Rosa Temple - Playing Her Cards Right

‘ Mademoiselle ?’ The officer on the desk plopped a massive, clear bag on the counter. I picked it up, pulling it open when I recognized it as my man bag and all of its contents on display. Next came my coat and shoes, which I hurriedly put on because I was freezing.

I began repacking my bag: make-up, tissues, phone, notebook, pregnancy kit …

‘Wait,’ said Anthony. ‘What’s this? Is this? Are you? Are we?’

‘I have no idea, Anthony. Get me to the hotel and we’ll find out.’

Just then Indigo emerged, Inspector Martin on her heels with a look of apology on his face. He went to shake my hand but Indigo slapped his hand away.

‘You’ll be hearing from me,’ she shouted and grabbed me into a hug. The officer on the desk produced another two larger plastic bags. They contained all the bag samples Clara had given me. I signed a form and we all left, silently.

‘Did that just happen?’ I asked them when we were outside.

‘That guy who gave you the drugs, Magenta,’ Indigo said. ‘He’s been under surveillance for months. He recognized a plain-clothed officer hanging around, knew he was from the drug squad, and had to shake him off. He was trying to pass his supplies on to you.’

I shook my head. ‘But I don’t even look like a drug lord,’ I whimpered, glancing down at my carefully chosen outfit.

‘Well,’ said Indigo. ‘Maybe in Paris, the dealer wears Prada.’

‘The shoes are Gucci,’ I said under my breath.

Anthony hugged me as we left the grounds of the station. ‘Don’t worry about anything. You weren’t to know what was going on but it’s well and truly over now.’

‘I’ll sue every last one of their arses,’ said Indigo. In her middle-class way the threat didn’t sound at all menacing.

‘No,’ I said. ‘Anthony is right. It’s over now. Let’s just go home.’

‘We got three plane tickets for tomorrow morning,’ said Indigo. ‘I didn’t think you’d want to stay any longer than that, not even for meetings.’

‘You got that right. I’ll call Riley, get her to make my apologies.’ I felt Anthony’s arm tighten around my shoulder and pull me in closer.

‘Let’s get you some food,’ Indigo said. ‘Anthony and I are both booked into your hotel. Let’s go.’

‘Please.’

***

Riley was grief-stricken when I gave her the news.

‘I’ve been in a complete state,’ she sobbed. ‘I’ve been calling the whole of France.’ Riley had only just got home after having spent the afternoon on the phone to the chauffeur hire company who had reported that I’d not showed up at the front of the hotel as arranged. The only problem was the driver hadn’t called in straight away about it and had gone on to the afternoon appointment, assuming that I had found my own way there.

After hearing that, Riley had called the designer I was supposed to be meeting every twenty minutes to ask if I’d arrived. When I didn’t she started calling the hotel. Following that she’d spoken to all the accident and emergency units and morgues in Paris to make sure I wasn’t dead.

When the panic had died down, when Anthony, Indigo, and I had eaten and spoken to Mother and Father to say I was safe, Anthony and I went up to our hotel room.

‘So, I know you wanted me to come to Paris with you, Magenta, but do you think you could have done something a little less dramatic to lure me over? Couldn’t wait until spring?’

I punched Anthony in his arm. ‘Don’t even joke about it,’ I said.

We were sitting on the bathroom floor; I was on my knees, leaning over the toilet, my pregnancy kit was on top of the closed lid. Anthony was on the floor beside me, leaning one arm over the bath. We were waiting for that all-telling minute to tick by.

I’d never known time to move more slowly. Then, in slow motion, the little window we’d been watching in earnest began to change. The white background seemed to turn a greyish white at one end and gradually, making its way across the greyish white, a horizontal blue line appeared. The line began to extend across the window, closely followed by another blue line that moved vertically down the centre of the window. That startlingly blue cross confirmed the inevitable. I was pregnant.

I looked at Anthony then back at the indicator stick, squinting at the small window. I was half wondering if the last few hours had just been a dream, a dream from which I still hadn’t awoken; I hadn’t been a suspected drug dealer and neither was I pregnant.

I reached for Anthony’s arm and squeezed it. He was real and he was there, not a dream at all. Anthony stared at me, wide-eyed, his lips trembling into a half-smile.

‘You-you look happy,’ I said. ‘Or are you about to lose it?’ I got to my feet. ‘Because I am, big time.’ I leaned my hands on the sink. Anthony got up and began to massage my shoulders. I looked up at him in the mirror above the sink. The weird grin had left his face. ‘Say something,’ I said.

‘I’m not really sure what to say,’ he said. ‘I’m kind of happy, though. Are you?’

I turned around. ‘What do you mean “kind of”?’ I asked him.

‘Well it isn’t something we talked about so I’m a little … shocked, I suppose. I mean today was just … I mean, are you happy?’ He held my shoulders.

‘I-I don’t know. I do want to have children, I just wasn’t thinking about having a baby right this minute. But …’

‘What?’

I couldn’t stop the smile beaming across my face. ‘I am happy, Anthony. I really, really am.’ And that’s how I genuinely felt once the initial shock had subsided. ‘I know we never even talked about having a baby but it’s-it’s wonderful.’ I hugged him around the waist and rested my head against his chest.

It was very late now and as exhausted and beaten up as I felt, I was well and truly, completely excited.

‘We won’t say anything to anyone – not just yet,’ Anthony said while I was still hugging him. I looked up, a little taken aback.

‘Obviously,’ I said with a crease forming in my brow. ‘I mean, I didn’t plan to, not just yet anyway.’

‘Just until we know for sure,’ said Anthony.

‘Well these kits are very accurate, you know? But you’re right – I will have to go the doctor.’

‘Yes,’ he said, pulling away. ‘We need to be sure about this. About everything.’

‘I don’t understand, Anthony.’ All of a sudden Anthony wasn’t sounding so positive. His mood had changed.

‘No, no it’s all right,’ he said with a weak kind of laugh. ‘It’s just I thought you shouldn’t tell people until the first scan.’

‘You seem to be very knowledgeable about these thing, Anthony.’ I picked up the kit and placed everything in the bin under the sink. ‘But you’re right. The right time will present itself. Until then, I won’t say a word. It’ll be our little, wonderful and brilliant secret.’

Anthony pulled me towards him. His smile had returned. I let out a sigh of relief. Half a second ago he’d looked like a bunny trapped in the headlights. He squeezed me tighter, gently rocking me and rubbing my back as if he want to burp me. I looked up at him.

‘You all right?’ I asked.

‘Yes, yes of course.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘A little shell-shocked, that’s all,’ he said.

‘Anyway, I’m exhausted. We should get some sleep. The flight is first thing.’

Anthony took my hand. We went back to the bedroom and got ready for bed. In the darkness of the hotel room, with just street lights glowing through the blinds I’d forgotten to close, Anthony lay on his side and faced away from me. I looked up into the shadowy room, just about able to make out the lampshade above me. I realized I had a huge smile on my face and that I was going through a list of children’s names. How crazy.