Prosecco Cures All

(I am on a train departing London to the north of England. I am with a bunch of friends and we are generally chatting, laughing and playing quiz games on our phones to pass the time. One of our friends has recently been through a rough time so we thought we’d treat her to a weekend in the country. We notice a mother with a baby but don’t think much of it at the time.)

Mother: “Can you please keep it down? I’m trying to get my baby to sleep.”

Me: *rather embarrassed* “Sorry if we disturbed you. We’re taking our friend to the country and she’s had a tough few months. We didn’t think we were being that loud.”

Mother: “Well, I can’t get my baby to sleep with all your noise!”

(From then, my friends and I exchanged awkward glances and proceeded to sit in silence for about twenty minutes. We knew we weren’t being that loud and thought the mother was simply put off by us having a good time. We basically wrote her off as grumpy. All of sudden a chilled bottle of prosecco wine appeared on my lap with a note that read “Babies are stressful! Sorry for snapping at you and thank you for helping me get her back to sleep.” I looked up and standing before me was the mother from before. We all felt a little guilty after that. I guess it’s easy to write people off. Lesson learnt!)