Page 42 of His Best Friend's Baby

Polly xx

After Seth finished reading this, he sat for ages in a kind of stunned, happy-sad daze. It was so unexpected. Polly’s email exchanges had slowed down in recent weeks and he’d been sure her whole focus was on preparing to head off to America.

Not that Polly had told him her final decision. He wasn’t even sure that she’d made firm plans yet, but he couldn’t imagine she’d knock back such a brilliant opportunity. He would have to try to call her later, or maybe he should wait till the family were gone and he had the house to himself again.

It was only when he heard voices in the kitchen that he remembered he was supposed to be cleaning up for dinner.

*

Late at night,after the others, including Mandy’s husband, Toby, had gone to bed—Toby having first helped Mandy to fill Archie’s Christmas stocking carefully and quietly—brother and sister sat out on the edge of the deck, legs dangling, drinking scotch.

Seth couldn’t remember the last time he and Mandy had been alone like this, chatting about everything and anything—their jobs, their homes, their parents, their childhood memories…

Then, out of the blue, Mandy asked, ‘So what’s the story with Polly Martin?’

‘What story? How do you mean?’

Mandy looked at Seth like he’d lost his marbles. It was a look he remembered well from their childhood.

Eventually, and with exaggerated patience, Mandy said, ‘That was a straightforward question, Seth. What’s Polly doing these days? Where does she live? Who’s her baby’s father?’

Yeah, of course. Seth was annoyed that he got so tense whenever Polly was mentioned. ‘She works in IT,’ he said. ‘And she lives in Melbourne, but there’s a chance she might be moving to Silicon Valley. As for her baby’s father—he was a donation in a test tube at an IVF clinic.’

Mandy stared at him in open-mouthed silence for several nerve-racking seconds and then she burst out laughing.

‘What’s so funny?’

‘I’m sorry, Seth. It’s just that—that isSOthe Polly I remember. I mean, I hadn’t actually pictured her doing any of those things, but now that you’ve set the scene, I can just see it. After all, Polly was always a geeky little genius.’

‘Yeah.’ Seth took another swig of his scotch and stared hard into the dark bush ahead of them.

‘Seth, are you okay?’ Mandy spoke gently now.

‘Sure. Why?’

‘You don’t seem quite yourself.’

‘Sorry. I guess I’m tired. I’ve been working pretty damn hard.’

‘You always work hard, Seth. I was thinking it was more—I don’t know—something worrying you, maybe.’

‘Nah, I’m fine.’

‘Okay.’ She said this carefully, as if she was thinking hard, still trying to work him out. ‘I didn’t realise you were still such good friends with Polly.’

‘I wasn’t really. I hadn’t heard from her for ages. It’s only happened in the last couple of years.’ And then, because he hadn’t really talked about it with anybody, it suddenly felt all right to spill. ‘If you must know—and I don’t think you should tell Mum about this—she might freak. But Polly was here last February and she actually had her baby here.’

‘In Wirralong?’

‘In this house.’

‘Whaaat?’ Mandy stared at him, her mouth opening and closing like a landed fish. ‘Seth, this is getting a bit—’ Her mouth hung open again. It seemed she couldn’t finish the sentence.

Seth sighed. ‘Don’t you freak too, sis. It wasn’t planned. Polly still had four weeks to go before the baby was due, but she was in Wirralong, just for the weekend and she went into early labour. The baby not only came early, but in an awful hurry.’

‘Out here? In this house?’ Mandy still looked horrified. ‘Don’t tell me you delivered her?’

‘I did, yeah.’

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