‘Definitely.’
The next morning, Matthew woke up earlier than Evie would have liked, because he was meeting some friends. For a game of golf, obviously.
Josh was up early, too, Evie discovered when they made their way into the kitchen.
‘You know it’s Saturday?’ she said. ‘No work today.’
‘Ha, hilarious.’ Josh poured green juice into a glass. ‘Fergus and I are meeting some friends of his at a stately home in Surrey for the day. He’s in the shower. They havebabies.’ Fergus was his latest partner.
‘Wow,’ said Evie, gobsmacked. This wassonot what Josh liked to do with his weekends.
‘I know. And the amazing thing is, I’m slightly looking forward to it.’ Wow again. Maybe Fergus wasThe One. ‘What are you two up to?’
‘I’m playing golf,’ Matthew said, and launched into a golf anecdote. A lengthy one as it turned out.
The anecdote came to a sudden end when he looked at his watch and said, ‘So sorry, I’m late. I’ll tell you the rest later.’
He did have time for a lovely goodbye kiss at the front door. Hewaslovely. Evie walked back into the kitchen, smiling.
Josh coughed, ‘Boring. Just saying,’ on his way to the shower.
‘Piss off,’ said Evie. Not boring. Matthew was lovely, kind and sensible; and a strong interest in hobbies was no bad thing, surely.
Twenty-One
Now – July 2022
Dan
Dan scrunched his coffee cup and aimed at the bin in the corner of the waiting room. In in one. Nice. He looked again at the large clock on the opposite wall. 3.30 a.m. Hopefully there wouldn’t be too long to wait now. A lot of babies were born in the early hours. He remembered the midwives talking about it when he’d been on the obs and gynae ward as part of his rotation.
The baby might be a bit smaller than average because she was a couple of weeks early. He hoped she’d be okay. No, of course she would. No reason to panic.
Waiting was very stressful.
God, he was tired. Andthatwas exactly the kind of thought that people always despised fathers-to-be for. Hannah was in the delivery room, labouring away, and had been doing so for a long while now, and his sole contribution was to stay up all night. He should really not eventhinkthat he was tired.
What if he nodded off, though?
He got his phone out and started scrolling through news feeds. It was definitely easier to stay awake when you had something to do.
* * *
What time was it now? 3.45 a.m. The minutes were barely even crawling by. Swiping through his phone wasn’t helping. He put it back in his pocket and rubbed his eyes.
What was happening in there? He did understand why Hannah hadn’t wanted him to be in the delivery room – they were still near-strangers really after their few weeks together in the autumn involving a lot of sex and huge ramifications – but he was the baby’sfatherand he was a doctor and he’d have happily stayed up Hannah’s head end,obviously, and he’d have liked to havebeen there. His own child was making its way out into the world and Hannah was labouring with her mother as birthing partner, and he was just sitting here on a tasteful grey crushed velvet sofa in the swish waiting room of the private maternity wing of his own hospital.
‘Dr Marshall?’
Dan said, ‘Mmph,’ and sat up. A midwife was standing in front of him. ‘Yes?’
‘Your daughter was safely delivered half an hour ago. Three point four kilos. Seven pounds seven.’
‘Oh. Wow.’Wow. His daughter had been born. Wow.
He sniffed and blinked hard because his eyes were suddenly damp. ‘Could I see her? I’d really like to.’
The midwife nodded. ‘Yes. Hannah’s mum’s gone home to get a little bit of sleep.’ She indicated for him to follow her and started walking.
