care about, isn’t it? Not making a scene. Not being embarrassing. Doing the right thing. Well, sorry, Mum, but not today. Fuck the champagne.’ She spun and stalked into her bedroom.
‘Henry!’ wailed Patricia as Ruby and I started quickly snatching up our belongings.
‘Dad, why don’t Flo and I take her home?’ Ruby suggested, as she slid a couple of unopened bottles of champagne into her bag.
‘You go,’ he said. ‘Quite right. Don’t worry. Your mother and I will sort everything out here.’ Then he sighed. ‘I never liked him much, actually. Never trust a man who wears that much hair gel.’
We left the hotel via a side exit, avoiding all guests, and jumped straight into a black cab. None of us had changed so we sat, in our dresses, passing the champagne bottle between us.
‘I thought you were being weirdly quiet but I put it down to nerves,’ said Ruby. ‘Did you know you were going to do that this morning?’
Mia wiped her lips with the back of her hand. She’d already taken off her engagement ring. ‘Not straight away. I lay in the bath like Dr Evil, plotting the most humiliating revenge I could think of.’ She frowned at me. ‘You said anything to Rory?’
I nodded. ‘Mmm, I just took the more traditional route of calling him and ending it down the phone.’
Mia sniggered, then I laughed, then Ruby started too until we were all shaking on the back seat of the cab. As we slid through Mayfair, the driver cast anxious glances in his rear-view mirror.
‘I’m sorry,’ Mia said between breaths. ‘I’m sorry, Flo, I’m not laughing at you. It’s the whole thing. I’ve been planning this fucking wedding for months, and now look at me. At us!’
If you’d been strolling along the pavement and peered into our cab, it would have made a confusing sight. A runaway bride with running eye make-up and smeared lipstick flanked by two women in silky nighties, all cackling with laughter.
‘But are you all right?’ I asked.
She sighed and laid her head back against the seat. ‘I don’t know. No. Yes. Maybe.’ She sighed again. ‘I’ll be fine.’
‘There’s an upside to all this, you know,’ said Ruby, looking from Mia to me.
‘What?’ we chorused.
‘You no longer have to listen to him grunting “Who’s a hungry girl then?” in your ear.’
‘True.’
‘And the rest of us don’t have to listen to Rory shouting “Cowabunga!”,’ she said, turning to me.
My hands flew to my cheeks. ‘You could hear?’
‘Sometimes,’ she said with a shrug. ‘I just used to put my earplugs in.’
This set us all off again.
Ruby, perhaps for the first time ever, offered to pay for the cab when we got back so Mia could hurry into the house. I layered the various bag straps over my shoulder and trudged up the path like a packhorse.
As Mia opened the door and bent over to pick up the post, I felt sorry for her. Coming home in your wedding dress, accompanied by your sisters and having to scrape up that day’s pizza leaflets and flyers offering gutter cleaning is no bride’s dream. Right about now, I figured, looking at my watch, we should have been nailing the prawn tempura and lobster tacos.
‘Flo, delivery,’ said Mia, holding out a thick brown envelope.
I dropped the bags in the doorway and took it. There was no address, just my name, so it must have been delivered by hand. I slid my finger under the flap and tipped the envelope up into my other hand. A memory stick and several black and white photos fell out, plus a card which fluttered to my feet.
I ignored the card and concentrated on the photos. They were all of me: me standing behind the shop counter with a pile of hardbacks, me laughing as I served a customer, me standing in front of the window display and gazing out at the street, me standing on tiptoes as I reached to slide a cookery book into its shelf, me sitting on stage next to Fumi. Finally, a close-up of me at last week’s Christmas party, grinning in my pudding costume.
I bent over to pick up the card. I DIDN’T WANT TO LEAVE IT AS WE DID ON THURSDAY EVENING. I HOPE THESE AREN’T CREEPY BUT IF YOU’RE GOING TO BE A BESTSELLING AUTHOR YOU’LL NEED A FEW PUBLICITY SHOTS, SO HERE ARE A FEW I TOOK WHEN YOU WEREN’T LOOKING. SEE YOU IN A FEW MONTHS. ZX