39 Weeks (38 page)

‘Well
Daniel
’
s over there look, with his arm round some bimbo, might even be the bimbo Trish caught him with, or might be an entirely different bimbo, who knows. And Trish is over there.’ Shelley said looking in the opposite direction with an extreme look of disapproval on her face.

I looked to where Shelley’s gaze had been directed and saw Tricia snogging the face off a guy I’d never seen before. ‘Who’s he?’ I asked.

‘No idea, and as far as I know Tricia has no idea either. He’s the third one just since we’ve been here, which is about an hour.
She turned up only slightly worse for wear, evidently they’d been drinking at her work this morning with it being Christmas, and then when Daniel arrived with bimbo in tow, she downed her
Smirnoff
in one and grabbed the first bloke she saw, I mean literally, he
never stood a chance poor guy
.’

‘Oh that’s not good, and this is the third one you say? That’s definitely not good.’ I said completely transfixed by the sight of
Tricia and whoever he was. ‘Why didn’t you stop her?’

‘Well in the first place I’m not her mother, she’s a grown woman and can make a fool of herself if that’s what she wants to do. And in the second place she wouldn’t listen to me and told me to push off, well actually she said f*** off but we won’t split hairs eh.’

‘Oh God. I’m sure she didn’t mean it. She doesn’t know what she’s doing and she’s been drinking.’ I said. I could see Shelley was pretty miffed by the whole thing.

‘Yes I know that, otherwise I’d have
told her exactly
what she could do and where she could
go
, neither of which would have been very polite or ladylike
.’

‘Do you think I ought to . . .’

‘You can try, but I don’t think she’ll listen.
And the irony is Daniel, as far as I can tell, isn’t the least bit interested anyway.’

I looked over to Daniel, who as Shelley had so rightly pointed out didn’t seem at all bothered and wasn’t even looking in Tricia’s direction.

Tall Fran came back struggling to get through the crowd while carrying three drinks, and distributed them accordingly. Then Helen and Di arrived, to which Fran said I’m not fighting my way through that lot again
, so Helen went to the bar for
Di and herself
.

‘I see Shelley’s bought you up to speed with the Tricia situation.’
Fran said to me catching my look of
horror
as I watched Tricia and partner.

‘Why what’s going on?’ Di asked. So Shelley, Fran, and I filled her in. ‘Well shouldn’t someone stop her
?
’
Di said when she had all the details.

‘Mm someone should.’ Shelley said still smarting from Tricia’s earlier
dismissal at her attempt to stop her.

Then short Fran arrived with drink in hand, obviously she’d detoured to the bar en route to join us, and the whole Tricia thing had to be explained again for her benefit, and no doubt would have to be explained a fourth time when Helen got back
.

‘I can’t believe you’ve all just stood here and let her carry on like that.’ Short Fran said
.

‘If you think you can stop her, feel free.’ Shelley said.

‘Shelle
y tried and Tricia told her to f***
off.’ I said.

‘Oh for God’s sake. So? I’ve heard you say worse and for less reason
.’ Short Fran said to Shelley dismissively.
 
 
  

During the whole exchange we’d all been staring at Tricia with a sort of morbid fascination, and as we watched the current guy Tricia was devouring came up for air. Tricia downed another
Smirnoff
in one gulp and moved on to current guy’s friend. As if rehearsed we all groaned in unison.

Short Fran said ‘I’m going over. Someone’s got to stop her. She needs saving from herself, she’ll be mortified in the morning and probably blame us if we don’t do something about it.’

‘I’m coming with you.’ I said.

Short Fran and I barged our way through the crowd over to the Tricia kissathon, my pregnant state helping to clear the path as most people jumped out the way in deference to my bump, so there wasn’t really that much barging needed.

‘Hi Trish.’ Short Fran said all happy, hoping this alone would be enough to distract Tricia, and Tricia did stop long enough to look round and see who it was, but without a word to either of us turned back again to the new current guy.

‘Who’s your friend?’ Short Fran said.

Tricia broke away properly this time
, looked at Fran then lo
oked back to the guy and said ‘w
hat’s your name?’

‘Colin’ he said without letting go of Trish.

‘His name’s Colin.’ Trish said
swaying
slightly.

‘Hi Colin’ Fran said. ‘I’m sure you realise my friend Tricia here’s had a bit too much to drink.’

‘Well . . yes.’

‘Good, then you’ll understand why I need to
take her away.’ Fran said reasonably.

‘Yeah.’ He said looking crestfallen. The fact was he really wasn’t
much of a looker
and only seemed
about seventeen anyway, so he probably thought Tricia was the answer to his Christmas wish list.

‘S
cuse me’ Tricia slurred. ‘But who asked you to butt in?’

‘Come on Tricia, come with me and see the rest of the girls.’ Fran said taking hold of Tricia’s arm ready to pull her away.

Tricia shook her arm free and said ‘I don’t wanna see the girls, I’m quite happy here thank you.’

‘Course you do, it’s Christmas, we always see each other at Christmas.’ Fran took hold of Tricia’s arm again but this time a little more forcefully.

‘Look Fran why don’t you just mind your own business for once, you’re always telling everybody what to do, just leave me alone will you.’ Tricia said almost assertively, well it was obviously with assertive intentions but her tipsy state had taken the edge off any real threat.

‘Look I know you’re upset about Daniel, but this isn’t the solution, trust me.’ Fran said.

‘You know do you? Know all about it do you?’

‘Yes you phoned me and told me remember.’ Fran said pulling now on Tricia’s arm.

