Date with Destiny

Chapter Thirty-Seven

When we return, Myfanwy eyes the pair of us warily, but at least she’s now looking distinctly less sweaty. The drama between Zach and I has given her a welcome distraction from the proposal.

‘All right?’ she says carefully and we both nod a lot. She looks annoyed – she’s dying to know what’s happened.

‘Myfe!’ Toni bounces back up to us, fresh from the bar, with Shawn and future bride Sonali in tow. ‘No offence, but why is this party so…?’ She waves discontentedly at the room, before Shawn finishes her sentence:

‘Why is it so boring?’ he pouts.

Zach looks embarrassed. ‘It’s not that bad,’ he says nicely, making it worse.

‘Are you guys bitching about my birthday party?’ Sonali sips from a glass of water in her hand as she turns on Myfanwy accusatorily. ‘Why did you make me have a party?’ she wails. ‘I hate this, it’s too much pressure! No one is enjoying themselves and Toni just handed me this water.’

Toni looks ashamed. ‘It’s not my fault!’ she says. ‘I asked the barman for a vodka tonic. He disappeared for ten minutes, then handed me that water. I thought it was better than nothing.’

‘I’ll go get you a proper drink, Sonali,’ Zach offers nicely and Myfanwy stands up suddenly, her back straight, her face determined. ‘No, Zach, I’ll do it,’ she says, fixing the barman with a steely glare. ‘I can’t let this happen. This is going to be a good party if it’s the last thing I do.’

Everyone cheers and Sonali perks up as Myfanwy stomps over to the bartender. We watch in awe as she tells him off, arms waving. Her sweat has turned to an Amazonian glisten and she looks like some kind of warrior as the shamefaced bartender nods. Within moments, he lines up an enormous queue of shots along the bar, and Myfanwy turns to us triumphantly, gesturing at the lot of us to come drink.

‘Let’s do this!’ she shouts, the energy back in her voice. Our eyes meet as we all pile over to the bar shouting across each other. I meet Myfanwy’s eyes and she smiles with a trembling lip.

Two hours later, and there’s no longer any doubt that this party is a party. People are dancing and laughing. There is a high-five contest going on across the dancefloor, while someone else does the splits and takes a shot as the room cheers. I’m so proud of my friend for turning things around. Myfanwy bounces over to me, tray in hand. ‘Here,’ she instructs, offering it up and I accept a purple-coloured shot, downing it in one. It’s sour as anything and I grimace.

‘This is the best party ever,’ I tell her, grinning, and she beams back.

‘Do you think I should do it now?’ She bites her lip nervously. ‘I don’t want to do it right at the end; I want us to be able to celebrate with everyone after she says yes.’ She snorts, adding, ‘If she says yes.’

I laugh and then grab her hands excitedly. ‘Yes! Do it now if this feels right. I can’t believe you’re about to,’ I glance around furtively, checking no one is listening before adding in a whisper, ‘propose. This is so huge, I’m so happy for you, Myfe. You deserve this so much.’ I swallow down the big emotional lump in my throat but both our eyes are shining. ‘Go go!’ I urge her and she laughs, a little hysterically.

She takes a deep breath and turns to the room, her eyes searching for Sonali. We spot her doing a cartwheel as part of a dance-off with Zach and Toni.

‘There she is,’ Myfanwy murmurs. ‘I’ll just get the music turned down a bit and then—’ As if by magic, the music turns off altogether and we look at each other in surprise. Is Alexa listening? Did she do it for us?

‘Can I get everyone’s attention?’ A loud male voice shouts over the room and we all turn in shock towards… Shawn. He’s at the bar, holding a glass of champagne and looking nervous.

‘What the hell?’ Myfanwy mutters, echoing my thoughts.

With the room’s attention all on him, Shawn clears his throat. ‘Can I get Toni up here?’ He scans the room, finding her, a deer in headlights, arms in the air mid-cartwheel. ‘There she is,’ Shawn says happily. ‘Baby, can you come up here?’ She slowly walks over with wide, nervous eyes.

‘What’s going on?’ she mouths at me as she passes and I shrug.

