When's It Due, Sophie Drew?: a heart-warming romantic comedy

by Katey Lovell

  “Come on up.” Eve pressed the button to release the main door to the block so our friend could get in.

  “Better get those plates washed,” I said, pushing myself up in an ungainly manner. My bump might not be enormous, but my body didn’t feel like my own any more, the weight distribution all wrong and leaving me unbalanced.

  “Let’s eat them the old-fashioned way,” Eve said, standing in front of the gap that doubled as an entrance to the kitchen. “Chips taste better eaten straight out of the wrapping.”

  And that’s how the plates were left to soak in the sink for far longer than planned, because when Tawna burst through the door larger than life, the vinegary scent filling the room, my mouth was watering so fiercely that I don’t think I would have been able to dish the meal up without drowning in my own slobber. Anyway, I thought, as I licked the salt from my fingers, Eve was right. Chips did taste better straight from the wrapping.

  Chapter 19

  As if helping Eve settle into her new place wasn’t enough, Max kept dropping hints about finding a new home before the baby arrived. All his reasons for wanting to do this were right – my house was too small and not quite close enough to either his parents or my own for them to be immediately on hand. I also had the distinct sense he was keen for us to get away from the house I’d shared with my ex. Maybe it was jealousy rearing its ugly head, but Max insisted his reasons were purely practical.

  “I’ve been online, just to see what’s available,” he said nonchalantly. “There’s a place right near my mum and dad’s that looks good, and it’s got a huge garden.”

  “What do we need a huge garden for?” I laughed. “You’ve seen the sorry state of my plants. I’m hardly a landscaping expert.”

  “I was thinking of the future,” he said, eyeing my bump. “Once she’s on the move she’ll need plenty of space to run about.”

  Part of me loved his enthusiasm, the other part wanted to scream, “Give her a chance. She’s not even born yet and you’re trying to train her up to be a top athlete.”

  “Wanting to give our daughter the best possible start in life’s not such a bad thing, is it?”

  “I never said it was, but there’s nothing wrong with the life we’ve got!” Sure, the eight hours a day I spent at the office weren’t the most thrilling part of my day and although Max professed to love his job, I’ve no doubt he dreams of a more exciting life once in a while, especially now his closest friend’s band is taking off. Max always said he had no interest in striving for a big-time career in music, but seeing the success they’d had – even being invited to play on one of the small stages at Glastonbury – must have given him a tinge of envy. They might not be headlining the Pyramid stage yet but still… Glasto was an achievement.

  “Imagine what it’d be like to live somewhere like that though,” he pressed. “Tree-lined streets, bigger houses, excellent schools…”

  “We’re a long way away from school applications.”

  It felt as though he was wishing our unborn child’s life away already. Couldn’t we get through the labour, the birth and the next four years first?

  “I’m thinking ahead. We don’t want our daughter to go to a failing school.”

  “My school didn’t have a great reputation, but I turned out all right.” I almost choked on the defensive words. “And Eve turned out amazing. She went to a run-of-the-mill comprehensive school too.”

  “You don’t need to snap, I never said there was anything wrong with your education.”

  “You didn’t need to. You implied it by saying we need to move closer to your parents and the la-di-da school you went to.”

  “It was hardly la-di-da.” He laughed. “But the schools in that part of town are all in demand so they must be doing something right. I had a look at the OFSTED reports too and they’re glowing. Besides you’ve got friends near there now. Rachel lives just down the road.”

  “We can’t afford it anyway so I don’t know why we’re discussing it.” I was keen to change the subject, aware of my blood pressure rising. It felt like my veins were being inflated with a bicycle pump.

