Chapter Seven Gemma
Chapter Seven
Gemma
I arrive at Anna’s red-brick terrace house in Putney armed with a bottle of Cabernet. After the day I’ve had, I’ll be snapping off the neck and guzzling the whole lot.
“What happened to your shirt?” The moment I step through Anna’s front door, her eyes zero in on the safety pin currently fighting for its life to hold my shirt together.
“That’s what I was messaging you about earlier. I’m going to need a very large glass of this before we get into that.”
I kick off my heels and follow Anna into her kitchen. She rummages through her cabinets, wine glasses clinking as she plucks three from the top shelf.
My eyes sweep the downstairs area. “Where’s Mason?”
Anna sets the glasses on the counter. “Boys’ night.”
I frown. Her tone catches my attention. I’ve noticed she and Mason haven’t been spending much time together lately, and Mason always seems to vanish whenever Anna hosts us.
They’ve been together since our early twenties and married for eight years, and for the most part, they’ve had a happy marriage.
I’m beginning to wonder if not everything is as it seems. But if something were wrong, she’d tell us… wouldn’t she?
A gust of crisp winter air whooshes through the house as April swings the door open, causing a shiver to snake down my spine.
“Close the bloody door!” I say.
April pushes it shut then shrugs off her coat, tossing it over the sofa before joining us in the kitchen. “Coming from the woman who slams my door into my wall every time she visits. You frighten the daylights out of poor Basil. It makes him stress poop!”
“I’m telling you right now, that cat isn’t crapping on the floor due to stress,” Anna says.
April rolls her eyes before noticing and pointing at my shirt. “Hey, what happened?”
I turn to Anna. “Pour the wine.”
Anna twists the cap, and it releases with a satisfying crack.
I close my eyes and tilt my head to the ceiling. “God, I love that sound.”
April chuckles as Anna pours three generous glasses. She drags a stool around the island bench to face April and me.
“Get on with it, then,” she says, crossing her legs.
I take a deep breath and recount every horrid detail, from Lance being forced to raise his prices to spilling my coffee on Max, right up to the button incident with Grayson’s eye.
April hides her face in her hands.
Anna glares at me in stunned silence momentarily before throwing her head back and releasing a deep belly laugh.
“Why are you laughing? This isn’t funny,” I say.
“Isn’t funny? It’s hilarious. You spilled coffee on my brother’s Tom Ford suit and nearly blinded one of the world’s richest men, while flashing everyone in your meeting!” Anna chokes out.
April raises a hand. “If Grayson needs surgery, I can get him in to see my old boss.”
April used to work as a PA to one of London’s leading eye surgeons, but she pivoted to her hobby of ceramics a couple of years ago and managed to turn it into a thriving full-time business.
She’s super talented and makes the most gorgeous pieces.
She even made me a penis vase for my birthday last year—I swear I nearly cried, it was so perfect.
I shake my head, taking a long sip. “He left the country, thank God.”
“That’s almost as good as the time April shat her pants at work,” Anna says, wiping the tears from her eyes.
April points a finger in Anna’s direction, her voice serious. “That wasn’t my fault. How was I supposed to know that taking too much magnesium can cause diarrhea?”
“Oh, April, you sweet, innocent thing,” Anna says.
“My pants were white too…” April adds, trailing off.
I drop my head into my hands. “Guys, can we please focus? How am I supposed to show my face at work tomorrow?”
Anna tuts. “You’re overreacting.”
“Overreacting? Grayson could have lost his eye. I nearly blinded a billionaire with a bloody button. Plus, the entire executive team saw my bra! Have you seen your brother? He’s gorgeous, which makes it so much worse.”
“Oh no.” Anna straightens. “I know that tone. Absolutely not. You are not getting any ideas about Max.”
I look up. “I didn’t say—”
“You didn’t have to, you little minx. I know you too well.
” She points her glass at me, wine sloshing.
“My brother is absolutely off-limits. I mean it, Gem. One of my friends from high school—Nicole—dated Max briefly after we finished our GCSEs. She was head over heels for him, but then he moved to the States to study at NYU. He didn’t see the relationship going anywhere, so he broke it off and she was left devastated.
