But he could do it. He definitely could.
‘Lila, you know you mean everything in the world to me…’Nope, made him sound like an X-Factor contestant talking about why their only hope of a lifetime of happiness was to get enough votes to go through to judges’ houses.
‘Lila, until I met you I had no idea how much I could love someone…’Somewhere, in the truth halls of the universe, a lie detector test was wailing to signal a big fat porky.
‘Lila…’He was interrupted by the arrival of the waiter, looking slightly harassed, and shiny around the edges. He was clutching a tall glass with some kind of meringue in it, resting on a silver tray. Cammy cast his eyes across, looking for the ring. It wasn’t there.
Shit. No ring. It was supposed to be on the silver tray. This couldn’t be happening.
Lila was still ten feet away, now on the second table of players. Cammy could feel the anxiety rising. No way. He hadn’t spent the whole day sorting this out only for it to go horribly wrong yet again, this time at the most crucial part.
It couldn’t be happening. It just couldn’t.
‘Eh, I think,’ he said through gritted teeth, ‘that Neil mentioned this dessert came with aspecialdecoration?’
Blank looks from Jude, the waiter. Obviously subtlety was wasted here.
‘The ring…’ he hissed, causing Louise to gasp and clap a silent ovation of excitement. Thankfully Lila was too busy withles hommesto notice.
Jude was a picture of confusion. ‘It’s there,’ he whispered, gesturing to the meringue. Thankfully, Cammy didn’t realise that Jude had spent the last ten minutes going through the recycling bin to find the bloody ring, giving it a quick wipe over and burying it in the meringue.
Cammy followed his gaze and saw it, the thin band poking out of the top of the meringue. This wasn’t what he’d planned at all. Neil was bloody dead when he got a hold of him. But maybe… maybe it wasn’t so bad. Perhaps this could actually work out kinda cute. Louise had spotted the ring too now and her eyes were already glistening. Lila and her mum cried a lot. It was one of the first things he learned about them. Happy things. Sad things. Exciting things. Gorgeous things. Mostly any kind of things could bring on floods of tears that warranted careful, expert counteraction so that they didn’t ruin make-up.
Okay, they were back on track. They just had to wait for Lila to return so they could get on with it. A few guys still left to get snaps with. Two now. One. And, oh for Christ’s sake, she was chatting to him now. He saw her shake her head, adopt an expression of… what?... apology? Then she pointed over at Cammy and the other guy seemed to get the message, responding with a very Gallic shrug.
Ah, he must have been asking her out. That was his girl. Asked out by a handsome sports star, and still she rebuked him because she was with Cammy. It just went to prove how much she loved him and betrayal or infidelity just weren’t in her make-up.
He was a lucky guy and he’d be even luckier when they were married.
It was another few moments before she got back to the table, and she sat down with a dramatic flourish. ‘Oh my goodness, those guys are charmers. I’ll go online when we get home and suss out who the big names are. I’m only posting pics with them. No point in putting up snaps of the nobodies.’
Cammy was barely listening. Right, new plan.
‘Babe, try a bit of this, it’s delicious,’ he said, pushing the tall glass of meringue towards her. She’d look down, see the ring, understand the meaning, scream with delight, say yes, and he’d scoop her up, swing her round, hoping that her heels took out at least a couple of the footie guys. Either way, it was happening. She was about to realise this was one of those life-defining moments. It was going to change everything. Make them the happiest couple that…
‘Cammy don’t be disgusting. Meringues are loaded with sugar. I’m not putting that in my mouth,’ she sneered.
He should have seen that one coming. Change of tactic required. ‘But doesn’t itlookgreat? Isn’t the presentation gorgeous?’
‘Whatever,’ she replied, and he saw her hand go towards her phone. He was about to lose her to Photoshop. Shit. There was nothing else for it. He delved into the sticky pudding, fished out the ring, and tried to overlook the fact that it was now adorned with a gooey substance. Then, he just went for it. Full traditional knee bend.
‘Lila, I love you – and I want to love you every day of our lives…’ No idea where that came from, but it was the best one yet. She seemed to think so too. She was staring at the ring, at him, back at the ring, then him… He could see she was shocked, astonished, couldn’t quite believe what was happening.
Neither could he. After all the disasters and dramas today, it was finally working out just the way it was supposed to.
Meanwhile, around them, the head-splitting volume had descended to near silence. Every set of eyes in the room were now on him. Kneeling there. Expectantly. In trousers that definitely weren’t meant to facilitate full movement of the knee joint. If she didn’t say yes soon, he was a shoo-in for DVT. No doubt Josie would claim that was yet another sign from the gods.
Lila. Staring at the ring again. Still not answering his question.
It was only then he realised that he hadn’t actually asked her.
‘Lila Anderson, will you marry me?’
27
Bernadette
The whole way back from dropping off the last of her stuff at Sarah’s house, Bernadette had been running the same mantra in her mind:Please don’t let him be home yet.
