Lucy in the Sky

smiles.
    ‘Thank you,’ I say happily. ‘Hey, we should go to Newquay one day. Take you surfing.’
    ‘That’d be cool,’ he agrees.
     
    It’s Christmas morning and we’re all in the living room, drinking hot chocolate and looking at our presents. We can barely see the carpet, it’s so covered with wrapping paper. Yesterday the snow had finally thawed enough for our drive around Exmoor. And then this morning Nathan took me outside and showed me his car. Well, my car. He’d tied red ribbons to the tiny wipers on the front headlights. But that wasn’t my only Christmas present; he also bought me a silver bracelet from the local jeweller’s so I can wear my Concorde charm.
    As for what I got him…
    Over the last couple of days I’ve been sneaking away to use Tom’s laptop and type up all the jokes that Nathan and I have told each other–as best as I can remember them. I presented Elephant Jokes and Other Stories to him this morning and he seemed genuinely touched. We’ll add all the crappy Christmas cracker jokes to it later.
    But I’m not a total cheapskate. I also managed to find us a couple of last-minute flights to Venice and that is where we’ll be for New Year’s Eve.
    Nathan’s phone rings. ‘Sorry, I’ve got to take this,’ he says to my family. ‘It’ll be my brother.’
    ‘He’s been waiting for him to call,’ I explain as Nathan heads into his room across the landing.
    After ten minutes or so, he reappears and calls to me from the doorway. ‘Lucy? It’s Molly. She wants to talk to you.’
    Oh, my goodness, this is it. I take the phone from him nervously and head upstairs to my bedroom.
    ‘Hello?’
    ‘Lucy! What’s going on? I tried to call your phone and it’s dead and then Nathan says he’s with you but he wouldn’t tell me anything else!’ Molly squeaks down the line. Cheers for that, Nathan, I grin. Leave me to do your dirty work.
    ‘Lucy!’
    ‘I’m here,’ I say.
    ‘What’s going on?’ Molly demands.
    ‘Okay.’ I take a deep breath and then calmly speak. ‘Nathan and I, well, we’re together.’
    ‘ What? ’ she exclaims.
    ‘Molly, please, don’t say anything. Don’t laugh, don’t snort, don’t make any funny jokes. I’m in love with Nathan and I have been for ages. I fell in love with him in Sydney.’
    Silence.
    ‘Molly?’
    ‘Bloody hell !’ she erupts. ‘Why didn’t you tell me before?’
    ‘I couldn’t. I thought you’d laugh. I thought you wouldn’t approve. I didn’t think you’d understand.’
    ‘Lucy, of course I would have understood. Well, maybe not at first,’ she concedes. ‘But you’re my best friend. You could have made me understand.’
    ‘I know. But…Oh, I don’t know, Molly. It’s been very confusing, that’s all.’
    ‘What happened to James?’ she asks.
    ‘Well…’ I fill her in, as succinctly as I can. We can talk inmore detail some other time, but right now she’s ringing Nathan’s mobile.
    Finally she says, ‘Shit! If you marry Nathan we’ll practically be sisters!’
    I squeal with laughter at the thought.
    ‘We’ll have the same surname,’ she cries. ‘It’ll be like one big triumphant Wilson family.’ I’m still laughing, loving the idea.
    ‘Speaking of family…’ she says, and tells me what I already know about her pregnancy. I feign surprise, which isn’t hard because I’m still over the moon. She’s had her twelve-week scan now and all the signs are good; the baby appears healthy.
    ‘I’m so pleased for you two.’ I smile.
    ‘Well, you’d better come back for the birth,’ she insists. ‘If not before…’ It’s a loaded comment and I don’t feel like I can ignore it.
    ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do yet, Molly. But if I do decide to come back to Australia in the near future, you’ll be the first to know.’
    That night, up in my bedroom, after we’ve all returned home from a Christmas pint down the pub, Nathan helps me out of my coat before turning his attention to my jumper, followed by my jeans and T-shirt.
    ‘You’ve got so many layers on,’ he groans. ‘This would be so much easier in Sydney.’
    ‘Was that the case when you were with Amy?’ Oh, shit, did I just say that out loud? I don’t want him to think I’m a bunny boiler.
    ‘Ah, Luce…Does the thing with Amy still bother you?’ I never told him it bothered me in the first place, but he just seems to sense these things. ‘Because you can ask me anything you want and I’ll tell you