‘Christ, how are we old enough?’
They laughed, but there was something underneath the light-heartedness. They were forty-seven. It was an age Anna couldn’t even have contemplated when she stood there promising forever to Edward, and yet here they were, and she still felt twenty-three sometimes, still felt she was waiting for an adult to tell her what to do.
‘Half the mums I know have Botox, and I’m the oldest of the lot of them,’ Nia said.
Anna raised her eyebrows. ‘Are you tempted?’
‘Am I bollocks. How are we supposed to fight the fact that women aren’t allowed to age if we go along with it?’
Anna grinned. She loved this woman.
‘So we’ll just grow old, shall we? And they can all just accept it?’ she asked.
‘Too bloody right.’
Every time Nia swore, she lowered her voice to a whisper, butit seemed there was no need. Theo was oblivious to anything going on around him.
‘What the hell is this, anyway?’ Anna asked, gesturing to the screen. ‘I don’t think it was around when mine were little.’
Nia did a little shudder. ‘Paw Patrol. It’s like crack. I don’t get it but he cannot get enough of it. Still, at least we’ve moved on fromPeppa Pig. I was ready to lose my shit with that one.’
‘So what are the plans for the rest of the afternoon?’
Anna glanced at her watch, saw that she’d been gone for an hour and a half. She should probably get back, and yet. She was having such a nice time.
Nia shrugged. ‘I’ll take him to the park, and then when Jamie gets home, we’re going to go to Pizza Express.’
‘Do you want some company, for the park bit?’
‘I thought you had to get back to work?’
Anna shrugged. The prosecco had made her feel carefree and light. ‘There have to be some perks to running your own business, don’t there? I make my own hours.’
What she didn’t say was that she was often at a loose end in the evening or at the weekend, so there was no shortage of time in which she could slot in extra work.
Nia brightened. ‘We would love that, wouldn’t we, Theo?’
She poked him gently on the shoulder, but he didn’t turn. Anna laughed.
‘Well,’ Nia said. ‘I would love that, anyway.’
It was a short walk to the park. Anna couldn’t remember how long it had been since she’d pushed someone on a swing or caught someone coming down a slide. It had all seemed quite tedious at the time, she remembered, but now it was lovely. Now it wasn’t her everyday.
‘I used to love coming with you to do this with your boys,’ Nia said, her eyes on Anna.
‘Did you? I always used to imagine you had somewhere better to be, but you were doing it for me.’
‘Well, I was doing it to keep you company, but it was wonderful, too.’
‘It’s so hard to appreciate it, at the time,’ Anna said.
Nia nodded. ‘I already get that. I feel like I barely remember the baby days, the way he would snuggle in so close, look at me like I was the whole world.’
‘And then they’re teenagers, and all they do is grunt.’ Anna laughed.
‘How is it, really?’
The boys had taken the split hard. They blamed Anna, because she was the one to instigate it, and Edward had done nothing to stop them. She’d wondered, in the days leading up to her bringing the matter up with him, whether he would offer to move out, to let her and the boys keep the house. But he didn’t. He said that it was her decision, and she could go, and though they had split custody, Anna was very aware that Edward’s house was their home. Still, she had known there would be losses. She had resigned herself to that.