She never spoke to me again. It ruined our friendship, and I won’t let that happen to us. You mean far too much to me.”
Christ, no wonder she’s so protective of her brother. That’s unfair of Nicole—she sounds like a twat. It’s not Anna’s fault the relationship didn’t work out.
“Oh, I remember that. Nicole was so obsessed with Max in high school. She was completely out of line for letting that affect your friendship,” April says.
“It was so upsetting. Besides, I’ve spent years trying to forget walking in on him with Casey, his ex-wife”—she shivers—“I don’t need trauma flashbacks with my best friend.”
Ex-wife? The word hits me like a splash of ice water. Anna’s mentioned Max here and there over the years, but I never paid much attention to the fact that he was once married.
Now, after meeting him, the questions pile up faster than I can suppress them: How long were Max and Casey together? When was he married? Why did they divorce?
But I swallow them back, forcing a neutral expression.
“Gross,” April says, pretending to gag.
Anna points to April. “See that? That’s the reaction you need to have toward my brother. I already know far too much about your sex life, and I’d like to keep at least one man in London sacred in my mind.”
I wink at her playfully, lightening the mood.
Her eyes narrow. “I saw that look. That’s the same look you had before you corrupted my poor yoga instructor last weekend.”
I scoff. “It was one date. I hardly think I corrupted the man. You told me he was normal.” It’s my turn to point a finger at her. “He literally asked me to piss in his mouth.”
“Please tell me you didn’t do that,” April says, horror creeping across her face.
“Of course I didn’t! I draw the line at certain bodily fluids. I blocked his number after that. Though, I will say, his chakras were certainly aligned by the time I was through with him.”
“And there goes my favorite yoga studio,” Anna grumbles. “How could I ever do the downward dog again in front of him, now that I know that?”
“If it helps, neither can he. Not since the amethyst crystal-up-the-butt incident.”
“We don’t want to know,” they say in unison.
I groan. “Seriously, though. The CEO is going to have my arse for this.” I tap my finger against my glass.
April reaches across and rests her hand over mine. “Everything will be okay. You’re good at what you do—you’ve got this.”
It’s only now that I notice the massive rock on her ring finger.
My pupils dilate as I grab her hand and yank it up to show Anna.
“What. The hell. Is this?”
April’s cheeks turn pink, and a huge smile splits her face. “I wanted to tell you in person.”
Anna shoots up from her stool so fast it crashes to the floor behind her. “Oh my God! You’re engaged!”
“Jesus Christ, you let me sit here rambling about work and sticking crystals up a yoga instructor’s sphincter when you just got engaged?! What’s wrong with you?” I say.
April has been with her rock star boyfriend, James, for the past year and a half.
He plays for one of the hottest new bands in progressive rock, Atlas Veil.
Before that, she was engaged to his wet fart of a brother, Lucas—until she found out he was running a faceless Instagram account, luring women in with romantic poems and thirst traps behind her back.
Naturally, she kicked him to the curb, and it was his younger brother, James, who stepped in to pick up the pieces.
I’m absolutely thrilled for her.
“What kind of friend are you? Tell us everything!” Anna squeals, racing around the kitchen island to squeeze April in a hug. “When did he propose? How did he do it? What were you wearing?”
“Well, to start, we weren’t actually wearing anything,” April says, a blush creeping from her cheeks down her neck. She catches my eye, and I waggle my eyebrows suggestively.
“That’s my girl,” I say, grinning. “Go on.”
“It was only two nights ago—”
“Hold up. You waited two whole days to tell us?” I interrupt.
“We wanted to enjoy our little bubble for a couple of days before telling anyone,” April says, her voice gentle.
“I’m going to assume little bubble is code for a two-day shag fest,” Anna says.
“Correct.” April nods.
I swivel to face Anna. “You have a special way with words, did you know that?”
Anna raises her glass in salute. “Thank you.”
I turn to April. “Continue.”
