Chapter 53
Fifty-Three
A Few Years Later
It was a Sunday morning. Maddy was sitting opposite Eva at a little table outside a café that described itself as independent and artisan, although in reality, it mainly just sold overpriced toast.
But it was a pretty location. And Maddy liked to look at her love in beautiful places. She liked to look at Eva in shitty places, too, actually. She just liked to look at her.
Maddy reached across and stole a piece of Eva’s toast. Eva didn’t even look up. ‘You ordered your own.’
‘I’m starved, and mine didn’t come out at the same time. I’ll pay you back when mine arrives.’
‘It is literally coming in a second.’
Maddy considered this while chewing. ‘You don’t know how hungry I am, though.’
‘I guess I don’t want you hangry,’ Eva conceded. ‘Not after the left-turn incident.’
‘I indicated. That man had it coming,’ Maddy insisted. ‘I could have killed him, and then I’d have had to bear the brunt of the guilt for the rest of my life.’
Eva laughed into her coffee. ‘When I first met you, you wouldn’t say boo to a goose. Now you’re robbing my plate in front of my eyes and calling men in the street, “Selfish Fuckface.”’
Maddy was startled by that very true observation. ‘Oh, god, have I overcorrected. You want the toast back?’
‘Nah. You’re sexy when you push me around,’ Eva smiled.
Maddy smiled at her, feeling her gooseflesh pop.
This was the strange thing about love, Maddy had discovered.
People often described it as fireworks or euphoria or overwhelming joy, and back in the day, Maddy had rolled her eyes and thought the best you could hope for was to know someone liked their bath a bit too hot or a cheese that smelled like puke.
If you had supposed fire, it was only a passing madness. It would burn out.
But now, Maddy had the fireworks, and she knew it went with the ease of being together and knowing one another deeply.
They enhanced one another, made the connection stronger.
The delight of a theft of carbohydrates.
The feeling when you heard them coming in the front door.
Ordinary things that flipped her tummy when she looked at Eva.
She was both more stimulated and more at ease. It made no sense.
Maddy leaned back slightly and looked down the street. The morning was warm already, the British city doing that rare thing where it briefly became convinced it was in southern Europe. It was a good day.
Maddy remembered something. ‘God, I forgot to tell you… Adam emailed me.’
‘Really?’ Eva said, surprised.
As well she might be. After Maddy and Adam had completed the work of separating their lives, Adam had vanished completely. They hadn’t had contact in years. Until this morning.
‘Yeah, he said he’s engaged again, and now he gets it, why I left him for you. He forgives us both.’
‘Oh. Well, I wasn’t really losing sleep over his forgiveness after his behaviour,’ Eva said. ‘But thanks, I guess?’
Maddy laughed. ‘He’s found real love, and it’s changed his perspective.’ She sighed. ‘Good for him.’
Eva chuckled. ‘Very magnanimous of you.’
‘As if I could begrudge him,’ Maddy said. She stared off into the distance, feeling simple gratitude for her life the way it was now.
Then she frowned. ‘Hang on.’
Eva looked up over the rim of her coffee cup. ‘What?’
Maddy pointed down the road. ‘If you go around that corner… isn’t that where the greenhouse is?’
‘Oh?’ Eva said casually.
‘Do you know the one I mean?’ Maddy asked.
Eva scratched her nose. ‘Nope.’
‘I wanted to get married there, and then Adam talked me out of it.’
And that, really, had been the story of her old life in general. A long series of surrendered preferences. Restaurants she didn’t choose. Décor she went along with. Trips that were not quite her cup of tea.
Funny how exhausting that turned out to be.
Eva watched her quietly. ‘Do you want to see it again?’
Maddy looked at her for a moment. ‘Can we?’
So they rushed through their toast, paid the bill and walked there together.
And when they turned the corner, Maddy stopped dead. The greenhouse was the same.
The glass still caught the light in that ridiculously romantic way. Plants spilt green through the windows. It looked less like a venue and more like the sort of place where people realise important things about themselves in a movie.
Actually, something was different. But the difference wasn’t the greenhouse. It was her. Last time she’d stood here, the place had felt like something she wanted but probably couldn’t have.
Now, nothing really felt impossible.
