Lovestruck, p.23
Lovestruck, page 23
Everyone fusses and coos, and Becca gets to show off the engagement ring whilst waiting for somebody to ask if it’s all a bit fast, because it is, and she knows it – but they don’t. Regina says she’s been waiting for them both to come to their senses, Paul says life is short and he’s pleased they’re grabbing it with two hands, and Jessie and Niall ask if they’ve set the date.
‘It only happened today!’ squeals Becca, admiring her ring yet again.
‘You could have it here …’ Jessie suggests, and Becca looks at Mike for his reaction. He shrugs amiably.
‘I enjoy the economy of that,’ he says, and chuckles, and Becca laughs too.
‘It’s more beautiful than most hospitality suites,’ she concedes, which isn’t quite a yes – or a no – but even so Regina seizes on it.
‘How marvellous!’ she exclaims, clapping her hands in little flashes of movement, like a seal at Water World. ‘A nice marquee outside, a band, a DJ for later.’
Becca looks to her own mum, who she’s sure will have numerous opinions on her only child’s wedding day.
‘Fantastic,’ she says. ‘Fantastic! Regina, how are you fixed for a planning session, maybe next week? I can’t do Tuesday or Wednesday, but if you’re free for lunch on Thursday?’
‘Friday?’ checks Regina.
‘Friday it is. I’ll book us into the garden at the Italian place. Make the most of the last of the summer sun. Gosh, we used to lunch all the time the first time around, didn’t we? I’m very sorry it ever stopped. I’ll really look forward to it, Regina.’
‘Me too, Shelley. It’ll be just like old times.’
Becca’s dad inserts himself between Becca and Mike then, an arm around each of their shoulders, a ruddy cheer to his cheeks from the champagne.
‘Mum’s changed her tune,’ Becca says to him, and Mike looks shocked.
‘I beg your pardon?’ he asks. ‘Was she a Mike sceptic before today?’
He looks between Becca and her father, and Gary says, ‘Only in the ways you’d expect,’ and then he winks, letting Mike truly know all is forgiven.
‘I hear you were in on the secret,’ Becca says. Her dad releases his dual bear hug and leans against the back of the sofa.
‘I thought it was nice he came to me,’ Gary says, right as Mike gets commandeered by Betty about where she can find the loo.
‘I made the grave error of the garlic green beans at lunch,’ Becca hears her say. ‘Big mistake.’
Gary and Becca roll their eyes good-naturedly. Betty – who would have thought her mother would fall for someone her polar opposite in so many ways?
‘I didn’t know it was going to be this weekend,’ her dad tells her. ‘Only that he had his grandmother’s ring and knew he wanted to prove his commitment.’
‘I know it’s fast—’ Becca starts.
Gary waves. ‘Well, it is and it isn’t. It’s been a couple of months since he came home. But you’ve known him for years. Your mother and I knew each other for five months before we got married.’
‘But you got divorced,’ Becca points out.
‘Does that make what we had before then any less real?’ her father asks. ‘I still love her. We’re just not married any more. And the thirty-four years we had together weren’t nothing, kid.’
Becca searches her mother out: she’s standing chatting with Regina, Jessie and Niall, Paul at her shoulder, holding a bottle and offering a top-up, her new extended family.
‘Paul seems in good spirits,’ Becca notes. ‘His surgery is next week.’
‘Amazing what some good news in the family can do to get you through another day,’ her dad observes. ‘Mike talked about it when he came over, actually – said being home when his dad was going through cancer made him realise this is where he wants to be, wants to settle.’
‘That’s good,’ Becca replies. ‘I can’t wait for this London contract to be done so he’s here properly.’
Her father opens his mouth to speak, and Becca waits for what he has to say. But then he closes his mouth again and shakes his head, as if it doesn’t matter.
‘What?’ she asks.
‘It’s just …’ her dad begins.
‘Dad.’
‘It’s none of my business, but then you’re my little girl and so it is my business.’
Becca nods. ‘That’s why I’m asking you to actually tell me what you’re thinking, instead of letting you open and close your mouth like a trout.’
