Singled Out by Simon Brett Page B

absolutely
ideal
situation … so long as you can do without sex for long periods.’
    â€˜You have no idea how long I go without sex. You know nothing about my sex life, Rob.’
    â€˜No …’ he agreed, ‘except I definitely know that you had a bit nine months ago …’
    If this had been a cue to confess the identity of Tom’s father, Laura ignored it. ‘Certainly did,’ she said, shifting the baby in her arms and removing the bottle as he let out a little choking sound. She sat the floppy body up and patted its tiny rounded back. Tom let out a little cough and a posset of milk slipped down his chin. Laura wiped it with a muslin nappy and resettled him with the bottle in his mouth.
    â€˜Rob …’ she began slowly. ‘There
is
something I’d like you to do for me now …’
    â€˜Yes. Anything, my love. Anything you ask.’ A sudden thought gave him pause. Raising his hands to his face in a gesture of mock-panic, he shrieked, ‘Oh my
God
! You don’t want me to change his nappy, do you?’
    Tom stirred uneasily at the noise. ‘Ssh,’ said Laura. ‘No, Rob. What I want you to do is … I’m not religious … I probably won’t ever have Tom christened, but nonetheless … I’d really like it if you’d agree to be a kind of godfather for him.’
    Rob’s hands flickered up to his face again in a parody of Miss World-winning surprise. ‘
Moi
?’
    â€˜Oui. Toi.’
    â€˜Oh, but come
on
. I thought godparents were meant to take on the moral guardianship of their charges, point them in the way of the Lord and all that. I’m honestly not sure that I’m qualified.’
    â€˜Seem perfectly qualified to me.’
    â€˜But don’t godfathers also take their godsons off to brothels to get them sexually initiated … or have I got that wrong? I mean, just
imagine
what kind of sexual practices I might initiate young Tom into.’
    Laura was not put off. ‘Please. I want you to agree to do it.’
    Rob fluttered his eyelashes and again escaped into facetiousness. ‘Well, if I say yes straight away, you’re going to think I’m
easy
, aren’t you?’
    â€˜No. Go on. Please will you? Please, be Tom’s unofficial godfather.’
    For a moment he mimed indecision, then conceded, ‘All right, you’ve talked me into it.’
    And Laura could see from his face how much her request had meant to him.
    â€˜Don’t you want to hold him?’ asked Laura.
    â€˜No.’ Kent sat on a metal-framed hospital chair, the rigidity of his body signalling his unease. He looked more rectangular than ever in a dark grey suit. His hands clasped a rolled-up
Evening Standard
between his knees. The dull eyes were wrinkled about with exhaustion.
    â€˜But you must get to know him, Kent. There’s no way you’re going to avoid seeing a lot of him in the future, so you’d better come to terms with that.’
    â€˜What do you mean – see a lot of him?’
    â€˜Well, he’s part of me now. If you see me, you’ll see Tom. You know, on family occasions.’ Kent let out a little grunt of annoyance. ‘What’s the matter?’
    â€˜It’s just to hear you talk of “family occasions” … as if it were normal … as if we were part of a normal family that could have “family occasions”.’
    â€˜Kent …’ She wanted to reach out and touch him, pass on her new serenity, stroke his arm, melt away some of the tension inside. But touching didn’t come within the agreement of their relationship. ‘Kent, don’t you understand, that was all in the past. It really is possible to put the whole business behind us. Now that he … our father’s dead.’ It annoyed her that she still stumbled on mentioning their father’s name. ‘We really can change, Kent. Tom’s part of