Babyville Page 0,127
worked for me, but three hours? Please. It was all I could do to stay awake.”
“I couldn't agree more,” laughs Dan. “The slowest film I think I've ever had the misfortune to see.”
“Well, you two obviously have no taste,” Jill says, smiling, as Sam feels a glow of warmth at her and Dan being referred to as “you two.''
They drive separately to the restaurant, Sam and Chris in silence as Sam looks out the window with a smile on her face and thinks about Dan. Chris glances at her from time to time, wondering if she's okay, wondering why she seems so distracted, but she is definitely happier tonight, and he doesn't want to risk her wrath by putting a foot wrong.
They sit down and order a Chablis for Jill and Chris, and a Bordeaux for Dan and Sam, who is more and more excited at finding she has so much in common with Dan, so much more, it would seem, than Jill appears to have.
“Thank God we've found you!” Jill says when Sam expresses her preference for red. “Dan always moans if he has to drink white and we either get a bottle of each and leave half, which is such a bloody waste, or we have nasty house wine by the glass.”
“I don't even remember the last time we went out,” Sam says, sending a covert message to Dan, letting him know that their marriage is not as good as it may appear, “let alone the last time we drank wine.”
“And whose fault is that?” The words and the expression are innocent, but Chris is fed up with being blamed for everything. Luckily Sam's good humor is such she does not rise to the bait.
“It's probably my fault. I've been so tired since George that I'm terrified a glass of wine will just knock me out completely.”
“Careful, then,” Dan says, smiling, moving her glass away. “We don't want you falling asleep at the table.”
“Don't be silly!” Sam laughs, hitting him playfully. “I've got loads of energy tonight, no chance of me falling asleep.”
“Good,” Jill says. “Because we're all going to enjoy this evening, particularly if you hardly go out. It took me months to trust Lily with anyone, and when I decided that actually I now felt that we had to start having a life again and not everyone who turned up for an interview would potentially harm my child, we couldn't find anyone. Have you got a regular baby-sitter?”
“We have Sam's mother,” Chris interjects, “who's about as irregular as you can get. Tonight is probably the, what? Third? Fourth time she's baby-sat?”
“My mother is in fact the anti-mother,” Sam says ruefully. “Everyone told us she'd be different as a grandmother and would completely fall in love with her grandchild, but eight months on and we're still waiting for that to happen.”
“Dan's mother sounds exactly the same,” Jill says. “It's such a bloody cliché, but all she's interested in is her bloody tennis.”
“With my mother it's bridge.” Sam shrugs in recognition.
Jill continues. “She probably sees Lily once every couple of weeks, and then she'll ring up and make all these ridiculous inferences that I'm a bad daughter-in-law and the only reason she doesn't spend time with Lily is because I'm so busy and she doesn't want to interrupt.” Her voice rises as she becomes agitated talking about it.
“Come on, Jill. Calm down.” Dan sees she's getting herself worked up into a state.
“I'm sorry, but I just get so angry. Bloody mothers-in-law. Nothing that I ever seem to do makes her happy. I suppose one of these days I'll just have to accept it.”
“You know it's nothing to do with you,” Dan says. “She's simply an unhappy woman and that's the way it is. She's never going to change.”
“That's exactly what I keep trying to tell Sam,” Chris says. “But Sam keeps trying to please her, or hoping that one morning she's going to wake up and suddenly be this wonderful warm, gray-hair-in-a-bun grandmother type, and it's never going to happen.”
“Must be a female thing. I know I try to change everyone, or at least hope they're going to change.”
“Maybe you're just a control freak,” Chris laughs.
“Ah yes.” Dan gives a knowing look. “Funny you should say that.”
“What's that play called?” Sam laughs. “I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. That's what we do, isn't it?”
“That's just what you two do,” Chris says. “I don't think everyone does that.”
“Nah, mate.” Dan shakes his head. “All women do do that.