“So, we’d just… finished,” April continues, “and I was all wrapped up in his arms.” She glances between Anna and me with a knowing smile. “You know how much I love his arms.”
“He does have a decent set of arms,” I say, lifting my glass in agreement.
“So, anyway, he brushed my hair away from my face and gave me this whole speech. Started with ‘You’re my whole world, April. Ever since you came into my life, everything’s been brighter.’”
She takes another sip of wine. “Funny thing is, I can’t remember a single thing he said after that. My heart was racing so fast. As soon as he started talking, my stomach dropped.”
Tears prick my eyes, and I take a deep breath to stifle them.
April is undeniably the soft one of our group.
She wears her heart on her sleeve, and that’s what makes her so beautiful.
She loves love. Her parents passed when she was only twenty-two, and she went through hell with Lucas.
To see her finally get her fairy tale, to find someone who cherishes both her and her turd-slinging cat—it makes even my cynical heart swell with emotion.
Anna chuckles. “Same thing happened to me. I remember where Mason and I were. He got down on one knee and everything, but I couldn’t tell you anything he said to me.
” Her voice goes quiet, distant, like she’s recalling a different time in her life.
She reaches across the bench to top off her glass, avoiding our eyes.
April glances at me with a flicker of worry.
I give a tiny shake of my head—not now—before pulling her into a tight hug.
“I’m so happy for you, sweetheart,” I whisper, rubbing my hand over her back in a soothing circle.
“Thank you, Gem,” she says, her voice choked.
I can’t imagine how she must feel. Last time she was engaged, Lucas destroyed her. She was completely broken after that, a shell of the woman she was before. God, I remember holding her while she cried, watching her try to piece herself back together.
Seeing her like this, happy and trusting and completely in love again… it means everything.
“Right. Well”—Anna perks up, a twinkle in her eye—“I think this calls for something more celebratory than red.”
“I wholeheartedly agree,” I say.
We settle onto Anna’s sofas with our celebration spread—a platter of assorted cheeses, dried fruit, quince paste, and crackers—and sip on bubbly.
“So,” April says, fiddling with the stem of her glass, “I know this is mental, but we wanted to get married in two months. James’s manager knows someone who works at the botanical gardens, and they managed to get us a spot after a last-minute cancellation.
With James touring for the new album next year, it was either now or wait eighteen months. ”
Anna’s eyebrows shoot up. “April getting married in April. Adorable. But that is fast. Can you even plan a wedding in two months?”
“Well, with my two bridesmaids by my side, I think we can pull it off.”
Anna fake gags.
I set my flute gently on the coffee table, pressing a hand to my heart with exaggerated emotion. “Are we your bridesmaids?”
“Of course we are, you boob. She doesn’t have any other female friends,” Anna deadpans.
April chokes on her champagne, spraying it all over my lap.
“Hey! My shirt’s already ruined. Don’t take my skirt down with it.”
We burst into laughter.
The rest of the evening is spent mapping out weekends for dress shopping, cake testing, and other tidbits.
“Oh,” April says. “Since Max will be around, tell him to come. He was always like a big brother growing up—I’d love to have him there.”
April and Anna have been friends since the age of five, so they have a long history together. I became the third musketeer thirteen years ago after meeting April in the romance section of our local bookstore. She introduced me to Anna, and the three of us have been inseparable since.
Anna shrugs. “Sure.”
For Christ’s sake, I can’t escape this man. He’s like a venereal disease passing from person to bloody person.
Ping.
My phone chimes with a message. I pull it from my pocket—Henry.
Henry: The CEO wants a meeting with us tomorrow morning. 9:00 a.m.
“Crap,” I mutter.
“What’s wrong?” Anna says, peering at me over the rim of her glass.
I huff. “Henry and I have to meet with the CEO first thing tomorrow.”
“I’m serious, Gem. It’ll be fine,” April says, offering me a small, reassuring smile.
“Exactly.” Anna nods. “And you don’t have to worry about Max. He may be an arrogant prick sometimes, but he’s fair. He won’t let this morning’s incident affect the project.”
I scoff, tossing back the rest of my champagne. “Famous last words.”