Chapter 18
On the day of the wedding Elodie stumbled over to the shop well before dawn. It was pointless staying in bed because all she was doing was going over her to do lists in her head. She glanced at Man Buns. There was a light on in the back. Mal must be here already.
She thought about popping in to say hello, but the thought of the kiss they’d shared made her hesitate. She had to concentrate today and being near him wouldn’t help, so she let herself into the shop before she had time to change her mind.
Soon, she was busy preparing the food to be transported. The savouries were already in catering trays. She still needed to get hold of the fresh fruit. Saffron wanted real fruit on the cake, nestled in between the sugar flowers. It was best to get them done on the day. In fact, it was best if she could add the sliced strawberries on in situ so that there was even less chance of them getting dislodged, but her best bet was to get everything prepared and packed before she left so that she could have enough fruit with minimal bruising on them. Mal had agreed last night to pick them up for her.
She worked steadily, packing and preparing, until someone knocked at the door.
Elodie froze and drew a deep breath. That would be Mal. She still didn’t know how she was going to feel when she saw him. She breathed out slowly and went to answer the door.
He was standing outside, holding a crate with his sleeves rolled up. Her heart picked up speed. Somewhere deep inside, bits of her remembered what it felt like to kiss him.
She unlocked the door.
He smiled at her, all smooth skin and dimples. ‘Morning.’
‘Hi.’ Her voice was embarrassingly breathless.
He hitched the crate up a bit.
‘Oh. Sorry. Come in.’ She scooted out of the way so that he could walk past her. ‘Thank you so much for picking those up. I have so much to do this morning, I’m a little bit stressed to be honest.’ Shut up, Elodie, shut up.
She had cleared a space for the crate already. ‘Just put it there.’
He placed it carefully on the table and rotated his wrists to shake them out. She tried not to stare at the interesting things it did to his arms.
‘As I say. Thanks for picking that up.’ She couldn’t make eye contact with him. She just couldn’t.
Mal pulled his sleeves down. ‘Elodie?’
She forced herself to look up. They couldn’t avoid talking about it. ‘About yesterday …’
The smile faded from his face. He looked wary. ‘Yes.’
There was an awkward silence. He looked even more worried.
‘Was …’ He cleared his throat. ‘Have you changed your mind?’ He raised his hands. ‘’Cause that’s totally fine and you’re well within your rights, obv —’
‘No,’ she said, quickly. ‘No. I haven’t changed my mind … I just … It’s just weird.’
He visibly relaxed. ‘It is a bit, isn’t it?’ He moved a step closer. ‘I know we have to work together. And I don’t want this to make things weird.’
‘Me neither.’ Her heart was pounding now. She just wanted to kiss him again. But there was a whole wedding to do. So many things. There wasn’t time for this. And yet, she couldn’t move.
‘I really like you,’ he said. ‘I sort of have … for a long time. Weeks.’
‘Seriously? I was a total bitch to you most of the time,’ she said.
‘No, you weren’t. And yeah. Seriously.’
She moved closer as well, until there was barely an inch of warmth separating them. ‘But we have this wedding to do.’
‘Exactly.’ He placed his hands lightly on her waist. ‘So let’s park this until after the wedding. But I’d really like to take you out for a meal or a walk or something. After the wedding.’
She placed her hands on his chest and leaned in. ‘Let’s do that.’ She tilted her head.
‘Perfect.’ He kissed her.
This kiss was less frantic than the one last time. More gentle. A promise of more to come. Elodie felt her heart soar. She slid her arms up and until they were around his neck. He pulled her closer.
The bell sounded as the door to the shop opened. They sprang apart. Marty ambled into the shop.
Mal cleared his throat. His eyes shone. ‘So. Right. Parked,’ he whispered.
‘Until tomorrow,’ she whispered back, trying not to giggle.
‘Morning, you two stars of the show,’ Marty trilled. He removed his earbuds and shoved them in this jacket pocket. ‘All ready for the big day?’
Mal clasped his hands behind his back. ‘I think so. Ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.’
‘Are you happy with the waiters?’
‘Jake said he was dealing with it. I trust his judgement.’
Elodie managed to get her face under control. ‘Thanks for picking these up for me,’ she said to Mal, looking in his direction, but not quite meeting his eyes. ‘I’ll get these prepped.’
‘No problem,’ Mal said, the corners of his mouth twitching. ‘I’ll see you in a couple of hours to take the stuff to the venue?’
‘Yes. I’ll have everything ready.’
‘Great. Let’s go.’ He held out a fist.
‘Right. Yes. Great.’ She hit his fist with hers. ‘I’ll see you later.’
She and Marty both watched him leave. She hoped Marty hadn’t noticed anything.
Once Mal had left, Marty turned smoothly back to her. ‘What was that?’ he said.
‘What?’ She lifted the bubble wrap that was on top of the fruit.
‘That …’ Marty made waggling motions with his finger. ‘That atmosphere. Did I interrupt something? What happened?’
‘He brought the fruit over, that was all. I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Marty peered at her. ‘Your face is bright red. And you’re a terrible actress.’ He clicked his fingers several times. ‘Come on. Tell me.’
There was no way to stop the smile from spreading. ‘There’s nothing much to tell yet,’ she said.
Marty made winding motions with his hands. He was grinning too. ‘But … there is something to tell …’
She patted her cheeks. They felt like they were on fire. ‘Last night, we were finalising things for today and … I sort of kissed him. And he kissed me. We kissed each other.’
With a squeal Marty threw himself at her and hugged her. ‘Finally! Honestly. I thought I was going to have to sit you two down and give you a pep talk.’ He squeezed her hard. ‘I’m so glad for you. I have it on good authority that Mal is a good guy, so well done, you.’
‘Nothing happened,’ she protested. ‘Apart from the kiss.’
Marty released her and crossed the kitchen to wash his hands and put on his apron and hairnet. ‘Pretty significant start.’
Elodie tried to put her hands in her apron pockets and was surprised to see that she was still holding some bubble wrap. Oh yes. She had to focus on what she was doing. There was only a couple of hours to go before she had to go over to the venue to set up. Shit.
She briskly folded up the wrap and put it to one side. ‘Nothing is going to happen until after this wedding is over. There’s too much at stake for us to get distracted. I can’t afford to screw this up.’
‘Yes, boss.’ Marty gave her a mock salute. ‘What do you need me to do?’