  “There’s no harm in looking, I’m sure we could find a way. The house is already filling up with baby stuff and it’s only going to get worse. You can barely get into the spare room as it is, let alone fit a cot in there. Think how nice it would be to have more space. If we got somewhere with three bedrooms, you could even have one for your crafts,” he suggested, and I wavered at that. Having somewhere dedicated to creativity was appealing, and I’m sure Max knew that was the way to my heart. Since making the decision to take my craft more seriously and make it a small business, my stash of materials had multiplied. It didn’t feel as frivolous spending money on wools and fabrics when I could write the expenditure in the little notebook I kept to record my incomings and outgoings ready for my tax return, but that did mean the plastic crates containing my stock and materials were taking over the place.

  “How much is it per month?” I asked, softening to the idea.

  What Max said next almost floored me. “It’s not a rental, it’s up for sale.”

  “Well, that puts an end to it. We can’t afford to buy a place like that! Even if we could find a way to stretch to the monthly payments we wouldn’t have enough for a deposit.” I shook my head, wondering why Max thought it could even be a possibility.

  “That’s where you’re wrong. Mum and Dad have offered to give us money for a deposit if we like it.”

  I didn’t know how to respond. The words wouldn’t come to mind let alone come out of my mouth. The revelation was so unexpected that I hadn’t had chance to formulate an opinion, and although my head was thinking “that’s incredibly generous” it felt as though people were trying to shoehorn me into a different life to the one I knew.

  “Say something,” Max encouraged, his eyes twinkling with excitement. His pupils looked enormous, the grey of his irises glistening like silver. “This is a great opportunity for us. No more playing at it, we would actually be living like adults. Let me show you the listing online.” He pulled up an estate agent app on his phone and showed a picture of a large house. It wasn’t as extravagant as the one Max’s parents lived in, but the bay-windowed Victorian property looked far more grown up than our current Lego-brick new-build, even a step up from Mum and Dad’s boxy sixties semi. My gut reaction was that I didn’t deserve a home with such curb-appeal.

  The thought that I was being pushed into this was still uncomfortable, my chest tightening as though a lead weight had been dropped on it. “I don’t know. It looks really nice from the outside, but it might be a mess inside. The people who live there might be knee-deep in dirt.”

  “It’s just as nice on the inside,” Max assured. “There’s a huge kitchen-diner that would be the hub of the home and a cosy living room with a wood-burning stove, plus a conservatory at the back. Three double bedrooms, one with an en suite. And a family bathroom, of course. You’d love it, Soph. It’s even got one of those roll-top baths and a separate shower.” The words tumbled from his mouth as though he couldn’t keep them in. “And like I said, the garden’s great. Flat, south-facing, big enough to add some decking even. I know you loved what Johnny and Tawna did to their garden last year. We could do something similar and still have plenty of grass for our daughter to play on. And at the far end of the garden there’s wild lavender so it smells amazing.”

  Something about the detail he was sharing niggled at me, it was too in depth, and he said it with a fervour that was hard to believe would be stoked purely by pictures alone.

  “How do you know what the garden’s like? There aren’t any photos of it here.”

  “Ah.” He gave me a sheepish smile. “I rang the agent to get more details. A house like that won’t stay on the market for long. I thought that if I showed an interest and asked to be kept in the loop about any offers that went in we’d know if it was a possibility.”

  “You said the lavender smells amazing.” The tigh
tness in my chest was increasing, and I couldn’t breathe properly. We’d had our fallings out in the time we’d been together and that had never bothered me – I was far more wary of the couples who insisted they never had a cross word to say to one another – but from the way he avoided my eyes I knew. He’d been to see this house without me. “How do you know that?”

  “I had to go and look at the place. Yes, yes, I should have told you, but like I said it’s not going to stay on the market for long and it was an itch I had to scratch. And I know it’s a lot of money, but for that area it’s a real snip. There’s a communal green out the front, for crying out loud! The current owners are after a quick sale because they have sick relatives somewhere in Somerset and they need to move to look after them. Opportunities to buy a house like this don’t come around often, not for people like us. That’s why Mum and Dad said they’d give us the money.”

  “Please say you haven’t put in an offer.”

