Thirty-Six
Ari’s fingers still tingled with the buzz of their little victory, the keys now secure in her hand, but there was no time to savour the moment. Time to go and get her prize.
But as she began to push back out to the hall and up to Paris’s room, there was a shift. She could feel the swell of people pushing against her. Because they’d heard something she hadn’t.
She caught it the second time. The butler announcing the wedding was about to begin. Shit.
Everyone had been waiting for this cue. There was no escaping the tide now. Ari and Nancy were swept into the crowd, bodies moving, shifting, merging. And despite every instinct telling her to slip away, to make her escape while the moment was still hers, Ari was carried forward, caught in the flow like everyone else.
She glanced at Nancy, and their eyes met for just a second. ‘It’s OK. We just stick to the original plan,’ she whispered. ‘Course five.’
Ari was livid. But also trapped. The pace of everything seemed to conspire against her. They could go now, but they’d have to be fast to get there and back before the wedding march started up. It wasn’t worth it. Nancy was right. Stick to the plan.
Ari let herself be swept with the tide alongside Nancy. Their bodies bumped in all the worst (or best?) places, and they both looked away quickly. The chatter grew louder as the crowd murmured with excitement, eager for the wedding to begin.
The garden stretched out before them, the soft glow of fairy lights twinkling in the trees. But Ari’s mind was elsewhere. It was everywhere. The keys, the necklace, Nancy. Her mind was a washing machine on full spin.
‘I’m not good at waiting,’ Ari muttered under her breath, barely loud enough for Nancy to hear.
Nancy’s lips twitched, but she didn’t respond right away. They both kept moving, barely keeping their footing as they were swept further into the garden and directed to their seats. ‘Just hold on,’ she said.
The seats were at the back, positioned in such a way that it felt like an afterthought. Yet still, they were stuck, trapped in the row with the other unimportant guests.
The murmur of conversation dipped into a hush as the quartet began to play, but Ari was still fidgeting, twisting the stolen keys between her fingers.
Nancy, ever composed, glanced at her. ‘Would you stop that?’
Ari exhaled sharply but slipped the keys into her palm. ‘Sorry. I was just so close. I’ve waited years for this.’
Nancy’s eyes flicked toward the front, where a minister and the groom waited. ‘Then you can wait another hour. We’ll have time after.’
A man in front of them turned around. His breath smelled like whisky. ‘Desperate to sneak off, eh?’
Ari felt her entire body tense, but Nancy, without even turning around, simply clasped her hands in her lap and said, ‘Beg your pardon?
The man chuckled again. ‘Don’t worry, darlings. Weddings do that to people. All that romance in the air gets the blood pumping, eh?’ He gave a crude wink. ‘Hope you don’t have to wait too long.’
Ari’s face burned as the man’s laughter rumbled low and knowing. She chanced a glance at Nancy, who still hadn’t looked back, her posture a picture of cool indifference. But Ari caught the turn of her knuckles to purest white.
Then, as if sensing Ari’s gaze, Nancy finally turned her head. Their eyes met, and for a single, excruciating second, embarrassment crackled between them. Neither of them spoke, but the moment stretched, filled with everything they weren’t saying.
Then Nancy exhaled, barely a flicker of movement, and Ari tore her eyes away, fixing them straight ahead. Nothing to do but pretend it hadn’t happened. Pretend her skin wasn’t prickling. Pretend the man’s words hadn’t lodged somewhere uncomfortably deep.
Ari sighed, slumping back in her chair, but as she did, she felt the brush of Nancy’s fingers against hers. Just a fleeting touch, so quick it could’ve been accidental.
She glanced at Nancy out of the corner of her eye, but her expression was unreadable, gaze trained forward as if nothing had happened at all.
Ari wasn’t sure if she was imagining all this. Was there something there? Or did Ari just want there to be?