Harriet’s mouth dropped open and stayed there. Fallon reached over the table and used a finger to close it.
“Keep your mouth open like that and you might find a penis in it.”
Harriet clamped her mouth shut even though there were no penises around, then looked at me. “You’re okay with this, whatever the effing hell this is? Jesus, Rose.”
“Jesus is most definitely not involved in this.” I looked over at Fallon, who seemed calm and not angry with Carter, which was telling.
“Is he marrying Laurie?” Erin looked from Fallon to me and back again.
“He is,” Fallon answered on my behalf. “Then it’s being annulled the day after. That’s why he said he was single but not available.”
“I’d ask if he’s being paid a fortune for doing this, but Carter doesn’t need the money, does he?” Harriet hadn’t touched her drink yet. “So why?” She looked at me.
“Laurie gets full access to a hefty trust fund when she gets married. She thought her ex-boyfriend was going to propose but he ghosted her – Carter met her when she was in tears because of him and that was how they got talking. Around the same time he thought I was starting something with Theo. Do you remember him?” It felt strange to tell the story.
“The walking STD?” Fallon frowned. “Carter missed that bit out.”
“He was kind of on the same page as me – we were both single for the first time in forever, but I kept mentioning Theo, so he offered to help out Laurie.”
Fallon nodded. “He said as much to me, but I had a ten-minute explanation. Laurie’s family are not good people, and they were basically holding her hostage. I think there’s more to why she just couldn’t walk away from the trust fund.”
I gave a Cliff Notes explanation, about the literacy foundation, about her sister, and the depreciation of her trust the longer she was unmarried. “I actually like her. She’s chaotic and crazy, but I’m used to you lot.”
“She’s marrying Carter.” Erin cut me a look that could’ve eradicated cockroaches. “How do you not want to poke her eyes out.”
“Because it’s for a day, then it’s being annulled. There’s nothing between them at all – there’s also nothing in the details around Laurie’s trust that the marriage would be invalid. I’m not exactly going to be there, cheering them on – I need to pretend it’s not happening, but I’m kind of okay with it.”
“He’s going to say wedding vows to another woman.” Erin was not keen on this plan at all.
I nodded. “He is, and I’m trying not to think about this, but I know they don’t mean anything. Remember when he was dating Angelica Whitmore?”
Harriet finally spoke. “You hated her.”
“I used to have nightmares that they got married. I thought she was just after his money.”
“And his monster penis.” That was, of course, Fallon.
“I wasn’t thinking about Carter’s penis at the time. Just how abhorrent Angelica was and that Carter couldn’t see it.” I tried not to think of Carter that way back then, Clapham Common just a glimmer of a memory of being young and tender-hearted.
“We all knew you were jealous because you weren’t being rational in the slightest,” Erin said. “There was no point getting you to realise that though. I actually didn’t think that Angelica was that bad.”
“Wash your mouth out.” I’d really detested her. “Anyway. It’s ancient history. Like this wedding will be in a few weeks.”
Fallon folded her arms, which suggested she was bracing herself for my reaction. “So, after the wedding and the annulment, and I propose referring to it as ‘the annulment’, what happens with you and Carter?”
“We give things a go. Dates. See what happens.” I’d already conjured up at least five possible scenarios but no one needed to hear about those. Ever. Including Carter.
“I don’t like theannulmentthing,” Erin said. “I don’t think he’s been fair to you, Rose. He should’ve told you how he felt before agreeing to this daft idea.”
“Maybe he should, but he didn’t have a reason to. From his perspective, I was about to get involved with someone else. He offered to help Laurie out, and then I said something about what might happen now we were both single, and that was when he decided to move back here.” I saw Erin’s side here because I’d considered that perspective a hundred times already. “It’s mixed up and not what I’d have chosen, but you know Carter, when he offers to help to resolve something, he doesn’t back out.”
“I know.” Erin whispered the words. “He helped me out years ago. I had a bloke at work who was practically stalking me, and because I didn’t have a boyfriend he was convinced I was fair game. It was hellish – all manosphere crap. Carter pretended to be my boyfriend for about six weeks to put him off. We knew if I went to the police, they wouldn’t be able to do anything because he hadn’t done anything. It worked.” She looked at me. “We didn’t say anything at the time to you, Rose, because it was temporary and I didn’t want you thinking that somethingbetween me and Carter could come from it, because it absolutely wouldn’t.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered. I didn’t have any claim on him. We were just friends.” This was the point I was trying to make, only clearly I wasn’t doing it very well, because none of them looked like they believed me.
Harriet slowly shook her head. “Rose, we thought for years you were in love with Carter, that was why none of us ever flirted with him, or did anything involving Carter that didn’t include you. Although I didn’t know about the Erin thing. I think we’re going to have to talk about that.”
“Why didn’t any of you point out what you thought about me and Carter?” I didn’t understand.
