‘Um.’ There was a bit of a silence and then she said, ‘Okay. I have a few minutes but not too long because we have a nail appointment this morning. I’ll see you in a second.’
She came round the bend in the stairs above him a couple of minutes later. She looked stunning. She was wearing denim shorts and an orangey loose vest top and her hair was incredibly different from how it had been yesterday.
‘Wow.’ He gestured at her hair. ‘You look…’
‘Better?’ She laughed.
‘Lovely is the word I was looking for. I mean, it’s great.’ It wassodifferent.Somuch better. Was it evenreal? Was it awig?
‘Aaliyah did it. It was her first hairdressing attempt, which I didn’t realise until afterwards, but luckily it turned out okay. Couldn’t really have been worse.’
‘It’s amazing.’ It really was.
‘Are you saying my hair looked bad yesterday?’ Lily had her eyes narrowed. He was pretty sure she was joking, but…
‘No?’
‘Ha.’ Lily laughed. ‘You looked panic-stricken there. I know it looked terrible yesterday.’
‘Not terrible, just different. And it looks fantastic today.’
‘Well, thank you. So you said you needed to talk to me about Tess? Is everything alright?’
‘Could we go somewhere where we won’t be overheard? Just while I explain?’
‘Goodness, sounds quite a big deal. Um.’ Lily looked around, her curls bouncing as she turned her head. ‘Maybe the beach?’
‘It’s nothing to worry about,’ Matt told her as they left the hotel. ‘Basically, I have something to tell Tess on behalf of Tom, before the wedding, and she needs the full details so that she doesn’t freak, but she doesn’t want to speak to me because she’s busy, so I wondered if you’d be able to tell her. And the reason that I thought us being out of earshot now would be best is that it might not sound great if she were to overhear a snippet.’
‘Oh my goodness.’ Lily stopped under a palm tree next to the beach and turned to face him. ‘You’re freakingmeout and I’m not the bride. What’s happened?’
‘It’s fine but Tom’s broken the middle finger on his right hand.’
‘What? How? This morning?’
‘Yesterday, actually, but he’s only just been to the medical centre.’
‘Oh my goodness. Is he alright?’
‘Yep, he’s fine. I mean, I think as finger breaks go it’s actually quite a bad one and quite painful, but it isn’t going to stop him getting married, although he might have to have an operation next week. But the wedding can go ahead, no problem. It’ll just be a story for their grandchildren.’
‘Woah. That story’s going to include Tess goingballistic. An operation in the middle of their honeymoon? What if he can’t get his dressing wet so he can’t swim or shower? They’re going to a five-star hotel with an amazing pool and a private beach that they’ve saved up for for years. She’s going to bereallyupset. Poor Tess. Well, at least it won’t ruin the wedding itself.’
Matt had always loved how loyal a friend Lily was. It might be a good idea if she didn’t exclaim so loudly now, though. Ruin was a strong word but it did seem that Tess was aiming for perfection wedding-wise, and they didn’t need her to hear this. What if she came out of the hotel? Or had her bedroom window open? He made a shushing motion.
‘Oh my God, itisgoing to ruin the wedding itself, isn’t it?’ Lily said, ignoring the shushing. ‘Can heusethe finger? Like for cutting the cake and things like that? And exchanging rings?’
‘I mean, he has nine other fingers and thumbs.’
‘What, so hecan’tuse it? Oh my goodness. Tess is going to beindescribablyupset. Wow. Nightmare.Nightmare. Well, at least it won’t ruin the photos. At least he doesn’t have a bad hairstyle.’
‘Shhh,’ Matt said again. ‘The dressing’s big.’
‘What? How big’s big? Oh my God,’ Lily practically screamed. ‘Visible-in-photos big?’
‘Yup. And she can’t really ban the groom from the wedding photos, and it might be quite hard to keep his hand out of all the photos.’
‘Wow.’ Lily went silent for a few moments and Matt tried really hard not to think about how gorgeous she looked today. Every day. Even yesterday when she’d had terrible hair. ‘Poor Tom. Poor Tess. She’s worked so hard for everything to be perfect.Suchbad timing.’