‘My only advice is to make sure he’s settled into a job of some sort before you walk down the aisle. It’s not very PC of me to say, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true: a man needs a job, darling, proper work so he can feel useful and hold his own. I know he has the short-term contract but he won’t feel properly settled until he’s earning a living doing something stable and permanent. He was always intimidated by your determination to make the most of your life when he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his, and I think to keep the marriage happy he has to have his own ways to shine.’ Her dad holds up his hands to show he has nothing to hide. ‘Just my twopence worth,’ he adds. ‘Disregard as you see fit.’
27
She Doesn’t Text Back
After Becca and Noah get back from Miami, everything is the same – but different. Since the fight about Noah’s ex and Becca’s pledge to never leave him, he’s showered her with even more affection and attention than before. He’s still got his flat closer to town, but they stay at Becca’s, mostly, since he can work from anywhere he has his laptop and she needs to be close to the salon. He makes her coffee in the mornings and walks her to work, heading to the dog shelter after. They meet for lunch, and he randomly drops pastries and macaroons and green juice at the front desk for the whole team, saying a quick hello and goodbye. What Becca loves most is that he nearly always has dinner underway when she gets home. This is better than I ever thought it could be, she thinks to herself when he hands her a chilled glass of something, or a steaming plate. He cooks; she does the dishes. She vacuums; he dusts. He plans cute dates and she wears her very sexiest underwear to them. It’s him, and her, in bed. Him, and her, knocking knees at a restaurant table. Him, and her, walking the dogs from the shelter together, when they can, up through the woods in the autumn sunshine. They’ve gone to the local climbing wall, emboldened by their new romance to try things they wouldn’t normally try. They’ve taken a pedalo out on the reservoir. They’ve eaten ice-cream cone after ice-cream cone, just as they did on their first date – it’s their Thing. And it’s him and her at night, when the sky has darkened and they’ve had dinner and maybe even had sex, on the sofa, or on the kitchen floor, or once – regrettably – on the carpeted stairs. Becca still has friction burn from last week on the bottom part of her back, and Noah’s knees are still scabbed.
Weeks pass that way, time spent and memories made, which is why Becca has insisted he come tonight, to Trim’s annual tattoo party. She’s barely seen Carlos and Jia Li outside of work, preferring to reunite with Noah at every available moment. She was given a grace period, she knows, the time all friends must acquiesce to when their pals fall in love, but the odd comment about how she’s never around has given way to out-and-out threats from them: she’d better start making time for them, or else.
‘Bec, can we stop by the pub? Not to be crass but – I gotta drop the kids off at the pool?’
They’re just at the edge of the park, about to turn down the main street, Trim up ahead.
‘Woah. I don’t think you’ve ever talked to me about needing a poo before,’ Becca says, trying to decide how she feels about such a revelation.
‘The magic can’t last forever.’ Noah shrugs, giving her a kiss on the top of her head. ‘Or it can – it just needs to involve the very human trait of nervous stomachs. And to be fair, if I can hear you panting because it hurts to pee, you can assist me in finding somewhere to take a dump.’
Becca holds up a hand. ‘I’m drawing the line at the phrase taking a dump. And’, she adds, ushering him towards the Fox and Hound up on the corner, ‘that panting was a water infection that was caused by too much sex, so, in a way, it was all your fault anyway.’
Noah pulls her into him, pressing her up against him right there, in the entrance to the pub. He lowers his voice and whispers into her ear, so close and low that his breath makes the hairs on her neck stand up in pleasure: ‘If you don’t want so much sex, you shouldn’t be so bloody hot, should you, Becca?’
She feels turned on when her name is in his mouth. It feels like looping a tag around her neck, marking her out as belonging to him. He only has eyes for her, and she likes it.
‘And to think I’d be going weak at the knees right now were it not for the fact that I know you’re pushing cloth.’
He nods, sanguine. ‘I’ll be right back,’ he says. ‘Get me a quick whisky? I feel a bit nervous about tonight, you know. Just a single shot.’
Becca makes for the bar, waiting patiently for Lizzie, the barperson, to finish with the man she’s serving and get to her.
‘He’s so handsome,’ Lizzie says when she gets to Becca’s end of the bar. ‘Every time I see you two I think it. Well done.’
