A Beautiful Day for a Wedding: This year’s Bridget Jones!. Charlotte Butterfield

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СКАЧАТЬ don’t. Enjoy this moment, wait until after the rehearsal and we’ll go back and do it then.’

      ‘Oh God, the rehearsal. I’m going to have to see him then.’ Eve leant back against the side wall of the warehouse where she was hiding. ‘Why did he have to come back from New Zealand?’

      ‘Just ignore him, you don’t need to even speak to him. I’ll be there, and Ayesha, so just stay with us.’

      ‘You’re wonderful.’

      ‘I know. What time is it again?’

      ‘What?’

      ‘The rehearsal.’

      ‘Three. Do you know where the church is?’

      ‘No. South of the river somewhere, isn’t it?’

      Eve smiled. She might be wonderful, but Becca was never going to win any prizes for organisation. ‘I’ll come by the flat and pick you up in a cab, be ready at half past two.’

      ‘Fab. And Eve?’

      ‘Yes?’

      ‘Chin up.’

      The only time Eve had seen it before was on nature programs. The frantic pacing, eyes flashing dangerously, a single rogue movement from the bushes and POUNCE. Whoever had said that brides were glowing with happiness, and filled with fuzziness and heart-melting romance had obviously never been to a wedding rehearsal.

      ‘You’re late,’ Tanya snapped. They weren’t, but Tanya tapped her watch anyway. ‘We’re all waiting for you.’ Eve glanced around the almost empty church. Luke’s parents weren’t even there yet. Or Ben.

      ‘Well, we’re here now,’ Eve replied brightly. ‘Anything we can do?’

      ‘Did you do the curtains ok?’

      Now was not the time to get into semantics. ‘All sorted.’

      ‘And the floors?’

      ‘Under control.’

      ‘Well, that’s something I guess.’ Eve held her breath waiting for an expression of gratitude, but none came.

      ‘So here are the keys to our flat, we’re leaving for the airport straight after the wedding, so you’ll have to sleep at ours tomorrow night to look after Coco. I’ve left out loads of water and food, but when you get in just take her once round the block. She’ll have been cooped up all day and that girl poos for England.’ Tanya tossed Eve a keyring and gave a big theatrical sigh, looking pointedly at her watch as Luke’s parents hurried in, before turning to the waiting vicar. ‘Well, we might as well make a start.’

      The walk-through was almost finished when Ben came crashing into the church filled with profuse apologies. Eve held her breath, waiting for him to throw her under the bus and tell everyone exactly what had held him up, but he blamed the traffic and stood mutely as Tanya tore warm meat off his limbs.

      He then demurely took his place next to Becca at the end of the aisle.

      ‘No Ben, not there!’ Tanya shrieked. ‘You’re walking Eve up, which you would know if you were here on time.’

      As he moved next to her Eve could smell a combination of his aftershave masked with smells of manly sweat brought on, no doubt, by hanging twenty-five kilometres of bastarding chiffon. ‘It’s done,’ he whispered.

      She couldn’t bring herself to thank him, so just kept her eyes resolutely resting on the statue of a crucified Jesus.

      ‘You’re welcome,’ he said into the silence.

      Eve just rolled her eyes. The cheek of the man. He couldn’t possibly think that he could just waltz back into her life, do her a small favour and expect her to shrug, erase the past and pretend that everything was ok.

      It was just after 8 p.m. when Becca and Eve managed to head back to the warehouse and start gentrifying the floors. As a surprise, Tanya had booked all the bridesmaids manicures, less as a gesture of kindness, and more to make sure that they all had rounded nails, not square, painted the same unimaginative shade of pale pink. Personality and individuality were very much banned from this wedding. Eve promptly managed to completely ruin her nails within the first half hour of floor polishing.

      ‘You know, you could have just said no to her,’ Becca said, as she trailed behind Eve, holding the wire out of the way of the machine.

      ‘But who else would have done it?’ Eve replied, puffing her long hair out of her face as she manoeuvred the unwieldy polisher around a corner.

      ‘She’d have found someone. Note that she didn’t ask me or Ayesha as we’d have just laughed at her. You need to learn the art of saying no.’

      ‘No.’

      ‘Haha. I mean it though, she only tells you to do these things because she knows you will. Are you like this at work too? Do you literally do everyone else’s jobs for them?’

      Eve thought for a second. It wasn’t that she was a control freak, or a perfectionist, or even a pushover, like Becca was insinuating; she just found it really, really difficult to let people down. But this wedding had tested even her limits of patience.

      ‘Ok, I’ll make you a deal.’ Eve offered, turning the polisher off so that she didn’t need to shout over its drone. ‘From now on, I’m going to trial a new me. One that doesn’t do anything I don’t want to do.’

      ‘That’s my girl. You will still help me plan Ayesha’s hen do and my own wedding though, won’t you?’

      ‘I’ll make an exception for you.’

      ***

      It was proving very difficult to shield Tanya’s eyes from resting on either the front or back of her dress, but Becca had been true to her word and was like Eve’s shadow, standing less than a foot away from her back at any one time, and the bouquet was stuck resolutely to Eve’s bodice. They hadn’t yet had to navigate the complexities of either of them needing the bathroom, but that time would come. It would have been comical if Eve wasn’t absolutely terrified of Tanya’s wrath should she find out. They’d got through the church service, and Eve had even managed to give Ben the briefest and smallest of smiles as he offered his arm for her to hold to walk up the aisle even though inside she felt like she was going to be sick. Once upon a time she’d played this moment out in her head, albeit with a different ending.

      Walking into the reception an hour later, Eve’s breath was taken away by the effect of the soft white material flowing down from the ceiling, the twinkling fairy lights, and the beautiful round tables bedecked in white tablecloths and tall glass vases with white orchids cascading out of them. She had to give it to Tanya, her vision was absolutely stunning. Finding her name on the big canvas propped up on an easel at the entrance, Eve winced. She was hoping to be sat near Becca or Ayesha, but she didn’t recognise anyone’s names on her table at all. After all she’d done for Tanya, you’d have thought she’d have given her a fun table to sit on. As Eve approached Table Thirteen, her heart sank. She was sat on the singles table.

      ‘Hi everyone, I’m СКАЧАТЬ