Chapter One #2
‘No,’ Lola says firmly, as my father opens his mouth but then sees his wife’s expression and shuts it again. Lola is very particular about bad language and alcohol where her two daughters are concerned.
‘We’ve got some mocktails on offer?’ Luke says, pointing to a table set up in the corner, and sets off to fetch one each for them.
Charity, the older of the two by five minutes, rolls her eyes. ‘We’re almost eighteen, you know,’ she says to her mum.
Constance jabs her sister in the ribs, warning her to tread carefully.
‘Do you think I do not have eyes in my head?’ Lola replies, unperturbed.
‘Or that I do not remember birthing you?’ The twins share a horrified look at the mention of the word ‘birth’ but their mother carries on.
‘Almost is the correct word. You are not eighteen yet. And if we were in Nigeria, I would have sent you to a serious boarding school by now that would train you well. Don’t try me … ’
Both girls look at the floor, but they are saved from what is promising to be one of her poetic rants because she spots Luke’s parents across the room and, after warning the twins that the angels around them are shaking their heads, she drags Dad off with her to greet them.
Charity watches her mum go. ‘She is so annoying.’
‘Facts,’ Connie says. ‘She wouldn’t even let us wear real lipstick this evening. It took all I had to convince her my tinted lip balm was okay.’
I give them both a sympathetic smile. ‘It’s not so bad to have a mum who looks out for you. I know it’s annoying, but it’s done out of love. All she wants is to keep you safe and for you to be happy.’
I would have put up with all the curfews and make-up bans in the world to have a mother like that.
‘You probably don’t remember what it was like being a teenager,’ Charity says, trying to hide a cheeky smirk. ‘Like, you’re old.’
Luke arrives just in time to catch the comment and laughs as he hands each of the twins a Virgin Mojito.
‘Monstrous child,’ I mutter as I place my hands on her shoulders, turn her around and steer her in the direction of a huddle of people on the other side of the room. Some of Luke’s younger cousins have arrived. ‘Go and bother some people your own age while I hunt for my Zimmer frame.’
The large group of friends and family near the doorway begins to splinter as we greet more people. Some groups drift to the bar on the far side of the room, others nab tables set up around the edge of the dance floor.
It’s then I spot Hannah a short distance away and my face lights up. She rushes over and kisses both Luke and I on the cheek. ‘Congratulations on ten years!’
I pull her into a hug. ‘I don’t know what I would have done without you. You’ve been amazing helping me plan this thing.’
She squeezes me back. ‘That’s what best friends are for, aren’t they?’
Luke waves to some of his old school friends who have just arrived and heads off to greet them. When he’s out of earshot, Hannah turns to me. ‘What did you think about the present? Did you like it?’
How much do I say? I don’t want to be disloyal, but this is Hannah – she’s my best friend and one of the people I trust most in the world. I try not to grimace. ‘Um … ’
She narrows her eyes and studies me. ‘You didn’t like it? Oh, wow. I’m so surprised.’
‘You knew about it?’
She nods. ‘He asked me for some input.’
I’m stunned. How do I take this? My best friend doesn’t know me very well either?
Or am I just being selfish? It’s just I had my heart set on something different, and I thought I’d hinted heavily enough for Luke to get the message but obviously not.
In the moment, I’d been disappointed, of course I had been, but Han’s reaction is making me second-guess myself.
She giggles nervously. ‘I thought for sure you were going to catch on, because we’ve been texting back and forth setting it all up.’
For a split second, everything inside me goes still. It’s Han he’s been messaging constantly? Of course! I exhale softly and my shoulders unknot themselves further. It all makes sense now.
‘It’s not that I didn’t like it so much, more that I was hoping for something else.
I know there are these Victorian traditions about certain materials signifying different wedding anniversaries – paper, wood, wool, copper – but I was hoping, ten years in, that Luke might have gone with jewellery or something.
I mean, I got it in the early days, when we didn’t have much money, but now …
Well, we’re not rolling in it but we’re doing okay. ’
I think of the nice watch Luke is wearing on his wrist, my gift to him. Is it wrong to want something similar for myself? Something that says, I value you. You’re worth it.
‘Maybe it’s not what you were expecting, but I honestly thought it was kind of sweet,’ Hannah says.
‘It’s made of tin, Han … ’
‘Luke said it was pewter.’
‘Which contains tin.’ Luke filled me in on the nerdy stuff when he unveiled it, but I was so shocked I didn’t absorb all of the details.
All I could see was a large, grey metal wall sculpture in the space on our dining room wall that we’ve never known how to fill.
I suppose it was artistic, but I’d wanted something more personal, something that said he was paying attention, that he knows me and what I like.
I look over to where Luke is chatting to Elena, an interior designer he worked with occasionally when he first joined his dad’s building firm. We socialized with her and her husband quite a bit a few years back.
Hannah slings an arm around my shoulder and steers me in the direction of the bar. Both our Prosecco glasses are empty. ‘If it makes you feel any better, when I was married to Connor, all I ever got – if I was lucky – was a bunch of last-minute petrol-
station flowers.’
I stop walking and give her a hug. As well as her under-
the-radar help with Luke’s present, she helped me too, and I know it can’t have been easy helping plan someone else’s anniversary party when her own divorce has just become final.
Although it’s almost two years since Connor cheated on her and moved out, I know she wasn’t prepared for the extra little stab in her heart when the papers arrived.
I talked Luke into us kind of ‘adopting’ Hannah in the aftermath.
She couldn’t face going back to the flat she’d rented with Connor, so she stayed in our spare room for two months, until she found somewhere new.
Even after that she was constantly at our house, for dinner or brunch or just to hang out.
Luke sometimes finds Han a bit full-on, but they’ve developed this big brother, little sister kind of relationship now that’s so wholesome.
I think it was good for Hannah to be reminded that not all men are selfish pricks.
I look over to where Luke, Elena and a few of his brothers, are all laughing and talking in a group, and the tension from our earlier tiff begins to fade. Maybe it’s good for me to remember that too, no matter how strained the cab ride over here was.
Hannah follows my gaze, and she sounds almost wistful as she says. ‘You’re so lucky to have such a wonderful man; you know that, right?
That’s what I’ve always thought.
More than one of my friends has expressed similar sentiments.
A few have been properly jealous, and I can understand why.
Luke is a catch – decent, hardworking, dependable.
And it doesn’t hurt that he’s beautiful to look at.
Probably more so now he’s closer to forty than thirty and he’s more roughened up and worn around the edges.
I know I should be grateful for what I’ve got.