Becca grins. ‘Well done to him more though, right?’ she asks, and Lizzie laughs.
‘Obviously,’ she replies. ‘I suppose what I mean is: well done for finding such a perfectly good-looking match.’
‘Oh, well, in that case: thank you,’ Becca says, and she feels what she did in their early days, at Clemants, when the barista was checking Noah out, a certain sort of suspiciously un-feminist pride at bagging a hottie. She refrains from revealing that Noah is, at this exact moment, currently expelling the contents of his large intestine into the toilet bowl, lest she spoil their overall impression of a fit, happy couple.
‘You’re a marvel,’ Noah says, joining Becca at the bar once she’s paid for his whisky and her wine. ‘Thank you for this. And sorry I’ve been so graphic. I don’t know. This feels … something. I’m not usually one to get nervous but I know they all think we’re crazy, that’s it’s too fast …’
‘Noah, I never told you that to make you worry. They know I’m happy. My parents are happy about it, Carlos and Jia Li are happy about it …’
‘Yeah,’ he says. ‘You just have so many people on your side! I’ve got Nate and Sarah and that’s it.’
‘I know,’ Becca soothes him. ‘It kills me that I can’t meet your dad.’
‘He would have liked you though. Loved you as his daughter-in-law.’
They clink glasses to Noah’s dad’s memory and Noah takes a sip of whisky as he leans against the smooth wood of the bar. His dark eyes are serious and solemn.
‘My friends think you’re awesome because I think you’re awesome,’ Becca tells him, finding the fingers of his free hand and winding them around her own playfully. ‘But even if I didn’t vouch for you, you charm literally everyone that crosses your path: climbing instructors, deli owners, you name it. Just be yourself tonight. They want to like you. They’ve asked to spend more time with you.’
‘Hmmmm,’ he says, already draining his glass. ‘If you say so.’
‘I do. Feel better for the poo and the drink?’
‘Practically reborn,’ he retorts, understanding it’s time to crack on and leave. ‘To the party!’ he says, slipping his arm over her shoulders once more.
‘Well, well, well,’ Jia Li says as Becca and Noah make their way through the salon to where she’s pouring champagne for some of the earlier guests. ‘Look what the cat dragged in!’
Jia Li hands out the full glasses and opens her arms to give Becca a hug, and then Noah two kisses, one on each cheek.
‘You make it sound like I didn’t just see you an hour ago when my last words were – and I quote – “See you at six thirty, Jia Li!”’
Jia Li sucks in her cheeks. ‘You’re still in the honeymoon period,’ she says, plainly, before looking at Noah and saying: ‘When you’re in the love bubble, all bets are off.’
Noah smiles. ‘I apologise if I’ve been keeping her from you. Although, I would say the blame is an equal fifty-fifty split.’
‘Enjoy it.’ Jia Li smiles. ‘She called you in from the universe, you know.’
Noah looks at Becca. ‘Did you pray for me? Am I the answer to your actual, literal prayers?’ He’s joking, but Becca could kill Jia Li for bringing this up. At no point has Becca let the words ‘manifestation ritual’ pass her lips in conversation with Noah. The thought of admitting that she requested a man from the universe isn’t something she thinks, even as an SF writer, she wants him to know. It’s embarrassing.
‘Oh,’ says Jia Li, sensing that she shouldn’t have teased Becca like that. ‘Nothing. I’m being stupid. Hey, did you know I’m pregnant and don’t know who the father is?’
Jia Li shoots Becca a look that says, See the things I do for you? See how I know when I’ve overstepped?
Noah’s eyes widen and then glance down at the growing mound of Jia Li’s stomach. She’s eight months now, and her bump is prominent, to say the least.
‘I … did not know that, no,’ Noah says slowly, looking at Becca for how to proceed. ‘I didn’t know there was any … secrecy, to the proceedings.’
‘I didn’t know I was allowed to tell,’ Becca says to them both with a shrug. ‘Are you telling people now?’
Jia Li rubs her tummy. She looks at Noah. ‘It’s privileged information. I’m trying to bond with you.’
‘My lips are sealed,’ he tells her. ‘Congratulations.’
‘Do you have any children?’ Jia Li asks him.
