CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE CHRIS
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
Chris
March
The wedding invitations are in. I’m sitting at the dining table in my parents’ kitchen and hold one in my hand, running my fingers over the calligraphy letters. My parents and Victoria’s parents invite you to the wedding of …
They’re jointly on the invitation as they’re very generously jointly contributing. Victoria is talking about the swirly font and I’m trying hard to be interested, but fonts and typefaces, or whatever they’re called, are not my bag.
I still can’t get my head around the fact this is happening. I am really happy, even though everything seems to be moving so fast. When Victoria wants something, she goes all out to get it.
‘Are these invites more expensive than the dress?’ I ask.
‘Nothing is more expensive than the dress,’ she replies conspiratorially.
‘I can’t wait to see it,’ I say.
‘You’re not allowed,’ she tells me. ‘No one is. Oh, while I think of it, are there any other people you’d like to put on the guest list – anyone you want to invite? Speak now or for ever hold your peace!’ she jokes.
My immediate thought is no. And then my mind goes somewhere it shouldn’t. How odd would it be if I invited Lexie?
I haven’t seen her in a year. I didn’t know that time I said goodbye to her at the hotel opening would be our last goodbye. But I can’t imagine standing at the front of the church and seeing Lexie there. I don’t know what that would do to me. I’m not sure being in contact with her is wise anyway, especially since she moved in with Josh. By now they’re probably getting ready to make babies and live happily ever after in his ancestral home, or whatever it is they’re doing. I wonder if she’ll invite me to her wedding when it happens? Probably not. And that’s wise too. I’m glad I cooled down our friendship. It would only lead to danger. I knew it then and I feel it now.
‘No. I’m OK.’
‘You’re OK?’ Victoria queries.
‘I mean I don’t need to add anyone to the guest list. I’m all good.’
‘So long as you’re sure.’
I smile reassuringly.
‘I’ll leave a couple of spaces in case you decide you want to add someone else later,’ she says. ‘We’ve got a one-hundred person package and there’s a few spaces left to fill.’
This is too much for me and a huge smile spreads across my face. I stand up as a distraction, move to the sink, fill a glass with water so that Victoria can’t see my face, and try desperately not to laugh. Is it inappropriate to draw up a bingo grid now? It probably is, given that I know everything awaiting me at this wedding.
‘What’s so funny?’ she asks.
‘Nothing,’ I say. A 100-person guest package and not enough friends to fill it. That’s kind of tragic.
And also very funny.