Page 125 of The Bad Mother's Diary

I was pretty much ready. He only had to shout at me twice to hurry up.

A driver took us into London in this big wedding car thing. In fact, it was fancier than my wedding car.

And Alex looked a lot better than my groom – black suit, white shirt, black bow tie.

I got even more nervous, thinking – fucking hell, we’re going somewhere really fancy.

Alex said I looked ‘stunning’.

The whole drive, he wouldn’t tell me where we were going. He got quite stern about it actually. When I kept asking.

London was glowing with Christmas and felt magic. The streets were frosty, the sky was dark and the air smelt of roast chestnuts.

Garlands were strung all along Oxford Street, and a huge, sparkling Norwegian Christmas tree stood in Trafalgar Square, surrounded by theatre performers and dancing elves.

FINALLY we stopped outside the London Coliseum, which was covered from top to bottom with long, straight strings of fairy lights.

Alex told me we were seeing Swan Lake. Which is a ballet.

He said I’d love it and he was right.

It was beautiful.

Of course, it helped that we had our own balcony. And a bottle of champagne.

When I asked Alex how the ballerinas stood on their toes without swearing, he told me they spent their whole lives practising discipline and restraint.

I said that seemed a bit sad. That they gave up so much just to look beautiful for other people.

Alex squeezed my hand and whispered, ‘They retire before they’re thirty. And spend the rest of their lives eating chocolate. Don’t feel too sorry for them.’

We held hands the whole way through. And then, just near the end, Nick rang.

SOO embarrassing.

MC Hammer –Can’t Touch Thisblaring out across the auditorium.

I ran out to take the call in the stairwell.

Nick was all slurry and drunk, telling me I should be at home with Daisy.

I asked him how he knew I was out.

He said he’d phoned the pub and Mum had told him.

I said it was my birthday.

He said, ‘Is it?’

Then he said he wanted to see me. And that he wanted things to be how they were.

Why does life happen like that? When Iwantedhim to beg for forgiveness, he didn’t. And now I’m moving on, he says everything I wanted to hear months ago.

Nick got all teary and angry, and I ended up hanging up on him.

Then I rang Mum and checked everything was okay with Daisy.

I heard Mum say, ‘Spit it out Daisy! Spit it out! Oh, you’ve swallowed it …’

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