“Becky?” Luke puts his head round the door. “Oh, hi, Jess. I don’t want to break things up, but we should be going soon….”
“You have plans,” says Jess, stiffening. “I’ll go.”
“No!” I put a hand on her arm. The one time Jess ever drops in on me and asks my advice, I’m not sending her away. This is exactly what I imagined us doing when I first met her. Two sisters, popping round to each other’s places, talking about boys….
“Luke.” I make a snap decision. “Why don’t you go on ahead and I’ll join you at the bar?”
“Well, if you’re sure.” Luke kisses me. “Good to see you, Jess!”
He heads out of the kitchen and as I hear the front door close I rip open a mini-packet of Pringles. “So. You like him….”
“He’s great.” Jess is fiddling with the rough skin on one of her fingers. “He’s bright, and interesting; he has sound views…and he’s good-looking. I mean, that goes without saying.”
“Absolutely!” I say after a pause.
To be honest, Tom has never done it for me. (Despite Janice and Martin’s conviction that I’ve been hopelessly in love with him my whole life.) But to each their own.
“So the problem is…” I circle my hands, prompting her.
“He’s so needy. He calls me about ten times a day; he sends cards covered with kisses….” Jess looks up with a disparaging expression and I can’t help feeling a bit sorry for poor old Tom. “Last week he tried to get my name tattooed on his arm. He phoned me to tell me he was doing it, and I got so angry, he stopped after J.”
“He’s got a J on his arm?” I can’t help giggling.
“Up near his elbow.” She rolls her eyes. “It looks ridiculous.”
“Well, maybe he was trying to look cool,” I suggest. “You know, Lucy wanted him to get a tattoo but he wouldn’t. He probably just wanted to impress you.”
“Well, I’m not impressed. And as for Janice…” Jess thrusts her fingers through her cropped hair. “She rings me up nearly every day on some pretense or other. Have I had any thoughts about Tom’s Christmas present? Do I want to join them on a wine-tasting weekend to France? I’ve really had enough of it. So I’m thinking of ending it.”
I look up in dismay. Ending it? But what about the baby being a ring-bearer?
“You can’t give up just because of a few little details!” I protest. “I mean, apart from the tattoo, are you getting on OK? Do you ever argue?”
“We had a pretty big argument the other day.” Jess nods as she says it.
“About what?”
“Social policy.”
Oh, this just proves it. They’re made for each other!
“Jess, talk to Tom,” I say on impulse. “I bet you can work things out. Just for the sake of a tattoo…”
“It’s not just that.” Jess wraps her arms round her knees. “There’s…something else.”
“What is it?”
With an intake of breath, it hits me. She’s pregnant too. It has to be. God, how cool! We’ll have babies together and they’ll be cousins and we’ll take cute pictures of them playing in the grass together….
“I’ve been offered a two-year research project in Chile.” Jess’s voice pricks my bubble.
“Chile?” My mouth drops open in dismay. “But that’s…miles away.”
“Seven thousand,” she says, nodding.
“So…are you going to go?”
“I haven’t decided. But it’s a fantastic opportunity. It’s a team I’ve wanted to join for years.”
“Right,” I say after a short silence. “Well, then…you should go.”
I have to be supportive. This is Jess’s career. But I can’t help feeling a bit doleful. I’ve only just got to know my long-lost sister, and now she’s disappearing off to the other side of the world?
“I’ve pretty much decided that I will.” She raises her head and I find myself looking right into her speckly hazel eyes. I’ve always thought Jess had pretty eyes.
Maybe the baby will have speckly hazel eyes just like that.
“You’ll have to send me lots of pictures of my niece or nephew,” says Jess, as though reading my mind. “So I can see it grow up.”
“Of course! Every week.” I bite my lip, trying to digest all this. “So…what about Tom?”
“I haven’t told him yet.” She hunches her shoulders. “But it’ll mean the end for us.”
“Not necessarily! You could have a long-distance relationship…. There’s always e-mail….”
“For two years?”
“Well…” I trail off. Maybe she’s right. They met only a few weeks ago. And two years is a pretty long time.
“I can’t give up a chance like this for some…man.” She sounds like she’s arguing with herself. Maybe she’s more torn than she’s letting on. Maybe, underneath it all, she really has fallen for Tom.
But even I can see it. Jess’s work has been her life. She can’t just abandon it now.
“You have to go to Chile,” I say firmly. “It’ll be amazing for you. And it’ll work out with Tom. Somehow.”
The Pringles seem to have disappeared, so I get up and head for the cupboard. I open the door and survey the shelves dubiously. “We’re out of chips…. I’m not supposed to eat nuts…. We’ve got some old Ritz crackers….”