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‘Oh Polly, I will miss you. We’ve had a giggle, haven’t we, over this past couple of years.’
Polly put her arm around Sheridan and pulled her in close.
‘Yes, love, we have. And we will again.’
‘Come and see us at home. I want to know all the goss about Germy and Cock.’
‘Of course I will,’ said Polly. She felt stupidly tearful. She remembered her own contractions starting, the strange combo of fear and exhilaration that her baby was on its way. She hadn’t had it confirmed but sheknewit was a girl. She’d been in agony but she didn’t care. It meant her baby was healthy and as eager to see her mother as the mother was to see her child.
‘Christ, Pol, this hurts. This baby is splitting me in half.’
‘He wants to meet you,’ said Pol, squeezing her friend. ‘You’ll soon be holding your baby in your arms and it will be the best moment of your life.’ She paused then and listened hard. ‘I think I hear a mee-maw.’
Sure enough there was the faintest two-tone siren in thedistance growing ever louder, then they saw the welcome sight of the big yellow vehicle through the front glass doors.
The two paramedics on board were quick to take over. They loaded Sheridan into a wheelchair and started to wheel her away but she made them stop so she could hold out her arms to Polly.
‘Promise we’ll keep in touch, Pol,’ she said, hugging her tightly. ‘I need to know how the wedding goes and where you’ll be living and if Brock the cock comes into the department and sits on the wet chair.’
Polly laughed and embraced her, savouring the warm feel of her. ‘I will,’ she said. ‘Good luck, darling.’
Polly stayed there until the ambulance drove off. She didn’t know she was crying until she felt the teardrops tickle on her cheeks. What a beautiful start of things this was for the Savalas family. She sent up a silent prayer that everything would be all right, that mother and baby would be safe. Everything else would take care of itself if that happened.
Polly snuck off early that afternoon. And when she was at home, she did a little more secret packing. It made her feel proactive, as if this was really going to happen at last. It would be all change in Sheridan’s life and from Sunday onwards, it would be all change in hers too.
Polly woke up the next morning to an email that baby Alexander Michalis Savalas, seven pounds fourteen ounces, had arrived. Mum and baby doing very well.
Chapter 9
The day before the renewal of the vows ceremony
Sheridan’s wet chair had thoroughly dried overnight because when Polly walked into the department, who should be sitting swivelling on it as if it were playground apparatus but Brock Harrison, clicking a pen.
‘Seems I’m starting earlier than expected,’ he said, giving her his best corporate smile. ‘I hear she’s had the sprog.’
‘Sheridan has had her baby, yes,’ said Polly, already feeling the hairs on the back of her neck bristling and he’d only been in situ three seconds. She put her bag down, took off her jacket and switched on her PC.
‘Just before you start, any chance of a coffee?’ asked Brock.
Polly took a breath and prepared to nip this right in the bud.
‘Yes, the kitchen is over—’
Then Jeremy came round the corner.
‘Make that two will you, Polly. Then just bob in for a moment will you?’
Seething, Polly put the kettle on, brought out the twocups. Brock was talking on the phone, otherwise she would have told him that in future he’d be making them because he was the assistant, not her. She was going toBe More Sabrinaat work as well as out of it, and that would start here, today.
She took Jeremy’s coffee into his office.
‘Any ideas about Auntie Marian’s Bread yet?’
‘Yes, I’ve had some ideas,’ Polly said. ‘I seem to be having trouble getting hold of the owner, Mr Peach, though. He hasn’t returned any of my calls.’
‘So what are we suggesting to him?’ Jeremy templed his long fingers and looked as if he was about to launch into prayer.
‘Change the packaging, it’s terrible.’
