It was so annoying that he could still have this effect on her. They’d crossed the friendship line and slept together and it was now clear that nothing serious would ever happen between them, and now it was just pissing her off, frankly, that her stupid feelings for him got in the way sometimes of her actual, real-life relationship with Matthew, who was safe, solid, lovely and very interested in her.
She should sneak a moment to text Matthew this afternoon, actually, for a quick catch-up to see how his holiday was going.
‘I think we can go now.’ Sasha lifted her skirt as she walked delicately back over the grass to the non-green-staining safety of the church’s path.
‘I’ll round the guests up.’ Dan turned round, clapped loudly and bellowed, ‘Could everyone follow us over to the house now?’ The reception was being held in a marquee in Sasha’s mother’s garden.
Max, standing next to them, did an incredibly piercing wolf whistle and a big beckoning motion with his arm, which arguably had a bigger effect than Dan’s bellow, and they all started the walk round the green, rather than across it, to avoid ruining everyone’s shoes.
Eviereallydidn’t want to walk with Dan and Hannah. Fortunately her schoolfriend Millie was nearby, so she did an exaggeratedHi, Millieand hung back to walk over with her. Which gave her an excellent view of Dan walking with Hannah. They didn’t look remotely lover-like, more just like old friends who were comfortable with each other, but they did share an intimate parenting moment when Katie did some particularly manic waving with her arms and Dan caught Hannah’s eye and they laughed together. Any new partner of either of them would always have that to contend with.
‘That issosweet,’ said Millie, sounding incredibly insincere. ‘They aren’t together, though, are they?’
‘I don’t really know.’ Evie shouldn’t have chosen Millie to walk with.
‘I don’t think they are,’ Millie said. ‘Tonight might be my night.’
Evie had to struggle not to snarl her reply. Which, again, was utterly ridiculous, because she was with Matthew, and Dan’s love life was nothing to do with her.
‘I’m just going to pop to the loo,’ she told Millie, to escape her. That would give her an opportunity to text Matthew too.
She could see that he was typing his reply immediately. He was loving his holiday but he was really missing Evie. She was missing him too. Notreallymissing him but that was because it was a busy day.
Evie walked into the marquee and immediately saw Hannah and Katie with Dan, and suddenly just wanted to talk to her mum. She looked around and saw her with Grant and Autumn. She could go over and speak to them and calm down and then go and mingle.
On her way across the marquee, Mrs Bird waved her stick at her and called, ‘Evie.’ Loudly. Her lung capacity didn’t seem to have deteriorated with age at all.
‘Hi, Mrs Bird.’ Evie sat down next to her. ‘Your organ-playing was amazing today.’
‘I’ll tell you a secret. I got a few of the notes wrong.’
‘No way,’ said Evie. ‘No-one would ever have guessed.’ ‘Pachelbel’s Canon’ had literally morphed for several bars into ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’, more than once.
‘I think I cover it up well. A lifetime of experience. What you do if you lose your thread is you just play something you’re very familiar with, just briefly.’
‘Wow,’ said Evie. ‘Such a good idea.’
‘Thank you.’ Mrs Bird leaned towards Evie and patted her on the knee. ‘How are you feeling, dear?’
Evie leaned back a bit. Maybe it was because Mrs Bird’s hearing was failing a little that she always spoke at such high volume nowadays. ‘Very well, thank you. How are you?’
‘I’m very well. Imeanthowareyou? It must be terribly awkward for you being around Danny.’ How had even Mrs Bird, who Evie was pretty sure didn’t have either a smart phone or a computer of any kind, heard about the Evie-and-Dan thing?
Evie kept on smiling and said, ‘Not at all. We’re friends.’
‘Really? After a messy divorce?’ Mrs Bird practically yelled. She’d clearly heard a very garbled version of the truth. ‘And him now with ababy.’
It was taking an increasing effort, but Evie carried on with the smiling, directing the smile both at Mrs Bird and around at the various groups of people close to them who’d turned to look, and said, trying to pitch her voice loudly enough that the same people would hear, but not so loudly that she’d sound as though she was shouting, ‘It wasn’t a messy divorce. It wasn’t a divorce at all; it was an annulment because it was just a silly evening, which meant nothing. You know, high jinks. You know, these things happen.’
‘You must have been devastated, though, dear. After so many years.’
‘It was less than twenty-four hours.’ Oops, it really wasn’t right to sound snippy with an elderly woman whose heart was in the right place.
‘I’m not talking about yourmarriage, I’m talking about yourrelationship,’ Mrs Bird fog-horned. Evie winced and tried really hard not to swivel her eyes around to see who’d heard. ‘The divorce and then to find out that he’d got someone else pregnant.’
‘We don’t have a relationship,’ she said, trying to chuckle light-heartedly. ‘Anyway, how areyou? Mum told me you went on a coach tour of Holland this year?’
‘Yes, we went to see the tulips. They were absolutely splendid. Now, you and Danny. You’ve had averylong relationship. I remember the time when you woke me up canoodling on your doorstep in the middle of the night. When was that? A long time ago. I remember it because I was wearing my green and pink floral night-dress and I think I’ve had that about ten years. You must have been very young then. How old are you now? I know you’re all career women nowadays, but I always thought you’d be one of the ones who settled down young and had children early. You must be so upset that Danny had a baby without you.’
