“Mate,” Dan said after the candle was out and everyone was waiting for a slice. “Have you thought of singing professionally?”
“Ahh, stop!” Nicky covered his ears and backed toward the pantry.
“He does! He does sing professionally!” Stefan said. “I saw him at Glasto 2015! It was amazing—you were amazing!”
“That’s so nice,” Nicky mumbled. “Normally when I meet new people, they goout of their wayto say they’ve never heard my stuff.”
“Glastonbury 2015,” Coralie raised an eyebrow to Alice.
“Where the magic happened,” Alice murmured back. (Beauty had been conceived in a yurt.)
“Went back the year after—shocking.” Nicky shook his head. “Woke up and it was Brexit.”
“Not my fault!” Tory Tom said.
“What are you, David Cameron or something?” Nicky laughed. “Why would it be your fault?”
“Funny you should say—”
“Tom, Tom,” Zora called from the sofa, where she’d retreated to have her cake. “Rup’s doing a poo in his nappy.”
“Where is he?”
“Hiding between the sofa and the window.”
“He does this.” Tom shrugged. “He likes to skulk. Sorry, do you mind if I use the changing table?”
Coralie shuddered inwardly at the thought of that giant boy in her tiny girl’s space. “No, please, of course!”
“And how old is Beauty?” Sally asked in her gentle way. Beauty, her hair in bunches, was tapping a wooden lemon against the play kitchen.
“She turned one a few weeks ago,” Alice said. “We had the loveliest weekend away, didn’t we?”
“We did,” Nicky said. “My mum took her; we went to Paris.”
“Happy birthday toyou,” Stefan said. “You don’t get out much, do you, Cor? You haven’t had a night out in a year.”
“Oh!” Coralie said. “Well, the baby had so much to get used to. Being born.” Everyone laughed, although she hadn’t been joking. “Then she goes to nursery for such long hours. Home is kind of her safe space—I would feel bad if she woke up at night and a stranger had to comfort her.”
“Cor.” Alice pulled her aside. “Do you have any…” She trailed off with a meaningful face.
“Valium? Cyanide?”
“Pads? A tampon? I’m on my period, I can feel it.”
“Come up, I’ll find some for you.”
They jogged up the stairs together with the relief and joy of cutting class. “I loved not bothering with this when I was pregnant,” Alice said.
“I quite like having mine. Everything’s ticking along; that’s what a period says to me.”
“Getting mine tells me Nicky managed to pull out.”
“You don’t want to…?”
“I do want to, but the flat only has one room.”
“I want to, but my boss would probably sack me.”
