Marrying Mr. Darcy (Love Manor #2) - Kate O'Keeffe Page 0,27
knew was you started to make strange sounds, and the next thing I knew you’d bolted like a horse from the stables.”
“I had a giggling fit with all the opera insanity, and I had to get out of there. Chris helped me pass the time.”
“He’s good at that.” She shoots him a disapproving look, and I’m dying to ask what happened between them. I’ve never seen Jilly thrown like this.
“Where’s Seb?” I ask her.
“He got caught up with Geraldine and some of her acquaintances back there. I’m sure he’ll be along in a minute.”
A girl dressed in a black strapless, satin dress, who looks like she fell off the cover of Vogue magazine, appears behind Chris and drapes her long arms over his shoulders, leaning against his back. “Chris. Why did you have to leave? I was stuck in there with my parents when all I wanted to do was be with you.”
He pulls her around, and she drops onto his lap, all fifty pounds of her. “You know me, babe. I can’t stand all that insane bellowing.”
“Buy me a drink, and I’ll forgive you,” she coos, so easily won over I can’t help but judge her a little (and yes, I know I judged her as super skinny the moment she arrived, but that’s only because I’ve never in my life looked like that and wish I could).
“Of course,” Chris replies. “This is Clementine, by the way. Meet Emma and Jill, two of my dearest friends.”
I blink at him. Dearest friends? I met the guy ten minutes ago.
We all say hello to one another, Clementine giving me the weakest, floppiest handshake of my life. With her appearance, Jilly seems to relax a notch.
“Anyone else for a drink?” Chris asks, and we both shake our heads.
With his back turned—and Clementine draped over him once more, presumably because she’s so long and willowy, standing for any period of time is super tricky—I whisper in Jilly’s ear, “What’s the deal with you and Chris?”
“I should be asking you the same thing,” she whispers back.
“There’s no deal. I just met him at the bar when I left, and he bought me a drink.”
Her eyes widen. “Did he now?”
“Jilly, it’s fine. It’s just a drink. He was out here avoiding the opera, too.”
“Actually, you need to know that Chris is not exactly what you’d call a good egg.”
I lean in, eager to hear all about it, when I feel a warm hand on my shoulder. I look up into Sebastian’s smiling face.
“I assume you’ve recovered from your giggling fit,” he says as he brushes a kiss across my cheek.
“I’m fine now,” I reply, genuinely happy to see him but frustrated I didn’t get the dirt on the history with Chris.
“I thought of coming after you, but I knew you were going to survive it.”
I scrunch up my face. “Do you think your granny noticed?”
He presses his lips together, his eyes dancing. “Darling, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the entire theater noticed.”
My heart sinks. “Was it that bad?”
He kisses me on the cheek once more, making tingles shoot down my spine. “Let’s just say I’m fairly sure everyone here knows you didn’t exactly appreciate the nuances of the opera.”
“I’m so sorry, Seb. Really, I am,” I gush. “It just all got too much, you know? The weird singing and the adult diapers. I mean, what the heck was up with that?”
“That was quite odd, I agree. But that’s the opera for you.”
“I’m really annoyed. I was trying so hard to impress your granny, and all I did was embarrass myself in front of her. Again. Where is she, by the way?”
“She’s chatting with some old friends. It seems she knows half the audience here tonight.”
“Ah, the octogenarians. Or it could be the toffs.”
His eyebrows ping up. “Excuse me?”
“This guy I was chatting with told me people who go to the opera are either ancient or trying to appear smarter than they are. I don’t believe it for a second, of course,” I loop my arms around his waist, “because you’re here, and you’re neither old nor—”
“Smart?” he offers.
“Not what I was going to say.” I notice Chris out of the corner of my eye. He’s still got Clementine draped over him like a human cape. “Come meet him,” I say to Sebastian. “You might know him. In a weird coincidence, he’s one of Jilly’s exes.”
“That is a weird coincidence.”
I tap Chris on the shoulder. “Chris, I’d like you to meet my fiancé, Sebastian.”