‘All you need to know is that we have to get married next month. If we wait too long, she won’t fit into her wedding dress…’ He paused.
So much to process. First my brother tells me he’s getting married next month and then he hints that he’s about to become a dad.
Both sounded like amazing pieces of news, but he didn’t sound excited, which was weird.
Reading between the lines, I knew it must be early days for the pregnancy, so I respected that he preferred not to talk about it and I wouldn’t probe him. When they were ready to share the news, they would.
As well as those two bombshells and the short notice wedding date, I was also surprised about the dress.
‘So Debbie bought her dress before you set the date? And I didn’t even know you’d proposed!’
‘Yeah, she said she saw it in a shop window a year ago and just had to have it. And getting married has always been on the cards, so…’
‘How will you even get it done in time?’
‘Debs already had an idea of what she wanted. And when she found out that the venue she had in mind for the wedding reception had a cancellation, it all kind of just fell into place. That’s another reason why we have to do it next month, because they’re booked up for the next two years otherwise.’
‘Oh, wow. Is it going to be at a fancy hotel in Birmingham?’
I knew it couldn’t be anywhere near our crappy town because the only venue that’d be remotely suitable for a wedding reception was the community centre, and it was so run-down, there wouldn’t even be a two-minute waiting list to host an event there, never mind a two-year one.
‘Actually, it’s going to be in Spain.’
‘Spain!’ I shouted again. At this rate I was going to lose my voice.
‘Yeah, near Marbella. Like I said, it’s Debs’s dream, so…’
‘Well, at least I’ll get a holiday out of it too! It’ll be fun.’
If I was honest, I was at the stage where weddings could be a little triggering. Not just because I’d hoped that one day I’d gethitched to my ex (but now I realised I’d had a lucky escape). But mainly because they made me feel like I was being left behind.
It felt like everyone I knew was getting married or settling down and here I was, thirty years old, single with no romantic prospects on the horizon. I knew that didn’t bother a lot of people, but because I literally spent my days reading about people falling in love, somehow it stung a little more.
There was nothing wrong with being single, of course. But equally there was nothing wrong with wanting to experience that giddy feeling of falling in love. Of having someone to share your life with. A partner in crime to travel the world and have exciting adventures with. Someone to curl up on the sofa and talk to at the end of a long day at work.
As well as being kind, caring and considerate, my ideal man would obviously love books. Even if romance wasn’t his jam, he’d still respect the genre (unlike some idiots I could mention—ahem, Ben).
And ideally, as Taylor Swift said in ‘Wi$h Li$t’, I’d also love a best friend who was hot. But not so fit that women were falling at his feet. I was way too insecure for that. What was I even saying? It wasn’t like I looked like Rihanna and had gorgeous men falling atmyfeet, so that point was irrelevant.
Anyway, forget thinking about men. I was in Sunshine Bay to focus on the library and helping Jess and the team to make it a success.
And how had my mind even taken me on this tangent?
Oh yeah, because I was thinking about how much weddings reminded me of the sad state of my own love life.
This wasn’t about me, though. My amazing brother was getting married, so I was happy for him. I’d do whatever I could to make sure he had a fantastic day that he’d remember for a lifetime.
‘Yeah…’ Adrian said, and I sensed some tension in his voice. ‘I’m glad that you’re thinking positively about it. So that was, er, the first thing I wanted to tell you. Y’know, about the fact that we’re getting married in Spain. But the other thing is that, er, the wedding will?—’
‘What’s wrong?’ I frowned, sitting back in my seat. I had no idea why he was stuttering so much. Normally he was so confident.
‘The thing is, there’ll, er… there’ll also be two people at the wedding that you might not be happy about.’
‘No!’ I screamed, flying out of my seat again. ‘Please don’t tell me you invited them. No!’ My heart raced and my pulse spiked.
‘I’m so sorry, sis, but I had no choice,’ he said solemnly, and the reason he sounded so downbeat about everything became clear. He wasn’t sad about getting married or potentially becoming a dad. He knew how badly I’d take this news and was psyching himself up to break it to me. ‘They’re family.’
‘They’re arseholes!’
