Janet slowly descended the stairs as she breathed deeply and tried to stop her heart from beating so fast. Now she thought about it, telling the Elise and Taisie was more frightening than telling Dorothy. Her mum had gone round to a friend's house, having decided to give her some time with the girls to talk to them once they'd got out of bed.

She heard them chatting in the living room and pooled all of her strength and courage as she went and sat down in between them on the sofa.

'You ok, Mum?' said Elise, seeing that Janet was looking a bit anxious. Janet nodded and tapped Taisie on the leg.

'Put your phone down for a second, love. There's something I need to tell you both,' she said quietly. Taisie sat up and looked, confused, at Elise.

'The thing is,' Janet tried to pick her words carefully as she hugged both of her daughters. 'The thing is, I made up with Rachel yesterday.'

'Yeah, we assumed that, Mum, seeing as though you stayed over last night,' said Taisie. 'I'm glad you have.'

'Me too,' offered Elise with a smile.

'Good,' continued Janet. 'You see, what I'm trying to tell you is that... Rachel and I-'

'I knew it!' chuckled Taisie.

'What... How... I haven't said anything yet!' Janet stammered.

'Oh, come on, Mum! I'm surprised it's taken this long! You were never going to be "just friends" forever' said Taisie, dumbfounded.

'Right, well. You've taken this better than I'd expected!' said Janet.

'Mum, Rachel might be a bit of an idiot sometimes, but I love her and, evidently, so do you.' Taisie grinned. 'So I'm happy for you.' The phone started ringing. 'I'll get that,' she added, as she sprung up and left the room.

Janet turned to Elise and saw that she was staring at the floor, obviously thinking very hard about what had just happened.

'Are you ok, love?' Janet asked. 'I know it might be a bit of a shock because I wasn't even speaking to Rachel yesterday and I've been married before, to a man and-'

'You're rambling, Mum,' said Elise quietly.

'Yes. Sorry.' Janet decided she'd let Elise talk when she was ready. She took her daughter's hand in her own and stroked the back of it as Elise breathed deeply. Please let her be ok with this, Janet prayed to whoever was listening.

'I just wasn't expecting it, I suppose,' started Elise slowly, as though she was carefully choosing her words and considering all of the options first. 'I'm not not ok with it, but I think it might take me a while to get used to the fact that my mum is... Does this mean you're gay or is it just Rachel?' She looked at Janet for the first time since Taisie left the room.

'Rachel is my first... girlfriend, if you can call her that at our age. I think there's always been something in the back of my mind, every since I was young, but I ignored it and thought it was just a phase. Then I met your dad and thought no more of it. Sometimes you fall in love with someone for who they are, regardless of age or gender or anything else. I'm sorry that this is going to make your life that little bit harder.' Janet looked down at their joined hands and realised that it was going to have a huge impact on the girls as well. She only hoped that their friends didn't mind.

'You don't have to apologise for falling in love, Mum,' said Elise, squeezing her hands. 'Never do that. I'll be ok. Society's changing and there are probably much stranger family arrangements than this so just be happy and enjoy yourself. You deserve her.'

Janet felt the tears spill over and leant forward to kiss Elise on the forehead before wrapping her arms around her and flopping back on the sofa in a hug.

'Are you sure you'll be ok?' Janet whispered into Elise's hair.

'I'll be fine. I'm happy for you,' Elise replied. 'Plus, we'll get to see Rachel a whole lot more now.'

'Yeah, I thought you might like that,' chuckled Janet.

'So is she moving in here or...'

'I don't know yet, we've barely had the chance to talk about it yet.'

'I wonder why that is!' giggled Elise.

'Hey, you just leave my sex life alone, please, miss!' said Janet as she playfully slapped Elise on the arm and smiled at the fact that she and Elise had become more like friends since Adrian had left.

'Yes, mother.'

Taisie walked back in and rolled her eyes at the sight of her mum and sister cuddled up on the sofa. She turned to walk out again.

'Um, where do you think you're going, young lady?' asked Janet. 'Come here please.' She held out her free arm and Taisie went to sit down next to her, slightly reluctantly. 'Who was on the phone?'

'Dad. He was checking what time he needed to pick me up tomorrow cos I'm getting help from my maths teacher after school,' said Taisie. Janet was proud that she had lately been taking responsibility for her progress at school.

'Right.'

'Wait, you haven't told Dad yet, have you,' asked Taisie.

'God, no!' laughed Janet. 'I think I'll need a bit of Dutch courage when I do, though.'