Page 70 of Who’s That Girl?

‘Not until I’ve given you your present,’ bosses Vanessa, pulling out an envelope from her handbag. She hands it to me across the table. ‘And I don’t want to hear any excuses about you being too busy.’

I look at her quizzically and open my mouth to say something, but I’m shooed by her hand, so I tear it open instead. Out fall two Eurostar tickets to Paris.

‘Oh, wow, you shouldn’t have!’

‘I know.’ She grins teasingly. ‘But now you have to go away for the weekend and relax, otherwise you’ll feel very guilty for wasting my money.’

I smile back. She knows me so well. That’s exactly what I would do.

‘Well, Julian’s money,’ she adds tersely. I know Vanessa hates the fact that now she’s given up working, she doesn’t have her own money to spend any more. ‘And anyway, now I can live vicariously through you.’ She glances at Julian. ‘I can’t remember the last time we went away for a weekend.’

‘We will,’ he says, looking uncomfortable. ‘It’s just that work’s crazy at the moment. In fact that reminds me – I’m going to have to go into the office on Sunday.’

Vanessa’s face drops. ‘But we were going to take the kids to the aquarium.’

‘I know. I’m sorry, darling. We’ll have to do it another weekend.’

‘OK, now my turn.’ Seemingly unaware of the tension across the table, Miles jovially interrupts. Vanessa and Julian fall silent, and all eyes are upon him as he reaches inside his breast pocket and produces a small black velvet box.

A small black velvet jewellery box.

My heart starts thudding loudly in my ears. Oh my God, is that what I think it is? Is he going to do what I think he’s going to do? I keep my eyes glued to the box in Miles’s hand, too scared to look at his face. What am I going to say, in front of all these people? Well, yes, obviously. I’ll say yes, right?

‘Charlotte?’

His voice snaps me back as he hands me the box. His expression is serious, yet uncertain.

I swallow hard. This is it.

This is it.

I take a deep breath, my fingers fumbling with the catch. My heart is racing. I suddenly feel light-headed, as if time’s slowed right down and the chatter and hum of the pub have gone all muffled, like watching a movie in slow motion with the sound turned down. The catch releases, and with the breath caught in the back of my throat, I slowly open the lid.

Pearl earrings?

I stare blankly at them, nestling white and shiny on the black velvet, and almost want to laugh with giddy relief. Abruptly I feel completely ridiculous. What on earth was I thinking? Of course he wasn’t going to propose. Honestly, Charlotte, talk about getting carried away.

‘Do you like them?’

I snap my focus back to the earrings.

‘Um … yes … they’re lovely,’ I murmur, looking at them properly for the first time.

‘I thought you would,’ Miles is saying, his face suffused with pleasure. ‘They’re just so you.’

‘You think so?’ I feel a tiny voice of protest. I don’t feel like someone who’d wear pearl earrings. Don’t you have to be over fifty? Or be the Queen or something?

‘Absolutely! Try them on,’ he encourages.

Taking them out of the box, I slide them into my ears. I hold back my hair to murmurs of approval round the table. ‘Thank you, Miles, they’re wonderful.’ I smile, ignoring my doubts, and give him a kiss.

So what if they’re not me? It’s the thought that counts, isn’t it?

The rest of the evening slips away over plates of delicious food, several bottles of wine and the familiar conversations about careers, the housing market and what current antics Ruby and Sam have got up to.

‘I had to buy a new phone because Ruby was worried that he was lonely,’ sighs Julian, finishing telling a story about how Ruby decided to drop his mobile into the goldfish bowl so that Boris the goldfish could call his friends.

‘I think it was her way of getting you off the phone,’ remarks Vanessa dryly, as Miles laughs in consolation. ‘And pretty effective too,’ she adds, before making her excuses to go to the ladies as the dessert menus are brought out.