23
“So,” Tilda says, still dressed in a satin dressing gown with her hair in rollers, “I’ve told our mothers to come at about 11 so we get a bit of time without them,”
I nod, putting rollers in my own hair and sitting in the middle of the bed. I could do with some time without my Mum. See how she feels when I go no contact after this wedding. Then she’ll regret telling me I should be with Caleb. Or she won’t notice. More likely the latter, but we can all have dreams.
Tilda’s suite, the Bridal suite, is three times the size of my already enormous suite. It’s painted in soft shades of green and has a living area with a luxurious sofa and coffee table. I could probably move in here. It’s bigger than my flat and the mirror I am currently looking in makes me look really good. I might have to steal it.
“My mum is going to get ready first and then come here,” Tilda adds, “I don’t think I could stand her asking me to do her hair for her on my wedding day,”
I nod, “I’ll just be glad to not have to listen to my mum ask me why I’m not with Caleb anymore,” I mutter .
Tilda snorts, “Oh, did I not tell you what Caleb said to Dan after dinner the other day?” she says conspiratorially, sitting down and grinning at me in the mirror
“Nope,” I say, frowning and looking at her
“He asked Dan why we had gone out with the two of you, and Dan said it was so that we could meet Miles. Then Caleb said we never go out with him and Nicole and that he thought I wanted Dan to replace Caleb with Miles,”
I burst out laughing, “I’m sorry, I forgot we were ten,”
“That’s what I said,” Tilda says, “Anyway, I don’t know what he expects from me. Why would I choose to spend time with the guy who cheated on my best friend and the girl he cheated with?”
“Right,” I say, “Can we just not even mention him anymore, I’m so fucked off after last night and all I want is for you to have the best day,”
She grins, “Okay,” she says, and then she turns to me, “Can you believe I’m getting fucking married,”
*
When the music begins for me to start walking down the aisle, I want to vomit. I can’t imagine what Tilda feels.
I am trying to walk in time to the music, but I am also conscious of tripping over my own feet, and then I am concentrating so hard that I forget how to walk. I swear the aisle is actually ten times longer than it was yesterday.
I am halfway down the aisle when I eventually look up and the first thing I see is Miles. He’s looking as handsome as ever, in a hunter-green suit with a brown waistcoat and tie. Fuck, he’s cool.
I grin at him, thinking that, if anything else, I’ve proven to everyone who believes us that I can get a hot boyfriend. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to get an attractive and real boyfriend
He beams back at me and suddenly I am at the end of the aisle, out of view of him and sitting in the pew reserved for family and the bridal party.
The service flies by and then the reception goes even quicker. We’re taking pictures, listening to speeches and eating, and I have no idea where the time went but suddenly, I am on the dance floor, scream-singing to Sweet Caroline with Tilda
I can see Miles laughing from where he’s standing with my dad and Tilda’s parents. I go over to him once the song has finished, grinning from ear to ear, and stepping into the small circle he’s joined with a few of my parents' friends.
“Are you laughing at my dancing?” I ask, slightly tipsy on the free bar drinks.
“Absolutely,” he says and then pulls me into his side.
“We were just saying,” says one of Violet and my mum’s other obnoxious friends. She’s another one who has always been a bit nosy. You know, one of those middle-aged women who have literally nothing better to do than critique your life choices to your face. “It’s so nice to see you finally move on,”
I frown, not realising at first that she’s talking to me, “Oh, yeah,” I mutter.
Miles pulls me closer, sensing how far this woman is bringing my mood down. I mean, we were almost home-free without that many people openly making me feel bad. Sure, people had watched me when I had to sit at the same table as Caleb, always with a pitying look in their eyes. And sure, I still felt gross and ugly next to the petite and ever-so-perfect Nicole (another girl who is good at being a girl right there), but on the whole, Mile’s presence seems to have done much more than deflect criticism today. It made me feel a little more comfortable here. Having someone just be here to be on my side has made such a difference. I might have to get him back for every event.
“Miles is very different from Caleb,” she goes on, winking at Miles as if that is appropriate or makes up for the way she’s openly shading me.
Miles winces and I snort, “Well Caleb cheated on me for a year with the girl who he brought to my best friend’s wedding so I hope to God Miles has nothing in common with him,” I announce. And as I am all but yelling this to her, I notice quite how close Caleb and Nicole are standing. Nicole looks suitably admonished and Caleb, well, he looks like Caleb. Arrogant as all fuck and acting as if he is somehow the victim of my tirade.
The woman, whose name I have clearly forgotten, also looks suitably chastised and turns to her friend to talk about the cake.
Miles grins at me, “That was beautiful,” he says, “Let’s dance,”
*
“Did you tell Maggie off?” Tilda asks a few hours later. She’s pulling her dress back down in the middle of the bathroom as I wash my hands.
Maggie is her name!!!
I chuckle, “Maybe,” I say, “But she brought up me finally moving on and I’m so over it now,”
Tilda snorts, “Maggie is a nosy old bag,” she says, washing her hands now, “And who the fuck cares if you had stayed single your entire life? All that matters is that you left the dead weight behind,”
I laugh, “Drunk Tilda is such a savage,” I say.
She laughs, “For the record though,” she says, turning to the door and pulling it open. I step forward and do my bridesmaid duty of pulling her dress out of her Spanx before she notices. “I like Miles. You’ve got your sparkle back with him,”
“I didn’t know I sparkled,” I say to her back.
“Sure you do,” she says, “You used to be a sparkly person before that prick,” She looks over her shoulder and grins, “You’re just glowing again and it’s really nice to see,”
I raise an eyebrow, “But this is the skin of a killer, Tilda,”
She bursts out laughing, shakes her head and pulls me onto the dancefloor again.
*
Managing to mostly avoid my ex-boyfriend at a wedding where he is the Best Man and I am the Maid of Honour is a pretty big feat (I have an inkling he might have been avoiding me after my rant), but so is managing to convince your friends and family that the date you brought isn’t someone who is almost a stranger and is actually the love of your life.
It’s sad to know that Tilda thinks I’m sparkling like a Cullen again when this is all going to be over soon. Frankly, it would be nice if I wasn’t the sad-sack who had to bring a fake date to a wedding just to seem a little bit less pathetic, but the fact it’s going so well is like this crushing blow. And it’s a blow that seems to have hit while I’m lying in bed with said fake date.
Granted, he’s about 6 metres from me because of the size of this ridiculous bed, but he’s here all the same.
“Can you believe how well we pulled this off?” I mutter into the silence.
“I’m pretty impressed,” he says, “Everyone really did believe it, ”
I nod.
“I’ve had fun,” he says, turning to his side once more. “I mean, I didn’t think it would be an awful weekend, but it’s been a lot less like an acting job and more like, well… just fun,”
“I know,” I mutter, trying not to sound as suddenly sad as I feel, “One down, one to go,” I add.
He turns back onto his back, looking up at the ceiling and is quiet before he speaks.
“Yeah,” he says quietly, “Halfway there,”
And I might just be imagining it, or projecting, or just being a total idiot, but he sounds almost as sad as I am about it.