Chapter 26 #2
‘So, Jack, Louise, have you booked any holidays this year?’ he asked. Great. He now sounded like a hairdresser making chitchat over the sound of a hair dryer.
‘Actually, we just booked yesterday – we’re going to Mauritius for two weeks over New Year,’ Louise said, before turning to Lila. ‘Your dad has always wanted to go there, but don’t worry, darling, we’ll still be here for Christmas.’
Cammy spotted Lila’s fleeting shadow of disappointment. ‘But you’ll be away for New Year? We always spend New Year together…’ There was no hiding the touch of petulance that had taken residence at the table. ‘And especially this year…’
Had he heard that right? It was so damn busy in this restaurant that he could barely hear himself speak, never mind pick up everything the others said. Yet, he was sure he’d heard her say…
‘Why?’ Cammy blurted. ‘Why “especially this year”?’ Bollocks. Did she know? Had she sussed it out? Did she want her parents here to celebrate the end of the year that she’d got engaged?
She shrugged, stuttering, ‘Oh, I don’t know – I just meant it would be nice for us all to be together every New Year now that Dad’s retired. We missed so many years when he was working away.’
Okay, phew. It was fine. Her head was in a different place altogether and she had absolutely no idea he was about to pop the question.
‘We’ll have lots of years ahead of us,’ her dad said, dismissing her objections.
Cammy felt a twinge of sympathy. For just an instant, she looked crushed, but then she immediately rallied, smile back on, and changed the subject.
That was why he loved her, he thought again. She never let anything get her down.
Instead, true to form, she pulled out her phone. ‘Let’s get a picture!’ she rearranged her position, so that she could capture the full scene, the gorgeous table, the champagne, her mum and dad, Cammy, and of course her, eyes wide, chin down, megawatt smile.
‘I’ll post it later – can’t see in this light if it needs tweaking,’ she said, and by that, Cammy knew she meant a touch of Photoshopping.
A photo didn’t go up unless it was a hundred per cent flattering.
OK, so that might be a tad pretentious. Or maybe it was just the way things were done these days.
Sometimes the ten years in age difference between them felt like nothing – he’d always prided himself on being hip, current and frequently immature – but sometimes it felt like they came from completely different generations.
Somehow, he managed to keep it together throughout their starters and main course.
If Lila noticed that her mother was particularly smiley, she didn’t comment, and for once, he was grateful that her dad kept the conversation going with endless talk about golf.
He put on his best ‘paying attention’ face, he laughed when the others laughed, he asked questions when he thought they were relevant.
By the time the plates were cleared away after the main course, he felt like he had a fairly good chance of acing the entire history of golf on A Question of Sport.
The dessert menus came out. ‘Nothing for me, thanks,’ Lila said, waving dismissively.
‘Nor me,’ said her mum, her gestures completely mirroring Lila’s. ‘And you shouldn’t either, Jack. Remember what the doctor said about your cholesterol.’
Bugger. Cammy had forgotten that he was with the family that never bloody ate dessert. It was a stupid idea in the first place, one that he clearly hadn’t thought through. This proposal planning stuff was way out of his league.
‘Shall we just get the bill and go?’ Lila asked. ‘I’m already feeling completely full. I might actually pop out to the 24-hour gym later and work this off.’
Work off a green salad? Sometimes her dedication to her body went too far.
Lila turned to the waiter again. ‘Can we just…’
Nooooooo. They couldn’t wrap this up now. He had a ring to deliver, a proposal to make.
‘Actually, I’d like a dessert,’ Cammy blurted. The other three rounded on him in surprise.
‘But you never eat dessert,’ Louise said.
Cammy tried to give her a loaded look, but she wasn’t grasping the significance. He should really have filled Jack and Louise in on the running order for the proposal before Lila got there.
Lila, meantime, was looking less than impressed. ‘Can’t you just get something at home? I’m, like, so tired, babe.’
Oh God, this was going to turn into an actual argument. Great. A fight, right before he asked her to marry him. This wasn’t helping the case for an acceptance.
‘I just fancy trying the new meringue dessert – Neil was raving about it when he popped into the shop this afternoon.’ He was a terrible liar. Terrible. She was sure to pick up on it. Or maybe not…
Lila sighed, then shrugged her acquiescence, but the pouting expression made it clear she wasn’t happy.
‘Can you ask Neil for the dish we discussed earlier please?’ he blurted before any more protest could be made, then he turned back to the others. ‘And would you guys like coffee?’
Jack and Louise agreed immediately, and Lila reluctantly followed, sighing ‘I suppose I could do with a shot of caffeine.’
The waiter nodded and went off to find his manager, looking more than a little flustered.
Cammy had no way of knowing that this had something to do with the fact that Jude, twenty-one, working at Grilled to pay off his student loan, had suddenly realised that he had left the ring on an empty beer crate when he’d popped out for a cigarette earlier in the evening.
‘It won’t take long,’ Cammy tried to console Lila. This wasn’t going well. Flattery. That was what was needed here. ‘By the way, you look incredible tonight…’
She’d already turned to look at the other diners and wasn’t listening. ‘Did you say that was the actual French football team there?’ she asked.
‘It is.’
‘So which ones are the big stars. I mean, they’re not all famous, are they?’
Cammy’s knowledge of football was up there with his expertise on the schedule of the Dover to Calais ferry, so he shrugged. ‘No idea. Jack?’
Lila’s dad wasn’t sure either. If it had been the French golf team, he’d have been able to give them their history, statistics, and inside leg measurements.
Lila stood up and tossed her napkin on the table. ‘I’ll just ask them all then.’
