Twenty-One Night Stand ✓

ONE SHOT / everything's changing

Date: November 2019

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Christmas decorations dripped from every shop along Farnleigh high street, oozing promises of perfect gifts and cosy evenings in with four weeks to go until the big day. Many of the stores had closed their doors for the night, shutting up shop at five o'clock on the dot, and the town's Christmas lights sparkled in the pitch black early November evening. There weren't many people around at this time, thirty minutes after much of the town had essentially gone to bed, and it was a dream to wander along the high street free of crowds.

There was a bitter chill in the air, the wind whipping through Maddie's hair and biting her cheeks that were red from the cold. A shiver ran through her as she walked hand in hand with Nick, gloved fingers intertwined and winter coats adding bulk to their frames, and each held a bag of their first Christmas shopping.

Maddie had focused on her father today, putting together a collection of things she knew he wanted and needed, as well as a few bits and pieces for his girlfriend, while Nick had consigned himself to the tricky task of shopping for his fiancée with her by his side for the majority of the day. Every now and then, with her back turned, he had been able to nip to the till and secrete the odd thing beneath a jumper he had bought for his sister.

He squeezed Maddie's hand and she looked up at him to see the warm smile that had been melting her heart for three years, and she returned a fraction of it. The past week had been spent in utter bliss, seven days of celebration since Nick had presented her with a delicate ring and asked her to be his wife.

Of course, she had said yes. In fact, she had sobbed the word through a spontaneous flood of tears when she had realised what Nick was doing. Ever since a couple of months after she had returned from travelling the world, she had lived with him in his flat and two years later, he had put her thoughts into words.

The children at work had caught on instantly when they had noticed that their teacher had a shiny new ring on her left hand, and her colleagues had showered her with congratulatory bottles of wine, but it would be a while before she would be able to touch it.

"You alright?" Nick asked. "You've been quiet all day."

"Mmm," Maddie said, her stomach swirling. He had been at work last night, when she had confirmed her suspicions, and she had been asleep by the time he got back after a tortuous twelve hour shift that ended at two o'clock in the morning. Now, they had spent the whole day together but words failed her. Every time she tried to get it out, she was struck down by fear.

How he would react, she had no idea. Perhaps he would swear beneath his breath, just as she had done when the stick in her hand had shown a very definitely positive sign. Perhaps he would well up with tears, like the ones that had been threatening to fall for almost twenty-four hours now. As much as she knew him, after two years of living out of each other's pockets, she had no idea how he would react. They had never talked about children: Maddie was only twenty-five, a couple of years into teaching Year Six at the local primary school. Any time she had pondered pregnancy, it had been as something for the future, once she had turned thirty.

Not a week after getting engaged.

"Sure?" Nick asked. She could feel the warmth of his hands through their gloves and she nestled closer to him as they walked. Life now was already a million miles from the life she had known a couple of years ago, and in that moment, she didn't want anything to change. When Nick pressed his lips to her temple, her heart skipped a beat.

"I'm fine," she said, giving him as confident a smile as she could muster when all she could think about was the new life growing inside her. For six weeks, it had made itself a home within her before she had even realised, and her stomach did a somersault at the thought that her much anticipated summer holiday would begin with birth.