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.’‘You don’t think there are more of them waiting to leap out of the woodwork do you?’ Poppy looked aghast at the prospect.‘Well, if there is, mate, we are definitely going to have to start budgeting better for Christmas.All those pairs of socks and chocolates can really mount up.’Poppy laughed.‘I think that’s what Danny’s got waiting for him when he comes home.Jo’s bought up half of Marks and Sparks.’‘It must be rotten not having kids to buy for when all you wanted was to be a mum,’ Martin said.‘I know; rotten for both of them.I feel sorry for her really.I’ve told her that you can’t have everything and that she and Danny are lucky: no sicky kids in the middle of the night, no early starts when all you want is another five minutes in bed.They can be spontaneous! Go to the cinema or even on holiday.We can’t do any of that.I said she was lucky in some ways.’ Poppy sipped her wine.‘And did she believe your lies?’ Martin pulled her towards him.‘I don’t know.’‘You wouldn’t swap broken nights and early starts for a day without them, would you?’Poppy thought again of Dorothea having to give up her little boy.‘No.No, I wouldn’t, Mart, not one single day.’‘Poor Jo.’‘Yep, poor Jo.’They both jumped as Toffee moved in his cage; they had forgotten he was there.They giggled as they hugged each other; a hug that led to kissing and kissing that led to them creeping up the stairs and pulling the chest of drawers across their bedroom door, which they routinely did whilst simultaneously shedding their clothes and giggling into their palms.Poppy left Martin snoring and quietly descended the stairs, knowing she wouldn’t be able to nod off until her chores were finished.The kitchen needed a bit of a tidy; she liked to plump the cushions before she went up so it was just so in the morning; and she wanted to put the rubbish in the wheelie bin.She laid out Peg’s clean uniform on the dining table, ready for the first day back at school, and placed her little rucksack next to the front door.Martin was going to take her in tomorrow as per her request.Poppy didn’t mind a bit, she knew the novelty of having her daddy home wasn’t going to wear off anytime soon.Poppy slipped into the bathroom and ran the shower, letting the water run over her head.Poor Jo.She felt a jolt of sadness for all the things her mate missed by not having kids.It seemed unfair that there were women like Jo who longed for children and women like Cheryl who conceived with ease but then didn’t want them when they arrived.There was so much her mum missed.Simon would be one more thing to add to the list, along with family birthdays, Christmases and a place in her children’s hearts.Poppy was distracted, thinking alternately about Peg’s packed lunch, the mysterious Simon and the fact that he lived in a warm, sunny climate on the other side of the world while his mum had never left London.She wondered if Dorothea would have liked to have gone somewhere hot and exotic.Suddenly, her thoughts crystallised.With clarity and poise, she stood upright and held her breath.For there, beneath her soapy hand, sitting in the gap between her breast and her armpit, was a little lump.It made her jump, so odd and unexpected was the discovery.She ran her hand over her breast and shoulder, before snaking back to where it was sited.Yes, there it was.Her heart skipped a beat.‘What the…?’ she murmured into the steam.Poppy felt it beneath her fingers, squeezed it and skimmed it with the flat of her hand, making sure she hadn’t imagined it, seeing if it might move.It didn’t.She then checked on the other side of her torso, hoping to find the little mound mirrored on the opposite side of her body, making it nothing out of the ordinary but simply a little part of herself that she had previously been unaware of.Hidden.Like one of Jupiter’s regularly revealed new moons, or the flabby whalefish discovered in New Zealand at the bottom of the ocean – always there, just undiscovered.Maybe this was like that, a little nub that had always been present but that she had somehow missed, nothing to worry about
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