this through.

‘I do’ Rosie snapped. ‘And this is not some form of vicarious entertainment for you and Chris to enjoy. So you can back off and go back to your box sets and your fancy dinners, OK?’

‘Wow, OK?’ Jasmine looked shocked by Rosie’s outburst, but perhaps not as shocked as Rosie was herself. ‘I just want you to think about what this means Rosie, I don't want you to get hurt.’

‘Hurt? Who’s getting hurt?’

Susan made a surprise appearance in the kitchen. If Rosie and Jasmine hadn’t been quite so caught up in their clandestine discussion they would have noticed that the noise of plastic snapping hippos and balls flying off in all directions had ceased. Rosie looked at Jasmine with a pleading look in her eyes, begging her to get her off the hook with her mother.

‘Knives!’ Jasmine said, turning suddenly and brandishing one at Susan. ‘I was warning Rosie to be careful, these ones are sharp.’

‘Thanks!’ Rosie said rather too loudly and gave Jasmine a grateful look, pleased to be able to move on from their conversation and to smooth things over with Jasmine at the same time.

Rosie carefully took the knife that Jasmine was holding and pretended to dry it carefully before putting it back in the knife rack. Jasmine whipped off her rubber gloves and glided across the kitchen to the kettle.

‘Tea, Susan?’ she asked, holding up the kettle, ‘I was just going to make some.’

‘Oh, yes please,’ Susan said, ‘I’ll get the teabags.’

Rosie smiled to herself at Jasmine’s inspired move; distract the British grandmother from awkward conversations by handing her a tea pot. She must remember that for the next time her mother arrived in the middle of a private discussion.

ChapterEight

It was with a sense of relief that Rosie closed the front door to her flat later that evening. Jasmine might have successfully averted Susan’s interest for the moment, but it was only a matter of time before Rosie would have to confess what was going on. Either because she was too busy to see her mother due to the sheer number of dates she would be going on. Or because she might eventually be pregnant. Rosie’s stomach churned as she leaned back against her front door and shut the world outside.

Instinctively, she checked her phone for messages. It was strange that there had been nothing from Mitch. Normally he was the one who would have reminded her about her mother’s birthday lunch, but he had been uncharacteristically quiet. Rosie shook her head as she made her way into her bedroom and peeled off her tights and dress. She stood for a moment contemplating whether to go straight into her pyjamas or to go via lounge pants first.

Lounge pants, she decided as she opened the drawer and found her favourite pair. They were soft and grey and Mitch had bought them for her as the craze for loungewear had taken off. She had been completely dismissive of them until she tried them on and became an immediate convert. Which was really annoying because Mitch had been so smug about the whole thing.

THEN

‘Just try them on, OK?’ Mitch grinned as he held out a pair of what Rosie judged to be grey tracksuit bottoms.

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