Tricia with some effort pulled her arm free again, and took Colin’s drink from him that he’d picked up during hers and Fran’s exchange.
She
took a large gulp from the pint glass and
handed it solemnly back to him, and then turned back to Fran. ‘And I suppose now you’re going to give me the I told you so lecture.’

‘No I wa
s going to say what a scumbag Daniel
was actually, and thank goodness you dumped him when you did.’

All this time I’d stood watching without saying anything
,
as had most of the people standing nearby who’d given up on their own conversations and turned to watch the free sideshow. Without even realising it I’d been stroking my bump absent mindedly
and with that and all the noise
everyone was making
Ella
had
started moving, and I involuntarily shouted ‘she’s moving’
to which Tricia and S
hort Fran ceased hostilities to
look at my bump
, along with
everyone else of course.

‘Oh Judy that’s so wunnerful’ Tricia slurred. ‘I think it’s wunnerful you’re havin a baby
. Don’t you think it’s wunnerful Fran?’

‘Yes it’s wonderful.’ Short Fran said.

‘It’s the most wunnerful thing in the world. It’s a baby, your very own baby. I wish I was having a baby, I’d really like to have a baby of my own, don’t you think? And my bestest friend is having one, it’s so wunnerful.’ Tricia said unsteadily
as her eyes filled and a fat tear rolled down her cheek.
 

‘Come on Tricia I think Judy needs to sit down.’ Short Fran said guiding Tricia away
from Colin
and giving me the eyebrows so I’d know to play along.

‘Yes my friend Judy should be sitting
down, shouldn’t you Jude.’ Tricia
said
,
the tears flowing freely now. ‘
We need to
find you
a place
to sit.’

We helped Tricia back to the rest of the girls, as she was barely capable of walking by herself at least not in a straight line, and everyone parted
to let us through.

When we reached the others Tricia said ‘Judy’s got to sit down, she’s having a baby
you know
.’

‘What, right now?’ Helen said.

‘No not now idiot it’s not due for another couple of months.’ Short Fran said.

‘Phew, thank goodness for that, I thought you meant . . ‘

Shelley laughed
as she
took over my spot holding Tricia upright, and Di and Tall Fran looked around for a table but it was hop
e
less.

‘Let’s sit outside’ Di said.

‘Are you mad it’s freezing?’ Tall Fran said.

‘Well have you got a better idea, it’s going to be packed like this everywhere. Anyway it’s not that freezing.’

So we jostled our way outside where they had a couple of tables and some chairs set up
in a courtyard bit out the back
that were usually only used by smokers getting their nicotine fix, but amazingly
they
were empty at the moment.

Di was right it wasn’t that freezing, it wasn’t exactly
balmy
but we all buttoned up
in an attempt to keep warm
and watched Tr
icia slump in one of the chairs
totally oblivious to the weather.
Short Fran went to the bar saying she needed a drink which was fair enough I suppose after rescuing Tricia from herself, and said she’d get a round in for the rest of us while she was there, and see if she could get a coffee or something for Tricia.

‘Well this is one we’ll remember.’ Shelley said after we’d all sat down, all that is except Di who
’d
wandered away from us to have a cigarette. We’d all tried over the years to get her to give it up but in her case it was a lost cause. At one time or another a few of us had smoked but one by one we’d all given up, and only Di was left still
steadfast in her addiction.

‘One
to remember
?’ Tall Fran queried.

‘One Christmas.’ Shelley answered.

‘Oh yeah I suppose it is.’

‘Are you alright?’ Shelley asked me. It was touching how they all looked after me, touching and ever so slightly annoying, but only ever so slightly.

‘I’m fine
’ I said patting my bump. ‘Both fine.’

‘So what happens now?’ Helen said. ‘With Tricia I mean.’

‘Now we chill out, literally out here, but we chill out
,
have another drink
,
then I suppose
we ought to
think about how we’re going to get Tricia home.’
Shelley answered.

‘D’you think she’ll be alright?’ Tall Fran asked.

‘Yeah she’ll be fine, when she’s sobered up. Totally embarrassed and dying of shame of course but fine.’ 

‘What’s she doing for Christmas?’ I said.

‘I think she said something about going to her mum and dad’s for Christmas dinner.’ Di said having finished her cigarette and rejoining us at the table.

‘Do they still live in Cosgrove Avenue?’
Helen said.

‘I think so.’ I said.

‘I suppose one of us will have to give her a lift then, we can hardly let her drive can we.’ Shelley said.

Short Fran came back with the drinks on a tray and a cup of coffee for Tricia. ‘God it’s like rush hour on
Hammersmith bridge
in there.’ She said putting the tray down. ‘So who’s drawn the short straw to take Tricia home?’

26
th
December – Week 30
+ 1 Day

In the end none of us had given Tricia a lift to her parents
, but I guess it was me who’d drawn the sh
ort straw
, because Tricia ended up coming back to my place to sleep it off.

In her drunken state I was the only one she’d listen to. According to Tricia the others where all interfering busy bodies and insufferable know-it-all’s whereas I, on that day
anyway
and given her state of mind
at the time
,
could do no wrong, I was ‘wunnerful’ and Ella was ‘wunnerful’ too, so I had to be looked after. And that’s how we managed to get her in my car without an argument, by lett
ing her think she was helping
and doing me some kind of favour.
We couldn’t just leave her on her own at her place and she was adamant she didn’t want to go to her mum’s, so I suggested she came back to mine. She was falling asleep by this point
anyway
a
nd it seemed like the only sensible
option.