Chapter 9
Nine
CLARA
W hen I floated the idea to Xander that I wanted to fly later in the day, I felt bad about it. But as I walked through the airport feeling like an actual person, I knew I made the right choice.
It meant that I could be a somewhat decent travel partner to Jesse, outside of the flying on a metal tube part.
Once we checked in and dropped off our suitcases, with a hope and a prayer that we would see them again on the other side, we silently went in search of caffeine and food. In an unspoken agreement, we went into the branch of our favourite café, and I immediately went in search of a table while Jesse joined the queue.
I found a table tucked away in the corner and was writing a scene on my phone when Jesse appeared with a packed tray in his hands. It was only as I took in the food slotted on there with an expert amount of precision that I realised I hadn’t told Jesse what I wanted.
But on the tray was a chicken sandwich with no tomatoes, a blueberry muffin, a flat white, and a ginger shot. All things I wanted.
I carried on staring at the tray as Jesse took the seat opposite me and grabbed the cappuccino.
“What are you staring at?” he asked as he took a sip. I looked up and watched him slowly lick some froth off his upper lip.
“Did I give you my order and forget?” I asked.
“You don’t forget anything, so no. The blueberry muffins from here are your favourite, you only drink flat whites, and I threw the ginger shot in for good measure.”
“And the sandwich?” I asked as I picked up the flat white.
“Why did I get it? Because you can’t only eat a blueberry muffin when it’s nearly lunchtime. As for why I picked that one, it was the only one without tomatoes in it. Are you going to stop looking at me like you’ve never seen me before?”
I looked away, my face heating.
“I’m just surprised,” I mumbled before I necked the ginger shot.
I thought about all the times I had to pick tomatoes out of things Drew got me. I thought about all the lattes I had to drink because Drew could never remember my actual coffee order without me explicitly telling him. A strange feeling wrapped around me that I hadn’t felt in years.
I felt cared for.
I picked up the blueberry muffin and started eating to bury the feeling.
“I just realised I never asked how big this wedding was. I assume it’s not going to be just all the people flying out today and Addie,” Jesse said.
It didn’t go unnoticed that he didn’t mention Drew.
“You would be correct. There are seventy-five people in total, but the rest of them are only there for the day itself.”
“Big wedding.”
“Gavin has a lot of family and friends that he wanted to invite.”
“How did they meet?”
“Uni. Bex and I had a Halloween party in our second year, and a friend of a friend invited Gavin. He hit it off with Becky pretty much instantly. It was because of Gavin that I met Drew, and then suddenly, the four of us were all going on double dates and doing the whole finding our first loves at the same time.”
“You two went to the same uni?
I shook my head. “I went to UCL, and Becky went to SOAS. Our campuses were basically on top of each other, so we lived together.”
“When did they get engaged?”
I crumpled up the now-empty muffin wrapper and threw it back on the tray.
“This is the second time they’ve been engaged. This time, it’s been five years.”
Jesse’s eyes widened. “You know I’m going to ask what happened the first time.”
“They couldn’t make long-distance work. Gavin’s from New York, and he saw uni as his one time to fly that nest. He’d always planned on returning once his love affair with London was over. Becky was never leaving London because she had a master’s programme lined up, but they thought they could make work. Becky was almost desperate to make it work, so when Gavin proposed, she said yes.
“They tried to make a good go of it for a while. Gosh, did they try. But six months in, it all fell apart.”
I paused and took a sip of my coffee.
“So, how are we here?” Jesse asked.
“Gavin comes from one of those families that has a ‘family business’. He and his brother were both raised under the assumption that they would join the family business once they came of age. They were destined to be accountants. Gavin wasn’t supposed to stray from that path, but my understanding—from what Becky has told me—was that he was miserable once they called things off and kept trying to find ways to get back to her. So, when the company said they were going to open an office in London, Gavin jumped at the chance to spearhead the project. He showed up at Becky’s master’s graduation party. Three days later, Becky was telling me she had taken him back because she would be silly to turn down a second chance with him, and now here we are.”
“Why the long engagement?”
I drained the rest of my coffee and, unusually for me, picked up the sandwich. I’d never been a huge eater when I was about to get on a metal tube of potential death. Even the blueberry muffin had seemed like a lot.
“Timing,” I answered after I swallowed my first bite. “Becky got caught up in a PhD and then being a lecturer. It was only at the beginning of last year that she felt like she finally had the headspace to make her wedding vision come to fruition. Gavin was happy to wait.”
Jesse nodded but didn’t say anything else.
A comfortable silence fell over us as we finished eating and waited until our gate was called.