Chapter 16 Rose
Rose
Saturday morning was the first chance we had to catch up, because Friday was already ruled out with work (Fallon), a work event (Erin), a meal with her parents (Harriet), and a meal out with some of my cousins and Eliza, which went exactly as you might expect, both my brothers asleep on sofa in my living room on Saturday morning.
Harriet and I left them to it, although as they both had a rugby match, I knew they wouldn’t be there when we got back, and we met Fallon and Erin at Salamancas, a tapas restaurant that did amazing breakfasts.
Fallon looked less tired, I was pleased to see, and Erin looked like a model with a new bobbed haircut. They were both staring at me as if I’d developed a second head.
“Well?” Was how I was greeted by Fallon when I sat down at the table.
“She’s not told me anything yet either,” Harriet said, not sounding especially happy.
“There was no point telling it twice when we were all going to be together.” I cast my eye over the menu although I already knew what I’d be having.
“I hope it’s worth telling,” Erin sat back and folded her arms.
“It is.” I was pretty sure of that.
“Well?” Harriet hadn’t even looked at what she was having for breakfast yet.
“Should we not order first?”
“No.”
“Absolutely not.”
“I can’t even think about food until I’ve heard this.”
I laughed. “You don’t even know what this is,” I said to Harriet. “I could’ve called you together to tell you I’m joining a nunnery.”
“You could,” said Fallon, “except I wouldn’t believe you. It’s about Carter. So tell. That’s if I don’t know already.”
The expression on her face told me she did know something. “When did you see him?”
“Yesterday.”
“What did he say?” Carter had also spoke more to Fallon than the other two, mainly because they were in the same job and came across each other more.
“I’ll tell you after you’ve told us.” She sat back, mimicking Erin’s pose.
The waiter made an appearance at that time to take drinks and food orders. I opted for a bellini as well as a tea because I needed at least a little alcohol to get through this. Harriet didn’t need the menu because she ordered the same thing as always.
“I saw Carter on Thursday night.” I began, unsure how this was going to go down, because they weren’t getting the full story.
“Finally. I do think you made him suffer for slightly too long.” Erin tapped the table. “What was his excuse?”
“I can’t give you details; it isn’t mine to tell so don’t push.
Carter can tell you if he wants.” Or Laurie, but that was less likely.
“But he explained why he hadn’t contacted me much or told me he was moving back, and I get it, I’m okay with it.
” I still wasn’t exactly happy at the thought of him going through a wedding ceremony with Laurie, but I could deal with it. It helped that I actually liked her.
“Okay. I think dragging us here warrants more of an explanation, so go on.” Erin again. “But I’m glad you’re happy. You have that sparkle in your eyes again.”
“Actually, Carter has told me why he went all quiet and he said I could tell Erin and Harriet because he knew you wouldn’t, and he figured you’d need someone to talk to about because it is a bit, you know, on the large size.” Fallon admired her unpolished nails as she spoke.
“Did you see Carter’s penis, Rose?” Harriet looked aghast.
“No, but why are you acting like you’ve never seen one before?
” I knew damn well that Harriet’s little miss innocent persona was an act.
She hadn’t had much luck with men, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t enjoyed several flings of a variety of lengths, with some rather graphic descriptions of other sorts of lengths too.
“I wasn’t referring to Carter’s penis size, and for the record, I have no idea about the size of Carter’s appendage. I think we need to make that clear right now.” Fallon took the Bloody Mary out of the waiter’s hand like it was the key to eternal life.
“Good.” I shot her a glare. “I’m glad that’s been clarified. When did you speak to Carter?”
“Yesterday. We were stuck in a lift for about ten minutes, and he explained himself then.” She added extra tabasco to her drink. “If I don’t tell them, Rose, they’re not going to let me live long enough to drink this mother fucker.”
I groaned. I didn’t really want them to know about Carter’s wedding because there would be all kind of judgement and questions – mainly around my sanity.
“Fine.” I nodded thanks to the waiter for my drink and sipped at it.
I had a free day after this, up until we went to Silversmiths’ opening at six this evening.
I was planning to buy a new outfit and then sit on the sofa and read for the day.
Total self-care Saturday after the breakfast interrogation.
“Carter’s getting married.” Fallon watched the grenade explode.
“What?” Erin leaned forward, almost knocking over her drink.
Harriet’s mouth dropped open and stayed there. Fallon reached over the table and used a finger to close it.
“Keep your mouth open like that and you might find a penis in it.”
Harriet clamped her mouth shut even though there were no penises around, then looked at me. “You’re okay with this, whatever the effing hell this is? Jesus, Rose.”
“Jesus is most definitely not involved in this.” I looked over at Fallon, who seemed calm and not angry with Carter, which was telling.
“Is he marrying Laurie?” Erin looked from Fallon to me and back again.
“He is,” Fallon answered on my behalf. “Then it’s being annulled the day after. That’s why he said he was single but not available.”
“I’d ask if he’s being paid a fortune for doing this, but Carter doesn’t need the money, does he?” Harriet hadn’t touched her drink yet. “So why?” She looked at me.
