Chapter 24
Eve’s nails were still wet when Sascha and Graham arrived, and she asked Sascha to lock up her flat and carry her handbag and wedding gift to the car so that she didn’t have to touch anything.
She sat in the back seat as they drove to the venue, letting her nails dry out of the window, in the breeze, which Sascha said was ‘typical Eve’ and which Graham found amusing.
Mackenzie would have been mortified, Eve knew.
They arrived at the venue on time, and as she got out of the car, Eve breathed in hard.
It was going to be a civil ceremony and two hundred guests had been invited.
She didn’t feel quite ready to start milling around, making conversation with people she hadn’t seen in years.
But everyone was already seated inside and so they walked straight in, taking seats near the back, next to Mackenzie’s Simon, and Lorna and Pete, two of Eve’s oldest friends, whom Eve was pleased to see.
In the moments before the ceremony started, she was able to relax a little and take in the room.
Mackenzie had done an amazing job. The seating was white with lilac bows and there were lilac flowers everywhere.
The music began and Eve was surprised to find herself feeling emotional as Julia came down the aisle looking radiant in white, notwithstanding her very obvious baby bump.
The music was lovely, Rich looked happy and Mackenzie was stunning in lilac as she took charge of a slightly unruly entourage of much smaller lilac bridesmaids whose antics made Eve and Lorna laugh.
Afterwards, they were led to a huge glass dining area at the back of the building, which held forty or so round tables with white cloths and chairs.
Eve had a glass of champagne thrust into her hand and was soon saying hello to everyone she knew.
As she circulated, a few people asked if she was seeing anyone, and Eve said she was, but he couldn’t come today.
Although one or two friends had wanted to know more, Eve was somehow spared as more people arrived and the conversation opened up to include their children, old times, the fantastic job Mackenzie had done of organising the wedding, what an eye she had for colour and design, and how Eve must be so proud of her.
Eve did feel incredibly proud of her daughter.
The light faded outside as afternoon turned into evening.
The waiters distributed candles, more food was served, the champagne flowed freely and Eve realised that, very soon, she would have got through this difficult day and could probably even persuade Sascha to let her take a cab home without anyone minding.
It wasn’t that she had anything against any of her old friends; it was just that she was no longer the right fit for them.
Julia had taken her place in the old gang, and Eve didn’t mind that.
She really didn’t. It was fine, because everything was changing for her.
She was changing. She was on the precipice of a new and different phase in her life, she could feel it.
A lot of people were now on the dance floor, and she had lost Sascha and Graham, so she found an empty table at the far side of the marquee where she could sit quietly for a while and listen to the band.
She spotted Simon and Mackenzie with the gaggle of bridesmaids, who were all jumping around excitedly and begging to dance on Simon’s feet as Mackenzie organised them into an orderly line.
Eve thought about what great parents Simon and Mackenzie were going to make, if and when they got around to having children of their own, and it was a nice thought, but she also felt a small twinge of horror at the idea of being a grandma.
The truth was that she no longer needed the role she had cherished for the past twenty-five years, the one where she took care of other people.
The music mellowed and the band began to play love songs.
More couples stepped out onto the dance floor and began to slow dance, and as Eve watched them through the flickering candlelight, she allowed her thoughts to wander back to Joe.
Not his legal case. Joe. Her and Joe, to be specific.
The two of them by the back door in the kitchen, his mouth on hers and his arms lifting her up against the wall.
Eve’s heart skipped a beat as she remembered the pressure of his body against hers, and although she knew it couldn’t – or shouldn’t – happen again, she very much wanted it to.
‘There you are!’ Sascha’s voice cried out triumphantly from behind her as she sank down into the seat next to Eve. ‘So. Come on, then,’ she said, grabbing two glasses of champagne from a passing waiter and pressing one into Eve’s hand. ‘Spill!’
Eve frowned, glancing down at her glass. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘I’m talking about the beans. Spill them. What’s going on with this new man of yours?’
‘Oooh. You didn’t say, Eve. Anyone we know?’ asked Lorna, who had suddenly appeared and was sitting down opposite, looking interested.
‘Oh, no,’ Sascha said, drawing out the oh and shortening the no. ‘Evie’s gone and got herself a millionaire.’
Lorna was wide-eyed. ‘Really?’
Pete and Graham were pulling out the two seats between Lorna and Sascha. Then, as the band took a break, Mackenzie arrived too, swishing up the big lilac skirt of her bridesmaid’s dress and flopping onto the seat on the other side of Eve. ‘Who are we talking about?’ she asked dreamily.
‘Your mum’s boyfriend.’ Sascha smiled. ‘Her secret billionaire.’
‘Bloody hell,’ Lorna said.
‘How did he go from being a millionaire to a billionaire in two seconds?’ Eve asked, laughing.
‘Well, which is it, then?’ Sascha asked. ‘Come on. You’ve been completely mysterious about him.’
‘Yeah. You have, Mum,’ Mackenzie agreed, pulling her long brown hair out of the tightly coiled French knot she had been wearing all afternoon. ‘You’ve been doing that thing politicians do. Answering a question with another question.’
