Lizzie? Why was Lizzie yelling at me down the phone, I would have appreciated it more in person. Not that I was a fan of yelling at all. Although, with all of the shit that was going on, if anyone so much touched me I was on the edge of my bottom lip quivering.
Everything was rather pathetic. Including the state of my thumbnail that I have been nibbling away at all day. Terrible, terrible habit.
"You fucking ruined everything," Lizzie continued to scream, breathless by the end of her sentence.
I was stunned and officially speechless.
"You idiot, why didn't you tell me you were pissing off back to England without telling your best friend. How comes you told Paul, huh?"
"He can drive," I said instantly and apparently it was the wrong thing to say. Insert another line of abuse and Daniel beginning to do some Italian gesture. I wasn't too sure of it's exact meaning, but I knew he was swearing.
"Why didn't you talk to me, though?" she whispered in a very serious and steady voice. "We could have reasoned and gone back together if we had discussed it."
"Please don't be mad at me...everything happened so fast and I later found out that Bridget the fucking cow has only told me what was going on!"
"Wait, what?"
"Bridget phoned me in the middle of the night to say she'd sent an email to the wrong person and that Infiniti were pulling out of the partnership." Now it was my turn to do some gestures. Daniel gave me a funny look and made a very wise decision by filling the kettle up with water and sticking that on.
Lizzie was rather silent and that was alarming. "Why would she tell you that if you were the one who had sent the email?"
"Lizzie, I really, really hope that you don't believe that I would do something like that..."
More silence.
"The fucking bitch, how could she blame you and make me mad at you? What a tosspot!" Lizzie barely got a breath in. "I am so sorry, Saskia. I am so sorry for being horrible...although still a bit mad that you left without telling me. Nothing shall change that."
"That was wrong of me," I admitted, watching Daniel watch the kettle boil. His face was amusing. "Where are you now?"
"Still in Iceland, where else would we be?"
"I don't know, it has been one of those horrible days that I would rather forget. I have been unformally suspended and they took my phone and logged me out of my email account so only they can access it!"
"Aw hun, you should have told me!" Lizzie's tone had changed considerably since this phone call had first began. Now, she was calm and sympathetic and not angry at me. "And I think you meant informal, not unformal."
"Now is not the time."
"Yes, you are absolutely right there," Lizzie agreed. "I hope Daniel is being extra extra nice to you, not that he is ever horrible."
Daniel poured the water from the kettle into two mugs, gave them both a stir and brought them over to the kitchen table. He nodded towards it and then signaled to the bedroom before shrugging.
I shook my head - there was nothing to hide from him.
"He is," I replied to Lizzie and sat down at the table. Daniel went and got his magazine before joining me. His chair scraped along the tiles and the Australian began to apologise profusely. He was so adorable. "So I don't know what to do. At all."
"I'm going to call up HQ and sort it out, and if that doesn't work then Paul and I will be on the next flight black to Blighty. You are not going to lose your job, and Bridget is not going to get away with what she has done to you and the company."
"Thanks, Lizzie," I said, speechless.
"You would only do the same for me." And that was correct. Daniel had clearly heard what we were saying too and he was nodding away.
"I had better go then, Adam from HR could be trying to get through and I would never know. You know it's company policy for them to only ring landlines and not mobiles in situations like this."
"I'll give you a call if I hear anything on the grapevine. I'm going to sort this out through, I promise you that!"
"Thank you," I said and let a little tear slip down my cheek. I needed to work on this crying thing - I was doing far too much of it.
"Thank me later, White," Lizzie said and paused. "You can call me at any time, I shall probably be awake now. Baby has learned to kick all of a sudden."
Balls, I could have felt the precious little thing if I had stayed out in magical Iceland. Perhaps it would have made Daniel even more broody and then I wouldn't have to me shitting myself about going to get a test from the pharmacy.
Perhaps I should just give it a few more days; I was only ten days late. Only ten mere days. Ten days is nothing!
Nothing!!!
"Stop frowning, you'll get wrinkles," Daniel said, pushing my mug closer towards me.
"Maybe I want wrinkles," I muttered and flicked my hair. "Actually maybe I don't, I don't want you to do a Jenson and ditch me for someone ten years younger."
Daniel gave me a funny look.
"What?" I said. "Too soon?"
"Yes, but that would be slightly illegal on my part as well," Daniel scowled. "Besides, I would have to be deranged to trade you in."
"You'll wake up one day, I'm sure."
---
Despite being tired and not receiving much sleep the previous night, I didn't sleep much when I went to bed. Daniel had chatted to be for the first hour, but even he has fallen asleep and was kicking out some impressive snores. It was weirdly therapeutic listening to it.
My room was dark since the council had turned the street lights off after midnight. I didn't mind - I was a light sleeper at the best of times.
As I fidgeted about, I listened to the rush of traffic outside. That was one downside to living in the UK's capital - the traffic never stopped. In a way I found it harder to sleep when it was completely quiet; Daniel and I were almost always in a city of some sort. Not good for our CO2 intake but whatevs. We could retire to the country one day, or have a house in the middle of nowhere. Or Iceland. Iceland would be great.
