Three Years Old

Chapter Six

Here you go guys! This one's dedicated to BeyondTheMoon because she's a commenter, and they're my favourite type of fans! Keep being awesome ;) Also the song on the side's unrelated, but really good, give it a listen.

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     A few days later we decided to go out to the local pub for dinner, The Famer’s Arms. Although I’d already gone round and visited all my mother’s friends letting them know I was here, not everyone in St. David’s knew I was back. And with the size of St. David’s, most people knew me, so would care. I decided going to the pub, where on most nights you could find half the population of St. David’s, was a good way to announce my return.

     There was hardly anyone from my school days left in the city as most of my friends had been from the bigger local city, Haverfordwest, and the handful that were from St. David’s had moved away for university. As far as I was aware, I was the only one to come back.

      From the moment we walked in, people stopped to say hello and coo at Flick. The first person to see me was Dianne, Debby’s aupaire from when she was younger and her parents were travelling. It had been a long time since I’d seen her, as she went from living with Debby and her brother Robert and basically raising them, to never being around at all once Rob turned sixteen. It must have been almost twelve years now, but she recognised me immediately.

      ‘Beth!’ she called out from her table by the garden entrance to the pub as we walked in. When my eyes found her it took me a second to recognise her, even though she had changed less than I had.

      ‘Dianne?’ I responded, going over to her table with Blake and Flick following. ‘What are you doing here?’

      She stood up and pulled me into a hug saying, ‘I moved to St. David’s with my husband a year ago.’

     ‘You have a husband now?’ I repeated.

     She grinned at me and gestured to the man sitting behind her at the table. He was a scruffy sort of good looking, with wild dark curls and some stubble. ‘Yep,’ she replied. ‘Gary, Beth, Beth, Gary.’ Then she put her hand on her belly, cradling it slightly. ‘And in about six months, we’ll have a son or daughter too.’

     I laughed. ‘Wow, that’s great,’ I told her. ‘But… I win. This is my partner of nine years, Blake,’ I explained, pulling Blake into my side, my arm around her waist. ‘And this,’ I carried on, letting go of Blake to bend down and pick up Flick from under her armpits. ‘…is our three-year-old daughter Felicity.’

     Dianne’s face was the picture of shock, her perfectly plucked eyebrows arched high and her mouth slightly open. ‘You have a three-year-old daughter?’ she repeated. ‘How… I just can’t believe it… little Beth, ten years younger than me, has a child way before me. An absolutely adorable one too.’ She paused and chucked Flick under the chin. ‘And you know me, children are my life, how am I having my first one at thirty-eight?’

      I laughed at this and shook my head in amazement. ‘I guess you were always too busy looking after other people’s children to have your own,’ I mused. ‘What have you been up to these days anyway?’

     ‘Oh, well I taught at a primary school in Haverfordwest for a long time, and I moved here to teach at the one here,’ she told me. ‘It’s been great. What about you?’ While she had been speaking Blake had gently pried Flick from my arms, and wandered off to find a table with her. My arms felt extremely empty without Flick in them, so I folded them across my chest awkwardly.