‘Me? No. Not that I know of.’
‘Do you want them?’
‘I think so, yes.’
‘Brothers or sisters?’
‘Only child.’
‘Most embarrassing moment?’
‘Definitely this moment, right now, being under interrogation by you.’
This makes Jia Li laugh. ‘Sorry,’ she says. ‘It’s just – you’re so mysterious. You come by and pick Becca up, you guys disappear off together, all we get from Becca is Noah loves tomatoes, he says they’re the fruits of the Gods, and Noah says that movie should be on everyone’s must-watch list. But concrete facts? She doesn’t give us any of those. Oh, you’re the best sex she’s ever had – she did tell me that.’
Noah takes Jia Li in his stride, which is impressive, considering Becca knows how nervous he felt only fifteen minutes ago.
‘Did she now?’ He chuckles, and Becca hits her friend’s arm playfully.
‘I’ve also told you that,’ Becca says, ‘so don’t act like it’s news.’
‘Oh, but I love to hear it.’ Noah grins. ‘Over and over again.’
‘I’d love to know if I was the best sex somebody had had.’ Jia Li shrugs. ‘It’s a right ego boost.’
The three stand, not knowing where to go from here. The conversation has escalated quickly, and it’s only 6.35 p.m.
‘Well,’ Noah settles on, ‘I’ll happily oblige in filling in any gaps in my personal biography.’ He smiles. ‘Because it’s strange you don’t know anything about me. I feel like I know you and Carlos intimately. Becca talks about you both like you’re a cross between strawberry shortcake gelato and Buddha reincarnate. The three musketeers.’
Jia Li shoots Becca a pleased smile. ‘Right then,’ she says, taking Noah’s arm. ‘Let’s go and look at tattoos and talk about our girl then. Becca, you can take over the champagne station for ten minutes, can’t you?’
Becca watches helplessly as Noah is commandeered by her best friend, Jia Li gesticulating and Noah nodding, saying something here and there that makes Jia Li laugh. It frightens her, and it thrills her. They seem to be getting on. She’s proud of her friend for stepping up and making the effort.
‘Tall bastard, isn’t he?’
Becca looks at Carlos.
‘Evening,’ she says, going in for a kiss on each cheek.
‘How European,’ Carlos notes, making mwah noises back. ‘Do we do this now?’
Becca touches Carlos’s arm. ‘I just felt like a formal greeting,’ she says. ‘According to you and Jia Li, I’ve essentially been MIA since the summer, so this is me making the effort.’
He nods –‘Duly noted’ – and Becca can’t read the look on his face.
‘I suppose I’ve been letting myself be MIA,’ Becca continues. ‘I do know that. Getting engaged doesn’t happen every day. And he’s good for me. We laugh a lot.’
Carlos appears to consider this as he takes a mouthful of champagne.
‘Yeah,’ he says. ‘I get it. I want you to be happy. You deserve the world, though, so I’m not going to go easy on him just because you’re doped up on serotonin. It’s my job as your friend to look out for you, and it will always be that way, whether he’s your husband or not.’
Becca opens her mouth to explain that technically as a friend he should simply just be there for her no matter what happens – be there for any successes or potential mistakes – but actually, when it comes to Carlos, she isn’t sure she does feel that way. He has been her protector over the past few years, working so closely together at the salon and swapping as many jokes and stories as advice and unpaid-for counsel. Maybe everybody needs that one friend who’ll stay cynical, be the sensible one, keep a watchful eye.
‘Thank you,’ she settles on, and once again he nods.
They’re interrupted by an incredibly tall, Amazonian-like woman with a wild mane of creamy bronze hair that falls to her waist. She has bright blue eyes, a problematic bindi and a flower crown. Her teeth are the brightest, most white teeth Becca has seen outside of the movies or models. In fact, this woman might well be a model. She is most certainly not a regular customer of Trim.
‘Baby!’ she exclaims, her face creasing into a sunbeam of a smile. ‘I thought I’d lost you! Come here!’
Becca wonders who on earth she’s talking to, even as the woman plants a wet kiss on Carlos’s mouth, pressing her nose to his and whispering something that makes Carlos – shockingly – blush.
