chapter 14
Glide Physiotherapy took up the ground floor of a trendy office block on the south side of the city, the floor to ceiling windows plastered with photos of toned legs in running shoes and the words,Why Run when you can Glide?
With a quick hi to the receptionist, Lou, who she knew from meeting Pip here numerous times, Judith took a seat and listened to her sister’s voice reverberate through the thinly partitioned wall.“Come on now, yes, bend a bit more for me, that’s it.Press against me, now pull back… Ah, good one.See?You’ve got more range of movement already.”
Judith picked up a magazine calledKetoand stared blindly at an article about how to get your own fat to eat itself, which incidentally was not a problem she suffered from; a bit more flesh over her bones would probably be good.She threwKetoback on the pile and picked up a parenting magazine; flicked through pictures of little round heads and chubby fingers, could almost smell their sweet newborn scent and wondered what babies with Carts would look like.No doubt she’d birth babies who shot off the charts for length.
Crazy.One mind-blowing orgasm and she was fantasising about having Carts’ babies.Was that the purpose of orgasms?To bond you to one another with a flash as blinding as the Big Bang?
She couldn’t stop daydreaming; more precisely, she wasconsumedwith thoughts of him—and turned on to the point of having to spend much of the day with her thighs squeezed together.
But that aside, it was also swoony romantic.She’d sneaked to her bag and read the note that she’d hidden in her purse several times.The special rose was now carefully arranged with the others in her favourite vase.
As Pip walked out, Judith threw the magazine back on the pile and jumped up.
Pip looked radiant.Judith recognised it as the look of love, the look Carts had on his face when she caught him staring at her.Oh stop it!This was the moment she had to focus on Pip’s momentous announcement, not turn into a bag of mushy peas.
“Okay,” said Pip as she closed the door, “sit down and listen.”Judith obligingly hooked her bottom onto the treatment table.“I’ve rehearsed this with Shaz, but she doesn’t know our family, so she wasn’t sure if it would work.I’m trying to memorise it because reading it would be shite,obviously.”
“Okay.Go ahead.”
Pippa cleared her throat and squared her shoulders, her strong quads shaping her work slacks, and read from her scribbled handwritten lines.“Mum and Dad, I—we—Shaz and I, have an announcement to make.”Foot shuffle.“Oh, forgot to include Kirsty and Luke.Okay, so take that as given.”She cleared her throat.“Shaz and I are in love.We want you to know we are very happy—” she stopped, “—ecstatically happy maybe?”
Judith nodded.“That’s good,” she agreed, but all she could see was Mum’s face freezing up.“Though do you think perhaps, I don’t know, maybe just make it a bit less emotive.Mention Shaz is your partner first before you say the love word.”
“No way.That makes us sound like a business arrangement.It’s got to be super clear or Mum will pretend she hasn’t heard me.”
Pippa dipped her chin and read out more lines.
“That’s lovely,” Judith said when she’d finished.“But, um, do you think a restaurant is the best place to tell them?”
Pip threw her head back.“Urfff.can you stop seeing all the problems?Besides, Harry’s isn’t just any restaurant, it’s special.”
“Have you warned Shaz?About how Mum reacts sometimes?”
“Kind of.”Pip’s face turned mischievous.“Perhaps I should forget the speech, and we’ll strip each other’s kit off and make out on the lazy Susan.”She grinned.“Can you imagine Mum’s face?”
She sucked her cheeks in and went cross-eyed.
“I just meant—”
Pippa raised her arms.“I’ve just got to do this, Jude— I mean, Shaz’s parents totally embraced our relationship from the get-go.Then there’s Mum and Dad like two old neutered cats—”
“Pip!”
“Oh c’mon, they are, and I’m just—pissed off, at how useless they are.Mum particularly, and Dad just goes along with it.Growing up with that, I’ve realised how much it’s stunted me, sexually, emotionally, everything…
Me too,Judith thought quietly.But still, it was complicated.“Go easy on Mum.”She gave Pippa a pleading look.“She can’t help her upbringing.”
Pippa flapped the piece of paper on the desk.“Give me a break.I can’t make excuses for her the way you do.I’m nearly twenty-three and I’ve only just had the courage to admit I’m gay, even to you and you’re the closest person to me in the world.Shaz told her parents when she was thirteen she was a lesbian.That’s the level of trust they share.”
“How long have you known?”
“Since I was fourteen and Trent Tucker kissed me, and I wanted to throw up.”
“Oh, dear.”Judith grinned.Trent had been the most sought-after boy in her sister’s year.She knew because of all the fourteen-year-old girls texting him selfies of themselves with their school blouse tucked into their bra.Pippa’s school had finally clamped down on it.
Pippa paused.“Remember Tilly?”