‘Yep. Right now.’
‘But do you have any stuff?’
‘I just happen to have an overnight bag in the car,’ Ankita said airily. She’dclearlyplanned this.
‘But the spare room’s a tip.’
‘Not a problem. We can box up any stuff that’s in there and I’ll clean it.’ Ankita hated cleaning; Poppy knew that for a fact. In fact, she was sure she hadn’t actually cleaned anything herself at all since she started her hotshot job straight out of uni.
‘The bed linen needs to be changed,’ Poppy continued.
‘I’ll change it.’
‘I’m not really on top of the laundry. I don’t think we’ve got any clean sheets.’
‘I’ll buy some, then, or borrow some.’
‘Are you sure?’ Now the suggestion was sinking in, Poppy was beginning to think that it might be quite nice having Ankita to stay. The company would be lovely.
‘Of course I’m sure. Right, first things first. What are we doing for dinner?’
‘I’m a bit low on food,’ Poppy said. It was an understatement, really. The only fruit or vegetables of any kind in the kitchen were puréed and in baby-sized ice cubes. The only protein was cheese. Both the recycling and regular kitchen bins were full of E-number-flavoured pasta ‘n’ sauce, Pot Noodle and weird microwave burger packets. If she was honest, the closest Poppy had got to a vitamin since she’d last put the bins out was the tomato sauce on a frozen margherita pizza.
‘Wow,’ Ankita said, when she’d finished looking through the fridge, freezer and cupboards. ‘Okay. So we’re going to the Duck for food,’ she commanded. ‘I’ll pay. After you’ve got changed and put some make-up on.’
‘I don’t have time for make-up.’
‘You do now, because I’ll look after Daniel while you get ready.’
‘I need to give him his tea first.’
‘I’ll do it while you’re getting ready.’
‘You have snot and tears on your jumper,’ Poppy said as a last attempt.
‘I’ll live with it.’ Ankitaneverlived with looking less than perfect. She was clearly making a big effort right now.
By the time Poppy made it back downstairs, Ankita had got quite a lot of butternut squash, beetroot and beef stew with green beans inside Daniel, but also quite a lot on her sleeve. Poppy was pretty sure the dry cleaners would have to be miracle workers to get rid of that.
‘Whoops,’ Poppy said. ‘Sorry.’
‘It’s fine. I just need to dress differently when I’m doing childcare.’ Ankita didn’t look like shelovedthe idea of more childcare, but Poppy had realised while she was getting changed that she was just going to accept any offer of help she got – as long as it wasn’t from Declan or Georgie. She wasn’t ready for that yet. ‘Can I just say…?’
‘Mmm?’
‘Daniel’s eatingwaymore healthily than you are. It’s brilliant that you’re looking after him so fantastically, but I think you need to look after yourself too. For his sake.’
Hmm. Maybe Ankita had a point.
‘That’s it.’ Ankita, busy chopping fruit at the table, looked up as Poppy staggered bleary-eyed into the room the next morning, holding Daniel. ‘Things have to change.’ She pointed an orange at Daniel. ‘All the screaming last night. I meanI’mgoing to be a wreck soon if he carries on like this. We need to get strict.’
That evening, Ankita insisted on starting sleep-training, and for the first two hours it worked.
‘Maybe I should write a parenting book,’ Ankita said. ‘Apparently it’seasy.’
‘Oh my God,’ she said the next morning. ‘I have the headache from hell and obviously we have no paracetamol and oh myGodthat child has phenomenal willpower.’
Eventually, after nine nights – Ankita was not a quitter – Daniel was sleeping through the night.
