‘OK.’ Shelly tried to disengage and glanced around for help. The waiting room was mostly empty, the weekday morning clinic being the quiet slot. ‘I’m happy to do that,’ she panted slightly as she finally managed to extract herself from the YouTuber. ‘What’s your channel?’
‘From Stressed to Blessed. I nearly had IVF so that’s my hook.’
‘What does “nearly had IVF” mean?’ Shelly narrowed her eyes.
‘Well, we were TTC for ages and I thought I’d have to get treatment but then, miracle of miracles, I got a BFP a few months ago, but I’m still kind of going with the IVF angle because not enough women are speaking out about these things.’
Shelly was about to say ‘But you didn’t have IVF?’ but thought better of it. If this loon wanted to squeeze some content out of a difficult time that she’d nearly experienced, then so be it. Let them roast her in the comments.
‘OK, good luck. I’ll be sure to mention it, I promise.’ Shelly moved off to find a seat and wait to be called.
The other two women sitting nearby were called into separate offices and thank God From Stressed to Blessed had been on her way out when she accosted Shelly to molest her bump. A young man sat looking nervous two seats over. Where was this guy’s wife? Shelly wondered. Or his girlfriend? Or maybe it was a surrogate situation …? It was just the two of them sitting there now and he was looking everywhere but at her. He seemed oddly familiar.
‘I’m not pregnant, in case you’re wondering,’ he blurted into the silent waiting room and something about the voice and the awkward grin made her realise where they’d met before.
‘Sam? Ali’s boyfr…’ She trailed off awkwardly.
He visibly winced and Shelly wished she’d pretended to not know him.
‘I’m not Ali’s anything,’ he muttered testily, then waved a hand apologetically. ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t be snapping at you. It’s been a shitty week. You’re one of the Insta-mums, right?’
‘Shelly.’ She leaned forward to shake his hand. ‘I worked with Ali on Durty Aul’ Town.’ Sam nodded grimly and Shelly searched for something to say. ‘Are you here with a friend?’
‘Here? Oh right, a maternity hospital. No, I’m not here with a friend.’ He was scathing. ‘I’m here with a girl I met on Tinder, who turned out to be a complete psycho.’ He delivered this in a monotone, but his clenched jaw betrayed his fury.
‘Another one? Since Ali?’ Shelly was lost. Didn’t he meet Ali on Tinder? Though, in fairness, she wasn’t sure how much of Ali’s story about anything had been true.
‘No, no, still the same psycho. Ali Foetus Faker Jones. Only now she’s pregnant for real. Lucky me.’
‘What? She … she …’ Shelly was stunned.
‘Well, she says she is anyway. Which obviously means fucking nothing.’ He was venomous. ‘I’m not believing a goddamn word until yer one in there’ – he jerked his head towards the examining room – ‘tells me so. I might even request a paternity test. It’s a pity Jeremy Kyle’s finished. We’d be the perfect guests and ITV could foot the bill.’
Oh my God, what was Ali playing at? Shelly’s mind raced. Could she actually be trying to continue with this lie? Surely no one was that mad?
But no hospital would be taken in by a pregnancy faker, so it had to be true.
‘So Ali’s in with the midwife right now?’ Shelly asked carefully.
Before Sam could answer, Ali walked out the door to the left of them and instantly froze on seeing Shelly. The midwife appeared behind her consulting her file and called, ‘Eh, Mr Sam Healy? I’ll see you now.’
Ali shuffled mutely to one side as Sam stood and marched past the midwife without a single word to her. Ali gazed at the floor and flinched as the door to the examination room banged shut beyond her. Shelly sat still, waiting to let Ali speak first.
Shelly had thought a lot about Ali in the last few days. At first, when the news broke, she’d been shocked and disgusted like everyone else. Then, with the messages from @__________ piling up in her DMs detailing her own Insta-shams, she’d begun to feel more than a little hypocritical for judging the girl so harshly. Seeing her now looking pale and impossibly young with no make-up or Insta trickery to hide her ashen face and bloodshot eyes, Shelly felt oddly protective of her. She realised she didn’t know much about her. There’d been talk on the set coming from every direction. Some of the older cast members had said her dad had passed away but Shelly had assumed that was more lies. Now here she was in the midwife clinic.
‘Ali?’ Shelly spoke at last, as Ali seemed to be in some kind of trance.
‘I can’t believe you’re here right now,’ Ali whispered.
‘Are you … OK? Come sit down. You look pretty pale.’ When the girl didn’t budge, Shelly stood up and guided her gently to a seat. She still didn’t speak.
‘Are you expecting, Ali? Truly this time?’ Shelly tried not to sound judgmental as she said this.
‘I … am.’ Ali sounded as surprised by this as Shelly felt.
‘Wow, that’s a … plot twist.’
Ali snorted. ‘Yup,’ she said flatly. She took a deep breath and finally looked at Shelly straight on. Shelly just about stopped herself from gasping. Ali looked tormented.
‘I’m so sorry for lying to you. And everyone. It was not planned. I swear. It just kind of happened.’
Shelly couldn’t really see how something like that ‘just kind of happened’, but she didn’t feel that now was the time for an interrogation – the girl looked so fragile, plus it wasn’t any of her business. Though, God, she did feel sorry for her right now. She’d read all the bile online that was directed at this girl, but she hadn’t been prepared for the effects of it to be so obvious on her. It was writ large in her eyes and across her face and even her posture – she looked like a person who was being hunted.
‘You don’t have to believe me,’ Ali continued. ‘He doesn’t. I thought we’d come here today, and he’d see the little baby on the scan and come around a bit, but he wouldn’t even go in with me, insisted on separate conversations with the midwife. It hardly matters, though, really. Everything is such a mess, that this’ – she nodded at her tummy – ‘is practically the least of it.’ She laughed bitterly. ‘Can you believe that? This isn’t even the shittiest thing in my life right now!’
‘What else is going on?’ Shelly presumed she meant the online commenters. ‘People can be so cruel online.’
‘Ha! Oh God, that’s not even it.’ Ali took a long slow breath. ‘My dad died just over a week ago.’
‘Oh Ali!’ Shelly didn’t know what to say. She took Ali’s hands – she wasn’t much more than twenty-five, so young to lose a parent.
‘It sounds so wrong,’ Ali continued. ‘You’re the first person I’ve had to, ya know, explain it to. He was sick for a really long time. He didn’t remember me, hadn’t known who I was for a few years. Not since I was maybe twenty-two, twenty-three?’