‘Toni,’ Shawn begins excitedly as she reaches him. ‘Don’t panic, this isn’t a marriage proposal!’ He laughs long and hard as the room relaxes. He continues, delighted with himself, ‘Har-har, don’t worry – I’d never propose at a party.’ His voice scathing, he looks around at the room. ‘And especially not at a party like this!’ I glance sideways at Myfanwy, whose face is a colour I’ve never seen. Somewhere between purple and greeny orange? Across the room, Shawn also spots her. ‘No offence to your party, My-Fanny, eh? I know you’ve gone to a lot of trouble and it’s a great do, if you like that kind of thing! It’s just not exactly an event a person with any class would propose at, is it?’ He laughs again, before turning back to Toni and taking her hands. ‘Babe, you know how I think you’re the best I could get?’ He turns back to the room and winks. ‘You should see her butt!’ Low groans echo around the room and Toni titters, clearly embarrassed. Shawn continues, oblivious to the negative reaction. ‘So I wanted to ask you in front of your mates and your sister,’ he nods at me like I’m in on this, whatever this is, ‘whether you would do me the great honour of agreeing to live with me?’ Toni’s mouth gapes open, as do most mouths around the room. None of us thought this was going to last. Or we hoped it wouldn’t. Shawn might have grown on me somewhat in recent weeks, but this?

‘Wow.’ Toni finds her voice at last, repeating in a trembly tone, ‘Wow.’

‘I know it’s a surprise,’ Shawn says, beaming at her. ‘But I’ve been looking at rentals and I think we’d be great as roommates!’

‘Wow!’ she says again and he pulls her in for a hug. From inside his cuddle, I hear Toni squeak about being thrilled.

Toni’s going to live with him. She’s going to live with a boy. This is huge. I…

Oh my god, Myfanwy! Her proposal. For a moment, I’d forgotten. I forgot what should’ve been happening. But the terribleness is written all over her face.

Shawn has completely and utterly ruined her big moment. There’s no chance at all she can propose now. Even if he hadn’t slated the idea of anyone popping the question tonight, there’s literally no thunder left, he’s stolen it all.

‘I’m so sorry!’ I whisper urgently as Myfanwy blinks hard. ‘Shall we go to the loo?’

She nods, swallowing hard as she tries not to cry.

No one notices us slipping away, as the party – Sonali included – all crowd around the star of the show, Toni, shouting their congratulations at her as she beams at the fuss. It should’ve been Sonali at the centre there, showing off all her mad, stupid, sweet, beautiful rings.

In the loo, Myfanwy lets go, bursting into tears.

‘Well, that’s that fucked,’ she declares through snot.

‘It’s not fucked!’ I protest, looking through the cubicles for toilet roll. There are only wads of paper on the soaked floor, so I offer her my sleeve.

‘What am I going to do?’ she wails. ‘It’s all ruined.’

I stroke her hair. ‘It’s not ruined, Myfe, you just need to come up with a new plan for when to do it.’

She harumphs. ‘I can’t exactly throw another big party for her, can I?’ Her voice is exasperated as she cries into her hand.

I take in my best friend, crying in a loo over what should be a magical night for her and Sonali. And I make a decision.

‘Actually, Myfe, I think this is a good thing,’ I say decisively, and she sniffs loudly, looking up at me with eyes narrowed.

‘What?’

I stand up a little straighter. ‘I should’ve said something before, but I don’t know if proposing in front of everyone is the right thing.’

She stares at me. ‘But that was the plan. We agreed.’

I cock my head. ‘I know, but I don’t know if Sonali is really a public proposal kind of person…’

‘What?’ Myfanwy says again, looking outraged. ‘But you said it was a good idea!’

‘I didn’t want to interfere,’ I say lamely.

‘It wouldn’t have been interfering!’ Myfanwy cries. ‘You were part of Project Proposal from the start. I literally asked you to interfere. Not just as a best friend, but as a bloody expert in proposals! It’s basically your day job to help people like me! I wanted you to tell me if I was doing anything stupid because I knew I was too close to the whole thing to see it clearly! That’s why I wanted you on board, to let me know if I was going in the wrong direction!’ She sighs. ‘So you think I should ask her one-on-one, in private?’

I nod sheepishly. ‘I really do. I think that would mean a lot more to her.’

She sighs again. ‘Is the rest of it wrong, too?’

‘Oh my god, no!’ I tell her hurriedly. ‘The rest is perfect and wonderful and I know Sonali will completely love it. Every one of those stories and rings are exactly right. But I do think she would prefer it if it was just the two of you. Much as I’d love to watch.’

She considers this, letting my words sink in. After a minute, she gives me a small smile. ‘I could record it?’ she offers, and I think about this. I’m the professional, after all – the expert – and she wants my genuine opinion.

‘Yeah,’ I nod, considering Sonali’s reaction to this. ‘I think she’d like that. She’d like to have a record of it. And I definitely would like to see that record.’

‘The only question left now then,’ she sighs, ‘is when to do it.’

We’re about to start brainstorming when Toni appears at the door. She looks out of breath, eyes widening as she spots me.

‘Daniel’s here,’ she says.

‘Fuck,’ I say, because who the hell forgets that they invited their ex-fiancé to a party?