They’d been in the dentist’s waiting room for a few minutes, still not doing a lot of chatting, when Euan’s mother turned up.
She rushed over to Euan. ‘Darling, how are you?’
When Euan’s mother had finished inspecting his mouth and she and Euan had had a chat about his week at work, his work dinner last night and his breakfast this morning – yes, really – Evie said, ‘Hi, Elspeth.’
‘Evie and I are engaged,’ Euan said. Evie’s head shot round for the second time in one day. Good job his head was safely beyond butting distance this time. Had sherepliedto his proposal? Absent-mindedly? Had she saidyesat any point? She was pretty sure she hadn’t. In front of his mother, in a dentist’s waiting room, wasn’t the time or the place to discuss it, though.
She looked back at Elspeth, who was as open-mouthed as Evie felt.
There was a long pause before Elspeth said, ‘Wonderful news.’ She adjusted her pearls and smoothed her skirt, opened her mouth and then closed it again. Not smilingly.
‘Why don’t you go back to the wedding?’ Euan told Evie, then dabbed at his mouth again. ‘We can manage without you.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Definitely,’ Euan said.
‘Absolutely,’ Elspeth said, a lot more enthusiastically than when she’d been talking about her son’s supposed engagement.
This was very good news for the rest of Evie’s day. She snuck a look at the clock above the reception desk. Yep, if she got her skates on, she’d be back in the middle of the pre-dinner champagne reception at the hotel where the wedding dinner and dance were.
‘Are you sure?’ she repeated, trying very hard not to beam in delight.
Euan nodded, winced and put his hand to his mouth. ‘Ow. Yes, certain.’
‘Okay. Well. I hope you’re alright. I’ll call you later.’ It felt like she should say something loving and maybe kiss the top of his head or hug him or something at this point, except it felt awkward in front of Elspeth, plus he wasn’t even looking at Evie any more.
* * *
‘What happened?’ Sasha asked her about half an hour after she’d got back. ‘Where did you go? Where’s Euan?’
Telling the story took quite a long time because they both started laughing halfway through, which they really, really shouldn’t have done – and Evie obviouslyreallyhoped Euan would be okay – but aspects of itwerefunny, and he’d never know that they’d laughed.
‘Soooo, congratulations?’ Sasha said.
‘I mean, maybe,’ Evie said. ‘Except I don’t totally remember accepting his proposal.’
‘But you’re going to?’
‘I mean, maybe. Probably.’ Evie adored her mum, obviously, but since as far back as she could remember it had been like she was the adult and her mum was a teenager, and she wanted a calmer adult life than that. Less chaos. Euan was very calm and unchaotic. He had a nice, tidy house. He was very pleasant when he wasn’t stressed about a loose tooth. ‘Yep, I think so.’
‘Well, that’sgreat,’ said Sasha, far too over-heartily, like a parent at sports day pretending that coming second-from-last in a race wasamazing. She clinked her champagne flute against Evie’s. ‘Congratulations.’
Thirteen
Then – October 2016
Dan
‘Congratulations on what?’ asked Dan. Maybe Evie had a new job or was moving house.
‘Evie’s engaged,’ Sasha said.
‘Nothing,’ said Evie, simultaneously, swivelling her eyes and shaking her head at Sasha.
Sasha mouthed, ‘Sorry,’ at Evie, and then, a moment later, said, ‘I was joking,’ to Dan.
Wow. Evie blatantlywasengaged. Secretly, apparently. To Euan, presumably. His tooth must have been alright for them to be back so quickly. Good news. He must be in the loos or something right now.
