I woke up with the sense that someone was watching me. I knew it was unlikely to be God and all his angels, unless He wanted to see the look on my face just before the thunderball struck.

I opened one eye and peered, Stella was lying on her side, her head resting on her hand. “Hello, sleepyhead,” she said brightly.

“Was I snoring?” I asked sheepishly, just about finding the energy to open the second of my peepers.

“I don’t think so.” She paused for a moment, “Has anyone told you, that you’re beautiful when you’re asleep?”

“I think my mother did when I was about three years old, but I think that might have indicated the negative–that I was ugly when I was awake.”

“I doubt you could have been ugly at any time.”

“It’s nice of you to say so, but I try to avoid looking in a mirror until after I’ve had my first cup of tea.”

“You really do have some hang-ups, girl.”

“You’ve noticed.” I scratched my nose, and added, “I’ve got more baggage than Terminal five has lost.”

“Is that possible,” she laughed at me.

“Dunno, I suspect so.”

“Like what?”

“What the baggage, you mean?” I asked and she nodded.

“I can’t believe anyone would lie in bed with me–a, to start with; and b, to do so in order to jump my bones.”

“I can assure you, the latter is not applicable in my case.”

“I wasn’t implying it was.”

“I’m glad to hear it, besides in my delicate state…” she rubbed her tummy, “…It wouldn’t be becoming, would it?”

“I don’t think I’m qualified to answer that, never having done anything with another woman, let alone a pregnant one, before. Oh that isn’t an invitation.”

“No, just a statement of fact, I suppose,” said Stella smirking whilst I just blushed a bright scarlet. She waited a moment before saying, “I did try it in school with another girl. It was okay I suppose, but it didn’t do half as much for me as Des did. Now that was special. Did you ever try it with another boy?”

“No I did not,” I sat up with indignation, then seeing the surprised look on her face, calmed down a bit. “Until I met Simon, I didn’t even think of boys as interesting me or being interested unless they were gay.”

“But you were a girl, we’ve established that now.”

“I wasn’t officially was I? Remember when you knocked me off my bike, I was still officially a boy.”

“I can’t remember what I thought you were, except wet and dazed.” I started to smile and she looked at me, “What’s so funny?”

“A silly joke just came into my head–If the ceiling had fallen on the members of the Round Table, would it have been a question of knights and dazed?”

“Not if they had their helmets on,” she replied then began to tickle me. “You deserve to be punished for that pun.”

“Don’t, I need to wee,” I protested in between laughs. I managed to half wriggle and half fall out of bed, before trotting off to the loo. By the time we’d both got down to breakfast, Tom had gone to work, leaving a note for me.

‘Cathy, don’t you dare turn up at work today! Look after Stella and make something nice for dinner. Love T.’

“Do you think he’s trying to tell me something?” I asked, showing the note to Stella.

“Do you mean apart from the obvious?”

“Yes,” I said filling the kettle, “cereal or toast?”

“Um, I fancy both.”

“Fancying things eh? You’re not pregnant are you, perchance?”

“Who me, Miss, nah, I’m just naturally fat bellied.”

“Fat bellied,” I choked, “Where?”

“Here,” she said pulling up her nightdress and pointing to her abdomen.

It was slightly bigger than her usual slender waist, but it was hardly noticeable. “Oh come on, Stella, it hardly shows without a microscope.”

“Is your eyesight that bad then?”

“Yep, cornflakes or rice crispies?”

“Cornf…no, I’ll have rice crispies for a change.”

I passed her the packet, then a dish and finally the milk. “Toast as well, eh?”

“Can we wait until I’ve eaten these first? Or it will be cold.”

“Yeah, sure. Tea or coffee?”

“Can I wait a minute?”

“Sure.” I sat down and picked up the cornflakes.

“There’s no need to look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Resentful.”

“Resentful–who, me?”

“Yes, because I prefer to wait in between my courses.”

“It isn’t a problem, honestly. It’s just you used to cope with all of them together in days gone by.”

“I wasn’t pregnant then, I can’t cope with shoving it down, or it makes me sick.”

“Fine, we have plenty of time. It’s just you used to, you know…”

“You wait until you become….oh, I’m sorry, I did it again, didn’t I?”

“It’s okay,” I blushed. I wasn’t that upset because in some ways it was nice that she forgot my history. In others it was a pain.

“I am sorry, Cathy, I just forget that, you know…”

“It’s all right, so just forget about it.”

“No, I keep doing it,” she put her spoon down and sat with her head resting on her hand, her elbow on the table. “Some days, I can’t believe how stupid I am,” she sniffed.

“Stella, it doesn’t matter, it really doesn’t. Please don’t get all upset.” I put my hand on hers, she pulled her face away from it and there were tears running down her face. I passed her a tissue. “Come on, it’s unimportant, don’t cry.”

“I feel so stupid, I was trying so hard not to say anything like that to you, and I did it again. How can anyone be so bloody stupid?”

I put my hand under her chin so she was forced to look me in the eye instead of staring at the table. “You are not stupid, we all make mistakes, and if I hadn’t made such a fuss the other day, we’d just have laughed this off as a Freudian slip. So it’s my fault, not yours, I’m the stupid, hypersensitive one. Or I was, from now on, I won’t be. So say what you like, it won’t upset or annoy me–I promise.”

“Anything?”

“Anything.”

“Could you pass me another tissue?”