‘Well,’ Eve said, enjoying herself a little. ‘It’s all brand new. You don’t always know how things are going to go in the early stages, do you? I didn’t want to jinx it.’
‘But?’ Mackenzie prodded Eve in the waist, making Eve recoil, laughing.
‘You’re sleeping with him!’ Sascha announced loudly, her voice still pitched to compete with the music, which had stopped five minutes ago. ‘Whoops,’ she slurred, looking round at the faces at the neighbouring tables. ‘But you are. I can tell.’
‘Mum?’ Mackenzie prodded, her eyes widening, and even Pete and Graham looked interested.
Eve felt herself flushing. ‘I am not,’ she said in a don’t be ridiculous tone of voice that told them she was.
‘He owns a huge, fuck-off house in Norham Gardens,’ Sascha told Lorna, leaning forwards.
‘Norham Gardens?’ Lorna asked. ‘Is that the one in North Oxford, by the University Parks?’
Eve felt an alarm bell ring inside her. Norham Gardens was a well-known street and Oxford was a small city. She realised that she was going to have to be a little more careful about what she said.
‘Good God. What does he do?’ Lorna was asking.
Everyone turned to look at Eve.
‘Is he like … a musician or something?’ Mackenzie suggested.
‘What’s his name?’ Lorna asked.
‘Joe,’ Sascha said.
‘Joe what? What’s his surname?’
They all turned to look at Eve again. Even Graham and Pete were listening.
‘Cole,’ Eve said. It was the first name that popped into her head.
‘Joe Cole. Oh my God. Not the actor?’ Sascha gasped. ‘The one from Peaky Blinders?’
‘Or the footballer?’ Graham suggested.
Pete turned and grinned at him. They didn’t believe this; they were clearly just enjoying the joke.
‘Is he a footballer?’ Lorna asked.
‘Who?’ asked Simon, sitting down next to Mackenzie.
‘Joe Cole,’ said Pete and Graham together.
‘What about him?’
‘Eve’s dating him,’ Graham said, laughing.
‘Oh, fuck off!’ Eve smiled, balling up a paper napkin in her fist and throwing it at him. Graham ducked.
‘Mum! The candles! Be careful!’ Mackenzie cried out.
Simon looked from Eve to Graham and back again. ‘You’re dating Joe Cole?’
‘Who’s Joe Cole?’ Lorna asked Pete.
‘Only one of the best footballers the country’s ever had.’
Eve stood up abruptly. ‘Look, I’m not dating a footballer, or an actor, or a musician,’ she said, exasperated. ‘And I’m not talking about this any more, so can you please all shut up.’
They left just after nine. Graham drove Eve home and waited in the car while Sascha, under the guise of wanting to make sure that Eve was safe, walked her sister upstairs to her front door.
‘Is he married?’ she asked, wide-eyed and tipsy, picking up the conversation again the minute they were alone together. ‘Is that why you can’t talk about him?’
Eve hesitated, but she didn’t like the idea. ‘No,’ she said. ‘He’s not married. And his surname’s not Cole. I just said that to get you all off my back.’
‘Why? Why are you being so secretive?’
‘Well, it’s just that …’ Eve sighed. ‘He is quite well known and he doesn’t want people to know about us, not just yet.’ This part, at least, was true. ‘Or where he lives,’ she added.
Sascha’s eyes widened. ‘So he is famous?’
‘Not famous exactly, but …’
‘OK, but you will be able to tell me?’
‘Soon,’ Eve promised.
‘And can you just tell me the terrible secret from his past?’
Eve froze. ‘What?’
‘The big thing. Remember? You told me you thought he’d had a bad break-up or lost a child or something.’
‘Oh, yes. No. I can’t tell you that. Not yet.’
‘But you’ll tell me soon, right? When you’ve been together a bit longer?’
‘Yes. I promise.’
‘OK. Love you.’ Sascha left, seeming satisfied with this.
When Eve got inside, she shut the door behind her and breathed a sigh of relief.
The early stages of a champagne headache were already threatening, and having nothing to be up early for the next day but not wanting a hangover, she decided that it would be best to drink a couple of pints of water and give it an hour before she went to bed.
She filled two glasses and put them both on the coffee table, then sat on the sofa with the lights off and the curtains open.
She placed her phone on the sofa next to her and thought about Joe, about how much she would like to call him and hear his voice, about how much she would like to be with him right now.
Would he be missing her, too? she wondered.
She needed to be more grown-up about him, she decided, reminding herself that Joe was vulnerable and in the wrong place for a relationship.
She needed to focus on doing whatever she could to help with his case.
She was about to close down the app, drink her water and go to bed when the word ‘typing’ appeared on the screen in front of her.
Her heart lifted. She waited, her fingers poised, for his message to appear.
How did it go today? Are you home yet?
Yes, she typed. Just got back.
How was it?
It was fine, she wrote. I got through it!
Well done! All over. Now you can relax.
Yes. Going to bed soon.
Me too. Shall I wave to you from the balcony?
Eve hesitated, smiling to herself. I’d like that, she typed, then paused and added two kisses.
Waving now xx, came the reply.
A familiar tightening gripped her abdomen and her heart filled with hope. He was innocent, she was sure he was. And that was why she was going to help him.