Anita
I have been cooped up in this hotel for the last two or is it three days and I am beginning to go stir crazy. My dad is driving me mad because he is flapping and is now rechecking everything that has already been checked. I understand his need for perfection for Olivia, but honestly, Mase is paying serious cash for that to be achieved and Liv herself has double checked everything.
A small smile curves my lips when I see Olivia give our dad a rather harsh sideways glance when he asks if the caterers have come with references and then goes on to suggest that we could have self-catered. I refer to him as our dad because he is Olivia’s natural father and my stepdad. Olivia lost touch with him when she was about ten and her mother and stepfather threatened him with claims of abuse to keep him away. He became my dad shortly afterwards. Olivia finally loses the battle of biting her tongue and snaps at Dad.
“Dad!” she growls. “The catering is fine. The company is one Mase has used countless times. The menu is set, everybody knows what they are doing and if they don’t, we’re fucked because I am getting married in two hours.”
I watch my mum shoot my dad a warning glare as he prepares to reply and possibly tell Liv off for swearing.
“Nigel, I think Liv and Anita might need to start getting ready,” my mum suggests even though we all know it’s simply a ploy to put some space between them.
Fortunately, he doesn’t argue but simply follows my mum out and leaves us alone. Liv let’s out a huge sigh that makes me laugh, laughter she joins in with.
“I don’t actually know why we needed to take up residency here for so long before the wedding, but I swear, had I had to stay any longer I might have said some really bad things to Dad and run away back to Mase,” she confesses.
I know how much she and Mase love each other, and I know that our dad has been driving her crazy since we arrived here, but my face must betray something else, maybe the fact that her need to be with Mase might be viewed as a little pathetic. Although the truth is that I am a little jealous of what they have. In addition to that, I can’t get over the fact that I shagged her husband-to-be’s brother on a stainless-steel kitchen countertop without knowing who he was, and it was fucking fabulous. The downside is that he was a complete and utter tool afterwards, not immediately afterwards but when he found out who I was, who my sister was.
“Are you okay?” Liv asks with a concerned frown in my direction.
“Yes, fine,” I reply with a forced smile. “Sorry, just nerves, I think. I hope I don’t let you down.”
I feel slightly guilty as Liv moves to sit next to me on the bed where she wraps an arm around me. I am worried I will let her down, but I mean letting her down by behaving in such a way that will show the world that I have shagged her brother-in-law.
“You’ll be fabulous,” she reassures me. “You look bloody marvellous in your dress and if you get nervous you will have Sarah to lean on, but if you really don’t want to be a bridesmaid I understand. I know I’m not really anything to you,” she says genuinely with no intention to sway me or gain sympathy or pity.
“No, no. Of course, I do,” I say in a rather high-pitched voice. I quickly change the subject to something that will refocus her, Mase. “Can I ask you how you knew Mase was the one?”
Olivia’s face breaks into the biggest of smiles at the mere mention of her fiancé’s name. “We had a connection from the second we met,” she begins and then laughs. “He was my first one-night stand, only one-night stand, then I went to work, and he was there. It really was a done deal from that point on, although we did have a few false starts.”
“Really? A one-night stand?” I ask a little disbelievingly at that nugget of information because ever since I have known them, she and Mase have very much been a proper couple and she doesn’t seem the type, to trust so easily and with good cause.
“Clearly, this is not common knowledge, and I don’t think Dad needs to know but we didn’t even trade names,” she says with a gasp and a giggle that suggests she still can’t believe it. “We met at Dazzler, so I figure Dec knows, plus he and Mase are close. That better not feature in his wedding speech, either of their speeches.”
“Bloody hell!” I reply wondering if there is something about those Harding boys because when I met Dec that day in the kitchen at the club, I was powerless to resist or maybe it’s the club rather than the Harding boys themselves. “No, Dad would have a heart attack or something if he was faced with that information.” We both laugh until Liv turns conversation to me.
“Are you okay, really?” she begins and then expands, “you seem sad, distant…if ever you want to talk. I know I am smugly in love and for that reason alone I want everyone to be as happy as me, but I really do want you to be happy.”
“I’m fine,” I protest dishonestly and sensing more probing from Liv, I divert attention back to her and her favourite topic of conversation, Mase. “So, are you saying you knew you’d marry him before you even knew his name?”
“God no! I never wanted to get married!” she shrieks. “Like I say there was something; a connection, a pull, but it was after that night. He took care of me, made me feel safe. What I felt with and for Mase was like nothing I had ever known. I have dated before, been kissed before, but when Mase kisses me it’s like I am being kissed by a man for the very first time every time.”
I smile at her words and sentiment because apart from anything she deserves to be happy more than anyone else in the world after what she’s put up with. Her next words have me roaring with laughter that she joins in with, but her glittering eyes and dazzling smile suggest she means every word.
“And the sex is abso-fucking-lutely out of this world, mind blowing, shoulder clawing, I think I might actually fucking die phenomenal.”
“I met someone,” I clumsily blurt out and immediately Liv’s eyes fix me to the spot, demanding I expand. “Your engagement…”
Before more words leave my mouth, the door flies open to reveal a very amused and flushed looking Sarah.
“You alright?” Liv asks her pregnant best friend.
“Yeah, but your husband-to-be is a pain in the arse. I had to feign illness to get ahead of him to stop him coming up here…he’s missed you.” She grins and in response both Liv and I do too. “He has given his dad and Dec the slip and was at a loose end so thought he’d come and say hi.”
“I don’t mind,” Liv says with a very salacious expression.
“No!” Sarah screeches. “No way! As your chief bridesmaid I cannot have you walking down the aisle like you’ve just been fucked in a cupboard, like you did at my wedding.”
“We fucked in a cupboard after your wedding, as well you know,” Liv corrects but still has a huge smile plastered across her face.
