‘Yeah. You’re right. But didn’t anyone in the café step in?’ I asked.
He shook his head again. ‘This happened as Adele was leaving to come home. They were standing on the pavement the entire time. Adele told me she thought some passers-by did look at them, but that all she could really see and hear was the woman’s sneering face and jeering, cruel words.’
‘How awful for her,’ Lucy said. ‘She must’ve been frightened.’
‘She was terrified. Adele doesn’t cope well with confrontation.’ He closed his eyes for a second and then reopened them. ‘As I know only too well from experience.’
The room fell silent for a moment, and I remembered Lucy telling me that when Marcus was married to Cara, who was now his ex., Cara had bullied Adele, and Marcus had, not only turned a blind eye, he’d sided with his then wife, and believed all the lies Cara had told him. On top of that, he’d been less than kind to Adele himself, when he’d ended their friendship and told her to stay away from them.
‘What can we do to help?’ Noelle asked. ‘I’ll come and talk to her later, when she’s up and about. I’m sure once she’s had a good sleep, even she’ll realise none of it was true.’
Marcus shook his head and took a deep breath. ‘I truly hope so. But I’m not sure it’ll be that simple. She’s … not been herself lately. I’m worried that, even if she says she’s fine, this will eat away at her.’
‘It will,’ said Noelle. ‘And I’ve noticed she’s been acting … a little differently lately, but I didn’t really think that much about it, until this morning and what you’ve just said. One minute she seems to be on top of the world, the next, the old Adele is rearing her head and thinking she’s not good enough, and she’s too fat. I should’ve said something other than merely, “you’re perfect as you are”. I know she never truly believes that. But there’s been so much going on that I … I didn’t sit her down and ask if something was wrong. Some friend I am.’
Alec wrapped his arm around her as Marcus said, ‘This is not your fault, Noelle. I should’ve said something, or done something.’
‘But … she seemed so happy when I met her yesterday,’ I said. ‘Are you saying that was all an act?’
‘No,’ said Marcus. ‘She is happy. Or she was. But … well … Adele has always suffered with an inferiority complex. I realised that on the first day we met many years ago now. And that can be debilitating. She retreats into a shell. I wanted you all to know about this because you know Adele, and you know what this will do to her confidence. But that’s not why I wanted to meet up like this. When I proposed in February, we did briefly discuss setting a date, but as we were living together, we both felt there was no urgent rush and we’d set a date later. Or that’s what I thought we’d agreed. We haven’t done that yet. I love Adele with all my heart, and while I can dismiss this whole nasty episode as the ravings of a sad and possibly jealous woman, Adele will not. I spent all of yesterday evening and most of the night trying to convince her it was all rubbish, but although she says she does believe I love her, her tears and her behaviour make me think the damage has been done. So here’s the thing. I want to arrange a wedding. A wedding that will take place as soon as possible. Assuming Adele agrees, and I’m determined to convince her to do so, we’ll give the twenty-eight days’ notice today, and get married on day twenty-nine. But Adele will need all the help she can get to rebuild her confidence and to accept that she will be a beautiful bride, and that she’ll be making me the happiest man in the world. I let her down very badly once before and I won’t do that again. Will you help us plan a wedding?’
Everyone in the room looked at one another and then we all let out loud shrieks and cheers.
‘Of course we will,’ Noelle said.
‘Absolutely,’ said Lucy.
‘We’re here for you both,’ said Alec, ‘So yes. We’ll help in any way we can.’
‘Yep. You can count on us,’ Sam said.
‘And me,’ I added, not wanting to be left out. ‘Just one tiny thing. Erm. How do you intend to get Adele to agree if she really believes everything that awful woman said?’
‘By doing everything I can to show her how much I love her. And by all of you reminding her of that. And, equally important, reminding her that she’s a beautiful woman who is talented, bright, and funny, caring and loving and so very special in so many ways. By showing her she has friends who love her exactly as she is. By rebuilding her self-esteem. I’m sure she’ll agree to us registering our intention to marry, because, as arrogant as this sounds, Adele has loved me for a long time. But all her doubts will creep back in. I genuinely believed she was sure of my love for her and yet that damn woman has destroyed that with one diatribe. Maybe I need to try harder. I honestly don’t know. This has come as a complete shock, not just to Adele but to me. I thought our love was stronger than that. I had no idea that one evil woman could do this to us.’
‘Words are powerful things,’ I said. ‘And self-doubt can be all-consuming, as can self-loathing. The happy woman I met yesterday must have deep rooted fears and doubts to have crumpled like this. An inferiority complex will do that to you.’
Noelle nodded. ‘She does. And yet, she was over the moon at Christmas when you told her how you felt, Marcus. And she didn’t hesitate to move in with you, and she’s seemed so happy since, so I don’t understand, either. I’m sure she’ll bounce back from this. Unless there’s something else going on that none of us knows about. I really need to have a long talk with her.’
‘Perhaps,’ Lucy said, ‘she was swept away by the thought that her dreams had finally come true. And maybe she jumped at the chance to be with you, Marcus, and decided to put everything else aside to take a final chance at happiness. And perhaps she thought that if she loved you enough, you would love her in return. And that even if you didn’t really love her, she could be happy just being with you.’
‘Where did that come from?’ Sam asked, giving Lucy a curious, and somewhat anxious, look.
Lucy shrugged. ‘I’m not really sure. But I do know a little of what it feels like to love someone even when you think they may never love you. I’m more confident than Adele, and I do believe people when they tell me how they feel. Adele clearly isn’t like that.’
Sam pulled Lucy close and held her tight. ‘You do know I adore you, right?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I do. Ooh. I can design her wedding dress. That should go a small way towards making her feel special.’
‘That would be fantastic, Lucy,’ Marcus said. ‘I’ll pay whatever it costs for Adele to have the best dress on this planet. You have no idea how grateful I am that you’re all on board with this. Making Adele happy is all that matters to me.’
‘No pressure then,’ I whispered in Lucy’s ear.
‘You should call and tell your boss you need more time off,’ she said, giving me a serious, and yet slightly pleading, look.
Oddly enough, that thought had already occurred to me, even though I’d only met Adele the day before, and despite the fact that I was supposed to be here on holiday, not here to help arrange a wedding for two people I’d only just met.
