“Probably.” She sat down. “You’ve got loads of the wedding stuff done.”
I had. I’d completed the list we’d agreed on and ticked off a few more things. The whole wedding thing was becoming harder to stomach, and doing some of those things with Laurie and having to pretend to be a couple would’ve made it even harder. “Thought it’d be easier just to get it done.”
“Thank you.” She took a long drink of the wine. “That’s good. Jesus. What a journey. What a few fucking weeks. What time is it actually?”
“Midday. Do you want some lunch?”
“Only if it’s liquid. I have tomorrow to get over jetlag and I need to get down to the shop on Monday. Good news though – I’ve signed a contract on the apartment to rent it while the sale goes through, so I’ll move in there in another week or so.” Half the glass had now gone.
“What about when your relations are over and we’re pretending to be loved up?”
“They don’t need to know about the apartment. We can stay here after the wedding unless someone does something stupid and buys us a night at the Ritz. I can’t believe you’ve agreed to do this.” She stared at me. “What’s wrong?”
“I kissed Rose last night.”
“And how was it? Did fireworks explode and a choir of angels start singing?”
I wished I could have some of that wine.
“They did, didn’t they? Did you explain that you were a saint and helping me out?” She paused. “You didn’t, did you?”
“I wanted to tell you first that I was, you know, telling Rose.”
“I’ve already said to tell her. I can tell her if you want?”
“Pause that thought and please don’t.” I didn’t think Rose would be calling me a saint for marrying another woman. “I don’t know what the right thing to do is?”
“Remember, sometimes doing the right thing is the wrong thing to do. And by that, you can back out.” She finished the wine and topped up the glass. “I will stop after this. I need to shower and look round this beautiful house.”
“I’m not backing out. I promised you I’d help, and what we’re doing isn’t fraudulent.” She’d checked the conditions around her trust with at least three lawyers, and I’d checked it separately too. Laurie’s family had been built on arranged marriages and marriages of convenience. This was just that. We could file for the marriage to be annulled the day after the wedding, no divorced status, no mess, no illegalities because Laurie wasn’t marrying me so she could work in the UK – that was already sorted through her mother being born in Scotland.
“The door remains open. I’m sure I could pay someone to step in, although that was what I was technically doing with Lewis.” She rolled her eyes.
I didn’t say anything, purposely getting up and putting on the kettle. Laurie had been engaged to Lewis, and it had not ended how Laurie expected. He’d ghosted her completely, not turning up to a date where she’d expected him to propose. She’d seen a photo of him on social media with his arm around another woman two weeks after.
I’d met her when she’d been sobbing her eyes out in a café round the corner from the hospital where I’d been working. At first, I’d wondered if it was serendipity. We got along, she cheered up, we hung out. Laurie was gorgeous and intelligent, and we had no chemistry whatsoever. One failed kiss had been enough to tell us both that this was never going to be anything more than friends, but I promised her a favour, and all had been fine until I’d spoken to Rose at the start of September.
This is the first time we’ve both been single since we were a bit more than kids. Do you think it will be any different?
Which meant she thought it would be different. Maybe I wasn’t just one of her friends any more, no longer just the boy who kissed her to help her out with a dare and not because all he wanted was to be the first person to kiss her.
The only person.
“You’ll meet someone.” I shook my head at Laurie. “You have a whole city of creatives and writers and poets to charm.” Because Laurie was very charming when she wasn’t running at a hundred miles an hour.
She shrugged. “I’ve kind of given up after Lewis. You were the perfect man but you know, zero attraction.”
“Thanks.” Although I didn’t mean the sarcasm.
“Welcome. Okay, let me get settled and showered and I might start to feel human.”
I didn’t get called out to the hospital, the later the day getting, the less chance there was of me being needed. There were three scheduled surgeries, none of which were complicated, and no one was off sick, so the team was fully staffed. I helped Laurie with her unpacking and then went and managed a food shop from the local stores because I had nothing in, something on which she commented. It felt better having someone in the house already; the building was too big for one person and I’d been drowning in it since coming home. Laurie and I got along without it feeling awkward or forced, mainly because there weren’t any expectations from each other.
I’d checked my phone at least fifty times to see if Rose had replied to my message from last night, but there was nothing, it was left on read.
I wasn’t surprised. Rose would think about something seven different ways until she came to a conclusion. It usually meant that she was right, especially if she started to psychoanalyse everything, which she was probably doing right now.
“Shall we go out for dinner? Or at least a walk?” Laurie appeared wearing jeans and a jumper that looked like she’d ordered it from the Arctic.
