Oh, God … He’d forgotten all about that. ‘I amsosorry.’ Thank goodness, he’d left it in a little side street with no meters. ‘I’ll be back – with the car – on Sunday.’
He said his goodbyes and rang off, meaning to jump out of bed and get properly dressed, but as he went to lay his phone back on the bedside table, he noticed he had a voicemail waiting for him.
He pressed the right series of buttons to listen to the message, and the sound of Alice’s voice hit him like a punch in the gut. She sounded sweet and happy and excited.
‘I’m at the hospital, but I’m getting ready to go home. It was my family, as security probably told you. My mum and dad were there. My sister, Lo – that’s short for Elodie – insisted on taking me to get checked over …’
Elodie. The name snagged Ben’s attention as the message ran on. There was something important about that. A second later, he was jumping out of bed. ‘She’s not Elodie!’ he shouted to nobody in particular.
That had been the name on the invitation! Elodie and Isaac … Alice’ssisterwas the bride! It took all he had not to run out of the room in his T-shirt and boxers, grab the first person he saw and tell them the good news.With shaking fingers, he dialled Alice’s number. ‘Hi,’ he said when she picked up. ‘How’re you doing?’
‘Better now you’ve called.’ He could hear the smile in her voice, and it put one on his face too.
‘You’re not Elodie,’ he said because those seemed to be the only words in his head at that moment.
She laughed gently. ‘No, I’m not. And I’m definitely not getting married any time soon. I’m disgustingly single.’
Not for long if I have anything to do about it.
‘When can I see you? Can I come today?’
Alice sighed. ‘I would love that so much, but because my sister’s maid of honour did a disappearing act, the bride is a bit behind with wedding prep. The least I can do is pitch in this afternoon. But you can come tomorrow evening. Did you hear my message?’
‘I did. And I’ll be there. I promise.’
The same words he’d said the last time they’d arranged to meet. And this time, she’d be there too.
Part III
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Two years since the wedding.
I OPENED THE front door to the flat, only narrowly avoiding dropping the huge arrangement of flowers I’d just picked up from the florist. I hurried down the hall to the kitchen, where I put the floral display on the counter, shrugged my coat off and replaced it with an apron. Justin had invited a select group of arty friends for a dinner party that evening, and although it was only early afternoon, I wanted to get the boeuf bourguignon underway.
I’d just got around to braising the baby onions when I heard the front door open, and I held my breath. I could never tell what kind of mood Justin was going to be in when he got home, which always left me unsure which version of myself I should be. Some days, he’d surprise me, being the man I fell in love with: charming, sexy, attentive … but those days were getting fewer and fewer. More often, he was moody, spoiling for a fight before his key hit the lock. As I heard his footsteps getting closer, I pasted on the serene smile and tried to look both happy and non-threatening.
‘Good morning?’ I asked as he came up behind me and looked over my shoulder.
‘Where have you been?’
His tone wasn’t harsh, but it wasn’t exactly happy either. Sometimes, I wondered if it wasn’t easier when he shouted and screamed right from the get-go. At least I knew where I stood then.
I twisted my head to meet his gaze. ‘Right here, getting the dinner underway.’
‘I meant before that.’
‘I went to get the flowers.’ I pointed to the vase sitting on the counter. He’d specified white lilies, and they were definitely white lilies – I hadn’t got it wrong, had I? Although I’d written it down the moment he’d said it, suddenly I was second-guessing myself.
He flicked a glance in their direction and then looked back at me. ‘The florist is two-point-three miles away. That’s a round trip of four-point-six miles. The mileometer on your car says you drove five-point-three miles today. Where else did you go?’
I stared back at him with wide eyes and lied. ‘N-nowhere.’
Even though there were some really fabulous florists in Kensington, Justin always insisted on using a place in Mayfair on the other side of Hyde Park. I knew he used my phone’s location details to check where I was sometimes, so when I’d picked up the flowers, I’d slipped into the café next door to have a macchiato, even though I hadn’t asked his permission to do so. I’d hoped that would be close enough to make it seem I was still at the florist and it definitely wouldn’t have affected the mileometer. ‘Roadworks along Park Lane meant I had to take a detour.’ I felt guilty even though I was telling the truth. Traffic had been awful on the way back.‘I ended up circling north of the park instead of south.’
He made an acknowledging grunt. ‘I think my taxi ran into the same jam. You’d have been better off cutting through the park rather than going all the way around.’
There was no point in telling him that there’d been a huge queue of cars trying to do just that; his suggested route had been just as busy. That would be seen as arguing back. I smiled back at him. ‘Of course … I should have thought of that.’