I sighed and adjusted my shorts I was wearing. The waistband was digging in and it was beginning to get uncomfortable. If I was going to sleep at all tonight, I needed to be completely comfy.
A piece of hair flopped in front of my eyes and I rolled over, agitated. We weren't agitated in Iceland, it was really peaceful there. Perhaps we should have stayed in sodding Iceland, I had been thinking about it enough!
I growled and swore under my breath. Fucking Bridget. I still couldn't put my finger on it - how could she try and destroy my life? It had been almost two years since I had first met her, and in that time we had never argued and I was near enough certain that she had never hated me.
I may have been scared of her, for she is/was intimidating, but I never for one second hated her. And I am sure she never despised me.
So why this? That is what I couldn't put my finger on.
She may as well have shitted in my coffee and pissed in my makeup bag. To be honest, I would have rathered that.
"Have you been to sleep yet?" Daniel muttered, underneath the duvet. I had the window open and he was freezing. I, on the other hand, was sweating buckets.
"What do you think?" I replied, and slowly got out of bed. On my way out of the room, I shut the window so Daniel wouldn't turn into a full-scale ice sculpture. I don't think that would go down too well.
I trudged into the living room and through to the kitchen area to grab a glass of water. I let the cold tap run for a while before filling my glass up. I felt so dizzy that I thought I was going to fall over.
And then the inevitable happened. I had to dash to the toilet because I was going to vomit. Again. Fucking fuck this shit. The Boots a two-minute walk away was open 24 hours and I was going to go there right now.
Just right after I threw up.
After being sick as quietly as possible, I slipped on my trainers, coat, and slung my keys into my pocket after sneaking through the front door.
The building was quiet and darker than outside and I wondered if I should be doing this.
I had a pep talk with myself and set off down the street, praying not to run into anyone dodgy. I didn't fancy being mugged. Or stabbed, or even worse.
I quickened my pace and arrived at the Boots in no time. When I pushed the door open, the staff member looked up at me in bewilderment.
To be fair, I looked a right state. My coat covered my shorts and I didn't have any sock on underneath my trainers. Oh, and my hair was in a pineapple.
"I'm not drunk and I am not disorderly," I said and made my way to the nicely signposted Family Planning section. Here goes.
Without looking at the prices, or even the products, I reached out and grabbed the first one that my hand came to. That one will do.
I then preceded to go to the till and not make eye contact with the sales assistant. That would be bad. And embarrassing - my mascara was smudged and I hadn't been bothered to take it off before I went to bed. I wasn't planning on taking an impromptu trip to the sodding shop to buy a pregnancy test. I knew I should have stayed on the Pill instead of coming off it when we went to South Africa. Daniel had forgotten to pack it and we had relied on other methods since then.
They had been working up until now!
"Is that everything?" the sales assistant interrupted my thoughts and I nodded. I'll save the nappy buying for later. "That's thirteen fifty-six to pay, please."
THIRTEEN QUID FOR A STICK YOU PISS ON? What a rip-off.
I shrugged and handed over a twenty-pound note and waited for my change. I wanted to get back as fast as possible, and then build up the courage to do the weeing on a stick part. I wasn't really looking forward to doing that.
"Good luck," the woman said as she handed me the money, purchase and receipt. I thanked her, although not really sure what for, and passed a very drunk man on the way out. Time for me to get back.
I walked back at a pace I don't think I had ever walked at before. I could definitely enter the Olympic walking team if I kept this up.
I unlocked both of the doors with ease and re-entered my flat precisely six minutes after leaving.
"Saskia, where have you been?" Daniel called out, hearing the door slam.
"OH, there was a cat making a racket outside so I threw some water out at it," I lied and felt terrible. Oh sorry Daniel, I just went to get a pregnancy test. Because, you know, I have a horrible feeling that I have a baby growing inside me. Remember that time you didn't pull out in Austin-
"That ginger cat is a pain in the arse," Dan said and all was quiet for a moment. "Are you coming back to bed?"
"Yeah," I mumbled, hurrying to take off my shoes and coat. I made sure THE test was firmly in my pocket and promised myself I would do it in the morning. Because I had to do it soon, right?
Yes, Saskia.
I made sure my door to my flat was locked before I went back to bed. Just as I was passing back through the living room, the landline began to ring.
At first, I thought it could be Australia, but I was soon proved wrong when I answered it.
"Saskia, I'm sorry. Your job is fine. I confessed," Bridget said tearfully and then hung up.
"DANIEL!" I shouted, walking into the bedroom.
"Shhh, inside voices!"
"That was Bridget on the phone. She said two things and two things only - firstly she was sorry, and the next she had confessed and my name had been cleared."
"What?" Daniel sat up and switched on the light. "That's so great!" He jumped up on the bed and dived into me, nearly knocking me off my feet. "I told you, I told you, didn't I!"
"You did," I cried, and for the first time in 24 hours they were happy tears. Tears of delight.
Shall read through and correct mistakes in the morning. Where would you like the plot to go?xx