‘Okay, we need detailsright now,’ Georgie said, as soon as the girls had finished saying congratulations.
‘I’m going to bring champagne and water for everyone and then I’m going to leave you all to it. Good luck, mate.’ Raf smirked.
‘Yep, I’m quite scared.’ Alex was grinning.
An hour and a half later they had all the details. Georgie and Poppy weren’t exactly interacting the way they used to, but it was doable being together, which had to be good news for the future.
Towards the end of the evening, Noah came over and joined them, sitting next to Beth. They knew a lot about each other’s daily lives and shared little in-jokes, plus they were doing that thing that magazines said lovers did, copying each other’s gestures and body language. Like if Beth bent her head in one direction Noah did the same.
Georgie snuck a look at Poppy out of the corner of her eye; Poppy had been looking at her out of the corner ofhereye and she had her arms folded tight across her chest. Georgie didn’t need a magazine to tell her what that meant.
She heaved a big internal sigh and then plastered a wide smile on her face and refocused on what Noah and Beth were saying. Rugby. Flowers. Noah’s car repairs. New toothpaste.Car repairs. New toothpaste. All with great interest and enthusiasm and much laughter. They were like a lovely old married couple and Georgie was pretty much a hundred per cent sure they hadn’t even held hands, let alone kissed. Shereallyhoped they’d sort themselves out and get together. Maybe seeing Ankita and Alex so blatantly happy andmarried –bloodymarried –would give them ideas.
‘Ankita,’ she said. ‘You’re bloody married. You’re Mrs McCarthy.’
‘Iknow.’ Ankita totally looked like the cat that had the best cream ever.
‘So congratulations again,’ said Raf, coming over and sitting down on the opposite side of the table from Georgie, between Alex and Poppy. Georgie immediately had a slight wave of that lonely-in-a-crowd thing. He’d sat down opposite her. Before, hewould always naturally just have sat next to her. But whatever. It was Ankita’s evening and Alex was lovely and it was fantastic that Poppy seemed to feel able now to be in the same place as Georgie so they wouldn’t ruin social occasions for their friends.
She did miss talking to Raf, though.
26
GEORGIE
Two weeks later, at Alex and Ankita’s (strictly adults only, no kids) wedding party, in a barn at the beautiful house that they’d just moved into in Little Bishop, Georgie discovered that Ankita also thought that Georgie could do with some more of Raf’s conversation.
The evening started with a lot of champagne in the stunning and gigantic garden, followed by a sit-down dinner in the barn. Ankita had been uncharacteristically tactful recently when dealing with Poppy, but she’d gone for possibly the least tactful table plan in the history of tactless table planning. And she’d admitted it to Georgie during the drinks in the garden.
‘I hear from Poppy that Beth and Noah are getting very close but nothing’s actually happening, and I hear from Beth that Declan and Poppy went out for dinner but nothing’s actually happening, so I thought I’d put them all next to each other on their table. And obviously you’re sitting with them too but I didn’t want you to feel like a gooseberry, so I’ve put Raf next to you.’
Georgie couldn’t think of anything nice to say in response to that little bombshell – and anyway, you couldn’t have a go at someone at their own wedding party.
‘Oh,’ she said.
‘Love your dress by the way. I’ll see you in a minute.’ And the evil table planner was off, busy being Mrs McCarthy.
Georgie went off and did some very effusive mingling with old acquaintances, to avoid any accidental bumping into Poppy or Raf so that there wouldn’t be any awkwardness. It was nice. It was a beautiful May evening, everyone was in a happy, party mood, and the champagne was extremely free-flowing at the hands of the black-suited waiters and waitresses (Alex had drafted in the teenage sons and daughters of some friends to help).
The barn had been set out with round tables of six for dinner. Ankita and Alex’s table contained them, Ankita’s parents, Alex’s grandmother and his brother. Georgie’s Table From Hell was right next to Ankita’s. Meaning that there was no chance of changing anything around on the seating front.
‘I had to have you all right next to me.’ Ankita beamed at them all as she and Alex walked past.
To give Ankita her due, Beth and Noah had their heads together chatting and smiling away like an in-love couple, and Declan and Poppy were looking heart-stoppingly friendly with each other, which was a huge relief to see.
As Georgie sat down, she realised that since the other four were supposedly two couples, it looked like Ankita had put Raf there as her date, which was embarrassing, because Raf was clearly no longer interested in her. She was Norma No-Mates. Or Norma No-Dates.
Also, when you were going to be sitting next to someone for a whole evening, it felt like if there was an elephant in your room you ought to tackle it, but she couldn’t because she still couldn’ttell him that she’dreallyliked him, especially not when they were going to be sitting together for a good couple of hours.
So she said, ‘Hello. What a lovely evening.’
‘Yes, lovely.’ Raf smiled politely and then looked slightly to his right. Poppy, who was sitting there, was busy talking to Declan, so Raf had to look back again at Georgie.
Georgie glanced around the table and said, ‘Lovely to see everyone,’ because the silence that had grown between the two of them was not comfortable.
‘Yes.’ He really did have very nice eyes. The colour was so deep and velvety and his lashes were very thick. He suddenly relaxed and smiled – maybe he’d accepted the inevitable and decided he was just going to have to chat to her – and said, ‘Good to see people looking happy.’
Georgie searched for words and found none, so picked up her champagne glass and emptied it in one for something to do, which made her feel very warm inside and much more relaxed with Raf. ‘Beth and Noah aresoperfect for each other,’ she told him. ‘I’m sure she’s fallen for him. And he looks besotted with her. And they’re both single. They spend a lot of time together. They know each other really well.’ She smiled fondly over at them both. ‘They need tosnog.’ Oops, she’d said that really loudly, right into some between-music silence from the string quartet at the end of the room.
