‘Ava hasn’t told you what a loser I am in the job department, then?’ said Cassie, trying to laugh it off.
‘Absolutely not. Ava only has lovely things to say about you,’ said Marcus, sounding kind and sincere.
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, silently thanking him.
‘Cassie’s actually met someone, too,’ said Mum, immediately throwing her hand across her mouth as though she shouldn’t have spoken those words out loud. ‘Ooops, I don’t think I was supposed to say.’
‘You weren’t,’ said Cassie, tutting.
‘Who’s this then?’ I asked, not getting too excited. It would probably be over within a fortnight anyway, because Cassie actively chose men who had red flags poking out of every single orifice. There’d been Richard, her married boss from work; Jake, who’d shagged around behind her back and then had a go at her for being upset about it; and Wes, a hoarder who lived with his parents and who, at thirty-three years of age, had never had a job and seemed to have little intention of getting one.
‘No one,’ said Cassie.
‘Well, it must be someone,’ I said, teasing her.
‘I don’t really want to talk about it,’ said Cassie enigmatically.
‘Okay,’ I said, respecting her boundaries, even if she and Mum had totally failed to respect mine.
‘Talking of romance – Marcus, would you be free to come to a wedding with Ava later this month?’ said Mum out of nowhere.
‘Mum!’ I said. ‘He won’t be, he’ll be at a tournament.’
‘Which date in June?’ asked Marcus, raising one eyebrow at me as though he was finding this highly amusing.
‘The last Monday in the month, I think,’ said Mum.
‘Who gets married on a Monday?’ I asked.
‘Your cousin Julie, as you well know.’
‘Actually,’ said Marcus, taking out his phone and flicking through his calendar, ‘I think Icanmake it. Queen’s finishes on the Sunday, even if I do make it to the final.’
‘I like your confidence, Marcus,’ said Cassie.
‘Thanks, Cassie,’ he said. ‘If you can’t big yourself up, who’s going to do it for you?’
Everyone laughed except me. I wasn’t in a laughing mood now because I did not want to go to a wedding with Marcus. That would involve him meeting my entire extended family – Mum’s half of it, anyway – and then what was I supposed to say when we ‘broke up’ weeks later? It would be utterly humiliating after the whole Charlie debacle. Plus, weddings were dangerous – everyone drank too much and did stupid things. I thought briefly back to our kiss in Paris – had that been a stupid thing? And to our luscious bed waiting upstairs – was there a chance we’d be doing stupid things in it? I shook the thought from my head. Of course there wasn’t. Marcus might be all touchy-feely in public, but he was hardly going to ravish me behind closed doors, was he? There would be nothing for him to gain.
‘What about Wimbledon?’ I asked. ‘You’ll be prepping for that.’
‘Doesn’t start until the following Monday. I’ll have to train in the mornings, though. Maybe I could come after that?’
‘You don’t have to come toanything,’ I said decisively.
‘He just said he’d like to,’ said Mum, rolling her eyes at me and then looking at Marcus conspiratorially. ‘Honestly, what’s she like?’
Marcus laughed.
‘Ava’s ex-boyfriend, Charlie – she told you about Charlie, I take it – was supposed to be coming, but then they split up, and Julie had already given numbers to the caterer, so we’ve got a spare plus one,’ said Mum.
‘Way to make a guy feel wanted,’ I said, glaring at her. Was she planning to stop talking at any point?
‘Oh, I’m very used to being second best,’ he said earnestly.
‘Brilliant. It’s all sorted, then,’ said Mum.
I turned to Marcus and made one last-ditch attempt at putting an end to Mum’s ridiculous suggestion. ‘You know, the wedding is a way off. We might not even be ...’
