Week 23: Jumping in with both feet

Carla sat at the bar of the bistro, absently picking at the salad in front of her. She wasn't hungry at all but Nick was so fastidious about her eating three square meals a day that she was determined to suffer it down somehow.

"Did Kylie get off alright?"

Carla jumped at the sound of Gail's simpering voice by her right elbow, silently cursing the woman for her cat-like abilities to sneak up on people.

"I'm sorry?" Having regained her composure, Carla peered at the newcomer in confusion.

"For her visit with Max," Gail explained. "You know, the home visit at his foster family's house? Have those pregnancy hormones been messing with your memory again?"

"Must be that," Carla laughed, distracted. "I'm sorry, Gail, you'll have to excuse me, I, umm… I've just remembered an important phone call I'm expecting."

"But, your mobile is right there," Gail said, pointing to the countertop where Carla's mobile was clearly visible.

"On the office phone," Carla clarified, quickly grabbing said mobile along with her bag and jacket. "Tell Nick… tell Nick I'll call him later."

"But–" Gail called after her. "Your lunch!"

Minutes later, Carla walked into what seemed to the casual observer a deserted factory. Everyone was at lunch, at Roys or in the Rovers for a swift half, perhaps at the kebab shop; everyone that is, except Kylie. Carla knew Kylie well enough by now to realise she wouldn't have popped to the pub or home for her lunch. No, she would be in hiding, feeling sorry for herself.

Carla strode across the sewing floor, her heeled boots click-clacking at a furious staccato, and pushed through the double doors and into Packing.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded, making her way to where she could see Kylie sitting on the edge of the loading dock, her legs swinging over the edge like a little girl's, her face twisted into the expected melancholic snarl.

"Umm…" Kylie responded with peak sarcasm, her eyebrow raised. "I work here."

"You're meant to be seeing Max."

"Who told you–?"

"Who do you think?"

"It was Gail, wasn't it?" Kylie's lip curled into a sneer. "The interfering old cow."

"Never mind her," Carla waved off Kylie's indignant outburst. "What time are they expecting you?"

"Carla, I–"

"What time?"

"Half one."

"Good," Carla said optimistically as she quickly checked her watch. "That gives us ten minutes to get there."

"We'll never make it on time."

"Not if you stand around arguing about it, we won't. Now come on."

"I can't," Kylie shook her head despondently.

"Kylie." Carla set her most fiery stare onto Kylie. "Get in the car. Now."

"Which way?" Carla asked, glancing at the passenger sitting next to her. But Kylie sat in silence, her eyes focused on her hands clasped together in her lap, her thumbs fidgeting nervously. "Kylie!"

"What?"

"Which way do I go?"

"Left," she muttered, the scowl on her face not budging.

"Thank you," Carla said, turning left onto Coronation Street and accelerating as fast as she dared on the cobbled surface, before pressing her foot down hard on the brake, causing the wheels to screech as they came to an abrupt stop.

"What the hell!" Kylie cried out. "You trying to kill us?"

"It's Hayley," Carla said, quickly winding down the window and waving at the woman walking past them on the footpath. "Hayley!"

"Oh, hello, Mrs Connor, Kylie," Hayley greeted them both with her customary smile. "You two off somewhere nice for lunch?"

"Listen, we're out of the office for the rest of the afternoon so you're in charge."

"Me?"

"And don't let Sally Webster try to take over."

"Of course, Mrs Connor," Hayley stammered. "Where shall I say–"

"Out!" Carla cried, even as she was accelerating away.

"Why are you doing this?" Kylie asked.

"What? You mean, saving you from another round of self-destructive pity-party I'm not good enough nonsense? Geez, I wonder why."

"But–"

"Don't you dare say that Max is better off without you," Carla warned her. "I'm sick and tired of it. No– not another word."

"Whatever," Kylie muttered, not even trying to hide her eye roll from Carla.

"And for god's sake, do something about your face!"

"What's wrong with my face?"

"You'll scare the poor lad with that scowl," Carla rebuked her. "How about a smile? Give it a go, yeah?"

Kylie smiled for Carla, an over-the-top, sarcastic smile that Carla couldn't help but laugh at.

"It's a start," Carla conceded, flashing Kylie an affectionate smile in return before focusing on the road ahead.

"Go!" Carla whispered, an impatient edge to her voice, into Kylie's ear, pushing her gently into the living room while she hung back with Max's foster mother, Amanda.

"Heya, Max," Kylie greeted her son cautiously, crouching down to where he was sitting on the floor, playing with a collection of toy cars.