  My heart was palpitating, I swear I had some kind of arrhythmic beat going on. What had happened to Max? The man I knew and loved was cautious and reliable, he wasn’t the sort to make impetuous decisions. Although based on how he was behaving I was concerned that maybe I didn’t know him as well as I thought I did.

  “Not yet,” Max said, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “But I’ve made an appointment for us to go and view it tonight.”

  I gave him what I hoped was a steely glare. How could he make such big decisions without so much as consulting me? I thought we were supposed to be in this together.

  “Don’t look at me like that, Soph. You’re going to love this house, it’s the perfect place to raise a family. I got carried away, I admit. But I’m doing it for us. For our daughter. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to provide for you both, is there?”

  “No, but we don’t need to break our backs to get a big posh house. Haven’t we got everything we need? We’ve got a roof over our heads, our families, each other, this little one’s doing fine…” I stopped to rub my stomach. Baby kicked in response. It made me feel as though she was on my side.

  “I don’t see the problem in having aspirations for more. We’re lucky, but our child deserves the best.”

  “Which doesn’t mean we need to overstretch ourselves,” I snapped. “Both of us have overspent in the past and we’re only just getting back on our feet. I’m going to be off work for at least six months and we’ll be reliant on your wage because maternity pay isn’t going to go far. The timing of this is terrible.”

  “Hold off judgement until you’ve been to see it. I promise you’ll be blown away. There’s nothing that needs to be done, it’s immaculately decorated, but there’s potential to extend upwards into the loft in the future. Please don’t be mad at me for being excited. When you come out of there tonight I guarantee you’ll be as in love with it as I am.”

  The light in his eyes as he spoke about the house scared me. Could this house drive a wedge between us? The way he batted away my financial concerns and couldn’t see why I was upset that he’d been to see the house – and presumably spoken to his parents about it, asking for a loan – made it seem like a done deal. His enthusiasm suggested that in his head he’d already moved in, but I couldn’t rid myself of the discomfort. It didn’t sit well. It didn’t sit well with me at all.

  Chapter 20

  The minute I saw the house, I knew. The way the March sun reflected from the panes of glass in the pale green front door it was as though it was beckoning us in. My body seized up with the realisation my resolve was floundering.

  “You can see why I fell in love with it, can’t you?” Max whispered as we were ushered into the house by the estate agent. Sweeping high ceilings greeted us in the hallway along with the varnished parquet floor I’d always secretly dreamed of.

  “It’s lovely,” I admitted, poking my head around the door of the living room, which revelled in a glut of original features. The wood-burning stove was the focal point of the room, but looking up I was entranced by the cornicing and an exquisite ornate ceiling rose.

  Each room was better than the next, the enormous kitchen-diner a room I could imagine nursing the baby in as Max put his own twist on recipes he’d downloaded from the BBC Food website. The south-facing conservatory was light and bright and would make a perfect playroom, leading straight out onto the long garden which seemed to go on forever, only broken by an apple tree with an old-fashioned string-and-plank swing. In the distance the faded purple sprigs of lavender Max had mentioned caught my attention.

  Even the smallest bedroom was a decent size and would make the perfect craft room, especially as it boasted a ready-made storage solution – a walk-in cupboard with built-in shelving.

  And the master bedroom was a delight, with a wrought-iron fireplace and a sparkling-new en suite. “They only put it in last summer,” the agent said. He must have picked up on my keenness. “Tasteful, isn’t it? And good to have an alternative to the main bathroom.”

  And oh, the bathroom! It looked like it belonged in a spa hotel rather than a family home. It even had that smell, the fresh, faintly salty smell, that you found in a spa.

  “You’d be able to come home and have a well-deserved soak at the end of the day,” Max said with a smile as I looked longingly at the roll-top bath. “Lots of bubbles, a few candles, a glass of wine…” His voice trailed off and I knew he’d won me around. This house would be ideal for us. It was everything that I’d ever hoped for, the wildest dream in a house-shaped package.

