Chapter 57
Aria had known what was coming. As the amp boomed out the opening notes of a tune from Dirty Dancing, she became frozen to the spot in a kind of strangled empathy.
She was appalled Justin was determined to do this while his bride looked like she wanted her stilettoes to sprout wings and carry her away.
People clapped along to the first bars of the song.
The moment was a juggernaut that could not be stopped as Lu-Lu struck a pose and flashed a fake sultry look at Justin, who ran a hand through gelled hair.
Striding over to her, he put a hand on her waist, lightly touching the seam of her dress and dipping her backwards.
Then he swung her round, silky dress flowing as a guest audibly sighed.
Soon they were switching between salsa and ridiculous synchronised swimming moves, holding their noses, stomping sidewards like crabs and doing an exaggerated breaststroke.
Towards the end of the music, Aria tensed.
She knew the exact moment Lu-Lu would be forced to jump into the air – the point where she’d often bottled it herself, but in the water not on a hard dancefloor.
The bride mamboed towards her new husband like her life depended on it.
He spread his legs to take her weight, and she got ready to fly.
Slipping slightly on the sprung floor, Lu-Lu took off with a fair bit of power and Justin played his part, catching her in mid-air.
They’d done it! Aria cheered along with everyone else as her ex brandished the woman in white high above his head.
Her dress draped around his tanned arms as she looked elated at what they had achieved.
But just as everyone relaxed, Justin wobbled and took a few steps to rebalance them both.
The bride dangled above the cake, before her new husband’s arms gave way.
There was only one direction to go in now, and she prepared for it like a diver.
Curling into a roll that turned her buttocks into weapons and her shoes into forward-firing armaments, Lu-Lu was propelled headlong into her own wedding cake and grunted on impact with the dense Madeira.
‘Nugh.’
After a collective gasp, a silence descended.
Guests stood rooted to the spot or adjusting their cameras.
A strangled laugh burst from the bride, as the horror sunk in.
Aria didn’t like Lu-Lu, but didn’t hate her enough to see her crash and burn.
Her white tulle dress oozed crushed grass and smashed-up mobile homes, but it was Justin’s lack of sympathy that shocked most. He was standing over his bride with a look of disgust on his face.
The bride he’d just dropped in her own cake.
‘My mother paid six hundred pounds for that,’ everyone heard him say.
Aria moved to help Lu-Lu up, becoming distracted when Justin’s brother ran in through the patio doors. She could tell from his eyes there was something wrong as they darted around the room before landing on her.