Chapter 35
Three egg-and-hash-brown muffins and two coffees later, Felicity was finally ready to talk. Extremely fast.
The story came out all in a rush.
‘Slow down, Crazy Cat Lady. I see the caffeine is kicking in.’
‘Sorry.’
‘Start again.’
‘Okay. So… Bex was sick in my face.’
‘It was Bex? No way.’
‘Yes, way. She was sick like right in my face, and then she was sick all over the table and I was sick in the toilets and it was a whole big vomit-fest basically.’
James laughed out loud. ‘I mean, I guessed there was vomit involved somewhere along the line. But that is absolutely horrendous.’
‘It really was. I actually don’t think anyone’s ever had a worse hen do since the dawn of time.’
‘I’ve never seen Bex drunk enough to vomit, have you?’ said James after a moment. ‘I can’t even imagine it.’
‘Never,’ said Felicity. ‘She’s always really restrained but she was properly giddy, like one step from falling down drunk.’ She buried her head in her hands. ‘I feel awful. I never should have let it get that far. It was the bottomless brunch that did it.’
‘The what?’
Felicity’s stomach roiled at the thought of the warm wine and she had to hold on to the table for a moment before she could speak.
‘Basically, I’m the worst maid of honour in the world.’
‘I’m sure that can’t be true.’
‘Oh, it is. We had a lovely day planned but when Bex thought the man at the pottery place was a stripper…’
James rolled his eyes. ‘Oh my God.’
‘Yup. We were all set to do crafting and then she got the completely wrong idea and at that point I thought what I’d booked was too tame so I panicked, right?
And I rang round and found a bottomless brunch place…
which is basically not as good as it sounds because they give you all the cheap nasty alcohol you can drink but they only give you one plate of brunch and not even a very good plate either.
Nothing at all for vegetarians except for a rubbery egg and some stale croissants. Ew.’
She groaned as her stomach protested again.
James put a comforting hand on her arm. ‘So essentially you just drank loads of cheap booze and had hardly anything to eat.’
‘Essentially. And when we went to the restaurant, I… well, I don’t even remember how we got there in one piece, to be fair, but when we got there it was really fancy and I realised we’d made a terrible mistake because we were all basically off our faces except for poor Sophie and I’d made a pledge with myself that I absolutely would not get pissed and I was totally sucked in by the whole bottomless thing, you know, and seriously what is wrong with me? ’
‘Take a breath.’
James patted her arm while Felicity covered her head with her hands again and moaned for a few more minutes. The caffeine was kicking in but all it was doing was beating her around the head with every mistake she’d ever made.
‘And then we played His and Hers which was Sophie’s idea but I couldn’t really watch.’
‘Why not?’ said James.
‘Because I kept remembering how weird Adam was about it.’
‘Weird, how?’ James’s jaw clenched slightly like it always did when Adam’s name was mentioned.
Felicity shrugged. ‘When we sent him the same questions last week, he… I don’t know, he was just really weird about it. Like he didn’t want to play.’
‘Well, perhaps he just didn’t want to discuss his and Bex’s sex life with his ex-girlfriend-slash-ex-fiancée or whatever you are. You can hardly blame the man for that.’
Felicity shook her head and then instantly regretted the movement.
‘It wasn’t questions about their sex life. God. What do you think I am?’
There had been a couple but Felicity wasn’t about to confirm that to James.
‘Okay, fine, whatever, I’m sure he still felt a bit uncomfortable about it, poor guy.’
‘I suppose you’re right. It just made me really worried for Bex.’
‘We’re all really worried for Bex. She’s marrying a despicable individual,’ said James. ‘But it was her choice, remember? She was the one who cheated on you with him. And lied about it. And then asked you to help her plan the wedding.’
‘And then vomited all over me,’ said Felicity, with a weak smile.
James was getting into his stride now. ‘Yes, and then vomited all over you. As if you deserved any more humiliation.’
‘Thanks for that. Did I mention I fell over in it? Flat on my face in front of the whole restaurant.’
‘That’s not like you.’
‘Hey.’
‘Sorry. But it’s true. About Bex I mean. I really think she owes you an apology, not the other way round.’
‘I love that you’re defending me but I should have taken better care of her yesterday. She trusted Sophie and I to look out for her.’
James pushed back his chair and stood up, his jaw muscles flexing. ‘Felicity, I love you but you are wrong about this. She’s the bitch here, not you.’
He turned and began loudly loading the dishwasher. Felicity watched him for a few moments, the way his muscles flexed across his back, the size of his thighs in those soft trousers. The way his fists were tight and his brow was all crinkled with fury.
‘You look even hotter when you’re mad,’ she said, eventually.
He paused for only a microsecond, before continuing passively-aggressively loading the dishwasher for a few moments more. Then he said quietly, ‘I’m not mad.’
‘You are a little bit mad.’
‘Fine, I’m a little bit mad. But seriously, Felicity,’ he stopped and looked over at her, his sky-blue eyes flashing, ‘are you really doing this?’
She knew what he meant.
‘I can’t have this conversation again.’
‘I think you have to.’
‘The wedding’s coming up fast, James. I can’t pull out now.’
James’s mouth was set in a tight (but quite sexy) line. ‘You don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with.’
‘I do. Everything is arranged. I have to be there. She’s one of my oldest friends.’
‘She’s a bitch.’
Felicity put her forehead slowly down on the table and took a deep breath. ‘Seriously, I cannot keep having the same conversation about this.’
‘Then don’t. Just listen to me. I know we said you’d hang in there, and that they were your oldest friends and all that, but I’ve changed my mind.
You think you have to be friends with them because you’ve always been friends with them and you’ve been through a lot together or whatever but seriously, you can walk away. People do that.’
‘Do they?’ Felicity said into the table.
‘They do. Yes. I know you have trust issues or whatever and maybe you’re scared you won’t find other friends but you will, I promise you. You can find friends who don’t treat you like shit.’ He was sitting beside her now, his hand on her back.
She lifted her head slowly, wincing as her hangover headache started to kick in in earnest. He was looking at her with such concern she felt her heart thump.
‘What did I do to deserve you?’ she said softly.
‘You won the boyfriend lottery, what can I say?’ He grinned.
‘I sure did.’