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She stood to start clearing the plates, shushing both her mother and Jasmine back into their seats. She didn’t need to do the same with Chris, who looked like he might be falling asleep.
‘Me and the boys have got this.’ Joe and Rory followed her eagerly around to the other side of the island, they knew it was cake time. As Rosie cautiously picked the cake out of the box, Joe searched for candles in the kitchen drawer and Rory found the matches – finding them rather too quickly for Rosie’s liking, something she might need to warn Jasmine and Chris about.
There was a minor scuffle over who got to light the candles.
‘He always gets to do it!’ Rory stamped his foot in frustration and anger at being the youngest.
‘I do not!’ shouted Joe, pushing his little brother.
‘OK!’ Rosie held her hands up to part the two of them. ‘We can split it; you both get to do the same.’
Joe rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, mentally working something out. ‘It’s an uneven number!’ he finally said triumphantly, having remembered how old Susan was.
‘Joe, really?’ Rosie asked. ‘We’re not going to put the actual number of candles on the cake. We don’t have enough.’
‘I can hear you!’ Susan called sharply, which cut through the sibling rivalry and Joe and Rory giggled together at hearing Granny get cross.
‘Here’s what we’ll do,’ Rosie whispered. ‘Four each, OK?’ Joe looked like he was about to protest but then thought better of it.
‘Any more than that and it would be a fire hazard,’ she said more loudly.
‘I canstillhear you!’ Susan said again and Rosie grinned at her nephews.
There was a moment of anxiety for Rosie when it looked like Joe’s candles would have burned out completely before Rory had finished with his. But finally the cake was ready, and the candles all still burning.
‘Ready?’ She looked down at both her nephews. They nodded and began singing ‘Happy Birthday’ together, loudly and completely out of tune. Not that their tunelessness seemed to bother Susan who was smiling away indulgently at her grandsons and did the requisite amount of oohing and aahing over the cake once the candles had been blown out.
‘Is this from the bakery near yours?’ she asked Rosie, who nodded, pleased that her mother seemed happy. ‘Do you remember that Mitch took me there when I locked myself out of your flat?’
‘I’d forgotten that!’ Rosie smiled. ‘I was in the lab, wasn’t I, so I didn’t have my phone with me. Weren’t you waiting in there for hours?’
‘Yes!’ exclaimed her mother. ‘It’s a good job I had Mitch’s number, I was only ringing him to see if he knew how to get hold of you and he insisted on coming down to sit with me while we waited for you to arrive! He’s such a dear.’ Susan handed around the slices of cake which were immediately inhaled by Joe and Rory who eagerly put forward their empty plates for a refill.
‘How is he?’ Susan asked.
Rosie, who was distracted by the amount of cake her nephews seemed to be able to put away, and how quickly, asked, ‘Who? Mitch? Oh, fine.’ She paused. ‘He broke up with his girlfriend so of course he’s heartbroken at the moment. Or at least he was last week. But I’m sure he’s over it by now,’ she said, more sharply than she had intended.
‘Poor Mitch,’ Susan shook her head. ‘He has such a good heart, I just think it’s such a shame he hasn’t found the right person yet.’
Rosie studied her piece of cake intently, avoiding looking at Jasmine who she could sense was trying to catch her eye. She quickly cut more cake and put it on Susan’s plate to stop her mum talking more about Mitch’s love life, which admittedly was better than her talking about Rosie’s, but still a topic best avoided for the moment.
* * *
‘Yes, so howisMitch?’ Jasmine asked Rosie pointedly as the two of them stood at the sink companionably washing up together.
Chris had fallen asleep in a chair in the sitting room and Susan had been corralled into playing a rowdy game of Hungry Hippos with Rory and Joe. The noise made it hard to hear what Jasmine was saying but it seemed to have absolutely no effect on the snoring Chris.
Jasmine elbowed her. ‘What? Sorry, yes I’ve got it,’ Rosie said, taking the Pyrex dish from Jasmine’s soapy hands.
‘No, not that,’ Jasmine said frustratedly. ‘I asked you aboutMitch,’ she practically hissed. ‘Did you discuss anything with him since, you know…’ She tilted her head. ‘Since he propositioned you?’
‘He didnotproposition me,’ Rosie said vehemently, glancing behind her anxiously to check they were still alone in the kitchen.
‘Hmm,’ continued Jasmine. ‘What would you call it, then? I would call it a proposition,’ she mused before Rosie could say anything. ‘But let’s put semantics aside.’ Jasmine waved a soapy rubber gloved hand in the air. ‘Have you discussed it at all?’
‘Yes,’ Rosie reluctantly confirmed, picking up another glass to dry and wondering if she could be excused to go and play Hungry Hippos which would be immeasurably less painful than the inquisition she was about to endure.
‘And?’ asked Jasmine, barely keeping the excitement from her voice.
