Chapter 11
11
While most of the table was on their feet, heading towards the newly engaged couple. Michael took hold of the champagne bottle and started refilling everyone’s glasses, only for the drink to run out after filling just Jamie’s and Sienna’s.
‘More champagne!’ He waved his hand energetically as he looked for a member of the waitstaff to fulfil the request. Yet before he could find one, Holly was on her feet.
‘I’ll go get some more,’ Holly said, pushing back her chair as she rose, only to find her legs felt peculiarly weak. ‘One more bottle of champagne coming up.’
A moment later, she was walking towards the bar. By the time she got there, not only had her legs failed to regain any of their strength, but her throat was unnaturally dry and an almost dizzy-like sensation was causing her head to spin.
‘A glass of water, please,’ she said to the barman.
‘No problem.’ He provided her with one almost immediately, although she couldn’t bring herself to take a sip.
‘Hey, you okay?’
Holly didn’t move. She could feel her hand gripping the glass a little tighter than it needed to. Anger was rising through her, but she tried to keep it in.
‘Holly, I said are you okay?’
She spun around. Jamie was only inches away from her.
‘How the hell could you let him do that?’ she said.
She didn’t want to take her feelings out on Jamie. That wasn’t fair. She knew it wasn’t, but she was angry, and Jamie was the only person there to be the recipient.
‘It’s your anniversary party. We were celebrating your wedding, and you just let him usurp it like that?’
‘I don’t think that’s what he did,’ Jamie said. Her voice was quiet and considered and, for some reason, that only made Holly even more irritated.
‘That’s completely what he did. I mean, how arrogant can you get? To not even ask someone when you’re at their anniversary party. To not even tell them you’re going to propose.’
‘Well, actually…’
Holly felt her jaw slacken. She shook her head in disbelief.
‘He told you? He told you he was going to propose, but you didn’t tell me?’
It was Jamie’s turn to shake her head. ‘He asked if it would be okay and Fin said yes. I only found out a few minutes before you did.’
Holly recalled the look on Jamie’s face as Fin whispered in her ear. That was the moment. She realised it now. That was the moment Jamie knew what was going to happen.
‘You could have let me know somehow,’ she said.
‘Really? How? What did you want me to do? Wave across the table and say, “I needed to talk to you about something,” just after Fin told me?’
‘Well, you could’ve been more subtle about it than that,’ Holly said with a sniff.
With a long sigh, Jamie looked across at the barman, who was on his phone.
‘Is he getting the extra champagne?’ she said.
‘I was just about to order it,’ Holly huffed.
‘Two more bottles of champagne please.’ Jamie gestured to the barman. A moment later, he was filling an ice bucket. ‘I know this isn’t going to be easy for you,’ Jamie said softly, ‘but maybe that feeling you’re feeling right now is telling you something. Something you haven’t really wanted to admit to yourself.’
Holly scoffed. ‘You mean that Giles is still the same egocentric arse he always was, having to make every situation about him?’
‘No, that isn’t what I meant. Holly, surely you can tell it’s not normal to be upset that your friends are getting married, right? You wouldn’t feel like that if it was Ben and Georgia getting engaged.’
‘Of course I wouldn’t. They’re in an actual relationship. They have children together. It would be entirely different.’
‘And you don’t think there’s another difference here? What with it being Giles and everything.’
It was hard to deny Jamie was right about something. Why was she so angry? Apart from Giles usurping the evening and Sienna being a less than ideal match for him, it was probably the shock, she realised. Shock that she had been the last to know. Fin, Jamie, they all knew before she did, when she was meant to be Giles’s best friend. That was what the issue was. That was why she was so freaking angry with him.
‘That’ll be eighty-eight pounds, please, love,’ the barman said, placing a bottle of champagne in a new ice bucket in front of them. ‘Do you want to split the cost?’
‘No,’ Jamie and Holly spoke simultaneously.
‘No,’ Holly repeated, ‘I’ll get it. I’ll pay for it. The last thing I want is for people to think I’m not pleased for my friend.’
With that, she tapped her card against the machine, picked up the ice bucket and strode back to the table.