Babyville Page 0,18
there was someone who really should have come out of the closet years ago.” Jason raises his glass in a silent toast to Mr. Benn.
Everyone has something to offer. Crystal Tipps and Alistair; Mary, Mungo and Midge; and then the pièce de résistance: Pipkins.
“Oh God,” groans Julia. “I loved Pipkins. Remember what a snob Octavia was?”
“And what about Hartley Hare?” Nobody has noticed Sam and Chris making their way round the table to their seats, and everyone starts laughing. Hartley Hare. Who has even thought about Hartley Hare for years?
Bella stands up to give Sam a hug, although it's not easy with the ever-growing baby.
“Twins?” Bella cannot resist, and Sam hits her.
“Oh fuck off,” she laughs, because she knows that Bella knows how fed up she is with being told she must be carrying an entire rugby team.
“You look exhausted, Chris,” Julia says, turning to Sam's husband, who reaches over to kiss her on the cheek, then raises his eyebrows.
“Not bloody surprising, given that Sam is either lumbering out of bed to go to the bloody loo about thirty times a night, and not even trying to keep the noise down in the bathroom, or tossing and turning and making the whole bloody house rock.”
He looks terrible. Exhausted, but as he says this he gives Sam's shoulder an affectionate squeeze all the same.
“Why should I be the only one to suffer?” Sam huffs, sitting as close to the table as she can while pulling a giant-sized bottle of Gaviscon out of her bag, thumping it on the table next to her wineglass.
“What the hell is that?” Bella points at the green bottle with a look of horror on her face as Sam undoes the cap and takes a giant swig straight from the bottle.
“Heartburn,” Sam explains, sighing with obvious relief as it hits the spot. “Everyone says that if you have terrible heartburn—which I have—then you're having a very hairy baby.”
“Is that true?” Mark is fascinated.
“Apparently so, but it wouldn't surprise me. Like mother like daughter.” She catches Chris's eye. “Or son, but all I can tell you is at this rate I really am going to be giving birth to a monkey.”
Sam and Bella are soon catching up on all their news, and Julia is only slightly pissed off that she is not sitting with them, but then she is sitting next to Jason, who is proving to be the perfect wedding companion, and she is having such a lovely time, feeling so sexy, and flirtatious, and alive, that for a few moments she genuinely wishes she were single.
But she isn't. She is living with Mark, trying for a baby, and this thought sobers her up for a few seconds. Jason sees her pull back and tries a new tack, and soon Julia is laughing again as they try to recall the words to one-hit-wonders from their youth.
“Whatsa matter you, hey,” Julia sings. “Why you looka so sad. Whaddya think you do, hey, itsa nicea place, da da da da da, ah shuddupa ya face.”
“What exactly does da da da da da mean?” Jason is smiling.
“Probably the same as”—Julia affects his Clanger voice—“du du du du du,” and they both laugh. If you didn't know better, you would think they were the perfect couple.
Mark sits back in his chair and watches Julia. He knows she is flirting, but he doesn't mind. He likes to see her have fun—he trusts her—and he likes to watch her like this: animated, sparkling, alive. The Julia he first met four years ago. With a stab of pain he wonders why he can't make her feel like this anymore.
As soon as the meal ends, the bride and groom take to the floor for their dance. “It Had to Be You” comes on, and the men at the table groan at the cheesiness of it, while the women smile even as their eyes well up at this first flush of love and the romanticism of it all.
And then it's back to the seventies for Adam and Lorna, and Mark stands up and pulls Julia to the floor during the Jackson Five's “ABC”; they continue throughout Patti LaBelle's “Lady Marmalade,” on through “White Lines” by Grandmaster Flash, finishing with “Night Fever” by the Bee Gees, by which point they're so exhausted they need a water break.
Jason has moved on by the time they get back to the table. He has realized that Julia is with Mark, and is currently busy prowling the other tables, looking for