The following afternoon, Jess was on edge, the first couple of days back in England had been fantastic, but it had just been her, Kris, Katie and the bump, now was the real test though, as they would be arriving soon. Kris had been trying to calm her, but it was not working, he knew what she was worried about mainly, that was seeing Zoë, Jess was terrified that she would still hate her, and not accept her and Katie as part of Kris life.
Kris for his part, understood why Zoë reacted how she did to her in Spain, as she had felt betrayed and let down by Jess as he had done, the two of them had been so close once upon a time, and Kris hoped that maybe by some miracle things could be the same again between them.
Kris knew he was also a major reason why Zoë hated Jess. Zoë was terrified that Kris would go off the rails again if something went wrong this time. She had been his main supporter when he finally saw sense and quit the drugs, booze and stopped sleeping around. No matter how much he tried to push them all away when he was in self destruct mode, she would not budge, yes the others stood by him, no matter what he did and the hurtful things he said, but it was Zoë that was the main life line for Kris in those desperate days.
Zack was the first to arrive; Kris was busy trying to get Katie ready for bed, so Jess answered the door. Neither knew what to say initially, both staring at each other, Zack was the first to break the ice, when he said "come here you daft sod" and embraced her, the relief Jess felt was immense, that at least one of them had accepted her. Zack entered the lounge, and Jess got him a drink, the two of them sat chatting, and in many ways it was like old times. Kris watched them for a couple of minutes as he was coming down the hallway from Katie's room, happy that Jess was slightly more relaxed. The two guys hugged, and the three of them sat chatting for a little while until the doorbell rang again.
Jess tensed up the moment it rang, and Kris, who was sitting beside her, felt it, he gently stroked her arm, and got up to answer the door, kissing her head as he left the seat. The next noise that filled the room, was Stephs excited screech, as she ran towards Jess, the two girls hugged and Steph could not resist touching Jess's pregnant belly. The next to arrive were Rhys and Gilly, both loaded with cans of beer for them all, and Jess had opened a bottle of wine for Steph to share with Zoë, whenever Zoë arrived.
They all sat chatting, it was almost like old time, but not quite, firstly Zoe and Elliott were not here yet, and secondly, you could tell that people wanted to ask Jess questions but were not sure how or if they should ask them, sure they knew bits an pieces but not everything and not from Jess herself, the only two that did know it all was Kris and Steph, so there was an under currant of tension in the room.
The door rang again, this time, Jess went to answer it, she welcomed Elliott into the apartment and closed the door behind them, looking out into the hallway before she did to see if there was any sign of Zoë. When Jess saw there was no sign of her yet, she did not know if she was relieved or upset.
It was another half an hour before the doorbell would ring for a final time that night.
