Alex offered in ironic understatement.
Sophie scoffed and Alex immediately regretted raising that impediment; her engagement was one of Sophie’s favourite hobbyhorses.
“Even if you weren’t engaged to Simon you wouldn’t look for attention from men. It’s not your style. Anyway, you’ve been engaged to Simon for so long I bet you don’t remember what attention from men feels like.”
“Of course I do. Three years is not so long.”
In fact three years felt like yesterday. One minute Simon was tinkling a spoon against a champagne glass to make a toast for her twenty-first birthday party and the next he was proposing in front of a gathering of more than a hundred family members and friends.
She’d been so stunned she’d simply nodded and smiled, desperately trying to conceal just how staggered she was that he’d ignored her point of view that they were too young to get married. But he had ignored it, adamant there was no need to wait. A long engagement would sort out any concerns she had, he’d said—and in a way he was right. She’d been surprised at how easily she’d slipped into her new status as an engaged woman, especially with family excitement and expectation wrapping around them both like a warm, comfortable cloak.
“How are the wedding plans going by the way?” Sophie’s demeanour was mischievous. “Booked the church yet? The reception venue?”
“You know we haven’t Sophie, but we’re going to organise it soon.”
“How about I take over the planning for you?”
Alex couldn’t tell whether Sophie was winding her up or not. “No, that’s very kind of you but …”
“I’m just kidding. No need to panic, Alex. I’ve no intention of bringing this wedding on before you’re ready.”
Sophie was right. Simon had been keen to get the wedding underway for quite some time by that point, and she had been dragging the chain on the wedding preparations. But it was so obvious to everyone that she and Simon were destined for one another there didn’t seem any need to rush things.
She couldn’t remember a time when Simon was not a part of her life. They were the original childhood sweethearts. Their families had been friends for years and they’d played together in the backyard as children. To say her parents adored him was the understatement of the century—Simon was the son they’d never had—and his family adored her too. They’d grown up in the same neighbourhood, gone to the same school and mixed within the same social network of families and friends all their lives. Their engagement had been a fitting together of two final pieces in a very large jigsaw puzzle that extended way beyond their two individual lives.
“What does Simon think about the upheaval within your office?” Sophie asked curiously.
“He doesn’t know.”
“You haven’t told him?”
“Well nothing’s happened yet … and I don’t think he’d care too much if I lost this job,” Alex confessed as she swivelled absentmindedly from side to side on her chair, her heart sinking as she heard herself utter a near truth she found unsettling.
The actual truth was that Simon would be ecstatic if her ties at Griffen Murphy were severed. He wanted her to start concentrating on the wedding and their future home life. As he’d said last time they were together, she was in a go-nowhere job paying chicken feed. Why would she bother with a career at all when his business was going gangbusters?
There was just one problem—Alex loved her job.
“That’s right,” Sophie declared mercilessly as though she could read Alex’s mind. “No need for the little wife to work when she’s going to marry Mr Megabucks.”
“It’s not that. We want to start a family as soon as possible.” Alex could hear Simon’s so often repeated words echoing in her own voice. But Alex knew she was wasting her breath. Sophie had been raised amidst the expectation that career opportunities should know no limits. It was pointless to try and explain that the expectations swirling around her own life like mountain mist were so very different.
“Yes, well you are getting on,” Sophie teased. “That biological clock is starting to tick pretty fast at twenty-four. Better get on with it.”
“Stop it, Soph!”
“Stop what?”
“This … this thing that you do about my engagement.”
“Well someone has to try and gee you up! You’re the most unenthusiastic bride-to-be I’ve ever met!”
“I’m not unenthusiastic,” Alex argued as she felt self-conscious heat rise in her cheeks. “But when your fiancé lives overseas most of the time it’s hard to plan a wedding. And work has