If ever there was an argument for fate, that meet-cute has got to be up there.
“Oh, look at them,” Mum whispers in my ear, sniffing as Roshni makes her way up the aisle. “So happy. How lovely.”
I smile in response, enjoying the harp music.
Mum clears her throat before saying quietly, “Of course, marriage doesn’t necessarily mean happiness. I hope you know that, darling.”
My mouth drops open, as I quickly make sure no one heard her over the procession music. “Mum!”
“I’m just saying,” she whispers, raising her eyebrows at me.
The congregation is told to be seated and I give her a strange look as we do so. Who makes a comment like that as the bride walks up the aisle?! Thankfully, Mum manages to behave herself for the ceremony, and the only time she stands out is when her “aw” is louder than everyone else’s when Roshni’s cousin comes to the end of her reading—a passage from The Wheel of Time, of course.
Mum has a marvelous time joining the crowd to follow thedholi,an Indian drummer, leading everyone from the ceremony to the wedding breakfast. We’re seated next to each other and we politely introduce ourselves to the guests on the other side of us, before she turns her attention back to me.
“It must be terribly hard on you to go to all these weddings after what happened, darling,” she says, giving my arm a pat. “I want you to know that—”
“Mum, I really don’t want to talk about it,” I say sternly, baffled as to why she’d be bringing all this up, before promptly changing the conversation. “Doesn’t this food look delicious?”
Luckily, the person on my right overhears and agrees that the food looks great. From that, I’m able to strike up a conversation with them, happy to ignore my mother for the time being until she stops being outrageous. Unfortunately, she catches me before the speeches without anyone to talk to and quickly jumps in.
“Darling,” she says, leaning into me, “I want you to know, if you ever want to talk about Matthew, I will always be on hand to—”
“Mum! We are at a wedding!” I look at her as though she’s lost her mind. “This is really not an appropriate time to talk about any of that.”
“Why not? I think it’s the perfect setting to reflect on one’s own life and speak candidly about feelings, love, and… well… loss.”
“Oh my god.” I run a hand through my hair, trying not to lose it and plastering a smile on my face so that no one looks over and thinks we’re having an argument. “Please just stop it, okay?”
She doesn’t say anything more and the speeches start. I shake my head at her, furious that she’s ruining what I’d hoped might be an opportunity for us to simply have a nice time together.
I should have known that we’d be unable to pretend that everything is just fine. I thought we could enjoy the wedding, have a bit of a laugh, and take that first step toward rebuilding a relationship. After today, we’d arrange a time for us to meet up, go for coffee or lunch, talk about some things. Little by little, we might develop a connection.
I should have known that she wouldn’t see it that way. She wants to get straight into the drama; she’s desperate for me to confide in her so that she can congratulate herself on being a good mother.
Well, that’s not going to happen.
I can feel her eyes boring into me during the speeches and when they’re over and dessert is served, I catch her out of the corner of my eye moving her food around her plate, distracted.
When the music starts up, she sits up excitedly, begging me to join her on the dance floor. I hastily refuse and, after looking at me all forlornly, she gives up on trying to persuade me and heads out there by herself. As I watch her shimmy up to a complete stranger, who holds out his hands cheerily and begins to twirl her around, Roshni suddenly appears next to me.
“Your mum is hilarious,” she informs me after I’ve assured her the wedding is amazing. She nods toward Mum. “She’s having a ball.”
“She certainly likes being the center of attention,” I say with a sigh. “Thanks so much for letting me bring a plus-one.”
“Not at all, I think it’s really nice you brought her,” she tells me, pinching my fork and stealing a bite of my pudding. “I know you haven’t seen eye to eye with her in the past, but it’s great that you’re patching things up.” She puts my fork down as she catches someone’s eye and quickly leans to whisper in my ear. “Bollocks. Got to go say hi to Mum’s weird friend, I can’t avoid her any longer. She always talks to me about boats. I know nothing about boats.” She sighs. “The things we do for family, eh?”
“You’re telling me,” I mutter, watching Mum encouraging someone to take off his tie so they can use it for limbo.
A few songs later, Mum refuses to take no for an answer, and drags me over to dance with her. I roll my eyes and do a bit of swaying as she flings herself about wildly. I find myself admiring her a bit. You have to give it to her, she doesn’t let anything stop her from having a great time and she clearly doesn’t care who’s watching.
When the time comes to wave off the bride and groom, I consider the evening a success. Mum and I made it through withjust a few tiny blips. She didn’t completely humiliate me and I didn’t disappoint her with snarky but truthful comments about the past.
“Shall we go dance in the sea?” Mum suggests, taking off her shoes as we wait for our taxi outside the venue. “It’s a short walk down to the beach, look!”
“It’s time to go back to the hotel,” I remind her, checking my phone. “We both have long drives home tomorrow.”
“Oh Freya, live a little! Let go,” she demands, marching toward the steps down to the beach.
