fine. You?’
A surge of rage bolted through her body. ‘Where are you?’
‘What? I can’t hear you properly, hang on.’ She listened as the music gradually died down to a dull hum in the background. ‘That’s better, what’s up?’
‘Where are you?’ She was now pacing the living room.
‘I’m at the Bull and Hound; they’ve got live music in tonight. The band is fucking awesome!’
‘What are you doing there? I sent you a text asking you to let me know when you were on your way home.’ She was throwing her arms about as she spoke, not caring that he couldn’t see her. ‘I arranged for Zoe and her new boyfriend to meet us – I told you this!’
‘I know and I will. I’m not leaving yet, so I haven’t texted. Jeez, chill the fuck out.’
‘Why have you gone to the pub? I got dressed up; I thought we were going to celebrate tonight?’ The anger was subsiding but Pippa found herself getting emotional now. Bloody hormones.
‘I am celebrating. What’s the big deal?’
Annoyance dripped through her tone. ‘I meant, together!’
‘Well come down here, then.’ He had clearly started to make his way back into the pub as the music was getting louder again.
‘Jason, I don’t want to be in a pub full of drunken people and loud music. I thought we could celebrate together, you know, a meal or something.’ Like she was going to let everyone see Jason treat her like shit because he was drunk. No chance. She needed it to be just him and her when he was like this. She didn’t want to give anyone fuel for gossip.
‘What?’
‘Go back outside, it’s too loud!’ She was shouting now. She hated it when he had a drink. He was supposed to be cutting down now that she was pregnant. Guess there was no chance of that happening.
‘Listen, I’ll be home by midnight and I’ll bring in a takeaway, yeah? We can have our meal then.’ He then raised his voice to be heard over the music, calling out to a friend, ‘Yeah, get me another one. Same again!’
‘Jason, please. Just come home.’ She knew what he was like when he drank too much and she really didn’t want to have to deal with him later on.
‘Oh get off my case, Pip; I’m having a few drinks with mates. I’ll be home at midnight.’
And with that, he hung up. And Pippa knew he wouldn’t be home at midnight, so she took herself upstairs and after getting changed out of her dress and taking her make-up off, she got into bed and let the tears fall, where no one could see her. She looked through her phone messages to Zoe, cancelling the meet because of ‘nausea’. She hated it when Jason’s selfishness meant she had to cancel things and lie to her friends. If she didn’t want this baby so much, she would just walk out the door and never come back. She hated the financial hold he had on her.
‘Morning, sleepy head.’
Ellie opened her eyes as a stream of sunlight shot into the room as a result of Zoe opening the living-room curtains. She groaned and pulled the cover up over her face.
‘Here, I made you a coffee. It’s decaf, mind.’
‘Why?’ Ellie’s voice was muffled by the cover.
‘Because you need to reduce the amount of caffeine you are drinking. It’s not good for the baby.’
Ellie pulled the cover off and sat up a little, making room on the end of the sofa for Zoe to sit down. ‘No, I mean, why did you bring me a coffee?’
‘Listen,’ Zoe perched on the edge of the sofa not far from Ellie’s feet and passed the cup. ‘I am sorry about yesterday. I didn’t mean to upset you with all that talk about Dad. I just wanted to make you see that he’s not a monster and it would be good for you to have him around, you know, especially now.’
The reality of why she was here at her sister’s came crashing back down and she was forced to think about everything again. She sipped at her coffee for something to do, it tasted bitter.
‘You know that I will always be here for you and that I will do everything I can to make things okay, but just don’t forget about Dad. I know he misses having you around and I miss having my family. It’s bad enough Mum not being here, but having to see you and Dad separately all the time drives me crazy. We should be sticking together, not pushing each other away. It makes it really hard on me – I hate having to choose all the time.’
‘I’m not asking you to choose.’
‘You kind of are, Ellie. You two not being able to be in the same room together without creating tension means I have to split myself. It’s not fair on me. Plus I know Dad would want to be involved with you having a baby – he’d love to have a grandchild!’
Ellie shook her head. ‘Let’s not get too carried away.’
Zoe huffed. ‘Honesty, it’s like talking to a brick wall sometimes.’
Ellie shrugged, reverting to acting like a child. Sometimes when she and Zoe were together she found herself behaving as she would’ve done at eleven years old, having her annoying fourteen-year-old sister around.
‘How comes you slept on the sofa and not in the spare room?’ Zoe peered at her over her coffee cup.
Ellie avoided eye contact. ‘I was watching a film and I must’ve fallen asleep.’
‘Fair enough. So, I’ve been thinking. We need to sort a plan out so that we know what we are doing and how we are going to do it. First things first, you need to tell Chris.’
Ellie groaned and dropped her head back so that it rested on the back of the sofa. ‘Not this again.’
‘Come on, you owe it to him to tell him. What have you got to lose?’
‘Err, let me think. My best friend, my job, my freedom… my sanity!’ She listed them on her free hand, one finger at a time.
‘Oh you’re such a drama queen. You will not lose your sanity and the rest we can sort out. You can’t just hide away at my place and pretend nothing is happening. You need to go and see a doctor, get the ball rolling with a midwife, put things in place ready for when the baby comes…’
Ellie felt her chest tighten listening to all this talk about the baby. ‘Look, I haven’t even decided what I am going to do yet. There’s no point in involving Chris in this until I know what I am doing.’
‘What you are doing? Ellie, you’re not going to do anything stupid, are you?’ Zoe eyed her suspiciously and Ellie had to turn away again.
‘I don’t know what I am going to do. I need time to think. It’s all happening too fast and I’ve got work appointments next week to sort out and I need to do a new order for
