A Model Mother

Chapter 18

Miles came to Rose’s flat at 4pm the next day to spend a couple of hours with his son. Rose let him in.

Unexpectedly, when he arrived he found himself caught in a full teenage drama; Nathalie had plans for the evening and in no uncertain terms was refusing to babysit Lloyd. Clearly Rose had plans for the evening too. Miles, as unobtrusively as he could manage, crept past the sisters and knelt to greet his son, who was banging plastic teacups and saucers together. When Lloyd greeted Miles with a gummy smile of recognition, he thought his heart was going to melt.

“I did tell you Rose,” Nathalie said firmly, “I’m not lying, you must have forgotten. I’m really sorry but I can’t cancel now, it’s all arranged. We’re all going clubbing and I’m staying the night with Angelina.”

Rose was looking both exasperated and resigned. “I’m not accusing you of lying, ok; I’m just annoyed at having to cancel an important business meeting. Why isn’t your evening pencilled in in the calendar? We did agree that we’d both keep it up to date so that you’d know when I need you to be with Lloyd.”

Nathalie looked sheepish.

“OK, yeah, I did forget to fill in the calendar. Sorry.”

“But I’m not cancelling this evening,” she added defiantly.

Rose realised there was no point carrying on the argument, she was not going to deter Nathalie from going out and she was after all, just a young girl desperate to be out on the town not babysitting her nephew, even if the latter activity was funding the former!

She wondered if she could ask Delma or Helen and was so deep in thought that she almost forgot Miles was there, he had taken Lloyd to look out of the windows to distract him whilst she and Nathalie had been arguing.

She really didn’t want to miss this appointment with Serge; she prided herself on being professional and efficient, to be able to make an appointment and stick to it. But how could she put her meeting with Serge ahead of her love and responsibility for Lloyd. Being a working single Mum was no easy task.

When Nathalie left the room Miles moved back towards Rose and gently placed Lloyd on his playmat. She felt a surge of tenderness at seeing them together; it was incredible how in such a short space of time the two of them seemed to have bonded so well.

He engaged Lloyd’s interest in some toys and looked up at Rose. “I can look after Lloyd this evening if you want?” he offered.

She felt huge relief but tried not to seem too desperate. “I can’t ask you to do that.”

His face was inscrutable “It’s fine, really. I have my laptop with me. Once he’s asleep I can work quietly in here; if there’s a problem, which there won’t be, I’ll call you.”

Miles wanted to add, “I’m his father for God’s sake,” but remembered that being his father hadn’t been any help to Rose for the past ten months and she might decide to remind him of that, which would be just too humiliating.

“What time are you planning to leave?” he asked.

“Seven thirty.”

“That’s perfect, I’ll make sure that he’s had his bath and bottle and is asleep before you go. He’ll be unlikely to wake up before you’re back.”

She felt incredibly grateful for the offer, but guilty at the same time. Would Miles make the same offer if he knew that the business meeting was with her ex? Should she tell him? She knelt down on the carpet next to Lloyd thinking it through.