To Charlie
One
James
‘I understand that James has a very special gift for Emily and a very special question for her.’ Emily’s mother directed a coy smile at James, replaced the mic in its stand, stepped back and ushered James forward.
James frowned. This wasn’t what he’d been expecting. What did she mean by ‘special’?
He looked at the mic on the stage in front of him, and at the sea of expectant faces below. There had to be a good hundred and fifty people down there.
He glanced upwards. There were helium balloons bumping against the ballroom’s high ceiling. They weren’t three- and zero-shaped, as you might expect for a thirtieth birthday party; they were heart-shaped.
Special. Hearts.
Was he expected to ask Emily to move in with him or something?
Surely not. That would be ridiculous; they both knew their relationship wasn’t that serious.
How long had they been together now? Maybe nine months? But only loosely together. They didn’t talk a lot. They went out sometimes, they slept together; that was about it. They barely knew each other’s friends, and they were light years away from anything like exchanging an I-love-you. Except, what else would ‘special’ mean?
James looked sideways at Emily, standing just to his right. She was wearing a floor-length, shimmery-green, silky dress, very tight all the way from the strapless top down to around shin level, where it flared out at the back. Kicking room. Her hair was mainly up, with a few strands down round the sides. She was wearing a pearl choker and diamond earrings. She looked stunning.
His gaze moved back to her mother, standing just beyond her, holding a glass of champagne and beaming. What was the woman’s name? Nope, he couldn’t recall it; that was how close he and Emily were.
Like everyone else in the room, Emily’s mother was looking at him.
People were starting to murmur.
He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced down. Emily had inched her left hand towards him, with her ring finger proffered.
What? No. Couldn’t be. Was she expecting him topropose?
Emily’s mother’s words replayed in his mind.Special. No. He really hoped not.Surelynot.
He took another look at Emily. She actually looked quite bridal, in a green way. And her mother’s outfit looked pretty mother-of-the-bride.
Unbelievable.
Maybe if he hadn’t been running late and preoccupied by the god-awful day he’d had at work, he might have registered some of these details when he arrived. And run for the hills.
Emily, still with the proffered finger, raised her eyebrows and jerked her head slightly in the direction of the microphone.
James didn’t move.
‘It’s probably time to make the announcement.’ The acoustics of the room were terrible. Emily’s words were still bouncing off the walls whole seconds after she’d said them.
And everyone was still waiting for James to speak.
Except there was nothing that he wanted to say, other thanGoodbye. And maybeHelp.Clearly, Emily had completely mistaken where they were at in their relationship. Getting married was in no way part of James’s life plan. He was pretty sure that he was a good friend, godfather and uncle. He didn’t want any commitment beyond that, and he always made that clear to girlfriends from the word go; there was no point upsetting people unnecessarily. He’d definitely made it clear to Emily. Surely.
She’d cooed over babies in buggies when they’d walked through the park a couple of weeks ago. She might have talked recently about selling her Central London flat and wanting to buy a house with several bedrooms out in Wimbledon. He also had a vague memory of her saying something about getting a dog. But, really? Should he have extrapolated from that to this? It was abigleap from there to here.
‘James?’ Emily’s voice had a nasty edge to it now.
The guests had upped the decibel level of their murmuring.
He’d better do something.
