Dear Thing Read Free Page A

behind him, and the scent of the newly fallen rain. His brown hair had gone curly with the damp.
    ‘Hey, Birthday Girl,’ he called. ‘I brought you a present.’
    ‘A big present!’ said Posie joyfully. ‘Wow.’ She hugged him and he ruffled her hair.
    ‘Bigger than you, peanut. Hey, Rom.’ Ben waved to Romily, greeted Posie’s friend, and then crossed to Claire and kissed her. ‘I couldn’t resist a trip to Hamley’s. Had a hell of a time getting that on the tube, though.’
    Claire gave him an extra kiss back. ‘Softy.’
    Posie began tugging the box across the carpet to where the tea party was set up. ‘What is it, what is it?’
    ‘Not telling.’
    ‘Whatever it is,’ said Romily, ‘it’s never going to fit in our—’
    ‘Can I open it now?’ said Posie. ‘Please?’
    ‘Let me help you with it.’ Ben picked up the box effortlessly and carried it to the centre of the room. ‘Go ahead and open it. It’s yours.’
    ‘Fantastical!’ Posie began ripping at the silver paper, making no effort to preserve the pretty paper as she usually did. Her friend joined her, peering curiously. ‘Oh, it’s a castle!’
    ‘You bought her a castle,’ Romily said quietly, as Ben helped Posie dismantle the cardboard box to reveal the doll’s house beneath. Turrets and everything, with climbing roses on the painted grey stonework.
    ‘It’s got a dungeon and a secret passage,’ he told Posie, who squealed and stuck her head inside the rooms.
    ‘This is epic,’ she said, her voice muffled.
    ‘Glad you like it, peanut.’
    ‘I love it!’ Posie flew out of the castle, kissed him and hugged him, hard, and then kissed and hugged Claire. Then she immediately went back to her new toy.
    ‘Job well done,’ said Ben. ‘I think it’s beer o’clock for grown-ups, don’t you?’ He went into the kitchen, removing his suit jacket as he went, and Claire and Romily followed him.
    ‘I mean, thanks and all,’ said Romily, ‘but that’s never going to fit into our flat. It’s practically the
size
of our flat.’
    ‘She can keep it here.’ Ben opened the fridge and took out a couple of bottles of lager. He passed one to Romily. ‘We don’t mind, do we, Claire?’
    ‘Of course not.’
    ‘And then when she comes here, she can play with it. It’s probably better that way anyway. Kids get tired of toys they see all the time.’
    Somehow Romily doubted that Posie was going to get tired of this particular toy very quickly, but she drank her beer. What was she going to do? Make Ben take it back? He liked to spoil his god-daughter.
    ‘How do you feel?’ Ben asked Claire. ‘Do you feel good? Do you feel pregnant?’
    Claire looked from Ben to Romily, and back to Ben. ‘Do you think that maybe—’
    ‘Oh, Romily knows all about it. I couldn’t keep it to myself.’ He took Claire’s hand. ‘I can’t wait for tomorrow when we know for certain. This afternoon I called a client Mrs Embryonic Transfer.’
    ‘Ben!’
    ‘Okay, I didn’t. But I was severely distracted all the same.’ Ben ran his hand up her arm, and then cradled her face. ‘Areyou sure we shouldn’t take a test now? Just to put ourselves out of our misery? Fifteen hours can’t make much difference, can it?’
    ‘Actually, I took a test this morning.’
    Ben stared at her.
    ‘And you didn’t tell me? Is it bad news? Is it good? Did it take?’ He put his bottle down and dropped to his knees in front of Claire. ‘Tell me!’
    ‘Sorry, Romily,’ said Claire over Ben’s head. ‘He’s a little bit dramatic.’
    ‘Tell me something I don’t know,’ said Romily.
    ‘Claire,’ said Ben from the floor, and his voice was serious.
    ‘It’s not conclusive,’ Claire said. ‘You can still get false results from residual hormones. We should wait till we have the official results from the clinic.’
    ‘Okay. We should. But you didn’t. What did the test say?’
    ‘Positive.’
    Ben yelled a triumphant whoop and jumped up.
    ‘A really