Chapter 62 · Month 34 · Starting a Family

The Misunderstanding

Telling her parents, then his mother

Oldest line first — the newest line is at the bottom.

      
            Penny
            teacher
            10:30
          
Your mum's card is under the biscuit tin, and the date on it is the eighteenth — I'm not ringing her until we've agreed what we're actually telling her.

I'll take the shortbread as a bribe, though. What is it you think I'm going to say?

            Algy
            designer
            10:31
          
Sorry — I was showing off with the shortbread, trying to be the funny one so you wouldn't ask about the 4pm. The truth: I'm scared Susan cries on the phone and I say "I'll sort it" again.

            Penny
            teacher
            10:32
          
Every time you go quiet like that, I read it as you deciding something without me. So the shortbread wasn't the problem — the silence after it was. Does that sound like something I do often, or is it just today?

            Algy
            designer
            10:33
          
That's not a you thing — it's a me thing. I go quiet when I'm about to be a disappointment, and then I do it anyway, like the £28 shortbread that was really an apology.

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