Sasha opened her mouth and Evie’s phone rang. Good.
It was Matthew, calling from his Tenerife golfing holiday.
‘I’ll leave you to it and make us some coffee,’ Sasha said and left the room.
‘Hello,’ Matthew said. ‘I’m missing you. How’s everything going with the wedding preps?’
Evie told him all about her day, not really including the conversation with Dan, though, because it felt a bit weird talking about him with Matthew. ‘And how’s your day been?’ she asked when he’d finished agreeing that no way should anyone suggest that a bride take laxatives.
When he’d finished a – genuinely very funny on this occasion – golfing anecdote, he said, ‘I can’t believe I’m away for a whole ten days. I’m really missing you.’
‘Me too,’ Evie said, meaning it. His presence was very calming.
‘Are you sure you’re okay about seeing Dan and meeting Hannah this weekend?’ Sasha asked as soon as she was back in the room after Evie and Matthew’s call finished. One-track mind. It was literally about the fiftieth time she’d asked the question. Like Evie, while totally sober, was suddenly going to give a different answer from the other forty-nine times. Sasha wanted her baby niece to be at her wedding so Hannah had been invited, and if Evie was honestof courseshe didn’t particularly want to spend time with Danandthe ex he’d split up with just before Vegas. But they were all adults and it would befine.
‘Totally. I mean, he split up with Hannah before we went to Vegas and so of course it wasfinethat he and I… you know…fine. And it’s clearlyfine, more than fine, wonderful, that he has Katie. You know, I’m really pleased for him, both of them. And of course it’ll be fine seeing them together,totallyfine. I mean, obviously.’ She wasclearlydoing the protesting-too-much thing. Also, what was she thinking? What about Matthew? ‘And, I mean, I’m with Matthew. Really, Dan and Hannah are nothing to do with me.’ It was really bloody annoying, frankly, that Matthew couldn’t make it to the wedding. ‘I’m really looking forward to your wedding and to seeing you walking down the aisle looking utterly, utterly fabulous in your gorgeous dress and marrying your amazing fiancé.’
‘And Hannah and Katie will probably only come to the ceremony and the first part of the reception, so they won’t really be there much,’ Sasha said.
‘Exactly. But even if they were, Ireallywouldn’t mind.’
‘Good. If you’re sure.’
‘I amtotallysure.’ Ish.
* * *
‘So this isgreat.’ Two evenings later, Evie took another glug of her champagne and then put it down on a side table. It felt like to survive this evening happily she needed to be very drunk or totally sober. Drunk and Dan weren’t a good combination, so sober it was. ‘So exciting that the wedding’stomorrow.’ She looked at Sasha’s mother on her right and then at Sasha’s father on her left. Neither of them had said a word for literally minutes.Suchbad timing that Sasha’s parents had arrived at the restaurant at the same time, and straight after Evie.
‘I can’t wait to see how the church looks in the morning when the florist’s finished.’ Evie paused. More silence. Right. ‘And the cake’s going to be delicious. Such a good idea to have different types of cake in each tier.’ And more silence. ‘I can never decide whether I prefer fruit cake or your basic Victoria sponge. Or chocolate actually. Especially Black Forest gateau. Delicious. Yep. Everything’s going to be wonderful. I wonder where they’re going for their honeymoon. So exciting that Angus is surprising Sasha.’ More silence. Christ. ‘August’s a wonderful time of year for a wedding.’
There was the sound of a spoon tinkling against a glass.
‘If we could all take our seats, that would be great,’ Angus boomed. ThankGod. ‘Sasha’s done a seating plan.’
Evie smiled at both of Sasha’s unsmiling parents, said, ‘Wonderful,’ and moved, fast, in the direction of the table, to start on the looking-for-your-name sideways-shuffle-and-peer thing that everyone was doing to find their place.
There were sixteen of them, eight men and eight women, and Sasha had alternated the sexes. She’d had quite a few constraints to work with, including having to put her father as far away from her mother and all four of his children and ex-mother-in-law as possible, as well as Angus’s mother and grandmother, who were both firmly in the Fiona-supporting camp, so he’d been placed between Evie and Dervla, the other non-family bridesmaid.
One of Angus’s younger brothers, Rory, was on Evie’s other side. Evie was pretty sure that she was relieved not to be sitting next to Dan, given all the awkwardness, except for some reason she also felt a bit miffed.
Silly, of course. There was nothingwrongwith Robert, other than the middle-aged-letch thing he had going on and the fact that he’d betrayed his wife and never apologised. And she didn’t really know Rory, but he seemed like a lot of fun. She was totally going to have a great evening.
‘Thank you so much,’ Evie said to the waiter as he put her main course of ballotine of rabbit in front of her. She looked across the table at Sasha and made a sympathetic face as Sasha pointed between her very plain salad and Angus’s steak. She’d had soup and no bread to start with while Angus had had foie gras with a lot of toast. It seemed like there was something in all of this wedding dress and dieting stuff that summed up a lot that was wrong between men and women. Although tomorrow Angus was going to be wearing a boring suit while Sasha was getting to wearthemost beautiful dress. Yeah, not the time to be philosophising.
‘This food’s delicious. Almost as delightful as my dinner companions this evening,’ Robert told Dervla and Evie. Honestly.
‘You old flirt,’ said Dervla, not really sounding that light-hearted.
Evie sneaked her umpteenth look of the meal at Dan, at the far end of her side of the squarish table. He looked a bit tired. And also gorgeously slightly rumpled. Apparently he’d come here straight from work via Hannah’s flat to pick her and Katie up. He hadn’t been able to make it to the wedding rehearsal this afternoon because one of his colleagues had been ill so he’d had to work on his day off. He glanced up and caught her looking at him – oops – and gave a half smile. Evie half-smiled back. She loved the way his whole face usually crinkled when he smiled and you felt like it was only the two of you in the whole world. That wasn’t the way he was smiling now, though. Now, he just looked a little wary.
Rory nudged her arm. ‘The waiter would like to know if you’d like more wine,’ he said. Oops again. She’d been paying no attention whatsoever.
‘I’d love some, thank you,’ she said. Actually, no, she really didn’t want too much to drink. ‘Just half a glass, please. Rory, could you possibly pass the still water?’
Robert concluded alonganecdote about his own heroics – something to do with helping a charming woman and her cat – and said, ‘I’ve had a lovely evening with you two ladies. It’s a great shame that I don’t have time to stay for dessert. I have to join Stephanie at a drinks party this evening.’
‘Must be an important drinks party,’ Dervla said. ‘To take precedence over your daughter’s dinner the night before her wedding.’ Evie nearly choked on her water.