Maddy stepped closer, fingertips brushing the frame of the doorway. ‘I did know,’ she said quietly.
‘Know what?’
‘What I wanted. I was just too scared to take it.’
Eva nodded. ‘You trust yourself more now.’
Maddy turned back towards her. ‘I do.’
There was a small silence after that. Then Eva reached into her pocket. Maddy’s breath caught immediately.
‘Eva—’
But Eva was already lowering herself onto one knee. No theatrical flourish. No audience-aware performance. Just Eva, doing something with absolute certainty.
She looked up at Maddy. ‘Hi,’ she said.
Maddy laughed helplessly. ‘Hello.’
For a moment, neither of them spoke. The sunlight shifted slightly across the glass behind them.
Then Eva cleared her throat. ‘I’ve been thinking about this for a while and thought of a lot of ways to do this. But then I realised something.’ She glanced at the greenhouse. ‘You already found the place.’
Maddy was now trying very hard not to cry. Not because it hurt anymore. Because it didn’t.
Eva held her gaze. ‘You deserve to have the things you want. And I hope that includes me.’
Maddy gave up on fighting back her tears of joy.
‘Maddy,’ Eva said softly, ‘will you marry me? In this greenhouse?’
‘Yes,’ Eva said immediately.
It wasn’t a tough question this time. It was the least complicated thing she’d ever been asked.
Eva smiled, the rare, unguarded version that always made Maddy feel as though she’d won something important.
‘Phew,’ Eva said, standing.
Maddy laughed through her tears. ‘Phew? You must have known I would say yes.’
‘Actually, it’s phew because I may already have booked the venue.’
Maddy blinked. ‘You what?’
Eva gestured towards the greenhouse. ‘This is all happening today.’
There was a brief silence while Maddy’s brain attempted to catch up with this information. ‘Today?’
‘Mm.’
‘Today today?’
‘That is generally how the word works, yes.’
‘Eva!’
But Eva was warming to the subject now. ‘The dress you wanted is here too.’
Maddy stared at her.
‘Is it too much?’ Eva asked.
Maddy shook her head. ‘You’re mad.’
‘I know you hated that year leading up to it all,’ Eva explained.
‘Partly because I just didn’t want to get married to Adam,’ Maddy was compelled to point out.
‘I know,’ Eva said. ‘But it wasn’t for you, that engagement year, was it?’
Maddy looked at Eva, who knew her so well, even before Maddy had decided to let her. ‘God, no.’
‘That’s why I’ve skipped it. The cake you wanted is in there, too.’
Maddy gaped. ‘The one with the tiny library on top?’
‘Three hundred individual edible books.’
‘This is crazy. This is crazy,’ Maddy muttered to herself, utterly delighted.
Eva stepped closer. ‘No guests,’ she said. ‘Just us. And two witnesses who are only here because marriages require them. But they’re strangers.’
Maddy laughed. ‘I liked the sound of them already.’
Eva paused before she said, ‘A lot of this was favours. I spent very little money.’
Maddy laughed. ‘Oh?’
‘Jen basically bullied half my supplier list into helping.’
‘Jen helped you with this?’ Maddy asked.
Eva nodded. ‘It’s very weird letting your old assistant plan your wedding. Thank god I made her a proper partner in the business. I couldn’t have done this one without someone I trust.’
Maddy smiled softly. ‘Wow. The first wedding you couldn’t handle by yourself.’
‘Second,’ Eva said ruefully.
Maddy giggled.
‘Look, I’m telling you all this because I want you to know if you don’t want to do this, it’s not the end of the world. I don’t expect you to do it this way. If you want something normal, with people, with your mum, I’d do it. I don’t care if she hates me.’
‘She doesn’t hate you,’ Maddy lied.
Eva laughed. ‘Sure,’ she said with an eyeroll.
‘But if you want her there, she can be there. But I wanted to put this together because falling for you has brought out this crazy romantic side of me that I didn’t know existed, and I wanted to do something with it.
And this is what I’ve done. Try to give you the day you wanted,’ Eva said.
Maddy stepped closer so Eva could see how deeply she meant the words she was about to say. ‘I love it. I love you. Let’s get married.’
Eva sighed with relief and kissed her wife-to-be. And then they went into the greenhouse of Maddy’s dreams and got married.