And Baby Makes Two - Dyan Sheldon [52]
I loved the way she talked more to Shinola than she did to me.
“Do you think she’s grown?” I asked. “I think she’s grown a lot. Half her clothes don’t fit her any more.”
Shanee leaned her head close to Shinola’s like they were conspirators or something.
“In fact,” she told her, “there’s even a very cool guy who works there. He came in as I was leaving.”
“The doctor said I can start her on solids soon.”
“Your pan’s boiling.” Shanee sat down with Shinola. “And I get paid for being there and I get a discount as well. I can’t believe my luck.”
I stared into the fridge. The fridge could’ve been in a war zone, too.
“I’ve run out of milk,” I announced. And everything else. There was nothing in the fridge but an egg box (without any eggs), a couple of bendy carrots, half a tin of spaghetti and an empty bottle of ketchup.
“S’all right,” said Shanee. “I never take milk at home because there’s always pieces of spat-back food in it.”
I gazed into the tea caddy. I seemed to have run out of tea, too. When had that happened? I was sure there’d been tons left. Shinola and I had done a shop at the beginning of the week. Hadn’t we? I remembered walking down the high street. I remembered looking in the windows of the clothes shop and the shoe shop … but I didn’t remember going into the supermarket.
“And guess what else?” said Shanee.
There weren’t any cups.
I mean, there were cups, but they weren’t all in the kitchen, and the ones that were in the kitchen weren’t really clean. I yanked a couple from the sink.
“I can’t guess,” I said. “My brain’s geared for baby things.”
Plus, I was distracted. I was having trouble rinsing the cups because there were a few other things in the sink and there wasn’t much room.
“Amie’s brother’s going to take driving lessons,” said Shanee. “Then they’re going to save up for a car.”
I stood in front of the cups so she couldn’t see me using one old tea bag for both of us. “Really?”
I took down the tin we kept the biscuits in, but there was nothing in it but a handful of crumbs. I couldn’t have done a shop.
“Then maybe next summer we can all go to her parents’ cottage in Suffolk for a week. All on our own,” Shanee went on. “Won’t that be brilliant?”
I could tell that when she said “we” she wasn’t including me. Which was fine. I wouldn’t be able to go anyway. Even if Les didn’t mind – since by then we’d have our own flat and be together – I wasn’t going to be the kind of mother who went off with her friends the way Hilary used to go off with Charley whenever she liked.
I put the mugs on the table. “I think I’m going to teach Shinola to swim in the summer,” I told Shanee. “The baby book says infants can learn to swim painlessly.”
I couldn’t really swim myself. But I liked wearing swimsuits. I wouldn’t mind sitting by the edge of the pool, watching Shinola amaze everybody by being able to swim before she could walk.
“I’ve heard—” Shanee began. But as soon as I sat down Shinola started whingeing and she broke off. “I think she wants her mum,” Shanee finished.
She blew on her tea while I struggled with Shinola. “Anyway, we might even go to France for a day, as well. If they get a car that can go that far.”
Shinola was wide awake by now. I tucked her against my hip so I could more or less hold her steady.
Shanee fished something out of her mug.
“So, what’ve you been up to?” she asked. “I thought you were going to ask me to mind Shinola when you wanted to go out.”
“I don’t really feel like going out,” I lied. I did feel like going out, and Les asked me to go bowling and stuff like that, but he never gave me enough notice to ask Shanee. Not that I was going to admit that to Shanee. She was always probing about Les, as if she didn’t like him or something. Which was really stupid, since she’d never met him. “My domestic side is taking over.” I fished something out of my mug. “Les says he can’t believe I’m pretty and a mother type.”
Shanee smiled. “We’re