Which was entirely his prerogative but hadreallyhurt when Tess told her about it and ridiculously still hurt even now if she thought about it.
‘Lily? Hun? Are you alright?’ Aaliyah had sat down in Matt’s vacated seat without Lily even noticing. ‘You look… angry?’
‘Angry? No.’ Lily shook her head. ‘Nothing to be angry about. Certainly not angry.’ She felt her forehead furrowing into a frown and straightened it with an effort. She actually almostneverdid overt anger other than the surface kind at things like strangers driving badly. In fact, shedidn’treally usually get that angry. Ever.
Bloody Matt, though. Right now, she wasseething. Anyway. No one, except Tess possibly, should be having a strop at Tess’s wedding-eve dinner. ‘Come on. Why don’t we go and find Tess? See if she wants to walk back down to the hotel yet.’
‘Good plan. She definitely wants an early night and I wouldn’t mind one myself. Tomorrow will obviously be a big one and then I’m on my early flight on Saturday and back to the kids, which I can’t wait for, but I’dloveone more earlyish night now lying star-shaped in the middle of my lovely big bed, all on my own, just me and the TV remote and maybe a little glass of something.’
Lily laughed and stood up.
Tess was talking to her parents when Lily and Aaliyah spotted her. When she saw them she began some quite extreme eye signals.
‘Hello, hello,’ she said when they reached her. ‘Have you come to nag me to leave and get a good night’s sleep? Thought so. Okay then. You’ve twisted my arm. Night, Mum. Night, Dad.’ She gave both her parents a quick hug and then practically shoved them away from her and linked arms with Lily and Aaliyah and began to walk towards the garden gate.
‘Thank you, thank you, thank you for saving me,’ she said to them. ‘Obviously I adore Mum and Dad, buthonestly, my mother’s turned into some kind of crazy mother-of-the-bride-zilla over this wedding. You shouldhearher. You honestly wouldn’t believe the change in her. I can hardly believe it myself. She’s so chilled normally. But honestly. Have I checked whether my flowers will clash with my dad’s tie? Have I asked the hotel for slices of cucumber to put over my eyes this evening? Have I worn my shoes around the hotel a little bit so that they don’t pinch my toes tomorrow? So. Much. Nagging.’
‘I mean that isunimaginable,’ Aaliyah said, dripping sarcasm.
‘I know.’ Tess shook her head, seemingly oblivious.
Meg was walking towards them holding Pythagoras’s hand. ‘I think we’re going to say good night,’ she said. ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’
‘You’ll dowhat?’ Tess screeched. ‘Are youjoking? You can’t spend the night with Pythagoras if that’s what you were planning. I need all my bridesmaids around me.’
‘Areyoujoking?’ Meg asked.
‘Are you beingrudeto me? The night before my wedding?’
Aaliyah did an across-the-throat, stop-talking-right-now action behind Tess while Lily mouthed, ‘She’s definitely not joking,’ at Meg.
‘So we’re all going to be going back to the hotel together,’ said Tess.
‘But I have to leave on Saturday,’ said Meg, her voice wobbling.
Pythagoras winked at Lily and Aaliyah, and gently tugged Meg towards him and spoke into her ear.
Meg nodded. ‘Great,’ she said. ‘Let’s go back to the hotel now then.’
‘Are you going to sneak out when I’m not looking?’ asked Tess.
‘Of course not,’ Meg said, eyebrows raised the way they always were when she was lying. ‘What am I, a naughty child?’
‘Darling.’ Tess’s mum was running towards them, sprinting actually, looking like she’d be in serious contention for some kind of over-sixties world record. ‘Don’t do that facepack I was telling you about. Penelope says it can cause spots in the short-term.Do not do it.’
‘Oh my God,’ said Meg to Lily, Aaliyah and Pythagoras, while Tess and her mum hyperventilated together, loudly, about spots on a wedding day. ‘Complete. Effing. Bridezillas. The pair of them. I amso pissed off.’
‘OMG.’ Aaliyah had been on her phone, checking for messages from her husband about their kids. ‘You think you’ve seen bridezilla… have you seen the weather forecast for tomorrow?’
‘No, what?’ Lily said. Was there going to be a massive heatwave? Did that happen on small islands? Didn’t sea breezes keep temperatures to manageable levels?
Aaliyah whispered something – weird; Aaliyah was not a whisperer – and the others all moved closer because she’d whispered too quietly.
‘Couldn’t hear that,’ Meg said.
‘Rain,’ Aaliyah whisper-hissed.
‘Rain?’ Lily said. The whole wedding apart from the ceremony itself was planned for outside.
