by Sadie Sumner
“Maybe, if I can take my camera.” His voice was earnest.
“We have many lives,” Arun said as he handed the camera back to Gil.
Nina woke up, and Monica jiggled her. Kavitha warmed a bottle of her expressed milk. “Your turn,’ she said and showed her the best way to hold the baby and how to get the bottle angle just right.
“I’ll make enough milk for another week, maybe two.” She watched as Nina fussed around the unfamiliar nipple. “She’ll get used to it. It’s better this way.”
“Does breastfeeding feel, you know, natural?” Monica kept her eyes on the baby.
Kavitha stroked Nina's head. “It does. It is. It’s not something you think about.”
Monica placed her hand over Kavitha’s. “Thank you,” she said, and she knew the feeling inside her was one of gratitude. She held the bottle at the correct angle and kept the baby close and watched her face as she explored the foreign teat. When she finally took it and began to suck Monica felt absurd pride in her tiny accomplishment. “I have been thinking we might get a place here, stay for a while. Maybe set up a factory to make clothes that I design. I can’t go back to making bridal gowns. Would that be of interest to you and Arun?”
Kavitha glanced at Monica to see if she was telling the truth and nodded once. Monica put Nina to her shoulder and Kavitha tucked a muslin cloth to catch the drips.
“Will you tell her, about this?” Kavitha asked.
“Every day,” Monica said and patted Nina’s back.
Gil picked up his camera and went to the window. Monica stood beside him, the baby over her shoulder and despite the afternoon heat haze, she could make out the direction they had taken earlier and the cricket park. She looked down at the slum and knew she was no longer the woman who had wandered, clueless, into that world.
“I know you don’t love me.” Monica took Gil’s hand.
“I’m sorry,” Gil said.
“Stop saying sorry. Right now. I don’t love you either. Did you already know that?”
Gil took a photo of the view. “I guess. Or at least I suspected. I have a lot to resolve in myself.”
“You do, my friend, you do.” Rufus had arrived in fresh clothes. He took Nina from Kavitha and held her up to the view.
“You’re not even going to try to be her father, are you?” Monica asked.
“No, but I’ll sign all the papers and make sure she’s legal. I'll do whatever it takes. We don’t even have to get divorced.”
“You’re a giver,” Monica smiled.
Rufus frowned at him. “I would have tied you up and tortured you until you signed.”
“We all have some growing to do,” Monica said and turned to Rufus. “Hey what happened to Puffy? He was missing when I left.”
Rufus hugged the baby tighter and lowered his voice. “Dillon stole him.” He smiled down at Nina. “Can you take our photo?”
Gil focused his camera on Rufus and Nina and ran off a series of shots.
Monica clapped her hands. “We should do a family group portrait.”
“She would like a photo for when she grows up,” Kavitha said as Gil arranged them on the sofa with Monica, Nina, and Rufus in the middle. Kavitha and Ria took one end and Arun the other. Gil placed the camera on a table and fiddled with the lens then jumped into the shot. “Everyone. Here we go. Three, two, one.”
“Chucklee,” Rufus added and they laughed as the camera clicked.
Rufus took Nina back into his arms and looked to Monica. “Can I be her daddy? Please.”
“I’ll think about it,” Monica said, and Rufus laughed.
“So I’m your daddy,” he whispered to Nina and hugged her tight.
End
Afterword
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About the Author
Sadie Sumner is an award-winning documentary producer turned writer of fiction for women. Her documentary This Way of Life was shortlisted for an Oscar and she has won an international journalism prize. How to Make a Baby is her debut novel.
Sadie lives in an art deco beachside town in New Zealand, with her husband and a very grumpy ginger cat. Her online home is http://www.sadiesumnerbooks.com
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Upcoming
Sadie’s next project, Red Silk and the Sea is a trilogy set in 1836 that follows the exploits of a 16-year-old London girl who falls in love, into crime…and onto a convict ship bound for Australia. Filled with historical detail, rich characterization, as well as a feminist slant, readers of the genre will delight in following this saga.
To Bonnie, Rachel, Ruth, Amelia, and Lili
Copyright
A MOTHER MEDIA NZ ebook
First published in New Zealand in 2017 by MOTHER MEDIA NZ
Copyright © MOTHER MEDIA NZ
ISBN 978-0-473-41477-1
Cover Design and formatting by Ruth Mitchener
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The moral right of Sadie Sumner to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.