“To your brother’s birthday party?”
He sighed heavily. “We’re not… close.”
“Oh. Sorry to hear that.”
He shrugged. “It is what it is. The last time we spoke was at a wedding actually.”
“Oh, really?”
“That’s the thing about weddings, isn’t it,” he said thoughtfully. “They’re little pockets of togetherness and happiness. My family seems to forget that we all don’t like each other when we’re at a wedding. Instead, we’re perfectly civil and sometimes, even, forgiving. And trust me, that’s not easy. My brother once tried to frame me for fraud. Denies it, of course, but we all know what he did.”
I stared at him. “Wow.”
“Anyway.” He stood up straight, clearing his throat. “As I said, let me know if you need any help for the meeting this afternoon. And good luck with the plus-one dilemma.”
“Thank you,” I said in a daze, watching him walk away.
It took me a while to process our conversation. I stared at my computer screen wondering what the hell had just happened.
Aerial acrobatics. A dramatic family feud. Framed forfraud.Who would have thought it?
Later that day, I was sitting at home on my laptop, having a marvelous time buying colorful pens and glittery stickers for the hen-do book I was making Ruby—seriously, buying stationery isa lot of fun—when I found my thoughts drifting to something Phil had said about weddings in the midst of our bonkers conversation. He was right; they are a pocket of happiness. They remind you of what’s important in life. What we’re grateful for. They provide a perfect opportunity for forgiveness.
A plus-one idea suddenly popped into my head. A ridiculous and horrifying idea.
But it would certainly be unexpected.
“Darling!”
Mum approaches me in the hotel reception with her arms wide open. She’s wearing theloudestorange and yellow dress I’ve ever seen, with eighties shoulder pads and a matching hat.
“Wow, Mum,” I say, accepting her air kisses. “You look… bright.”
“You are such a sweetheart, thank you.” She gives me a twirl, her statement gold dangling earrings catching the light as they swing around and almost blind me. “My motto is, you can never be too much.”
“Is it? How surprising.”
“I am so happy to be your plus-one to this wedding,” she informs me, reaching for my hand and giving it a squeeze. “Thank you, Freya, for thinking of me. What an honor!”
“Well, I thought it might be… uh…” I trail off.
“Oh, we are going to have thebesttime.” She looks me up and down, her eyes welling up. “You are so tall! How did you ever get that tall?”
“Am I tall? I think I’m quite average, actually.”
“Darling, when you see someone transform from the bairn you used to burp over your shoulder to the towering, confident goddess you see before you, then they seem tall to you no matter what their height!”
It was quite clearly a mistake to invite Mum as my plus-one.
Still, I’m trying my best to be proud of my decision to take the first step in building bridges. When I told Dad, he said he thought it was a brilliant idea, and Adrian was also quite enthusiastic. Ruby and Leo were definitely surprised, so they conceded that I’d smashed the challenge out of the park, but wanted to be sure I’d thought things through properly.
“You know, weddings are quite long,” Leo said, giving me a pointed look.
“I’m aware of that, Leo.”
“When you bring a plus-one, you have to look after them.”
“I know.”
