Brodie nodded as she shovelled in a bite of red velvet.
‘Good thanks,’ Jo said, a placid smile forming. She hadn’t lifted her fork and Ally knew she wouldn’t take a single bite of cake because of her white work outfit.
Was this whole thing going to be stilted and slow? Why wouldn’t anybody actually say something real and interesting about themselves?
‘And Luce is OK?’ she tried, before looking to Jo. ‘And Gus?’
‘Luce is great,’ Brodie said, her eyes still on the fork as she conveyed some of the Victoria sponge to her mouth.
‘Gus is busy. You know,’ said Jo.
Ally really didn’t know. Were the girls holding back because she’d left it too long getting in touch? Was this the payoff for a phenomenal lack of effort recently? They didn’t trust her with their private lives any more?
Back in the day, she’d heard it all. A blow by blow account of the first time Jo had slept over at Gus’s place, and Brodie hadn’t exactly been reserved about her relationship with Luce when they’d first got together and there’d been an awful love triangle with another girl Luce was seeing in Glasgow. The friends had had to rally round to comfort Brodie when it looked like Luce wasn’t choosing her but this other woman, and then they’d listened to a detailed breakdown of the way they grew closer over many months of avowedly being ‘just friends’, and then suddenly it was all on again and they were living together at Brodie’s place. And God knows, she hadn’t held back then with the eye-opening details of assisted insemination attempts and the rollercoaster of emotions and hormones as they tried and failed and persevered over and over until Brodie gave birth to their longed-for baby, Gillian.
‘How’s Gray?’ Jo asked, and Ally almost dropped her fork. ‘Oh! That good?’
‘Yeah.’ Ally scrunched her nose.
‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ Jo said, her fingertips touched to Ally’s knee in a flash of pearly varnish.
‘I’m honestly OK about him,’ Ally reassured them, and it was true. What she really wanted to do was blurt out how she’d promised herself after Gray that she was never getting hurt again, but she’d somehow forgotten her vow and let herself get carried away over a hot, brown-eyed trainee police man, and now that was over too – before it had even really got started – and it was making her miserable. But she’d be damned if she was going to sit here and talk about a man, or rather about the single kiss she’d shared with a man. Not when she was supposed to be a grown-ass adult with a life of her own.
Jo sipped her tea, trying not to spill any on her afternoon at the office clothes.
‘So, what is a keep in touch day?’ Ally asked.
‘I was going to say you’re brave wearing white with a baby and a toddler running around,’ Brodie added admiringly.
‘I changed two seconds before I ran out the house, or my dress would look like that.’ Jo pointed to the painted handprint art on the wall.
‘You’re getting ready to return to work soon?’ Ally clarified.
Jo’s eyes clouded with something wistful. ‘Yeah. Full time as well.’
‘Think of the commute!’ spouted Brodie. ‘That’s precious time all to yourself. And working lunches in nice places, and actual adult conversations!’ Brodie was enjoying painting this picture, but Jo’s smile wasn’t quite reaching her eyes.
‘I guess,’ Jo said, smoothing her dress over her thighs.
‘But…?’ Ally prompted, hoping this would be the breakthrough from all the distance and posturing. Were they actually going to talk about something real now?
‘I’m so sorry I’m late!’ came a voice, making their heads turn.
Mhairi stopped before them. Jolyon was passed out asleep in a buggy that his legs seemed too long for. ‘I couldn’t get him out the house.’
Brodie and Jo exchanged the quickest glance that Ally didn’t know how to read, before all three of them hugged their friend in turn. Ally felt Mhairi shaking as she pulled her close.
‘You OK?’ Ally said.
Mhairi only nodded and dropped onto the sofa beside Brodie.
‘I can’t believe we’re actually all together in one room,’ Brodie enthused, pouring Mhairi’s tea and pulling the plate closer to the new arrival so she could inspect the cakes. Mhairi seemed to be having trouble taking her eyes off Jolyon.
‘He’s getting big,’ Jo said, following her gaze.
‘Too big for that buggy?’ Mhairi said quickly.
‘What? No, I wasn’t…’ Jo was panicking. ‘I just haven’t seen him in a wee while, and he’s got so tall, that’s all.’
