Not What They Were Expecting

2

‘Winfield, you swine, my daughter make you late again did she?’

‘Howard! Great to see you. Merry Christmas!’ James gave Rebecca’s father a vigorous handshake while she gave her a mum a hug, before they swapped over. ‘Merry Christmas, Penny, your dress looks beautiful.’

‘Thank you, dear,’ she said adjusting the collar of her outfit. ‘Trip all right? I wanted Howard to call and make sure you were getting on, but I wasn’t sure who’d be driving, and he wouldn’t do it anyway. Too busy playing games on that blinkin’ phone of his…’

‘I was checking to see if your wayward son was online, dear. Thought he’d be missing the smell of your sacrificial sprouts,’ Howard said with a wink, before leaning in to James’s shoulder adding, ‘although those Angry Birds aren’t going to propel themselves into those green piggies are they, eh?’

James grinned back and gave Howard a pat on the back. Her dad being a slight, wiry man, watching him and James together often reminded Rebecca of watching an old lady’s Jack Russell terrier strutting about at the park bossing around a big, cheerful family Labrador.

‘Lunch smells gorgeous already, Penny. Have you done your potatoes?’ asked James.

‘I did an extra tray, just for you.’

‘What a woman!’

Over the years, it had been while watching him comfortably chat away with her parents that Rebecca had got an idea of what James must be like at work. Comfortable in a formal setting, but able to be relaxed and friendly. Respectful without being fawning. He’d been able to do it since they first met, and throughout the five years since, he’d been able to effortlessly play by their rules. It was a trick she’d never mastered, either at work or with his parents – although they were a bit odd so it wasn’t entirely her fault. She was just amazed at James’s ability to be someone else in these situations. OK maybe not someone else, but not exactly the same as the man who would burp ‘I love you’ after his first bottle of beer and bag of Doritos on a Saturday-night-in in front of the telly.

And it had only taken about eight seconds for her dad to get in his first dig about her timekeeping, she noticed. But these things weren’t going to bother her any more, or at least not today. Today she was going to be a woman serenely with child, and not a stroppy teenager who they just didn’t understand.

‘Toot-toot!’ James murmured in her ear with a supportive hand on her bum as they filed into the house behind her folks.

‘So have you heard from Matty?’ Rebecca asked her mum as they split away from ‘the boys’ and Howard took James to see a new programme for his computer.

‘We got a call last night, it was already Christmas where he is, and he was just going into work at the hotel, and some of the people from his hostel were getting together to have Christmas dinner on the beach.’

‘Sounds like he’s having a fab time.’

‘It’s a funny way to spend Christmas, his first time away from home. I hope he’s OK. I just worry he’s not going to eat enough before drinking. Or they won’t cook something properly on the barbecue and he’ll get food poisoning.’

‘You just worry, Mum.’

‘I just remember that time he got carried away and had that barbecue chicken that hadn’t finished cooking and was terribly ill for more than a week. He doesn’t think about these things, and he won’t have anyone to look after him.’

‘That happened over a decade ago, he was seven!’

‘Still, having him ill on the other side of the world would be the last thing we’d need right now.’