Page 85 of The Bad Mother's Diary

I said, ‘Why?’

Alex said, ‘Because Mr Dalton Senior owns car manufacturing plants in China, India … all over the world. He could have given me any number of brand new cars for free. Yet I bought British. And just to rub it in, vintage British.’

As we got nearer the village, Alex said, ‘Just so you know, I think Nicholas Spencer is an idiot.’

I said, ‘Why?’

He said, ‘Because he let you get to the church without marrying you. Zach told me about the wedding.’

I said, ‘Don’t you have more interesting topics of conversation, like the New York stock market or the best marble for your hotel floors?’

Alex said, ‘He thought I’d want to know.’

I said what a big mess everything was. Daisy not living with her dad.

‘From what I heard, she never had much of a dad anyway,’ Alex said. ‘You can do much better than Nick Spencer.’

I said that I didn’t want to do better. I wanted Daisy to have two parents.

He said, ‘Would you take him back?’

I said, ‘If he did some really serious apologising. Maybe.’

Alex said, ‘The man’s a car crash. Don’t throw your life away.’

I asked Alex what made him an expert on relationships with us commoners.

And he said, ‘Commoners? You think that’s a word I’d use?’

I said yes.

He said, ‘Just because I drive an expensive vintage car doesn’t mean I look down on people.’

I said, ‘You do though. Don’t you?’

He said, ‘Only men like Nicholas Spencer. And that’s because of who he is. Not where he comes from.’

I said, ‘What about people who use public transport?’

He said, ‘I don’t lookdownon them. You have me wrong there.’

We were a few roads from the Oakley Arms and I said, ‘Just here will be fine. We can walk from here.’ Like I was talking to a taxi driver.

Alex said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll drop you outside your mum and dad’s pub. You’re staying there, aren’t you?’

I asked him how he knew that.

He shrugged and said, ‘I noticed.’

When we pulled up outside my parent’s pub, I caught myself wondering what Alex must think of the place.

To most people, our house is quite big. Posh, really. Well – big and flashy. Lots of bedrooms. Tudor beams. Great big garage and garden.

But to Alex it must look a bit tasteless. What with the big neon sign that says ‘Bob and Shirl’s Place’. And all the gnomes in the garden.

Alex helped me with the stroller and baby swimming stuff.

Then he took Daisy out of the car while I got the stroller ready.

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