“Laurie gets full access to a hefty trust fund when she gets married. She thought her ex-boyfriend was going to propose but he ghosted her – Carter met her when she was in tears because of him and that was how they got talking. Around the same time he thought I was starting something with Theo. Do you remember him?” It felt strange to tell the story.
“The walking STD?” Fallon frowned. “Carter missed that bit out.”
“He was kind of on the same page as me – we were both single for the first time in forever, but I kept mentioning Theo, so he offered to help out Laurie.”
Fallon nodded. “He said as much to me, but I had a ten-minute explanation. Laurie’s family are not good people, and they were basically holding her hostage. I think there’s more to why she just couldn’t walk away from the trust fund.”
I gave a Cliff Notes explanation, about the literacy foundation, about her sister, and the depreciation of her trust the longer she was unmarried. “I actually like her. She’s chaotic and crazy, but I’m used to you lot.”
“She’s marrying Carter.” Erin cut me a look that could’ve eradicated cockroaches. “How do you not want to poke her eyes out.”
“Because it’s for a day, then it’s being annulled.
There’s nothing between them at all – there’s also nothing in the details around Laurie’s trust that the marriage would be invalid.
I’m not exactly going to be there, cheering them on – I need to pretend it’s not happening, but I’m kind of okay with it. ”
“He’s going to say wedding vows to another woman.” Erin was not keen on this plan at all.
I nodded. “He is, and I’m trying not to think about this, but I know they don’t mean anything. Remember when he was dating Angelica Whitmore?”
Harriet finally spoke. “You hated her.”
“I used to have nightmares that they got married. I thought she was just after his money.”
“And his monster penis.” That was, of course, Fallon.
“I wasn’t thinking about Carter’s penis at the time. Just how abhorrent Angelica was and that Carter couldn’t see it.” I tried not to think of Carter that way back then, Clapham Common just a glimmer of a memory of being young and tender-hearted.
“We all knew you were jealous because you weren’t being rational in the slightest,” Erin said. “There was no point getting you to realise that though. I actually didn’t think that Angelica was that bad.”
“Wash your mouth out.” I’d really detested her. “Anyway. It’s ancient history. Like this wedding will be in a few weeks.”
Fallon folded her arms, which suggested she was bracing herself for my reaction. “So, after the wedding and the annulment, and I propose referring to it as ‘the annulment’, what happens with you and Carter?”
“We give things a go. Dates. See what happens.” I’d already conjured up at least five possible scenarios but no one needed to hear about those. Ever. Including Carter.
“I don’t like the annulment thing,” Erin said. “I don’t think he’s been fair to you, Rose. He should’ve told you how he felt before agreeing to this daft idea.”
“Maybe he should, but he didn’t have a reason to.
From his perspective, I was about to get involved with someone else.
He offered to help Laurie out, and then I said something about what might happen now we were both single, and that was when he decided to move back here.
” I saw Erin’s side here because I’d considered that perspective a hundred times already.
“It’s mixed up and not what I’d have chosen, but you know Carter, when he offers to help to resolve something, he doesn’t back out. ”
“I know.” Erin whispered the words. “He helped me out years ago. I had a bloke at work who was practically stalking me, and because I didn’t have a boyfriend he was convinced I was fair game.
It was hellish – all manosphere crap. Carter pretended to be my boyfriend for about six weeks to put him off.
We knew if I went to the police, they wouldn’t be able to do anything because he hadn’t done anything.
It worked.” She looked at me. “We didn’t say anything at the time to you, Rose, because it was temporary and I didn’t want you thinking that something between me and Carter could come from it, because it absolutely wouldn’t. ”
“It wouldn’t have mattered. I didn’t have any claim on him. We were just friends.” This was the point I was trying to make, only clearly I wasn’t doing it very well, because none of them looked like they believed me.
Harriet slowly shook her head. “Rose, we thought for years you were in love with Carter, that was why none of us ever flirted with him, or did anything involving Carter that didn’t include you. Although I didn’t know about the Erin thing. I think we’re going to have to talk about that.”
“Why didn’t any of you point out what you thought about me and Carter?” I didn’t understand.
“Because we decided it’d be the wrong thing to do. You needed to work it out for yourself.” Erin looked more relaxed. “And I’ll give you the run down on how Carter helped, but I will say that we never even kissed. He was a good actor, I’ll give him that.”
“I’m not sure how I worked it out for myself or even if I have – all we’ve done is kiss.
” The world was all over the place this morning.
I’d had the kiss on replay in my head, going over how it felt, what we’d said, what it’d been like to feel his body under the palms of my hands.
I wanted more, every fibre of me wanted more, and there weren’t nerves getting in the way, just anticipation.
“We’ve lost her. She’s thinking about Carter’s penis again.” Fallon knew just how to pull me back to earth with a bang.
“Please stop talking about Carter’s penis. At least until we have some verified information about it. Or do you have any verified information?” Harriet patted me on the shoulder.
“Not yet. I think it’ll be a while before I find out.” I couldn’t see this not taking time to get to the stage where we were really over the start line of something that wasn’t friends.
Fallon shook her head. “I give you till the end of the weekend. I think you’ve both been secretly pining for each other for so long that you won’t be able to keep your hands off each other.”
I shook my head. “That’s more your style than mine.”
She shrugged. “We’ll see.”