Cammy watched, horrified, as she marched over, and leaned down to whisper in the ear of a dark-haired guy who could give Ronaldo a run for his millions in the looks department. And yes, the only reason he knew anything about Ronaldo was because he had a fashion line.
Whatever Lila said to him, the man was in full agreement – well, of course he was going to be – and immediately put his head towards hers and grinned as she held up her phone and took a selfie.
‘Oh, what’s she like,’ Louise chuckled. ‘That girl and her photos. She’s always been the same. Completely adorable.’ Her mother’s encouragement did, perhaps, give a clue as to why Lila had embraced the world of the selfie.
Her father said nothing, just sipped his champagne while checking his phone. Probably looking at golf scores from some tournament going on somewhere. If the guy was interested in anything that was going on around him, he hid it well.
The only good thing about Lila’s distraction over at Le Selfie Central, was that it bought Cammy some more time to mentally prepare for what was about to happen. He could do this, he told himself yet again. His internal dialogue was like a stuck record today.
But he could do it. He definitely could.
‘Lila, you know you mean everything in the world to me…’ Nope, made him sound like an X-Factor contestant talking about why their only hope of a lifetime of happiness was to get enough votes to go through to judges’ houses.
‘Lila, until I met you I had no idea how much I could love someone…’ Somewhere, in the truth halls of the universe, a lie detector test was wailing to signal a big fat porky.
‘Lila…’ He was interrupted by the arrival of the waiter, looking slightly harassed, and shiny around the edges. He was clutching a tall glass with some kind of meringue in it, resting on a silver tray. Cammy cast his eyes across, looking for the ring. It wasn’t there.
Shit. No ring. It was supposed to be on the silver tray. This couldn’t be happening.
Lila was still ten feet away, now on the second table of players. Cammy could feel the anxiety rising. No way. He hadn’t spent the whole day sorting this out only for it to go horribly wrong yet again, this time at the most crucial part.
It couldn’t be happening. It just couldn’t.
‘Eh, I think,’ he said through gritted teeth, ‘that Neil mentioned this dessert came with a special decoration?’
Blank looks from Jude, the waiter. Obviously subtlety was wasted here.
‘The ring…’ he hissed, causing Louise to gasp and clap a silent ovation of excitement. Thankfully Lila was too busy with les hommes to notice.
Jude was a picture of confusion. ‘It’s there,’ he whispered, gesturing to the meringue. Thankfully, Cammy didn’t realise that Jude had spent the last ten minutes going through the recycling bin to find the bloody ring, giving it a quick wipe over and burying it in the meringue.
Cammy followed his gaze and saw it, the thin band poking out of the top of the meringue.
This wasn’t what he’d planned at all. Neil was bloody dead when he got a hold of him.
But maybe… maybe it wasn’t so bad. Perhaps this could actually work out kinda cute.
Louise had spotted the ring too now and her eyes were already glistening.
Lila and her mum cried a lot. It was one of the first things he learned about them.
Happy things. Sad things. Exciting things.
Gorgeous things. Mostly any kind of things could bring on floods of tears that warranted careful, expert counteraction so that they didn’t ruin make-up.
Okay, they were back on track. They just had to wait for Lila to return so they could get on with it.
A few guys still left to get snaps with.
Two now. One. And, oh for Christ’s sake, she was chatting to him now.
He saw her shake her head, adopt an expression of…
what?... apology? Then she pointed over at Cammy and the other guy seemed to get the message, responding with a very Gallic shrug.
Ah, he must have been asking her out. That was his girl. Asked out by a handsome sports star, and still she rebuked him because she was with Cammy. It just went to prove how much she loved him and betrayal or infidelity just weren’t in her make-up.
He was a lucky guy and he’d be even luckier when they were married.
It was another few moments before she got back to the table, and she sat down with a dramatic flourish. ‘Oh my goodness, those guys are charmers. I’ll go online when we get home and suss out who the big names are. I’m only posting pics with them. No point in putting up snaps of the nobodies.’
Cammy was barely listening. Right, new plan.
‘Babe, try a bit of this, it’s delicious,’ he said, pushing the tall glass of meringue towards her.
She’d look down, see the ring, understand the meaning, scream with delight, say yes, and he’d scoop her up, swing her round, hoping that her heels took out at least a couple of the footie guys.
Either way, it was happening. She was about to realise this was one of those life-defining moments.
It was going to change everything. Make them the happiest couple that…
‘Cammy don’t be disgusting. Meringues are loaded with sugar. I’m not putting that in my mouth,’ she sneered.
He should have seen that one coming. Change of tactic required. ‘But doesn’t it look great? Isn’t the presentation gorgeous?’
‘Whatever,’ she replied, and he saw her hand go towards her phone.
He was about to lose her to Photoshop. Shit.
There was nothing else for it. He delved into the sticky pudding, fished out the ring, and tried to overlook the fact that it was now adorned with a gooey substance.
Then, he just went for it. Full traditional knee bend.
‘Lila, I love you – and I want to love you every day of our lives…’ No idea where that came from, but it was the best one yet.
She seemed to think so too. She was staring at the ring, at him, back at the ring, then him…
He could see she was shocked, astonished, couldn’t quite believe what was happening.
Neither could he. After all the disasters and dramas today, it was finally working out just the way it was supposed to.
Meanwhile, around them, the head-splitting volume had descended to near silence.
Every set of eyes in the room were now on him.
Kneeling there. Expectantly. In trousers that definitely weren’t meant to facilitate full movement of the knee joint.
If she didn’t say yes soon, he was a shoo-in for DVT.
No doubt Josie would claim that was yet another sign from the gods.
Lila. Staring at the ring again. Still not answering his question.
It was only then he realised that he hadn’t actually asked her.
‘Lila Anderson, will you marry me?’