‘Thanks guys, I really appreciate it,’ said Tor gratefully.
Lucy knew that Tor was absolutely dying to quiz her to find out whether she had done her pregnancy test yet, but thankfully she was too discreet to try and ask her anything so personal in front of Rory, particularly given the dilemma Lucy had recently explained over the phone. She decided she would text her the news that she was not pregnant later. If she told her that she had got her period, she might well up and burst into tears. She felt extremely hormonal, the usual PMT undoubtedly kicking in.
Rory took Otto from Lucy and bounced him on his knees, provoking another bout of rapturous giggles from the baby who was as smitten with Rory as his godmother, and mother, appeared to be. Tor praised him on his natural ease with babies, saying it was quite unusual in her experience for men that didn’t have any children of their own. Rory explained that he had seven nephews and nieces and was therefore an experienced uncle.
‘It’s easy!’ said Rory. ‘You just bounce them around, chuck them up in the air, or fly them like superman. In my experience, one of the above normally gets a baby to stop crying sooner rather than later.’
Watching him with Otto, Lucy felt another pang of sadness stab through her.
‘He’s the baby whisperer!’ laughed Tor as Otto began to close his eyes.
The three of them dunked their biscuits in their piping hot cups of tea and chatted for an hour or so before Tor announced that she had better go if she was going to make it to her mother’s and back ready for bedtime. Gathering all her stuff together, she put Otto back into his car seat and clipped his little safety belt together. Unfortunately, Rufus, who had been sleeping docilely in his bed the whole time that Tor and Otto had been in the room, chose that exact moment to bound out of his bed straight over to the baby. Whisking Otto up and out of Rufus’s reach, Rory offered to carry him down to the car for Tor, and so the three of them made their way outside, with Lucy clutching on awkwardly to Rufus’s collar in case he took his liberty too seriously and ran away.
As they waved Tor off with Otto safely ensconced in the back seat and Rufus straining to chase after the car, Rory turned to Lucy and said, ‘Your friends are so lovely! I think it’s about time you met some of mine.’ He looked at her with a mischievous grin, adding, ‘Though I wouldn’t want you to be put off now, would I?’
Lucy shoved him and said, ‘Why would I be put off? Are they going to reveal all sorts of dark and mysterious secrets about you that I haven’t found out yet?’ She laughed as she kicked the front door shut behind her with her boot. Rufus rocketed forward like an uncoiled spring as she released her grip and bounded up the stairs with the agility and speed of a greyhound.
‘Well, you’ll have to wait and see! I’ll text Ben now and see if I can organize something for the weekend,’ said Rory, pulling his phone out of his jeans pocket.
Lucy knew all about Ben. He had been Rory’s best man when he married Abigail. Rory had talked to her about the wedding a couple of times, and as always whenever she thought of Abigail Lucy felt moved to the point of tears. She couldn’t bear what he had been through. She felt nothing but sadness on their behalf, laced with a touch of gratitude that, though she wouldn’t have wished it on anyone, least of all Rory, she was able to be with him now. Ben was a friend of theirs from University College London, now a successful doctor married to an Australian physiotherapist called Chrissie, and with three children to boot. Lucy had heard lots about him and the rest of their university gang and couldn’t wait to meet them. She suggested that they hosted a dinner party at Thurloe Crescent, which Rory thought was a fantastic idea. He tapped at the screen and sent Ben a message, trying to ignore Rufus who was running about like a headless chicken, clearly full of far too much energy having spent the afternoon cooped up inside.
While he was texting Ben, Lucy swallowed her disappointment and sent a message to Tor, Claudia and Nicola explaining that she had got her period. She tried to put a positive spin on the news, asking them not to worry, saying that it was probably for the best now that she had found Rory. She knew she was trying to convince herself more than her friends. They all pinged messages back agreeing that it was for the best, hoping that she was okay and asking her to call when she was next free.
By this stage Rufus was about to explode with pent-up energy, so they decided to take him out for a late afternoon walk. Nipping into the bedroom, Lucy changed into her trainers and pulled on a warm gilet to protect herself against the evening chill. If she was coming down with something that was the last thing she needed.
They strolled around the block and into the local park, letting Rufus off the lead and watching him bound like a cheetah across the expanse of green grass, revelling in the space around him. Lucy and Rory walked hand in hand through the park, admiring the changing colours of twilight, that warm glow that bathed everything around them in a blanket of hazy light as though someone was twisting a giant dimmer switch up above them.
As they walked, Lucy asked Rory to tell him about how he had met Abigail. Rory obliged and began to describe their first encounter, two fresh-faced, rosy-cheeked freshers, innocent and nervous in equal measure as their friendship, forged over pints of lager in the union bar, slowly developed into something more. Rory, fresh off the plane from Ireland, was infatuated by this freckly, green-eyed redhead and her English accent. Abigail was equally blown away by Rory. They had lived together in their second year with Ben and a couple of other medics, including their close friend Ed, before moving in on their own during their final year at UCL, getting married soon after graduation.
‘Have you ever considered getting married, Luce?’ asked Rory.
‘I’ve always wanted to get married,’ replied Lucy. ‘And I always assumed that I would…’
‘Did you ever come close?’
‘I suppose Alex was the closest I ever got to seriously considering it,’ said Lucy. ‘But that didn’t end so well. All in all, I guess the right man has just never come along.’
When she said that, Rory looked at her long and hard and said, ‘Do you still believe that?’ He held her hand softly as he spoke and she felt as though the rest of the world surrounding them just melted away, that they were locked in a bubble of their own creation.
‘I’m not sure,’ she replied, barely able to process the hidden meaning behind his question, a flutter of excitement flickering through her like flames licking at burning coal. In response, he kissed her. It was such a tender, soft kiss that she felt her insides dissolve.
Lucy felt a calm sense of reassurance settle over her like a blanket. With Rory by her side, she felt utterly protected, as though she could survive anything, that no matter what happened, she would be okay.
