Free Having It All by Maeve Haran

champagne.
    ‘Of course we weren’t wrong! Liz is the one who’s wrong!’ Mel turned to Liz furiously, forgetting where she was. ‘And I hope you realize the damage you’ve
done to other women’s prospects with that little outburst of yours!’
    Ginny watched the anger flashing between her three friends in horror. She was shocked at the bitterness the subject seemed to be arousing. She’d stayed out of it till now. What did she
know after all about juggling children and a career?
    She’d always been a stay-at-home wife. Wasting her talents, as her high-powered mother never missed an opportunity to point out. You could have been a painter was her mother’s
continual refrain. But children were small for so short a time. You turned around for a moment and they had grown up and left you. Anyway her mother could talk. She had been too busy being a
surgeon to bother with Ginny and her brother. Well, it wasn’t going to be like that for her children.
    In spite of herself, Ginny couldn’t help being glad that Liz was finding it so hard to cope. It made her feel better about herself. Of course Liz would never do anything about it. She had
no conception of what being a full-time mother was like, the way people looked bored when you told them what you did, and turned away from you at parties to look for someone more interesting. It
drove her mad the way motherhood was held so cheap these days.
    And even though you wanted to be a mother you found yourself devalued all the same. She loved making a home, adored looking after Amy and Ben, felt happy and fulfilled by being the centre of her
family, yet she still felt boring and limited in the company of career women – even these, her best friends.
    ‘So, what will you do?’ she asked Liz.
    ‘I don’t know. I really don’t know. See how things work out. Maybe I’ll find that under Conrad’s chauvinistic exterior there lurks a New Man who appreciates that
caring and sensitivity are just as important as toughness and aggression. Who knows, maybe he’ll even relent and let me see my kids once in a while.’
    ‘Or maybe not.’ Britt drained her glass and held it out for more.
    ‘Come on, girls.’ Liz picked up the bottle of champagne and refilled their glasses. ‘We came for a celebration not a wake, remember. What are we having to eat?’
    ‘Where to, Mrs Ward?’ Liz’s chauffeur opened the door of The Groucho Club and helped Liz and Britt into the back of the gleaming Jaguar XJ6.
    ‘Notting Hill please, Jim. My friend wants to pick up her car.’
    Britt leaned back and stroked the soft cream leather of the seat. She breathed it in deeply. The smell of the leather in Jaguars always seemed more genuine than it did in other cars. She
couldn’t understand why Liz wasn’t happy when she had all this. For Christ’s sake, how many women got a chauffeur-driven Jag with their job?
    ‘This car’s divine. Did you have to fight hard to get it?’
    Liz laughed. ‘Actually I asked for a Space Wagon, not an XJ6. You should have seen Conrad’s face! “But that’s a kiddie carrier! I’m giving you a black XJ6 with
cream leather seats. That’s what LWT’s Controller has. We can’t have you driving round looking like a mum from Surbiton!”’
    Typical, Britt thought bitterly. She couldn’t help feeling that Liz’s contempt for the rewards of success was somehow directed at her. What was wrong with wanting an XJ6? Or a
Porsche? Or a penthouse in Docklands? Britt wanted them all right. And so, if she wasn’t much mistaken, did Liz’s husband.
    Britt looked at her curiously. ‘So what does the divine David think of all these True Confessions – and in his rival paper too? I would have thought with all these rumours about
Logan Greene bringing in some kid from the
World
to get the
News
off the skids, he might be a teeny-weeny bit pissed off.’
    So that was it! That was why David had been so preoccupied. For God’s sake, why hadn’t he told her? And