It could be worse,she told herself, looking around with dismay at the patches of mud. On a clear day there would be dappled sunshine. Without the fine mist of rain, the overwhelming scent of moist earth would clear, leaving only the pleasant aroma of woodland trees. They could make this work, she hoped, looking around again. No, not just work. They could make this weddingglorious, Ari decided. The private woodland chosen as the ceremony venue was crude, but it was also natural. With a little imagination, with a little heart and hard work, this could be their best wedding yet.
Hope rapidly filled Ari’s heart as she turned to her brother and business partner, Sebastian, with a smile. Sebastian, leaning against a nearby beech tree, was smoking a cigarette, blowing smoke with a huff into the damp morning air. Disappointment was written into every inch of his face, from the beautifully sculpted cheekbones, of which he was rightly proud, to the downturned lips that held his hanging cigarette.
“This isn’t so bad.” Ari gestured around her.
“Darling, it’s a pile of shit.” Sebastian took another drag.
“No, it’s not. It’s natural, earthy and it’s—”
“It’s a bog.” Sebastian’s eyes lingered on the mud and trees.
“It’s autumnal.” Ari walked into the middle of the clearing and looked around. “We can make this one of those earthy-type, bronze-and-gold October weddings.” She dropped to her haunches to pick up a fallen leaf. “That can be the colour scheme, in fact. It’ll be perfect.”
Sebastian shrugged, blowing yet more smoke into the air.
Ari frowned at him. “You know Luis hates that,” she chided. “I promised him I would look after you while we were here. Three hours after landing and you’ve already smoked half a pack. Do you want to die of smoke inhalation?”
Sebastian shrugged again. “Looking at this place, maybe I do — and Luis is three and half thousand miles away. He can hardly lecture me.”
Ari frowned again. “Well, what about forest fires, then?”
Sebastian gestured to his mud-splattered shoes. “That’s an excellent idea, darling. Let’s burn the place down and force our rich ‘we must have the perfect outdoor wedding for Instagram’ clients to hire a venue we can actually work with, hmm?”
Ari sighed. “We can work with this. It isn’t the worst venue we’ve faced. Remember that beach in Kent, which was great, up until the night before the wedding when Storm Ida caused all those skulls and femurs from Dead Man’s Island to wash up onshore?”
Sebastian nodded, stubbing his cigarette out on the trunk of a tree.
“And remember the couple who wanted to get married in the shoe aisle of the TK Maxx where they met? Or the time that couple wanted to get married in the lemur enclosure of London Zoo?”
Sebastian stared at her. “I still maintain that monkey hit me first.”
Ari shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. All I’m saying is that if we can work with that, we can work with this.”
“Fine, fine.” Sebastian shoved his hands into his pockets, coming to Ari’s side. He gave Ari a nudge. “So, sister dearest, tell me. What do you have in mind?”
Ari stood, brushing her hands on her trousers. She passed Sebastian the leaf she’d retrieved from the forest floor. “Look at those colours. Quite stunning, wouldn’t you say? Bronze and gold and red all wrapped into one. Like I said, we’ll pitch it as an earthy wedding... autumnal and — wait, Americans don’t call it autumn, do they?”
“No,” Sebastian turned the leaf over in his hand, “fall.”
Ari chewed on her lip. “So, what word do they use for ‘autumnal’ then?”
Sebastian sighed, crumbling the leaf in between his fingers. “Fucking fallout, probably.” He pulled the pack of cigarettes from his pocket, and went to light another one as Ari glared at him.
“What?” He lit the cigarette. “A fallout is what our business is going to have if we don’t get this wedding right, Ari. Might I remind you that our bride-to-be and the mother of the groom will be meeting with us in exactly one hour, ready to hear all our ideas for this piece of shit parcel of land theyabsolutely musthave the ceremony on? If we don’t come up with the goods ASAP, we can kiss all our plans to expand into the North American market goodbye.”
“I know,” Ari replied. “And I want this to work as much as you do. I’ve just as much at stake, you know, and...” Something in Sebastian’s words made her pause. “What do you mean, the mother of the groom? Why not the mother of the bride?”
“Dead,” Sebastian puffed at his cigarette again. “We’re working with the bride and her prospective mother-in-law.”
“Fuck,” Ari whispered, and Sebastian gave a nod of agreement.
“Indeed.” He blew out another plume of smoke. “The mother of the groom is always complicated to work with, especially if she doesn’t have any daughters of her own.”
“Please tell me this one has a daughter?” Ari’s stomach fell as Sebastian shook his head.
“Sadly not. Groom is one of two sons.”
“Double fuck,” Ari whispered, and Sebastian gave her a rueful grin.
