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“Were you also thinking about how good you look in your suit and how much better you look out of it?” I joke.

“No, Alice. I was thinking how lucky I am to get to walk into this wedding with you on my arm, looking so goddamn beautiful, and how lucky I am that I get to be the one to take your dress off you tonight,” he whispers.

“Oh.” My face warms as his fingers trail down my back and over my bottom. “I wish we didn’t have to go to this wedding.” My voice is sluggish as his hand strokes my backside.

“Now that’s where we differ,” Owen says. “I’m glad we’re going, because if it hadn’t been for this wedding, you wouldn’t be mine at all.”

I lean back slightly. “You don’t think fate would’ve pushed us together some other way, like getting locked in the shop all night together by accident, or I drove into your car in the car park, or I stumbled upon your secret garden one day when I was looking for the bins?”

“It’s not for us to question fate.” He sweeps his thumb over my cheek and then checks his watch. “We’d better get going; otherwise, we’ll miss the wedding.”

Owen insisted on driving up to Harton. He didn’t like the idea of us getting on a train all dressed up, but then I said he wouldn’t be able to have a drink, so in the end, he booked us a room at the hotel where Sydney and Drew are getting married, something which I’m quite excited about.

I feel like this is something couples do: go away for the night and stay in a hotel. And if I’d been asked four weeks ago the likelihood of me staying overnight and taking my very real boyfriend to Sydney’s wedding, I’d have told you to get your head out of the clouds.

Thanks to Owen’s impeccable timekeeping, we reach the venue with plenty of time to spare. It’s a small but picturesque hotel that entertains business functions, Christmas parties, and weddings.

“Are you nervous?” I ask as I help Owen get our overnight bags from the boot of his car.

“A little,” he says. “I don’t even know the bride and groom. I feel a little bit like an impostor.”

“I don’t know anyone either, other than Sydney and Drew. So don’t worry, I won’t leave you alone with anyone.” I hug his arm.

“Don’t leave me alone at all,” Owen says as he kisses the top of my hair. “I want to soak you up today, every last inch of you.”

I should be lost in this moment, embracing this day, our first official event as a couple, but something catches the corner of my eye, a fleeting glance of something, someone, that unsettles me.

“Everything okay?” Owen asks, tracking my gaze and looking out into the car park.

“Yes. Good,” I say, my brain trying to place what I think I’ve just seen.

“You sure?” he says. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

“Not a ghost exactly.” I shake my head, remembering that I never got around to telling Owen about the strange woman. “There was this woman at work on Sunday. She was in the Haycroft, looking at the kitchen, but it was odd because when I asked her if she was okay, she sounded a little spaced out when she replied, and she didn’t seem interested in the kitchen, you know, the way that most customers are? She was just acting so odd and weird, and she wouldn’t stop looking at me. I shrugged it off as just a bizarre moment, but then, when you came to pick me up after work, she was in the car park just watching me as we drove off.”

Owen’s mouth turns down. “Do you think she was on drugs?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. She had a baby strapped into a carrier, and I wondered if she was sleep-deprived or suffering from some postnatal stress or trauma.”

“That could be it.”

“She just unsettled me, that’s all,” I say.

“Okay, but what’s that got to do with your friend’s wedding?” Owen asks.

“Because I thought I just saw her over there.” I nod over to the far end of the car park.

He glances around, doing a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree sweep of the area before looking back at me. “I don’t see anyone.”

“No. I guess I’m just seeing things.” I laugh, hoping Owen won’t think I’m going a little mad.

“Come on. Let’s go see if we can check into our room before the ceremony. If not, I’m sure they’ll store our bags for us until our room is ready.”

We take our luggage and head to the main entrance, all while keeping my eyes open.

I’m sure my mind is just playing tricks on me. This is a big day. I’ll be seeing Sydney and Drew again, watching them get married. And to be sharing this day with Owen, my boyfriend. The one boyfriend who I actually care about. More than care about.

Weddings always make you think about your relationship status and whether you think you’ll ever get married and, if so, what that day will look like. So, even though it’s only been a week, I am, of course, wondering if Owen and I will ever make it down the aisle.