Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
W e were all seated around the outside dining table. Alistair had just cooked us a wonderful dinner, something I had never even thought of trying before, grilled lobster. My sister-in-law would have had a stroke had she witnessed the carnage, but it was delicious. With sides of roasted new potatoes, salad and coleslaw, it was amazing. Quite interesting the first time you snap into the lobster itself, but once you try it, you’re in culinary heaven.
The food was great, but the tension at the table reeked of rotten shellfish. I was obviously quiet, given my devastating discovery earlier today, but Zack seemed to be acting funny too. Guilt, maybe? Could he sense that I knew? When we got back from shopping, I had asked him about his day, and he’d stuttered that he had been relaxing by the pool for most of it, reading a book. The lie cut right through my gut.
I just had to keep calm and cool until later on tonight. Once Miranda and Alistair had gone to bed, I would talk to him and find out what had been going on. It was time to ask the dreaded question, whether he had been cheating on me with Chloe. If he admitted it, could I ever forgive him?
“I’d like to make a toast.” Zack stood up and his parents smiled. I’d never known him to make a speech before. His upper lip was sweating, and he looked nervous, I guessed he didn’t always display words of affection in front of his parents. It was a special occasion, I suppose, but they were looking at him as though they’d been expecting this. “Mum, Dad, I’d like to wish you a very happy anniversary. You have been a huge inspiration, not only as parents but as a couple. If I can be even half as happy as you two are in thirty-five years then I’ll know I’ve succeeded in life. There is nothing I want more.” I could see a tear in his mum’s eye. Then he turned to me. I was surprised he couldn’t hear my heart pounding. “Jenny, I know I’ve been acting weird today, and maybe even for the last few days, but see, I had a plan. This last year has been the best, most exciting and enjoyable time of my life. I have fallen so deeply in love, I cannot imagine my life without you. So, Jenny…” He put down his glass and pulled a small box out of his pocket. Pushing back his chair, he got down on one knee in front of me and said… “Will you marry me?”
“Jenny?” I think Zack said my name, but I can’t actually be sure. “Jenny, are you all right?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but could hardly form any words. I could hardly breathe. My mouth was so dry I almost retched. Marry him? He wants me to marry him? He and Chloe… The lies… What? “I thought… you and… I need some water.”
“Alistair, dear, why don’t we give these two a moment?” She and Alistair very quickly made their way inside the villa, sliding the doors closed behind them and pulling the curtains.
“Are you all right?” Zack was still on his knees in front of me, the box now open. I could see a beautiful white gold ring nestled inside. It had a diamond-studded band with a square-cut diamond in the centre looking up at me.
“I thought you and Chloe…” The tears caught in my throat, so I couldn’t finish.
“Me and Chloe? What about us?”
“I saw you. The other day by the pool, she was on top of you, and you’ve been so close, and then today I saw you both in town, but then you lied, and…” I was so short of breath by now, my nose all stuffed from snot and tears wasn’t helping. “I thought you were cheating on me.” I’d finally said it.
Zack almost lost his balance.
“Cheating on you? I would never do that to you!” He stood up, pulled his chair right next to mine, and sat so that our legs were touching. He put his hand on my thigh. “Is that what you thought? I’m… I’m so sorry, but, no! I should probably have said the other day when we saw… but I didn’t even think…”
“What?”
What was he going to tell me? Did they have a history? Did they sleep together last year but decide to stay friends? Were they friends with benefits before I came along?
“Chloe is in a serious relationship with Steffan. She has been for years.”
“She… she what?”
“She’s with Steffan.” He was whispering. “That’s what the fall-out was about between the parents. I wasn’t here when it happened, but his dad was working on the estate, doing his inspections, and walked in on them both together. He was furious.”
“She’s… she and Steffan?” I was still struggling to understand, given the set ideas I’d had in my head.
“Yes,” he grabbed both my hands, “that’s why she’s out here. She would never choose to holiday with her parents, they all drive each other up the wall. But it’s the only way they can spend any time together. They’re completely in love.”
“So, the other day when she jumped on you…” I pointed across to the sun loungers where I had seen them both sitting together, whispering.
“When you nipped upstairs, she was asking me all about you. Wanting the juicy details. And when I told her that I was planning to do this, she jumped on me all giddy and excited. She really likes you and is so happy for us.”
“But you seem so close,” I said, thinking about how she liked to grab him, hug him, lean on him in a soaking wet T-shirt, leaving very little to the imagination.
“She’s like my little sister, of course we’re close. And I am so sorry you thought something else. I’m mortified. She would be too. She’d say, ‘That’s so gross’, and pretend to vomit.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at his impression.
“But today, you lied. You were with her, and said you were here. I saw you.”
I still felt like there were so many questions which needed to be answered.
“Chloe collared me as I was on my way out to collect the ring from a jewellery shop in town. I had ordered it a few weeks ago, my parents were already here so they helped to facilitate it. Chloe had plans to meet Steffan for lunch, but if her mum saw her going out alone she would have interrogated her. So, she asked if she could tag along to make it look like an innocent outing. She came with me to pick up the ring.”
I thought back to her Instagram post, Day out with Z, exciting things to come. x. Now it all made sense.
“You planned to propose all this time?” Reality was setting in. He had been planning this for weeks.
“Yes. I wanted to be traditional and get your parents’ permission, but with your dad not being here, and things with your mum being up and down, I called your brother and he and I had a good talk.”
Andrew. That’s why he was at my house that day.
“You asked Andrew for permission to marry me?” The tears were back, but they weren’t angry tears. They weren’t even sad tears.
“Yes.” Zack’s eyes were filling with tears too. “I called him asking if we could chat. You were still out, and he wasn’t too far away, so he came over. We had a really good chat and I promised at the wedding to slip some cocktail sausages into his tofu, so naturally he said he approved.”
I laughed, a much-needed one. My body relaxed as he laughed with me, holding my hands. He was crying too.
“So, Jenny,” he wiped his eyes, and whilst still on one knee, he reopened the small box, “I’m asking again. Will you marry me?”