Chapter 6
6
Is there a scarier sight than looking at your phone and seeing fourteen missed calls and twenty-seven messages?
My workday has run over slightly (which is funny, given that my job is apparently not a job) because I’ve been stuck in a meeting for the last two hours. Staff turnover has increased in certain roles, so it was a crisis meeting of sorts. I say this with zero humour intended, so do not laugh, but you’ll be amazed how many people in the biscuit factory crumble under the pressure.
Most of the calls are from Lou, apart from a few from Nita, and the main message from Lou, that stands out a mile, reads:
WEDDING EMERGENCY.
Shit, some chief bridesmaid I am, if I’m not around when she needs me.
I grab my bag and head for the door, trying to call Lou as I go, but she isn’t picking up.
I drop a message in the group chat saying I’m out of work now, and then try Lou again. Eventually she picks up.
‘Lou!’ I practically squeak. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Oh my God, Molly!’ she replies, sounding as exhausted as she does relieved. ‘It’s been a whole thing – are you still in town?’
‘Yes,’ I reply.
‘I’m in The Alchemist, with Nita and Willow, can you come and join us?’
‘Of course, I’ll be right there,’ I say.
‘Okay, see you soon,’ she replies, hanging up before I get a chance to grill her about what the hell has happened.
I head to The Alchemist as fast as my little legs will carry me, almost running out of steam as I pull myself up the steps. But I’m here and I’m ready for… whatever is going on.
I spot Lou, Nita and Willow sitting in the bar. Lou and Willow look quite serious but, to be honest with you, Nita looks like she’s trying to stifle a smile.
‘Right, fill me in,’ I demand, plonking myself down at the table. ‘What on earth is happening?’
‘Well, you know that hen party in Blackpool that we were planning?’ Nita says. ‘Well, it’s cancelled.’
‘Oh no, what happened?’ I ask.
And why does Nita look so pleased about it? I know she wanted to do something fancier but, even so, I’m surprised she looks so pleased about it in front of Lou.
‘Well, technically it’s the wedding that is off, not the hen party,’ Lou corrects her.
My breath catches in my throat.
‘La Palacio de la Mar called and said something about how they were unfortunately going to have to cancel my wedding – I think they said something about the council and planned work on the drains meaning they were going to have to close, so my wedding couldn’t take place. To be honest I was hardly listening at that point, the only words I heard were the ones saying it was cancelled.’
Oh, no, poor Lou. La Palacio de la Mar is her dream venue, she must be gutted.
‘So… the wedding is off?’ I ask.
‘Not exactly,’ Lou continues. ‘They said they could move it to the next available date… a date in 2029.’
‘Shit,’ I blurt, the word leaving my lips before I can stop it. That just seems like such a long, long way away.
‘But then they said they had one date this year, because they’d had a cancellation…’ she continues, and I would swear she was pausing for dramatic effect.
‘When?’ I ask.
‘The end of the month,’ Lou says, practically wincing.
‘Weeks away?’ I check pointlessly.
‘Yes!’ Nita chimes in excitedly. ‘And here’s the best part. So Willow and I have checked and pretty much everything is still doable – most of the wedding day stuff is included with the venue anyway – so the show will go on, Lou will get to have her dream wedding at her dream location.’
‘My dress will be the only thing I need to sort in a hurry,’ Lou adds. ‘But, honestly, if I get my dream wedding, in my dream venue, with my dream man, I’ll wear a dress off the rack if I have to.’
‘Fair enough,’ I reply, chuckling through my words, because this is nuts. ‘But why do I feel like there’s something you haven’t told me yet?’
‘Because there is something we haven’t told you,’ Nita replies. ‘So, obviously we need to rearrange the hen party, and we need to be in Spain to make sure everything is sorted, and of course every hotel and villa in the area is fully booked for the foreseeable. But, with me being an absolute rockstar – and a luxury travel agent – I’ve got it sorted. I called a company in Spain that rents out villas, and it turned out there was this one villa that is under new management, that wasn’t listed on the website yet, so they said we can have it. And the best news of all is that it’s a two-week minimum booking, so we have to take it for two weeks, so we’re going to have a week-long hen holiday, and then when Lou goes off on honeymoon with Ellis, we get to stay for another week, just to make a real holiday of it.’
So that explains why Nita is smiling so widely.
‘Wow,’ I blurt. ‘That’s… wow. I’m so glad it’s all sorted, and so sorry I wasn’t around when you needed me.’
‘You weren’t needed, it turns out,’ Willow chimes in.
Oh, I’ll bet she’s loving that I didn’t answer, that she had to save the day instead.
‘I’ll tell you what is needed – champagne,’ Nita practically sings. ‘I’ll go grab us some.’
‘I’ll go to the toilet,’ Willow says, obviously eager to get back before the champagne arrives.
Now it’s just me and Lou, and I can see the stress in every muscle in her face.
‘Are you really okay about all of this?’ I check.
‘It is what it is,’ she says, sighing deeply. ‘It was a shock, more than anything, but it’s sorted now. I’m lucky to have such wonderful friends and family. There are some things I need to figure out, like finding a hotel further afield for our guests, and booking a coach to take them back and forth between the hotel and the wedding, but it’s doable.’
‘Well, that’s good, so long as you’re happy about it,’ I reply.
‘You’ll be happy about it too,’ she says. ‘Because Mark is on holiday, which means he can’t come, which means that Rick will have to be Ellis’s best man after all.’
‘Oh no,’ I say, trying to sound sad, but smiling widely.
‘You know, Rick is single,’ Lou reminds me. ‘Single, eligible, not a total arsehole.’
‘The bare minimum – yay,’ I joke. ‘You need to focus on sorting your own mess, before you stick your nose in mine.’
Lou laughs.
‘Okay, okay, I’m just saying,’ she replies. Then her face falls. ‘Molly, will it all be okay?’
‘Of course it will,’ I insist. ‘We’ll make sure it is.’
‘I guess a girls’ week in Spain won’t suck, will it?’ she adds. ‘It feels like a nice way to say goodbye to singledom.’
‘Exactly, focus on the positives,’ I tell her.
That’s what I need to do to. Focus on the positives. I’ve been banging on and on about how I’m in desperate need of a holiday – well, one just fell into my lap. I just need to make the most of it.
Finally, something to look forward to. Something that is coming up on the horizon. But now I guess we only have a week or so to get ready for it.
This is going to be fun.