𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚋𝚘𝚍𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎// john deacon

chapter forty - broccoli pasta

"I'M SORRY ABOUT the dress, Payton. If in December I knew I was gonna be pregnant, I would've waited." Valerie said, while she squinted against the sun as she glanced up at Julie who was currently acting as the subject for one of Valerie's sketches.

"Mustard in the kitchen with the candlestick," Julie called out. The three of them were playing Clue outside on the patio. It was mid-July, and rather hot, but the three of them were cooled off by the fan blowing a few feet away. Now that the band was recording again, and Payton had the day off from work, the three of them decided to spend that Friday together.

Payton showed Julie one of her cards before speaking. "Really, darling, it's okay. I've already put out the order for a new one for you, and it'll be done by next week." Payton said, patting Valerie's knee.

     Valerie leaned back in her chair to be more comfortable, rubbing her thumb over one of the dark lines of charcoal she had made to smudge it just a bit.

Valerie was a bridesmaid in Payton's wedding. Payton has designed dresses for everyone back in October of 1975 when the wedding was supposed to be held in December, but since it got postponed, they hadn't seen the light of day for months.

Everyone else's had fit, Payton only had three other bridesmaids including Valerie, so she hadn't had much a struggle altering them if they needed it.

But Valerie, being pregnant, evidently didn't fit into her dress anymore.

"I've got Iris working on it. My best seamstress, I tell you. And we've got all the measurements, so it wasn't hard to get the dress made and ready for you." Payton said while she moved her Clue piece across the board and into the LIBRARY.

"Plum in the library with the..... lead pipe." She said, leaning over Valerie's shoulder to watch her shade a few lines in the sketch.

"Julie, you have a very nice nose. Like John's. Easy to sketch." Valerie said, while she looked up at Julie, who smiled at her.

"Thank you. We both got the nose, and I got the naturally curly hair. But John got the nice eyes. Which isn't fair. Mine are just boring old brown." Julie replied with a laugh, the corners of her eyes crinkling as she crossed out on her score sheet the card Valerie had shown her.

"I think John would much rather have the curly hair. He joked one time about getting a perm, but I don't know if he really was joking," Valerie said as she rolled the dice, sitting up on her seat and setting her sketchbook down. "I hope he doesn't get one. I rather like his hair now."

       "Um, Plum in the Dining Room with the candlestick..... is anyone else hungry?" Valerie asked while Payton showed her one of her cards.

        "Just a bit. Wanna finish up and get something to eat?" Payton asked while she rolled the dice.

     "We have stuff here that I can make. I have my select few snacks that I like here, anyway." Valerie said while Payton moved her piece across the board.

      "Alright, hold on. I think I have a guess anyway," Payton said. Her guess ended up being wrong, but they finished the game and headed back in to the kitchen so Valerie could make her snack.

      "Here's some watermelon for you two," Valerie said, placing the large bowl of watermelon her mother had left before she went back down to Spain. Though she had to go back, she'd already said she'd come back to England for a few months when the baby was born.

     "What are you going to eat?"  Julie asked while she picked a large slice of watermelon out of the bowl.

"Only the best. Pistachio ice cream with Tabasco and some dark chocolate. Maybe a few potato chips thrown in there,  too." Valerie said as she opened the freezer.