Dina did like to dance and they did in fact have a lot of fun on the dance floor until James begged for mercy and extricated himself to go and chat to some of the other guests.
Around midnight, speeches started.
‘And now I’d like to ask James to come up onto the stage,’ Dina blared over the mic, at the end of a long and drunken speech, her arm round a smiling Amy.
James nearly choked on his lemonade, experiencing a strong, and not pleasant, feeling of déjà vu from Emily’s birthday party. He shook his head slightly. Obviously Dina was not going to tell the room that he was about to propose to someone. That would be the most unbelievable coincidence ever. Plus Dina didn’t seem at all delusional. This was going to be fine.
He walked over to the stage, receiving a lot of pats on the back from complete or near strangers on his way.
As he jumped up onto the stage, Dina mic-catcalled, ‘Nice butt, James,’ to a lot of cheering. James nodded and bowed. He’d take that; a lot better than her expecting him to propose. ‘Amy and I just wanted to thank you for hosting in Cassie’s absence.’ She handed him the mic.
‘My pleasure,’ James said, smiling. Thank Godno-one wanted to marry him. ‘Really, I did nothing. Thankyou, Dina and Amy, for inviting me. I’ve had a great evening and I hope you have too.’ He looked at Dina and Amy and then he looked at everyone else, including the two-man band (trumpet and drums, the island electrician and odd-job man respectively, and genuinely at least as good as Emily’s fancy band had been). Then he leaned into the mic, did a big conducting motion, and started singing ‘Happy Birthday’. Might as well put his expertise to good use.
Everyone joined in and no-one booed or slapped him.
Not too bad an evening.
Twelve
Cassie
Cassie pushed the front door open with her back and heaved her shopping inside. ShelovedLondon shops. If you realised on a Sunday morning on the island that you might have all the ingredients you needed for a pre-afternoon-tea baking-fest but you didn’t have any baking trays, you’d be buggered. In London, off you went to the nearby shops, and if one shop didn’t have exactly what you wanted, you just went to another one. Or you could Amazon-Prime it. On Wednesday, she’d had some stationery delivered within six hours of ordering it. Deliveries took a lot longer when you were a ferry journey away from the nearest depot.
Her phone pinged. James. What now? Did he want to suck up to her again to try to persuade her to agree to his ecotourism plan – which was never going to happen – or was he going to have a go at her?
Hi Cassie. Party went well – marquee, loos, food, drunkenness levels – all good. Laura pretty much outlasted us all (directing the dancing from the sidelines with her stick…). Great evening. Alpacas and chickens not too traumatised – checked on them this morning.
Hmm. Sucking up.
Dina had sent a whole series of texts.
Party was a-maz-ing. My beautiful girl is eighteen. Can’t believe it. Same age I was when she was born. Thank you so much for the field and all your wonderful help.
James also amazing. Sooooo HOT. Seems like we’re taking things slowly (aka NO ACTION WHATSOEVER YET) but I’m thinking that’s just because he’s a gentleman, which is GREAT but I want something to HAPPEN…
HOTSPOTTING. Always thought it was a menopausal thing BUT NO: it’s more expensive BUT you can get internet on your laptop through your phone!!! Any time of day obviously!!!!! Amy already knew!!! James getting Wi-Fi fixed.
Sending more photos from party later soon but here’s one for now.
She’d sent a group one of herself, Amy, Laura, a couple of other good friends and James.
Cassie shouldn’t be interested in checking out James in party gear.
Shewasinterested. She stretched the photo into a close-up of him. So good-looking. His bone structure and the shape of his mouth. His hair had grown and was slightly wavy. Gorgeous. The photo showed him wearing a navy shirt and smart jeans, a very affluent-Londoner look. Exactly the kind of man she’d learned the hard way not to like. Exactly the kind of man who ofcourseDina was going to fall for if he had any kind of wit and charm atalland who was ofcoursegoing to let her down. Not to judge a book by its cover.
Cassie now knew that hedidhave a lot of charm, when he wanted to. He was tenacious too – he must have put a lot of effort into finding that she was the owner of her land. Wasted effort.
He was probably used to getting his own way about everything. No doubt he’d have another go at schmoozing her.
Another ‘James is soooo amazing’ text came through from Dina.
It was a teensy bit annoying how everyone was so enamoured of James.
It looked from the photos as though the party had been great. And Cassie had missed it.However, she’d had a fab catch-up yesterday evening with a couple of old university friends, and there’d be other parties. Like Laura’s – maybe she’d take a long-weekend trip home for that one and see everyone.
Right. She’d better get baking so that she’d be ready before Anthony and the neighbours from the floor above arrived. She sent some heart emojis and a ‘Speak later – in baking crisis’ message to Dina.
Baking was going to be a lovely, civilised way to spend a couple of hours.
