Robert glared at Dervla, and then patted his lips with his napkin. He pushed his chair out and blew kisses around the table.
‘Wonderful to see everyone. See you at the church tomorrow.’
‘Now that he’s gone,’ Sasha said to everyone, before the door had fully closed behind him, ‘let’s shake things up a bit. Women, let’s be lazy and stay where we are. Men, you all move four places to your left.’
And suddenly Evie was sitting between Max’s partner Greggy and Dan, and, again, she wasn’t sure how she felt. Definitely suddenly happier and more full of anticipation than she should have been.
Twenty-Three
Now – August 2022
Dan
Dan plastered a smile on his face and stood up to move his four spaces along the table, to what felt like a hot seat.
The last time he’d seen Evie had been in the car after the quiz night, and he wasn’t sure where to go from there. Plus, he wasn’t precisely sure why, but he didn’t particularly like the idea of Evie and Hannah meeting tomorrow.However, they were adults, and this weekend was all about Sasha and they could absolutely behave normally.
‘Hey, Evie,’ he said, sitting down next to her. ‘Good to see you.’
‘Hello. Thank you for your help the other day.’
‘Always available to offer advice on bodily functions. Sasha said that you were surprisingly fierce with the woman in the boutique.’
‘Yes, I was very proud of myself. Turns out that someone telling your best friend to effectively poison themselves before their wedding makes you pretty angry.’
‘Yeah, you sounded quite stern even on the phone to me, and I was pretty sure that I’d done nothing wrong. Sounds like everything’s okay now dress-wise? I’m looking forward to seeing it tomorrow.’ He suddenly wondered what Evie’s bridesmaid dress was going to be like. This evening she was wearing a light-blue silky top and her hair up so that he could see the line of her neck, and, if he looked at her too much, he felt his throat go dry, which was insane, given that she had a boyfriend apart from anything else.
‘The dress really is beautiful. And Sasha’s going to look amazing.’
‘Yeah.’
There was a slightly too long pause and then Evie said, ‘I haven’t congratulated you in person on the birth of Katie. So… congratulations!’
‘Thank you. Yeah, it’s huge being a father. I mean, obviously. Goes without saying. Yeah, she’s amazing.’ He should say more, keep the conversation going until it felt like any awkwardness from their last meeting had gone. ‘I can spend hours just watching her. She can smile now, and it’s like every smile is the most precious thing you’ve ever witnessed.’
Evie smiled, properly, at that and Dan found himself thinking that her smiles were pretty precious too, actually.
‘I remember,’ she said, ‘from when Autumn was born. You get that feeling of immense, uncomplicated, almost slightly desperate, love, that you hadn’t even known existed.’
‘Yep. You’d do anything to protect them from the world.’
‘Exactly.’
Dan looked along the table at his mother. And then thought about his father.
‘Obviously not every parent feels like that,’ he said. ‘Like my father. Kind of him to grace us with his presence briefly. It’s Sasha’s wedding tomorrow, for God’s sake, and he’s buggered off.’
‘He did come, though? Maybe he felt awkward being here because he isn’t the most popular family member ever?’
‘Or maybe he’s a total arse.’
‘Maybe a combination of all of those? Not to be rude about your dad.’
A waiter clapped his hands right behind them and Evie squeaked and then laughed.
‘That wasloud,’ she said.
‘Dessert orders,’ the waiter said.
