The Timeline

37.

May 20th, 2016:

Claire had woken up that morning with the intention of dressing in her best clothes. She ought to make a good impression that day: her scheduled meeting with Beatrix Goodwin, the director she was set to work with during the course of summer, was going to happen that very morning in a cafe situated in central London, at exactly 11AM.

She would've entrusted Theodore to the cares of her friends, since she did not want to scurry him around London and would've enjoyed talking to Beatrix on her own for as long as she needed to; having a baby with her would've forced her to adhere to a really strict schedule and Claire didn't want to annoy Beatrix with all Theodore's needs.

After all, she wanted to impress her.

So, smiling at the way the weather had finally allowed her to start wearing cute spring-y clothes, Claire had opened her wardrobe and had stared down at her growing collection of her latest fashion obsession: sundresses.

It had all started the previous year, when she was pregnant with Theodore: dresses, after all, were the easiest piece of clothing to wear because it allowed her to get ready in the morning without too much of a fuss and an effort; plus, they allowed her to go to the bathroom as much as she wanted, didn't press down on her stomach leaving angry red indentation marks and were all so nice. She had fallen in love with them, and she had only been buying more whenever she could.

It was not hot enough for her to wear just a sundress, but she could combine a couple of things and still look nice, she reckoned.

She selected a white buttoned up long sleeved shirt and a black sundress with thin straps she could throw on top of it; matching it with skin colored see through thighs and a pair of ankle boots Claire then went to select a cardigan that she could've used as a jacket as well and a couple of rings, knowing that she wasn't in danger of letting Theo slip one out and just put it in his mouth.

He had taken the habit of grabbing for things and just bringing them to his mouth, so many places in the house were off limits for him, unless you wanted to be attached to him the whole time to make sure he was not about to grab something dangerous and eat it. If he ended up swallowing something sharp or nasty it would've caused quite the havoc and a really ugly day or afternoon for everyone.

Moral of the story, Claire had stopped wearing rings to protect Theodore whenever she was around him, because Theodore loved to hold her hand and play with her fingers. She missed wearing rings, but she did not complain because she cared about Theodore's wellbeing more than anything. She did wear them, however, if he wasn't going to be with her, like that morning.

Staring down at her collection, she said to herself that it was also time to broaden her collection, and she made a mental note to call her sister and go on a shopping trip with her, someday. It felt like the two of them had rarely seen the other in the previous months, what with Claire being so full of things to do and Anna being swarmed with appointments to try and get enough money to open her own design studio somewhere close to their house, which Claire was incredibly proud about. Still, she had missed her sister, and only seeing her when Theodore had a playdate with the twins didn't feel like enough.

Once she was ready, she sent a quick text to her sister, inviting her on a shopping trip, and then she walked downstairs.

Jacopo, designed babysitter for Theodore of the morning, was sitting in the kitchen, reading a musical sheet to Theodore and discussing the various ups and downs of it with him, while Theodore just looked at him with his mouth open and emitted some sounds from time to time when the older guy stopped speaking, filling the silence.

Toby Carpenter, it turned out, was the perfect choice for his band, and Jacopo looked a lot calmer and satisfied than he had since the end of the previous year. He had a free morning and then rehearsal in the evening, with one of their first gigs lined up in the following months, courtesy of one of Toby's friends, who owned a bar in downtown London. It was a paid gig with a paying ticket to enter, which gave him a great gratification at the thought. His skin, albeit pale because Jacopo had a pretty fair complexion, looked more alive than it had in months and the corners of his mouth were filling with tiny telltales of the many smiles he was sharing those days. Claire loved the turn of events for him.