Chapter 33
33
Everything about this wedding is so very clearly eye-wateringly expensive – except the entertainment, because that’s seemingly free.
It’s unofficial entertainment, of course, but it’s entertaining nonetheless.
My family – with the exception of me, of course – is one of those families that takes sports and board games far too seriously. Everyone is so competitive to the point where it isn’t actually fun to play with them. In fact, the last time I spent Christmas with them, I went to bed during a late-night game of Monopoly and woke up the next morning to find some of them were still playing!
So, today’s unofficial entertainment is… fencing, because of course it is.
‘Get him, Chester,’ Seph calls out.
‘He’s no match for Beau,’ Tiggy tells her.
They’ve got quite the little crowd around them, in the back garden, and they fight it out. In any other scenario it would be surprising to find out people just had fencing gear to hand but, no, not with this lot. They could have been playing polo on horseback and I wouldn’t have been all that shocked.
Beau lunges as Chester parries – it’s funny, they almost look like they’re dancing. It’s surprisingly elegant, considering they’re trying to stab one another.
Their blades clink a little longer before Beau lands the hit that ends the match.
Chester pulls off his mask before playfully staggering around, holding his stomach, as though he’s been fatally wounded. Seph runs to his side and kisses him on the cheek.
‘You’re still my hero,’ she tells him.
Cringe.
‘And I’m still unbeaten,’ Beau announces as he takes his mask off. ‘There is no man on this entire island who can beat me.’
‘Oh, please,’ Tiggy says with a roll of her eyes. ‘I could beat you – if I had a baseball bat.’
‘Touché,’ Beau replies.
‘I’ll give it a go,’ Ethan announces.
I whip my head around to look at him so quickly it almost gives me whiplash. Did he really just say that?
‘Have you ever fenced before?’ Beau asks him, his eyebrow raised curiously.
‘No, but how hard can it be?’ Ethan replies as he picks up Chester’s sword.
A wave of laughter passes through the group.
‘You really don’t have to play,’ I tell him.
I don’t know if he’s doing this because he sees Beau as some kind of rival or if he just thinks it looks fun but, either way, Beau is clearly very good, and Ethan has never tried it before. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.
‘It’s cool,’ Ethan reassures me. ‘I’d love to have a stab.’
‘Hilarious, EPJ,’ Chester tells him as he hands him his mask. ‘Solid joke.’
Beau twirls his sword in Ethan’s direction with a menacing flare.
‘All right, Ethan,’ Beau says. ‘Let’s see what you’re made of.’
I don’t know whether I can’t look or I can’t look away. It’s a confusing mixture of both. The only thing more surprising than the fact this is happening is that Ethan actually seems to be quite good at it.
‘EPJ, if you’ve never fenced before, how are you so good?’ Chester calls out.
‘It’s not too different to a lightsaber,’ Ethan calls back as he puts Beau through his paces.
‘Lightsaber?’ Chester replies. ‘Like Star Wars ?’
‘Yeah, I’m a huge fan,’ Ethan tells him.
‘A sword is nothing like a lightsaber,’ Beau replies, clearly annoyed. ‘It’s real, for one.’
‘Well, they are real,’ Ethan replies. ‘At least, the ones at the conventions are. We dress up, re-enact the battles – people take it really seriously.’
‘There is nothing serious about what you just said,’ Seph tells him with a snort.
Ethan remains unbothered though and, I’m no expert, but it does sort of seem like he has the upper hand right now.
‘ Star Wars ,’ Beau says with a scoff. ‘You sound like a bit of a loser, friend.’
‘If that’s true, friend, then why does it feel like I’m winning?’ Ethan claps back.
I notice Beau’s body language change all at once. For a moment it’s almost like he loses focus, but then his back straightens, his shoulders stiffen, and he charges at Ethan. He almost seems to force him in a particular direction, forcing Ethan to fall backwards into a garden table. It crumples under his weight, breaking his fall but, you know, breaking itself too.
‘Ethan,’ I blurt, running over to help him.
He rolls onto his side, keeping one of his elbows elevated as he cradles it with his other hand. As soon as he’s sitting upright he pulls off his mask and you can see the pain on his face.
‘That was a bit of a dirty play, old boy,’ Chester teases Beau.
Beau removes his mask. His expression is blank as he looks over at Ethan.
‘Ethan, are you okay?’ I ask as I crouch down next to him.
‘Yeah, I’m okay,’ he reassures me. ‘I smacked my elbow on something. It smarts, but I can move it.’
‘We should put some ice on it,’ I insist. ‘Come on.’
I offer Ethan my arm so that he can pull himself up. He keeps hold of it as we head towards the house.
There is an ice dispenser in the bar in the dining room so I place a bunch inside a napkin and twist it shut.
‘Sit there,’ I tell Ethan.
He does as he’s told, taking a seat on a dining chair, while I kneel down in front of him, holding out the ice for him to gently rest his elbow on it.
‘I’m okay, really,’ he tells him. ‘I think it’s just bruised.’
‘Well, a bit of ice won’t hurt either way, will it?’ I say with a smile.
He winces as I place the ice on his elbow, but then his face dissolves into a soft smile to let me know he’s pretending. I kind of love it when he messes with me.
‘As impressive as you were – and we’ll get into the fact that you’re a Star Wars nerd later – you know that you don’t have to prove yourself to that lot, right?’ I say as I look up at him.
Ethan shrugs.
‘I could say the same to you,’ he replies.
‘Erm, I’m not trying to prove anything other than a point,’ I remind him.
I notice Ethan’s usual playfulness and cheeky smile fade away, sort of like when the sun goes behind a big cloud and everything does dark.
‘Lana, why are you so determined to show everyone what a terrible person you are when, really, you’re anything but?’ he asks seriously.
I pause for a moment, chewing my lip as I think carefully about his question.
‘Because if people think you’re something, and they spend years telling you that you’re something, eventually you just get to a point where you want to prove them right,’ I say with a sigh.
‘Hmm,’ he says, his smile slowly creeping back. ‘Well, a wise woman once told me that living well was the best revenge.’
I can’t help but laugh.
‘She sounds like a dummy,’ I tell him.
I rest my chin on Ethan’s lap for a moment, as I look up at him. He reaches forward and tucks a piece of hair behind my ear as he looks back. It’s like there’s a magnet in his shorts, pulling my face closer and closer – wait, no, I don’t mean that as dodgily as it sounds. Just… I don’t know. Sometimes it feels like I’m quite literally stuck to him, like I don’t want to let him go.
He parts his lips slowly and I don’t know if it’s because he’s going to say something or because he’s going to lean forward and kiss me so I panic and quickly pull away from him.
‘So, I think we can safely say that my fencing career is over before it’s even really got started,’ he jokes.
‘Well, it would be annoying if you were good at everything, wouldn’t it?’ I reply. ‘Sometimes it’s better to just let things go.’
‘Sometimes, yeah,’ he replies. ‘You’re soaking my shorts, by the way.’
‘What?’ I reply.
He nods towards the ice that is rapidly melting through the napkin.
‘Shit, sorry,’ I tell him, springing to my feet.
‘That’s okay,’ he replies with a laugh. ‘At least it’s not a flood.’
That’s true – but I bet it would have been, if I’d given in to my instincts and kissed him.