“It’s fun and freeing,” Leo tells me. “We went skinny-dipping in Portugal last year, didn’t we, Rubes?”
“Okay, gross.” I wrinkle my nose. “Don’t tell me stuff like that. I don’t want to know. It’s not a big deal that I haven’t gone skinny-dipping and it’s not crazy to be against running down a hotel corridor naked. What if someone sees?!”
“You have to make sure no one does.” Ruby sighs impatiently. “It’s either skinny-dipping in the Irish Sea, which will becold. Or, having a little stroll down the hotel corridor naked, with no one there. What will it be?”
I stare at her, my jaw on the floor. She stares back with a deadpan expression. I’m about to do some more protesting when I have a flashback to the broom cupboard and Matthew’s stinging comments. I’m so in control. So together. Not spontaneous and fun like the girl he should be with.
“Fine, I’ll do it,” I proclaim. “Put it down.”
“Brilliant.” Ruby scribbles it across the page, while Leo looks impressed by my decision. “Okay, the fifth wedding.”
“That would be Carley and Rachel’s wedding on the thirteenth August in Norwich.”
“Rachel’s your cousin, right?” Leo checks.
“Yeah, Aunty Em’s daughter. You met her at our engagement party, remember? The only people I know there will be family. Obviously my dad and my brother. And unfortunately, my mum is invited, too.”
“That’s an easy task then,” Leo says confidently. “You have to make a speech.”
“What? Don’t be stupid.”
“You said yourself, you and Rachel are close,” he points out.“It wouldn’t be mad for you to make a spontaneous speech at your cousin’s wedding, would it?”
“Um,yes? There are certain people who make speeches at a wedding, Leo, and they are selected by the bride and groom. I can’t just grab the microphone and say a few words.”
“Why not? I think it’s a lovely idea,” Ruby says encouragingly.
“Have you forgotten how much I hate public speaking?” I appeal to her sensible side. “I’m awful at speeches! I can barely speak up in a team meeting without my mouth going really dry in the lead-up.”
“Hence, why it’s a great task for you! These are supposed to be challenges, Freya. If they were easy, there would be no point. You can’t be thinking about Matthew when you have an entertaining and witty speech to prepare!”
I groan. “I can’t make an entertaining and witty speech.”
“That’s what you think.” Ruby begins writing. “Maybe by the end of the summer, you’ll think differently.”
“I really hate you both.”
“Wedding number six,” Leo says, ignoring me. “We’re on the home stretch now.”
Glaring at him, I pick up my phone and scroll through the calendar. “Next up is Andy and Roshni’s wedding in St. Ives, end of August, the twenty-seventh.”
“Will Matthew be at that one?”
“No, he was invited, but he doesn’t know Roshni that well. I used to work with her. He’s missing out because it’s going to be a beautiful, big Indian-Anglo fusion wedding.”
“I’ve got an idea,” Ruby begins carefully. “Do you think Roshni would let you keep the plus-one?”
“I’m not sure, maybe. I don’t actually know anyone else going, so it would be nice to bring someone. I haven’t exactly raised it with her yet, because…” I hesitate. “Wait. Why would you ask that?”
“Task number six: you have to bring someone unexpected as your plus-one.”
Leo gasps. “That is agreatone!”
“That is not a great one. Who on earth would I ask?”
“It’s unexpected!” Ruby exclaims. “You’re going to have to think about it and find someone. Maybe you’ll meet someone through completing these other tasks. Who knows?”
“So I can’t ask one of you?”
