‘I guess so. I haven’t been paying attention.’
‘I wonder how Ted’s getting on,’ she says.
‘Are you missing him?’
‘Yeah.’ She flashes me a soppy grin.
‘Can I be your bridesmaid?’ This makes her laugh. Surely it’s only a matter of time.
‘You can be the matron of honour,’ she replies buoyantly.
‘Don’t you have to be married to be matron of honour?’ I gather together our rubbish and stuff it into a bin.
‘No chance of you and Elliot beating us to it?’ she asks.
‘Not when he’s on the other side of the world and we’re both up to our ears in work.’
She gets up and pats my back empathetically, before grinning. ‘Chief bridesmaid, then. Anyway, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. He hasn’t proposed yet.’
‘But you think he will?’
‘I think so.’ She nods, smiling bashfully.
‘Howarethings with Elliot?’ Marty asks on our walk back to the campsite, and there’s a familiar undertone to her voice that always comes into play when she talks about my boyfriend.
‘Fine,’ I reply. ‘Obviously, I miss him.’ Although not as much as Iwasmissing him, I realise. ‘It’s a bit of a bummer because we can’t even FaceTime in private here.’
‘Ooh-er,’ she says.
I smirk at her.
‘Yeah, it sucks that you guys have to do the long-distance thing,’ she says. ‘How long do you think you’ll be able to keep that up?’
‘As long as we have to, I guess. There’s no way I’ll make it back to Australia this year and he’s so busy at work that he can’t get away to come here. Mind you, I wouldn’t have time to hang out with him if he did. I’m pinning all of my hopes on Thailand.’
‘Thailand?’
‘I need to go there in November. In fact, can you look into flights?’ I ask.
‘Sure. Email me your dates when you know them.’
‘I will. Anyway, Elliot is hoping he’ll be able to meet me there.’
‘That would be cool. I’ll cross my fingers for you.’
‘Thanks. It’ll only be for a week or so, but it’s better than nothing.’
She frowns. ‘Can’t you persuade him to chuck in his job and move here?’
‘I’m not sure I’ll ever persuade him to do that, but I’ll keep trying. If anyone cracks, it will probably be me.’
‘No!’ she cries. ‘Don’t do it! You can’t!’
I smile and wrap my arm around her shoulders, giving her a quick squeeze.
It doesn’t matter how deep in Ted’s pockets she is or how little time she even has for me these days, Marty still detests the thought of my moving abroad. She’s always been jealous of my boyfriends – even the ones who live here in the same country, the same city, even. The fact that Elliot resides in Australia is a big problem.
She hasn’t even met him, but I know she’d love him if she did.
