Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

Twenty

Twenty

 When Amy arrived at the restaurant with Ben and the kids, Helen and the girls were already there; along with Lynn.

“Sorry we’re a bit late,” Amy said. “Last minute toilet requirements.”

“Don’t worry,” Lynn smiled, “I remember what it was like when you girls were little.”

“No sign of Nat, and she’s got no excuse,” Helen said, glancing at her watch, “she’s only got herself to get ready.”

“Actually,” said Amy, “she’s not coming. She sent me a text just as we were leaving.”

“Honestly,” said Helen, you’d think she’d have made the effort, wouldn’t you?”

“I may be able to shed a little light,” Lynn said, frowning. “She visited me in New Zealand; it was a couple of years back. We had a little ‘falling out’, shall we say, and haven’t spoken since.”

“Over what?” demanded Helen. “She didn’t mention it. Did she mention it to you, Amy?”

Lynn gave an ironic laugh. “No, she wouldn’t have. I won’t go into details with little ears around; some other time. Let’s get our table.”

After their orders had been placed, Chelsea, Leigh and James made a beeline for the salad bar, delighted to hear from the waitress that they could have as much as they liked.

“Take Holly and give them a hand, Ben,” Amy urged. “We’ll get ours in a minute.”

“Right,” Ben nodded, “I’ll leave you to find out what Nat’s been up to then.”

“Okay, in brief,” Lynn said when the others were out of earshot. “There was a chap I was rather fond of - Nick. I’d been seeing him for some time and he proposed to me. I’d more or less made up my mind to say yes, but decided that before I accepted I’d fill my daughters in. After all, you were about to obtain a step-father of whom you had no knowledge.”

“So long as you were happy, that’s all we’d have cared about,” Amy said, speaking on behalf of Helen.

“Well, as I said,” Lynn continued, “Natasha was visiting at the time. So it was she I called upon first. And she was less than enthusiastic. She said she wasn’t sure about him; thought he seemed a bit insincere. I couldn’t see where she was coming from at all. And, after all, she hardly knew him. But she was adamant; kept saying she had a hunch. So, foolishly, I told him I wasn’t sure I was ready for marriage and could we consider it again in a few months.” She glanced over at the salad bar. They looked like they’d be a few more minutes yet. “Anyway, to cut a long story short, it turned out she’d slept with him a few days before he’d proposed to me.” Amy and Helen looked at each other incredulously. “Apparently,” Lynn went on, “his incongruous proposal was some ridiculous attempt to make amends for sleeping with my daughter. Still, at least he did try to make amends. Natasha, apparently, felt no remorse, whatsoever. She’d decided she wanted him for herself and set about trying to get her own unscrupulous claws into him.”

“So how did you find out?” Helen asked.

“After several failed attempts to persuade Natasha to leave, Nick came clean. Said he still loved me and asked me for another chance. Natasha denied it of course. But she slipped up on numerous occasions, until it became blatantly obvious that she was lying. The whole thing culminated in a blazing row between Natasha and I. She admitted everything. And then she left.”

“And Nick?” Amy asked.

“I do believe that he was genuinely sorry, but I couldn’t bring myself to forgive him. It wasn’t just the cheating, but also the part he played in my losing Natasha.”