Page 30

Pearl decided to keep it to herself that he had touched her, since she’d almost lost the plot over the smallest, gentlest touches. She couldn’t bear her friends ribbing about it.

The gang had all gathered at Hannah’s place because she had sent a message to their group chat saying she was going out of her mind being a stay-at-home mom, and they all needed to come take turns holding Evelyn, allowing her some semblance of normalcy.

Pru: Stop using Evelyn as an excuse to get your way.

Pru: Also, I’ll be late.

Hannah: You don’t have to come at all if you’re going to be rude.

Sofia, Aashvi, and Pearl had wisely not commented and shown up at the appointed time. Without Pru there to quash it, Hannah had immediately started grilling the other three women about their love lives and claimed to need to live vicariously through them. Sofia had thrown popcorn at her at that point and said, “Oh, I feel so sad for you and the fact that you have permanent claim to Oscar’s rugby thighs.” Hannah had been unable to decide if she should tell Sofia to keep her eyes away from Oscar’s thighs or to agree that they were difficult not to appreciate. Pearl had tried to intervene and unfortunately found herself under Hannah’s microscope. She’d shared about their trip to Paris, but she’d kept Corvus’ memory to herself. As much as she loved her friends, it felt like too raw and intimate a thing to share with anyone.

After Hannah’s dig about flings, Aashvi had quickly come to Pearl’s rescue. “Look, Pearl can have a fling however she wants to. And frankly, can you think of a better way to seduce Pearl than to buy her a mountain of books and let her take the lead on how quickly or not the relationship moves?”

Laughing, Hannah conceded the point. “There is truth in what you say, I must admit. However, now I want to hear about your dating life!”

Waving a hand, Aashvi refused to be pulled in. “I very much do not have time for dealing with men.”

Sofia put a hand to her forehead dramatically as she bounced Evelyn around the room. “But Aashvi, just think. You could get someone with thighs as beautiful as Oscar’s.”

Throwing one of Evelyn’s burp cloths at Sofia, Hannah shouted, “Stop talking about my husband’s thighs and holding my daughter for protection while you do so.”

But Sofia just laughed. “Isn’t that why we’re here - to hold Evelyn? Aashvi, if you don’t give up on dating, you could also get someone as beautiful and rich as Corvus. Which frankly is deeply unfair. How can he supposedly be that fit if he’s that in-bred. Is he really that good looking? Shouldn’t he have a Habsburg jaw?”

Pearl joined in the fracas, “Well, Corvus does have an equally rich friend who is as unwilling to settle down as he is handsome. But I bet Aashvi could twirl Frederick around her little finger with barely a glance.”

Holding a hand to her heart as though wounded as she took Evelyn from Sofia, Aashvi threw a look at her friend. “Et tu, Brute? And after I defended you against Hannah?”

Hannah cackled merrily. “None of you are safe from me! Now, Pearl, I’m not going to let it slip by me that you mentioned that Corvus never touched you, which means that you were thinking about him touching you.”

“Why are you all talking about that wanker again?” Pru burst onto the scene as forcefully as ever, and Hannah didn’t miss a beat. “People who are late to the party don’t get to dictate the conversation.”

“Some party. We’re all bouncing a baby and talking about men.”

Rolling her eyes, Hannah grabbed Evelyn and tried to get Pru to hold her, but Pru was too fast for her. “Like you don’t talk about Oliver all the time.”

Affronted, Pru drew herself up to give a rebuttal, and it was the opening Hannah needed to get Evelyn into her arms. Pru sighed heavily. “I do not talk about Oliver all the time, and I do not want to hold your baby.”

“You’re her aunt. You’re going to make her feel like you don’t love her.”

This did nothing to persuade Pru. “Hannah, she’s not even a year old yet. She can barely see much less create a deep emotional bond with me.”

Sofia, who loved putting logs on the fire when Hannah and Pru went at each other, decided to contribute. “Remember that time on Pru’s bachelorette party where she waxed eloquent about Oliver making bread and used it as an analogy about the flexibility but also steadiness of their relationship.”

Hannah threw her hands up in triumph, and Pru just grumbled, “It was my hen do. It’s an appropriate time to reflect on your relationship.”

Surprisingly, Aashvi chipped in as well. “Hey, remember that time last week when Pru texted all of us a picture of the rum cake Oliver made for her and then talked about how he would definitely win the Great British Bake Off if he went on the show, but she wouldn’t allow him to because no one could ever appreciate him or his cooking the way she could?”

Pru’s grumble got even more pronounced. “I just really like his baking, ok? It’s not really about him specifically.”

Hannah’s smile was wicked. “Remember that time when Prudence invited us all over so she could tell us about this guy she’d been dating for a few months and how he was the greatest man she’d ever met and how she couldn’t believe she managed to find him and that he was so kind and she never thought she’d be interested in someone kind but how beautiful tenderness looked on a man and…”

Pru finally reached her breaking point. “ALRIGHT! I get it. I talk about Oliver a lot.” She passed a laughing Evelyn, who was apparently highly entertained by the back and forth, to Pearl and asked if she had anything to add.

“It’s ok to talk about someone as lovely as Oliver, you know. There’s no need to be embarrassed."

Rolling her eyes, Pru said. “Leave it to you to be saccharine.”

Pearl’s eyes narrowed. “Leave it to you to accidentally send me a letter that you meant for Oliver where you went on for three pages about how beautiful his clavicles are and how he has the perfect eyebrows and how much you missed him being in bed with you when he had to go to India for three weeks.”