‘Oh no,’ said Poppy. ‘I think he’s beginning to drop his morning sleep. Such as it is. But I just want a break.’ Tears started dribbling out of her eyes. Like she didn’t even have the energy to cry properly. Daniel stepped up the yelling.
‘No,’ Poppy moaned.
‘Okay. I’m going to look after Daniel while you take a shower and get some sleep.’
‘No.’
‘Then I will call Declan to come and help. Or one of your neighbours. Or Beth or Ankita. Or I’ll call your parents on their cruise.’
Poppy slumped in her chair, shoulders drooping, tears still dribbling, while Daniel carried on yelling.
‘I feel like a really bad mother,’ she whispered, ‘but sometimes I just want abreak.’
‘You are not a terrible mother. You’re a great one. Everyone needs a break. Kids are exhausting. How much sleep did you have last night?’
‘Four hours, maybe. In forty-minute chunks. He keeps waking up.’
‘No wonder you feel rough. That’s not enough. Let me get Daniel out of his cot and look after him so that you can have a sleep.’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Okay, I’ll have to call Declan.’ Georgie didn’t want to sound mean but Poppy clearly really needed some help today.
Five minutes later Poppy was in bed and Georgie and Daniel were downstairs in the sitting room, and Georgie had agreed bytext with Declan that he would hang out with Max for the next few hours while Georgie stayed with Poppy.
She decided that three hours would be a good length of time for Poppy to sleep in the middle of the day without stopping her from getting to sleep that evening. She gave Daniel some lunch and played with him. She also cleaned the whole kitchen and downstairs loo very thoroughly, with him on her hip. Daniel was exhausted by the end of the three hours. So was Georgie. Looking after a baby really was hard work. You forgot as your own child got older.
‘Right,’ she said to Poppy, once Georgie had woken her up and she’d come downstairs. ‘Why don’t you have a shower now? And I’ll put Daniel down for a sleep just before I leave. Hopefully he’ll sleep for a while. He’s knackered now. I’ve gone for some major over-stimulation.’
Poppy almost smiled.
Half an hour later, as Daniel began a very loud demonstration of how tired he was, Poppy finally came downstairs in some different trackie bottoms, that fitted slightly better, with clean hair and her eyes less out on tiredness stalks than they had been before.
‘I should thank you,’ she said.
‘No, you really shouldn’t.’ Georgie picked Daniel up. ‘I’ll be back down in a minute.’
Daniel took more time to settle than Georgie would have expected; it was easy to see how Poppy would be frazzled now, irrespective of everything that had happened with Declan and Georgie and Max. No one would be at their best in Poppy’s position, and now she had so much to work through in her mind.
When Georgie got back downstairs, she found Poppy at the kitchen table, with her laptop open.
‘I’m going to catch up on some admin while I have the functioning brain cells,’ she told Georgie.
‘Good plan.’ It was a relief to see Poppy recovered enough to show a tiny bit of her usual humour. Georgie should try to strike while the iron was hot. ‘I wondered whether you thought it might be a good idea to talk to Declan soon.’
‘I can’t right now. I appreciate that he is probably feeling miserable too, but I just… can’t. It still hurts too much.’
‘Okay. Of course.’ Georgie feltsoguilty about her contribution to the situation between Poppy and Declan. She’d have to try to help in some other way. ‘I have to go now and pick up Max.’ Oh God, oh God. Had Declan told Poppy he was meeting Max? Georgie hadn’t, she realised. What a stupid oversight. ‘He’s with Declan. They met today.’
‘That’s nice,’ said Poppy, in suddenly freezing tones.
Georgie pressed her lips together, not sure what to say next.
‘Oh, Georgie,’ Poppy said a moment later. ‘Itisnice for the two of them, obviously. But. It hurts. Thank you for coming. I’m really sorry, but I think I need some space from you too for a while.’
‘Of course.’ Georgie ignored the misery she felt and looked at Poppy for a long moment and then said, ‘Okay, well, bye, then.’
‘Bye.’
