Рейчел Уэллс - Alfie And George

‘So, I have big news,’ Polly announced.

‘Not another baby?’ Franceska asked. I shot a worried look at Claire but she didn’t appear upset.

‘No, don’t be daft. It’s more complicated — Matt lost his job.’

‘Oh no, Pol, I am so sorry,’ Claire said.

‘Now I feel the stupid,’ Franceska said. Her English was brilliant but when she got upset or stressed her accent became stronger and she sometimes put words in the wrong places.

‘No, honestly, I’m used to the idea now. ’

‘But I’ve seen you loads lately and you didn’t say anything.’ Claire sounded worried.

‘I think I wanted us both to get our heads around it a bit before we told anyone. He’s talking to Jon about it tonight. But anyway, he went to work and they simply told everyone it was closing down — the company’s gone bust. They’re sorting out packages now but Matt says he’ll be lucky to get a couple of months’ pay. But the thing is, just before we found out, DF Design offered me a job.’

‘Wow, Polly, that’s great.’ Claire smiled at her.

‘Yes, well, I turned it down at first because I didn’t want to work full time because of the kids, but things have obviously changed. It’s a rolling six-month contract, and it doesn’t pay as much as Matt earned, but we can manage, at least until Matt gets another job.’

‘It all sounds complicated,’ Franceska said.‘But you OK?’

‘Yes, the main thing is that we’ll be fine — financially anyway. But the thing is, Matt and I are arguing because he’s miserable about not working. He says he doesn’t want to be a househusband but I don’t even know if that’s the real issue.’

‘Oh God, Pol, it could be the role reversal … I shudder to think how Jonathan would cope with that. If I told him I was going to work and he was staying at home, he’d wonder what the hell he was supposed to do. He thinks Summer and the house get sorted by magic. Anyway, at least the kids are a bit bigger now.’

‘Yes, Henry’s at school and Martha will be soon,’ Franceska added.

‘I know, I know, but I’ll miss them, and the idea of working full time, well, let’s be honest — I was a model before so I’ve never actually had a nine to five. Now I will, five days a week, and Matt will be at home, making packed lunches and cleaning the house. Well, hopefully cleaning the house!’ They all laughed.

‘Is he taking it that badly?’ Claire asked.

‘I keep telling him that it’s only until he finds another job, which will hopefully be sooner than he thinks. Then goodness knows what I’ll do if he gets a job, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.’ She sighed. ‘Right, enough about me, what’s going on with you two?’

‘Well, we’re well underway with the adoption process,’ Claire told them.

‘Claire, that is the biggest news! Why you haven’t told us?’ Franceska asked, giving her a hug and nearly sending me flying off her lap.

‘I was waiting for tonight. It’s a long process, and Jonathan still isn’t exactly keen … I’ll keep you posted but having George has made me want a sibling for Summer even more. She thinks that Alfie and George are her brothers and she talks about them at nursery as if they’re human!’

‘That’s so cute, although perhaps a bit worrying when they find out she’s talking about cats,’ Polly pointed out.

Franceska then told the other two that they were now ready to open a second restaurant. Tomasz had a partner, a friend from Poland who had moved here a while ago, and they were expanding the business together. The restaurant was really popular so it made sense, although I worried that big Tomasz worked too hard already. I didn’t want him to be too busy for his family.

‘I’m worried that we’ll see less of him, but he assures me that he’s going to put managers in so he can concentrate on the food side and not have to be there quite so often. Well, we are hoping,’ Franceska said. I knew that Tomasz found it hard to let go and delegate to others — his wife had worried about that since he had opened his first restaurant.

I looked at George, who was fast asleep on Polly’s lap, then at my three human women. They were all so strong and had come a long way since I had first met them. Claire with her broken heart, Polly with her post-natal depression after giving birth to Henry, and Franceska struggling to settle into a foreign country. But I knew that it wasn’t plain sailing and once again it felt as if issues were mounting up for each of them. Changes were happening and change always threatened to cause problems, I knew that. I just hoped we would all be able to keep it together, and that my families would weather the storm I had a horrible feeling might be brewing.

The first storm came not from my main families but from someone else I was very close to. Though all my families were a bit rocky, there was nothing that was an immediate concern to me. After the girls’ night, Claire and Jonathan had had a bit of a row, but that wasn’t anything new. When Jonathan went over to his house, Matt had been upset about his job loss, understandably, but Claire commented on how lucky they were that Polly had been offered something. Jonathan said she didn’t understand how unsettling it would be for Matt to have to slip into a housewife role and then Claire accused him of being sexist, which Jonathan quite happily admitted he was … It was just one of their usual annoying bickers. But it unsettled little George, who still had a long way to go before he understood.

‘I don’t understand why they shout,’ he said, his voice quivering.

‘Humans do that sometimes. It’s very complicated and it doesn’t mean they don’t love each other.’

‘But why?’

‘Well, sometimes people — and cats, for that matter — don’t agree.’

‘But why?’ he asked. And on and on he went, until I had to cover my ears with my paws, because I couldn’t hear ‘why’ one more time. Again, I knew how the human parents felt; Martha was going through a ‘why’ phase right now and Polly said it made her want to tear her hair out. Parenting this kitten was almost harder than taking care of my grown-up humans. But of course this cat had to do it all.

The next day, Claire and Jonathan had made up and were doing that yucky thing they do when they keep kissing and being soppy. Poor George looked at me, eyes full of confusion, and I wondered how on earth I was supposed to teach him about life when it made so little sense sometimes.

‘Yuck,’ Summer proclaimed, watching her dad kiss her mum as they made breakfast. ‘Yuck, yuck, yuck.’ Claire and Jonathan laughed but I had to agree with her — it was pretty embarrassing to see them put on such a public display!

George was stationed underneath Summer’s high chair, where he was enjoying licking off the yoghurt she kept dropping onto him. It was his new favourite thing to do. I was eating my breakfast, having ensured George had eaten enough of his by telling him he wouldn’t grow up as strong as me unless he did. I had heard many a human parent saying this so I knew it was true. But we were having lovely family time together and it made my heart swell with love, a feeling that had been lacking since the loss of Snowball. Don’t get me wrong, I still missed her when I had time, but I was also happily counting my blessings too.

The doorbell dinged, interrupted our lazy Saturday morning. Jonathan and Claire looked at each other, and Claire went to open the door. I gave George the ‘stay there’ look I had mastered and followed her.