"Hi," came Max's feeble reply, his gaze only momentarily flickering up to his mother's face before dropping back down to the car he was rolling across the carpet.

"Do you mind if I join you?" Kylie asked tentatively. "Is that alright with you?"

Relieved at the sight of Max's timid nod, Kylie sat down cross-legged opposite Max and, picking up one of the other cars, mimicked Max's action and rolled it across the floor, adding some revving sound effects of her own. "Rrrr rrrr," she growled, instinctively smiling at the laughter this generated from Max.

"I'm sorry we were a bit late," Carla said to Amanda. "My fault completely. I had Kylie, umm, working on an order and I lost track of time. You know how it is."

"You and Kylie work together?"

"Actually, Kylie works for me," Carla clarified. "She's a real asset to my business, she's hardworking, loyal, takes initiative."

"This isn't a job interview," Amanda said. "I'm not here to judge Kylie, I'm here to facilitate her meeting with Max, that's it."

"Sorry."

"I am surprised though, you really went out of your way for an employee."

"Kylie's not just an employee. She's family."

"Oh?"

"I'm engaged to her brother-in-law," Carla revealed, smiling as she unconsciously touched her engagement ring, twisting it round her finger.

"I can't do this." Carla was rocked out of her romantic reverie by a frantic Kylie approaching, her head shaking from side to side. "I can't."

"Hey," Carla cried, reaching out and placing her arm on Kylie's, a reassuring gesture. "What's wrong?"

"This isn't gonna work," Kylie declared, her agitation levels rising with every second that passed. "He's not interested. He's just sitting there, ignoring me. He doesn't want me here. Please, Carla, can we just go? I wanna go home."

"Be patient, hmm?" Amanda encouraged her. "Give him some time to get used to having you around again."

"I just thought by now…" Kylie shrugged. "I dunno, maybe it's too late."

"You're doing great, okay?" Carla tried to boost her spirits. "He talked to you, didn't he, when you first arrived. And I heard him laugh, right?"

"Yeah," Kylie conceded, a small smile on her lips as she remembered the sound of her son's laughter. "I guess."

"Well?" Carla gave Kylie's hand a friendly squeeze. "What are you doing hanging around talking to us for?"

"I better…" Kylie stammered. "Get back to…"

"So," Amanda said as Kylie returned to Max, turning to face Carla and nodding at her baby bump. "When are you due?"

"November."

"Do you know–?"

"Boy," Carla revealed with a smile. "It's a boy."

"So, Max will be getting a little cousin to play with?"

"I hope so," Carla said. "What do you think of her chances of getting him back?"

"It's not up to me."

"Yeah, but you'd have a good idea. I mean, you've been doing this a while, right?"

"It's no guarantee, mind."

"I'm just canvassing opinion, is all."

"If she keeps on like this, then yes, I think she's got a very good chance of regaining custody of Max."

"I don't know how you do it," Carla said. "Getting attached to a kid and then having to give him up."

"Seeing families reunited is reward enough."

"Do you have any kids of your own?"

A tense silence fell as Amanda failed to answer, instead staring intently at Max and Kylie as they played together.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry."

"It's alright," Amanda shook her head. "We couldn't have children of our own, so we decided to foster instead. You're lucky, you know, having your boy."

"I feel like I don't deserve him."

"Why?"

"Because I never wanted kids. I'm sorry, that probably sounds like an awful thing for you to hear."

"It's fine."

"Obviously he wasn't planned and at first I didn't even consider keeping him. It wasn't an option for me. I couldn't be a mother. Me?" Carla laughed. "No, I was not at all prepared to become a mother."

"What changed?"

"I don't know," Carla shrugged. "I guess I started to feel a connection with him. That he was a part of me. And now… Now I don't know what I'd do without him."

"Sounds to me like you're going to make a brilliant mother."

"How do you figure that?"

"Because you love your son, you want your son."

"I do," Carla smiled. "Do you ever feel, I dunno, angry? Or bitter that you… you know.""

"I used to," Amanda admitted. "But I have to believe these things happen for a reason. And us not having children of our own has meant we've been able to help kids like Max. Mothers like Kylie."

Carla's gaze focused again on mother and son as they slowly, painfully, began to reform those natural bonds, to heal those wounds of separation and abandonment. And when Kylie glanced up at Carla and beamed at her with pure joy written clearly across her face, Carla knew without a doubt that Max would soon be coming home.

"How do you feel?" Carla asked Kylie as they drove back to Coronation Street. "Now that you've seen him and spent time with him."

"Yeah," Kylie reflected on her afternoon. "I feel good. I feel… more confident."

"That's great, Kylie. I'm so pleased for you."

