“Daisy can pretend to be your date for the exhibition! Nothing gets an ex back faster than jealousy, trust me.”
Tom raised an eyebrow. “Are you offering up your best friend’s services? Without even checking with her? Because I’m not sure I’d want a pretend girlfriend unless it was her.” He fixed his eyes on Daisy and she picked up her glass to cover her burning face. “Anyway, wouldn’t that sort of be like... cheating onOrlando? A pretend girlfriend isn’t in the book.”
“I reckon Ginny would most definitely approve of this, but you’re right. We’ve gone rogue,” Daisy said.
“We have. We’re going it alone. Off-piste. Rebels.”
“You just need an eyebrow piercing and a shaved head and you’re there,” she said, leaning over to nudge Tom with her shoulder as he laughed. “You’ve finally reached bad boy status for agreeing to an idea that is not inOrlandoon how to get your ex-girlfriend back.”
“Hey,” he said, nudging her back. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
Clara was looking between the two of them, frowning. “Ihave no idea what’s going on here. You two are like an old married couple with their own language no one else understands. What the hell happens on that bus?”
The lights dimmed and a man took to the stage, a single spotlight pointing at the microphone. Daisy could still feel Clara’s eyes on her, even as the host started speaking.
“Welcome,” he said, looking around the room and nodding a few times. “Thank you for joining us and it is my pleasure to announce tonight’s surprise theme. I say pleasure, perhaps that’s the wrong word, because what we’re talking about is the most universal topic of all...” He paused for dramatic effect. “Heartbreak.” Clara snorted and Tom let out a groan as Daisy’s stomach dropped. Ofallthe things it could have been. “The pain caused by loving someone, or by being loved.” Tom and Clara swung their heads toward Daisy. “Heartbreak,” they both mouthed as Clara shook her head in mock disbelief and Tom clutched a hand to his chest. “I didn’t know the theme,” she whispered back, biting down on her lip.
“It’s often said that hurt—grief—is the price we pay for feeling so deeply, and in this room some of you have put your names in a hat, ready to tell your story. So without further ado, let us commence with tonight’s theme: Love Hurts.” The crowd broke into enthusiastic applause.
“You’re a fucking sadist,” Clara whispered at Daisy and the three of them started giggling so hard that only the dimming of the lights hid their shaking shoulders as the first person approached the stairs to the microphone.
Tom, Clara and Daisy got through their bottle of wine by the interval as they listened to five very brave strangers tell five completely different stories about love and why it hurts. Daisy wiped tears away hearing about everything from the loss of a childhood pet dog to a man ghosted after a two-year relationship, to a funny and heartwarming story one woman told aboutfalling in love with Aladdin as a child, only to learn he was animated. Tom took a lot of photos of the crowd during that one.
In the interval, Tom turned to Daisy while Clara was at the bar getting another bottle of wine.
“We need to get a date in with you and Zack to discuss your wedding photos,” he said, nodding down at his camera. “On a lighter note to all this heartbreak.”
“We do,” Daisy said, trying to imagine a meetup between the three of them and how that would go. “I’ll speak to Zack,” she added. “Arrange something. But... he doesn’t know. About this.” She moved her index finger between the two of them. “It’s just easier that way.”
A flash of something crossed Tom’s face. “That’s why you ran from the shopping trip,” he said. It wasn’t a question and she swallowed instead of answering him. He’d noticed she was on edge. He’d noticed and knew not to mention it. “Well... Noted. I am just some boring dude you found on the internet.”
“Perfect,” Daisy said, relieved. “The boring bit is vital.”
“I’ll put on a monotone voice. Talk... like... this...”
She laughed at how impressively dull he’d made himself sound.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted out. “To ask you to lie to him, like that. It’s just... he’s wary of other men. Thinks they’re always only after one thing, which is true because in your case the one thing, or person, sorry, you’re after is Sophie, but it just isn’t worth trying to explain it.”
Tom swallowed, squinting slightly. “Whatever makes your life easier, I’ll do,” he said and he met her eyes for a moment, silence falling around them. A rush of gratitude filled Daisy, her chest expanding at his kindness.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “I’m a bit worried. About having to pretend I don’t know you.” Tom’s gaze was fixed on Daisy’s face as he listened, inviting her to continue. She wasn’t awareshe had more to say, until it came tumbling out. Her mouth saying words directly as her brain processed them. “That he’ll be able to tell we’re not strangers.” She bit down on her lip, thinking. Tom waited. “Just sometimes I think I know you so well you don’t even have to speak and I know everything. What you’re thinking. Feeling. What you’re about to say. Everything in your head. All of it.” She stopped, blinking. Where had that come from? Had she messed up, somehow, in telling him that?
Tom kept his focus steady. “Then I’ll make sure I speak a lot,” he said eventually, his voice soft and his eyes warm. Daisy breathed out, any panic at what she’d just said now gone. He’d relieved her of the worry, the way he always did.
“What’s he like?” Tom asked, just as Clara reappeared with another bottle of wine complaining about the queue at the bar.
“Zack?” It was a reasonable question for Tom to ask. She was marrying someone he’d never met and he was bound to be curious. She just hadn’t been asked to describe him in a long time. Clara sat down, rubbing her hands together as Daisy stared hard at the vase in the center of the table.
“Excited to hear this,” Clara said. “All I can offer you is that he loves a curry.”
Daisy shook her head, laughing. “There’s a bit more to him than that,” she replied, thinking back to what she used to say about him, when they first fell in love. “He’s very caring,” she said finally. “He wants the best for me and anyone he loves. He’s good to have around in a crisis. He remembers everything you’ve ever told him...” Her voice faded as she trawled through her brain for more reasons, but her brain wasn’t being very helpful tonight. It was blurting out things she didn’t even know she felt, while holding back on anything useful. “He...” Tom’s eyebrows knitted together, lips parted as he waited. Clara leaned farther forward, shoulders hunched. Maybe it was the theme of the night. All these stories of heartbreak were making it difficult for Daisy to think about love. That was it. It didn’t feel fair.
Tom glanced quickly to Clara and back again, drinking some wine. “I can’t wait to meet him,” he said when he realized Daisy was done.
“I’m sure he’ll be very excited too,” Daisy replied, knowing it was the opposite of the truth.
“Ooooh, let me know,” Clara said, leaning back. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him excited.” She frowned. “No, wait. Once when he came back and he’d won that padel tournament.”
