When the telephone rang at seven in the morning, I already knewit was Edward. Only he would call at such an hour with the voice of someone convinced the day began at five.
“Yes?” I grumbled, barely awake.
“Eleanor, Im sorry to wake you, but I need to ask an enormous favour.”
I sat up in bed. With him, an “enormous favour” always meant either disaster or madness.
“Out with it, then,” I sighed.
“Ive been sent on business to Manchester. Two weeks. And Sophias six months alongthe doctors ordered her to rest more…”
“You want me to look after your pregnant wife?” I interrupted.
Silence hummed down the line.
“Just to make sure she eats properly, attends her appointments, doesnt fret…”
“You do hear how this sounds, Edward?”
“I do,” he exhaled. “But youre the only one I trust. And Sophia adores you. Says youre the sister she never had.”
Lovely, I thought. The sister who once was his wife and still isnt certain shes entirely over him.
I hung up, yet twenty minutes later, I stood at their front door. Sophia answeredwearing a nightdress printed with rabbits, her hair tousled, her belly round and glowing.
“Eleanor! I never meant to trouble youthis was all Edwards doing,” she said, flustered.
“Relax, I dont bite. Wheres your adventurer?”
“Upstairs, hunting for socks. Navy ones. Unsuccessfully, as usual.”
Oh, I knew that ritual well.
“You actually came?” Edward peered round the door.
“Yes, but I have conditions.”
He tensed.
“Name them.”
“No calls every five minutes. When you return, dinner at the finest restaurant in town. And buy Sophia those Belgian chocolatesshes been craving them since yesterday.”
“How did you know?” Sophia blinked.
“Written all over your face,” I smiled. “Pregnancy cravings arent exactly subtle.”
Once hed gone, we were left alonethe former wife and the current one, both slightly bewildered.
“Odd, isnt it?” Sophia murmured, pouring tea.
“Terribly. But Ive grown used to lifes oddities.”
We fell into a rhythm. Mornings began with breakfast, afternoons with idle chatter over telly shows.
“Be honest,” she whispered once. “Do you still love him?”
I couldve lied. But not to her.
“Yes. Though not as before. Its love for a memory now. It aches, but it doesnt wound.”
She nodded.
“I feared you hated me.”
“Believe me, I tried,” I laughed. “But youre too kind to hate.”
At her next appointment, the scan revealed a tiny heartbeat. She gripped my hand.
“See? Thats them.”
And I dida small life born from a past Id once shared with him. It hurt yet somehow soothed.
“Perfect,” I said truthfully.
“Think Edward will cry when he sees the photo?”
“Undoubtedly. He wept at the end of *Sense and Sensibility*.”
We laughed. We cried. We became friends.
One evening, as we chopped vegetables, she asked, “Why did you two really part?”
I set the knife down.
“We were opposites. I was order; he was chaos. I was silence; he was storm. We loved but couldnt live together.”
“And with me?”
“With you, he found balance. You steady him. I only ever stirred the tempest.”
She smiled through tears.
“Youre remarkable, Eleanor.”
“No. Ive just learned to let go.”
When Edward returned, Sophia nearly knocked him over. He showered me in thanks.
“Youre an angel.”
“An angel who expects a three-course meal at The Ritz,” I reminded him.
As they laughed, I watched them and realisedyes, I loved him still. But now it was a love without demands. A love that could rejoice in anothers happiness.
“This little one will have the best aunt in the world,” Edward said, gazing at the ultrasound.
“Aunt?” Sophia teased.
“Naturally,” I grinned. “After two weeks, Im officially part of this odd, happy family.”
“Sure you want to be stuck with us?” he joked.
“Too late to back out now,” I said. “Someone must stop you naming the child Algernon.”
“Whats wrong with Algernon?!” Sophia protested.
We dissolved into laughter.
And so I became “Aunt Ellie” to the child of my former husband and his wonderful wife. And dyou know? I never felt lonely again.
My tale mightve read like the plot of some absurd stage play, yet it held everythinglaughter, pain, tenderness, forgiveness.
Months later, when Sophia rang and said, “Eleanor, wed love you to be our sons godmother,” I only laughed and replied,
“Well, now Im well and truly stuck with you.”
