Anna had left the hall just as the social dance part of the evening had started, heading for the Ladies, when she’d spotted Lee and the girl with the swooshy ponytail together in a corner of the winding corridor. They’d been standing a respectable distance apart, hadn’t even been touching, but something about it had made Anna feel uneasy.
She pulled back and made eye contact with her best friend. ‘This is big, Gabi.Huge. We’re talking about the rest of your life.’
Or his, Anna added silently, unable to stop thinking about her own marriage.
‘Didn’t you once tell me that you knew you were going to marry Spencer after your third date?’
Ah. There was that. Past Anna had kind of sabotaged Present Anna’s very sensible point, hadn’t she?
‘Is it that you don’t think Lee and I are good together?’ Gabi asked, brows pinched together.
‘No, it’s not that…’ And it really wasn’t. ‘I just don’t want you to jump in with both feet and get hurt.’
‘You did – with Spencer.’
‘I know,’ Anna said, her heart sinking like a lead weight. She returned Gabi’s anxious gaze. ‘And look how that turned out.’
‘But not because he didn’t love you enough.’
‘No,’ Anna conceded. ‘Not because of that. But it didn’t make it any less painful when it all came to an abrupt end.’ She paused, finding her throat too tight to continue for a moment. ‘I just don’t want you to have to go through anything even vaguely resembling that.’
Gabi kind of wilted at that point and all the fight leached out of her. She pulled Anna in for a one-armed hug and kissed the side of her head. ‘I get it now. Thank you. But…’
Anna gave her a squeeze and pulled away to look at her. ‘But…?’
Gabi’s expression became determined. ‘But you can’t go through life avoiding love on the off-chance that it all goes horribly wrong at some point.’
Can’t you?Anna thought. In that moment, it seemed a terrifically good idea. Could she even do it all again? Now she’d paid that price once, she knew just how high and devastating the stakes were, and Anna had never been much of a gambler.
But if she really thought that, what was she doing even dating Jeremy, knowing he was looking for something serious ultimately? There had been one more oh-so-casual dinner last Saturday night, and tonight they were due to go out for their third. She’d thought she’d been ready to at least start down that path, but it seemed her true feelings about long-term relationships – the feelings she’d just splurged all over her best friend – were contradicting her.
She rubbed her forehead. The whole subject was starting to give her a headache.
Anna’s phone buzzed at that moment, and since Gabi had caught sight of herself in one of the mirrors again and was momentarily distracted by her own loveliness, Anna pulled it out of her pocket. She smiled and tapped on the photograph that had arrived in her messages inbox to enlarge it. It was a picture of Lewis, dripping wet and caked in what looked like peaty, black mud.
Every time she got a message from Brody now, it lifted her. What if shecouldfind a way to help other people find their own ‘Brody’? She’d been chewing the idea over in her head for the last couple of weeks, ever since she’d had that conversation with her mother, but she hadn’t contacted Spencer’s former partners, Rhys and Vijay, yet, wanting to have something more concrete than a one-line idea. How would you get people to sign up? How could you protect their privacy and identities? What happened if someone tried to use the app to take advantage of people when they were at their most vulnerable? These were all things she needed to think about, and that wasn’t even including whether the technology would fall into place.
‘Come on,’ Gabi said, interrupting Anna’s thoughts by grabbing her hand and pulling her to her feet. ‘Stop mooning over texts from Jeremy and help me out of this thing. You’re right – I’m getting ahead of myself. I should probably be looking for something sexy to wear to dinner. I blame my mother. Now I’ve turned thirty, she’s lamenting my status assolterona– a spinster, I suppose, is the closest translation. All of my sisters are married, so I’m the only one left to focus on.’ She gave Anna a meaningful look. ‘Let’s just say sometimes I’m glad she’s five thousand miles away…Shall we try the boutique across the street next? I saw a blue dress in the window that would look fabulous on you!’
Anna unlaced the bodice of Gabi’s dress, then watched her head back to the dressing room. As she waited for Gabi to reappear in her normal clothes, she wondered why she hadn’t corrected her about the sender of the text. She still hadn’t told Gabi about Brody. She’d been meaning to, but she’d gradually come to the realization that she didn’t want to. It kept that connection private. Intimate.
When they entered the shop across the road, Gabi headed straight to a rail, picked up a cocktail dress, and handed it to Anna, saying, ‘This is the one!’ before picking out a shorter dress in canary yellow for herself.
Before she could argue, Gabi tugged her arm and led her in the direction of the fitting rooms. When they both emerged from their respective cubicles, she smiled at Gabi. ‘That looks amazing on you!’
‘And so does yours! Look…’ Gabi turned Anna around to gaze in the full-length mirror.
Oh.
Anna stared hard at her reflection. Layers of midnight blue chiffon wrapped around to form a bodice, and then floated to just above the knee. Vertical rows of sequins glinted discreetly from the tiny pleats of the fabric, adding an almost imperceptible shimmer. She didn’t quite look like herself. She looked otherworldly, willowy. Like she’d just stepped out of a storybook. How did a dress do that? Maybe it really was worth the eye-watering price tag.
Gabi beamed, pleased with herself. ‘You said you needed something nice for Teresa’s party.’
‘It’s not just nice. It’s spectacular! I just don’t know about the—’
‘Don’t think about that. Some things are worth more than money.’ She grinned cheekily. ‘Aren’t you glad I didn’t make you get one from the last shop?’
Anna chuckled. ‘Definitely. I don’t think turning up in a wedding dress would endear me any further to my motherin-law.’
