‘A thought occurred to me last night,’ said Liza. ‘Swans. What do you both think?’
‘Swans, right.’ Ginger wrote it down in her notebook doubtfully.
Swans were beautiful, wild birds and were definitely not to be used as part of a ceremony. She could explain it all to Liza later, she thought and absently reached over and picked up the unopened chocolate box.
Her fingers froze mid-cellophane-rip as she realised Liza and Charlene were staring at her, not a hint of muffin top between them.
‘You skinny girls can eat all the sushi you want, but us big girls like chocolate!’ she said valiantly, and the other two laughed.
‘Ginger, you’re so funny,’ said Liza. ‘I told you she was brilliant, didn’t I?’ she added to Charlene.
Because there was nothing she could do at this point, Ginger had beamed at the other two girls and opened the chocolates rapidly as if she could not possibly exist without oxygen, water and Dairy Milk.
‘Chocolate and nuts, yummy,’ she said, picking up two and putting them in her mouth.
‘You’re fabulous,’ squealed Charlene, who didn’t appear to have much else to say other thanfabulous,Ginger thought, with a hint of sourness despite the chocolate melting in her mouth.
No, she thought,stop being an absolute bitch. Just because Charlene and Liza’s apparent closeness meant she appeared to have taken over Ginger’s position as Liza’s best friend, there was no need to take it out on the poor girl.
‘Right,’ she said. ‘What next?’
‘Butterflies,’ said Liza, ‘I’ve been thinking that butterflies would be lovely as soon as we arrive at the hotel.’
‘Right,’ said Ginger in relief, scrawling a big line through swans on her notebook. ‘So, no swans then?’
Butterflies had to be easier to organise, but where did they go afterwards, poor things. She wondered how to nix this idea.
‘No,’ said Liza, ‘swansandbutterflies, I mean it’s got to be magical and special.’
‘I’m just a bit nervous about the swans, Liza,’ Ginger said, because she felt this was slightly getting away from them with all the wildlife.
‘Oh for goodness sake, Ginger,’ snapped Charlene, ‘it’s got to be possible to organise swans and butterflies. People do it all the time. I’ve seen it in the magazines. It’s going to be a very special wedding.’
Liza beamed at Charlene and Ginger felt that horrible pang of jealously again. It had been the same the day Liza had gone off to choose her wedding dress. She wasn’t sure how Liza had ended up picking a day whenshecouldn’t go, but Charlene had been happy to step into the breach, and from all accounts, it had been a glorious day of trekking around beautiful shops trying on fabulous bridal gowns without Ginger.
As the only way Ginger felt she was ever going to get into a wedding shop to look at bridal gowns was with a friend, she felt her chances were gone.
‘Next, we have to discuss the bridesmaids’ dresses,’ Liza went on, looking meaningfully at Ginger. ‘Charlene and I have been speaking about this and we don’t want you to get upset.’
Ginger blinked.
‘Why would I get upset?’ she stammered.
‘Because, you know ...’
Liza looked at Ginger, who felt every inch of her size eighteen at that exact moment. Nervously she stuffed another chocolate into her mouth and took a big gulp of wine, not a good combination.
‘Er ... OK, what were you thinking of?’ said Ginger, feeling the colour begin to come up from her chest into her neck.
Soon it would hit her face and she’d be bright orange. She used to go that particularly unappealing shade during sports in school.
Liza warmed to her theme: ‘I was thinking that we should perhaps go for a similar colour for you and Charlene but a different shape. Charlene loves elegant streamlined dresses, quite like my own actually,’ said Liza. ‘So I’m thinking violet or a sort of a blush pink or ...’
‘Or crimson,’ said Charlene.
Ginger, who had never hated anyone in her life, felt a tinge of loathing.
Crimson would be absolutely beautiful for someone with Charlene’s colouring and shape. But for a woman who went orange when she flushed, a woman with rippling auburn curls, crimson was the very worst colour in the book.