  “Think how much it’s going to cost though,” I said, trying to keep a hold on my emotions. In the past my heart had ruled my head and it had ended up with me running up a five-figure credit card bill. “We’ve got to be sensible. The mortgage on this place must be twice what we pay in rent.”

  “We could manage, Soph. I know we could. And if we don’t take a chance now, we’re going to miss out. Houses like this don’t come around very often, and definitely not at this price.”

  “I know, I know. And I don’t want to be miserable about it, but I’m trying to be the voice of reason. What if interest rates go up? No one knows what’s going on with the economy since Brexit.” My knowledge of the economy was patchy at best, I was just regurgitating what I’d heard on the TV. “And babies are expensive. When I go back to work nearly all my wage will go on childcare. I’ve heard Mia and Rachel talking about how much they’re paying, and it’s daylight robbery.”

  “If you go back to work,” Max said, and I looked at him in puzzlement. “You’re always complaining about it, and if it’s not bringing in any money, then what’s the point? You could be a stay-at-home mum.”

  He was right. There were many times I’d complained about the monotony of my day job and how thankless it was, especially when I had a grumpy lawyer telling me the notes I was typing up should have been done the day before and the client I was chasing up payment from kept making excuses. I’d often remarked how I’d love to jack it all in, but now Max was suggesting it I wasn’t sure anymore. My job might not be much, but it was a part of my identity, and the close bond I shared with my workmates had got me through many a tough time.

  “I could speak to my boss about opportunities for promotion,” he continued, oblivious to my concerns. “The area manager we’ve got at the moment is mediocre at best. I could do as good a job, if not better. Maybe they’d consider me if they’re looking for a replacement.”

  “We can’t buy a house on a maybe.”

  “When we get home let’s do the maths. I know we can find a way to make it work. My savings are there to dip into with good reason and this is as good a reason as any.”

  The estate agent joined us. “Have you seen enough or do you need a bit longer?”

  “I think we’ve already decided we love it,” Max said. “We’ll be in touch in the next day or two.”

  “Excellent. We’ve another two viewings booked in tomorrow morning and it’s priced to sell, so if you decide to make an offer I’d do it soon.
”

  “Oh, we will.” Max held out his hand.

  The estate agent reached out and shook it. “I’ll look forward to hearing from you.”

  The salesman walked one way and we walked the other, heading towards Max’s Mini.

  “Let’s go and crunch the numbers,” Max said, reaching out and squeezing my hand. “This house is meant to be ours, I can feel it.”

  Although the house was perfect, almost too perfect if I was being honest, I couldn’t stop worrying about making a commitment that might be stretching our finances too far. Life was already about to change monumentally. Was I ready to be a homeowner too?

  “I know that road!” Iris exclaimed, bouncing Jude on her hip. “It’s gorgeous.”

  “I know.” There was a hint of smugness in my voice that I didn’t even try to hide. “And it’s not far from some lovely independent shops and cafés.” I’d allowed myself to daydream about pushing the pram along the streets, saying hello to all the neighbours who would no doubt become great friends, and enjoying a latte and slice of cake in one of the independent eateries.

  “What a lovely area to live in,” Iris said. “I dream of a place like that. I’ve been in Rachel’s house and it’s stunning, but the area is the real selling point.”

  The location had won me over in the end. As beautiful as the house was and as much as I could envisage us making it our family’s nest, it had been the good schools that convinced me, that and how it had an active neighbourhood watch group. Since finding out I was pregnant, safety had become a top priority.

  “I’m on tenterhooks waiting to hear from Max,” I admitted.

  He’d phoned first thing to put in an offer. Not quite the full asking price, but we hoped that wouldn’t count against us. We weren’t trying to be cheeky, but after poring over our incomings and outgoings we’d come to an agreement about the bid we could realistically put forward.