Page 147 of Everything After

“Jack that means giving Alfie the respect he deserves as Lily’s husband.”

“Thanks, Roslyn,” I said, sweetly with a hand over my heart, to show her how thankful I was for her siding with me.

“And Alfie, you must try to find a way to tolerate this unique connection between Lily with Jack. They were inseparable both as children and adults until Lily came to the US.”

“Lily is right here and she’s tired of you two at each other’s throats,” Lily said, having left Charlie resting upstairs in his crib for a few minutes.

“Tell me I did wrong, preventing him from coming to see you while you were breastfeeding.”

“I’ll tell you where I’m at, and you can figure out who is right for yourselves. My son needed to eat. My breasts weren’t out for objectification, Alfie. I think Jack’s aware of that since he has five breastfed children of his own. Right now, these are my son’s source of food,” Lily said with my hands over each breast. “Am I not to feed him if we go out where there are other people? Do I hide his head under a blanket to save the blushes of others at the expense of our son’s needs?”

“Of course not,” I agreed.

“However, I was in my own home this time, so I could choose where to feed Charlie. Jack, if I had wanted to talk to anyone while I fed my newborn baby, I’d have fed him in the sitting room. Upstairs is a quiet place, and I wanted to catch my breath and bond with my baby. So, in a way you were both correct in your thoughts. Although on this occasion, Alfie was right to deny you to seek me out.”

“Fuck. I’m sorry, Lily. Like you said, I’ve had five kids, and I didn’t think of you breastfeeding in the same way as Alfie did. I just wanted to spend time with you without everyone else butting in,” Jack admitted.

“Yes… there are too many people here today. It’s like no one had ever seen a baby before. Look… I’m grateful for the friends and family we have, but this is new. You remember how you were with your first? Alfie and I are trying to find our feet… our new normal. That’s not easy when there are six other adults, a toddler and another baby in the room.”

“At least we left our kids with my parents. Elle and Drew should have left their kids at home.”

“Elle’s breastfeeding,” Lily reminded him. “And she’s not going to bring one child and leave the others at home.”

“You’re right. I guess I misjudged how today would go. I’m going to grab Mya, and we’ll come back another day.”

“Okay, your dad and I will go home and come back later this week as well,” Roslyn said to Lily.

“Thanks for understanding, Mum,” Lily said, hugging her mom. “Jack, you’re staying.” Lily turned to me. “Alfie please would you ask Drew and Elle to give us some space. They live relatively close by, and they’ll see us around most days. Jack and Mya have come a long way, and I appreciate them wanting to be here,” Lily argued.

I sighed and nodded. “I get it, he’s your best friend, and like Roslyn pointed out, it might be a relationship I’ll never understand, but I recognize it’s one that I’ll need to live with.”

“Right, that’s settled,” Lily’s mom said. “Alfie, I’ll do your dirty work for you. No need to get into it with Elle and Drew. We’ll all be gone in the next half hour. All you need to do is look after my daughter and grandson.”

CHAPTER 76

ALFIE

As it turned out, before Jack and Mya left, they’d helped us with Vicky, to navigate almost effortlessly through that first week of parenthood.

Jack was a mine of information on parenting hacks that made life so much easier than if we’d had to find those things out for ourselves. Mya even taught Lily how to express breast milk when her breasts became engorged. We laughed when Lily became so productive that our freezer began to fill up with supplies of breastmilk.

“What do we do about Rick, Lennie and Coral?” I asked Lily, after I’d gotten text messages from them for the fifth day running. We hadn’t told anyone else that Lily had had the baby, and the hospital NDAs appeared to have kept everyone quiet, so as far anyone knew, Lily was still pregnant.

“We should tell all our friends before we announce it in the press. I know I’d hate it if I’d found out someone close to me was that discourteous,” Lily mumbled.

I saw from the frown on her face she was reluctant to face Lennie again, but they had been close friends, and it needed to be done.

“Invite them to dinner,” she said in a decisive tone.

“You’re not cooking,” I insisted.

“No, we’ll bring a private chef in. It’s about time we had one anyway. I want to do a special diet and exercise so hiring someone would benefit all of us in the long run,” Lily advised.

“Are you sure it isn’t too early to put yourself under pressure like that?”

“There’s never a best time to socialize when you have kids,” she countered.

I stared her down for a few seconds until it became clear she was determined to go ahead with her plan. “How soon are you thinking of doing it?”