"You know I wouldn't have gone if you hadn't forced me?"

"I know."

"I'd still be mooching around feeling sorry for myself."

"You've got that down to a fine art," Carla laughed.

"What I'm trying to say," Kylie said. "Is thank you."

"You're very welcome."

"Are you gonna come in for a bit?" Kylie asked as Carla pulled her car up in front of Underworld and switched off the ignition. "Come on, just for a little while."

"Hmm…" Carla mused, looking at her watch. "Nick's finished work soon so I guess I may as well wait for him here."

"There you are," David said, rising from his usual spot on the sofa the moment Kylie walked in the door, followed closely by Carla. "I've been trying to call you, I was getting worried."

"Were you?" Kylie asked, pulling her phone from her bag and holding it out for David to inspect. "It was on silent, see."

"But–"

"Aren't you gonna ask me how it went?" she asked, unable to keep the grin off her face.

"Is that Kylie?" Gail asked, coming in the back door clutching a laundry basket full of clean clothes. "Oh, hello, Carla, have you come for your tea?"

"Ahhh…"

"I know," she pressed on without waiting for an answer. "Why don't I give Nick a quick call and he can join us when he's finished work. Wouldn't that be nice? The whole family together."

Carla turned to Kylie and shot her an accusatory look while Gail made her promised phone call to her eldest.

"That's all sorted," Gail soon reported back. "He'll meet us here, which gives you and me plenty of time to talk about the wedding."

"The…?"

"The wedding," Gail prompted her. "Your wedding, silly."

"Of course, but Gail, I–"

"I've bought all the latest bridal magazines," Gail said, hurrying to the sideboard and retrieving a stack of magazines. "Sit down, right there, that's it," she ordered Carla, plonking the magazines on the table in front of her future daughter-in-law. "Now, cup of tea?"

"Have you settled on a date yet?" Gail asked, peering across the table at Carla.

"I, ahh…" Carla faltered, raising her tea cup to her lips, a welcome distraction from Gail's incessant questions.

"Will it be before the baby comes or after? After would be better for dress choice and photos, I mean, what woman wants to be heavily pregnant in their wedding photos, right? Smacks of a shot gun wedding. But it would be nice if you were married before the baby arrives, don't you think?"

"Would it?"

"Yes, of course," Gail enthused. "Now, if you did decide on before, I think an empire waistline would be best. Then it wouldn't matter how big you got."

"Listen, Gail, I don't appreciate…" Carla trailed off when she saw Gail peering at her, her eyes full of excitement, her smile beaming from ear to ear and, as much as she wanted to tell her interfering almost in-law to bog off, she couldn't bring herself to extinguish her child-like enthusiasm. "I, umm, I don't appreciate an empire waist, I'd much prefer something that hugged my figure a little more."

"Well, then," Gail exclaimed, thumbing through the magazines until she'd found what she was looking for. "What do you think of this?"

"Yeah," Carla murmured, pulling the magazine towards her and gazing at the gown Gail had selected. "We're definitely moving in the right direction."

"Evening all," Nick called in greeting from the front door.

"Oh, Nicky," Gail exclaimed in surprise. "I thought you weren't finishing for another hour?"

"It was fairly quiet at the bistro so thought I'd come see all my favourite people," Nick explained, making a beeline for the kitchen table. "What's going on here?"

"No no no!" Gail cried out, grabbing the magazines and quickly stuffing them into a nearby drawer. "You can't see!"

"What?"

"We've been talking wedding dresses," Carla explained.

"Have you now?" Nick raised an eyebrow in amusement, knowing how much Carla would despise such an activity with his mother. "Sounds like fun." He leaned down and kissed Carla softly on the lips before sitting down at the table.

"Actually," Carla said tentatively. "Your mum made a good point."

"Oh, yes?"

"We haven't decided when we're getting married which is kind of important for dress shopping, you know, if I have to fit this bump in."

"Well, if it was up to me, we'd get married tomorrow."

"We need a teensy bit more time than that, don't you think?"

"Not really."

"But–"

"David!" Nick called out to his brother. "How long after you got your marriage license before you two could get married?"

"Ahh…" David looked at Kylie for confirmation. "Twenty-eight days, wasn't it?"

"Uh huh," Kylie nodded in agreement. "Why? You guys looking at a short engagement?"

"Why not?" Nick turned to Carla and shrugged. "What are we waiting for?"

"Really?" Carla asked. "Are you sure about this?"

"I am, with all my heart. Listen, we'll go in tomorrow, get the license and in twenty-eight days–"

"I'll be Mrs Tilsley."