“Your mouth is hanging open so wide I’m going to have to step over it to get into the restaurant,” she joked, her stomach jittery.
Sebastian pulled himself together rapidly, closing his mouth, though he continued to stare at her. “It’s just...” he began. “I’veneverseen you look like... Well, likethisbefore.” He paused. “I’m not sure I like it.”
“What do you mean, ‘this’?” Ari asked, going to finger the shoulder seam of her dress nervously, before remembering that this particular dress didn’t have one.
She’d found it in a store in Canary Wharf, a simple white number with a halter-neck top that hugged her body to just below her knees. The halter-neck tie flowed down her back, and she’d pulled her hair up into a simple chignon to show it off. She’d spent time on her make-up, applying it carefully and making her eyes smokier than usual, and had gone to the trouble of pulling on a pair of tall heels, knowing they accentuated the curve of her calves. There was nothing wrong, Ari thought, with showing off her calves. She didn’t run 10k a week just to keep them covered with long trousers and shapeless shift dresses, after all.
“You look stunning,” Luis said warmly. “That’s what he means.”
“You look like you care,” Sebastian explained. “Don’t get me wrong, you’ve always dressed well, but not like youcare. I don’t know how else to explain it.”
Ari shook her head. “No, it’s okay, I think I understand.” She blushed. “Thank you for being so kind.”
“The question now,” Sebastian carried on, “iswhyyou suddenly seem to care and have dressed to the nines?”
Ari blushed deeper, watching as Sebastian and Luis exchanged a look. Inexplicably, Luis leaned towards her and kissed her on the cheek.
“He’s not going to believe it when he sees you tonight,” he said warmly, and Ari shifted her weight from one foot to another.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about—”
“Please, I think you do,” Sebastian said. “Luis’s right — Tom’s not going to believe it when he sees you tonight. In fact,he’ll probably drop dead right here outside of Whyte’s. It would be a good place to go, actually. A refined place to die.”
“And even with that jawline, he’d make a beautiful corpse,” a sharp voice cut in. Ari jumped before she, Luis and Sebastian all turned, finding Stella standing next to them, looking at Ari with obvious approval.
“Stella, hello,” Ari stammered, leaning towards the woman to kiss her cheek.
Stella, however, stepped back.
“No offence, Ari, but your lips are quite the cherry-red tonight, and I don’t want that lingering on my expensive face-cream.”
“Retinol,” Sebastian mouthed at Ari, before he also turned to Stella. “You look lovely. The perfect blushing bride.”
“Really? Yesterday you thought I was abossy fucking hag,” she remarked back.
Sebastian waved a hand. “Last-minute wedding stress, darling, gets the better of us all.”
“Mm.” Stella frowned at him, but said nothing, turning to Ari. “Did you order my flowers?”
Ari nodded, standing taller. “The chocolate-scentedCosmos atrosanguineus? I found a supplier in the Netherlands. They’ll be picked and shipped to Reykjavík, where I’ll deliver them personally to the florist. Your bouquet will be beautiful. Please don’t worry.”
“I never worry,” Stella replied smoothly. “I hire people to do that for me.” She gave Ari a long look. “So, tell me something? Are you trying to kill my brother-in-law-to-be tonight? Because your brother is right. Jawlineisgoing to drop dead when he sees you. Honestly, if I weren’t about to marry the love of my life, I might even have taken a pop at you.”
Ari blushed again, looking down. “I just... You said to dress sharp—”
“Not sharp enough to deliver a mortal wound like this to the father of your child,” Stella remarked, gesturing to Ari’s dress. “Still, fair play to you. You’re stunning. Well done. Show the Jawline what he’s missing. Now, shall we go inside? Corentin’s on his way with Marnie,” she gave Ari another look, more thoughtful and contemplative. “Time for you to shine, Ari. You know, they say the best revenge is served cold, but tonight, I think hot is the way to go.”
With that, Stella stalked into the restaurant, Luis holding the door open for her. He gave Ari a pointed look as she walked past him, her heels clicking against the cool tiled floor. She followed Stella into the restaurant’s private room, where a waiter pulled aside a curtain to reveal an intimately set table with stunning crockery. Behind the table sat Reine, who called out happily to Ari when she saw her, but Ari’s eyes were mostly on Tom.
Tom, whose eyes went wide when he saw her, at once standing like the gentleman Ari suspected he was, but who, in his haste to stand, somehow managed to upend the tablecloth from where he’d been sitting, so that the immaculately laid glassware and crockery came crashing to the floor.
Chapter 22: Dinner
When Ari walked into Whyte’s that evening, Tom’s mouth ran dry, all the fluid in his body immediately decamping into clammy hands and an inexplicably sweating back. He felt his heart speed up and a rush of adrenaline flow through him, which was ridiculous, because Ari had told him quite firmly that they had no future together, and Tom had always been respectful of that decision. Even if Ari looked amazing in her dress, which showed off the creamy tone to her skin and the ash blonde shimmer of her hair, Tom knew he had no reason to hope. He’d given up on hope over the last year, pushing it down, again and again, until the emotion was nothing more than a fine rubble under his feet.
“Wow, Mummy looks so pretty,” he heard Reine exclaim next to him, and he looked down at his daughter, giving her a warm smile.
“Yeah, she does,” he agreed, before giving Reine’s cheek a small pinch. “Make sure you tell her that, okay?”
