“Some kids do,” I shrugged. “And then Trex might be the first to crawl, or ahead of his age group with talking. There’s no job in this world turning down potential candidates because they walked at one or eighteen months. There’s no university turning kids down because they needed rocking to sleep at five months. These things seem so important at the time, but I promise you, they’re not. It’s just an unfair way society makes us compareourselves to others, and there’s no need for it. So long asyouare happy, and the baby is fed, content, and thriving, fuck anything else.”
“You’re right,” she said softly.
“Say it again, but this time with a little bit more conviction.”
“You’re right,” she said louder, a smile creeping over her face.
“That’s more like it. So, tell me more about the club?” I asked, shuffling my body over so I could lay Axel to sleep on the sofa. “Who are these new members I’ve heard about?”
“No one interesting, trust me. There are the prospects, Bambi, Pivot, Darwin, Mike and Tyler. Then there’s Greg—although he graduated prospect status in the Manchester charter and transferred back here not long after you left.”
“Greg,” I muttered, rolling my eyes. “I can’t believe that little shit came back. Is he a titled member here as well?” I asked, my stomach clenching at the thought of him being a valued member. I tried to cast my mind back to who was who, and as far as I could remember, there wasn’t a free space, and the titled guys were long-time members who had more than earned their patches, but that didn’t mean things couldn’t change.
“Nah, just patched. Because of the history between him and Dante, the club took a vote and decided he should repeat his prospect year, just to see how the two can get along. Pivot is due to graduate soon. And then there’s four guys who are campaigning—hang arounds basically, but we’ve started calling them campaigners, because they have to prove themselves before the guys even bother giving out the prospect cuts to them.”
“Who are they?”
“I’ve no idea,” she shrugged. “They started campaigning just after Trex was born, and I’ve not really taken an interest. There’s been a few campaigners, and none of them have made it. I stoppaying attention unless they become prospects. It all gets too confusing otherwise.”
“Fair enough. I don’t think I could be bothered, either.”
“Oh, but you don’t get that luxury,” she grinned at me. “With Mama more or less out of commission, you’re the reigning supreme.”
“Give up,” I half scoffed, half laughed.
“Deny it all you want, but it's true. The guys will be looking to you to be the new mama. You do know that, don’t you?”
I stared at her blankly.
“Oh, come on!” she laughed with a small shake of her head. “These guys might pretend they’re the big, the bad, and the ugly, but we know better. That’s the whole reason we set up sin in the first place, remember? It was to plot and scheme on how to keep the men in their place. They always need the guiding hand of a woman, and there’s no woman higher up than the old lady of the president.”
“Shit,” I breathed.
“Shit indeed. And as the old lady's best mate, I’m looking forward to you becoming… what was it you called Mama? The loudmouth whore behind the bar?”
“Who relies on the muscles of her sons… I remember,” I laughed back. “I think we’ve got a few years yet before I can rely on Axel for any of that.”
“Stick some steroids in his bottle. He’ll be the next Schwarzenegger in no time.”
I almost spat my brew out at her comment, but caught myself just in time. “Oh, God, Axel’s girlfriends are going to hate me as much as I hate Kitty, aren’t they?”
“Probably more so. You’re an acquired taste,” she smiled.
“Brilliant. Thanks for that.”
“Do you want me to start lying to you? I think you’re great but… you’re a bit… rough around the edges, shall we say?”
“That’s putting it mildly.”
“Well then. Make your peace with it whilst you have time. Because before you know it, there will be some mouthy blonde calling you a whore and throwing things at you.”
“Hey,” I laughed. “I never threw anything at Kitty!”
“You killed her son, though.”
“Damn. We’re gonna need to hold more sin meetings if this happens. Speaking of which, now that the boring stuff is out of the way, let’s get down to what really matters. Old ladies. Who’s still here, who’s new, and who is sleeping with the milkman?”
Jenna caught me up on the latest. Gemma was still with Ant, Sasha was still with Sunshine, the birds with Chicken and Rooster, and Imogen with Trent. Nothing new there. The birds were trying for children, which made Vienna build a huge nest in their back garden over the space of a month. He filled it with boiled eggs, and when the birds got pissed off with him, he set it alight. The entire compound stunk like eggs for weeks. Dante made Vienna clean it up, but his version of cleaning it up was to fill the birds' cars up with the entire burnt mess. Dante had paid the bill to get them cleaned and docked Vienna’s club wages for a week.
