We all shook hands and smiled and I suddenly felt entirely out of place.
‘Well, we should probably leave you in peace.’ Maria smiled at us both, and Mark held out his arm for her to take. As she did so, the light caught and flashed on something. An exquisitely cut diamond the size of my thumbnail set atop a platinum band on the third finger of her left hand. Seb’s eyes settled on it for a moment longer than mine before he raised them to her.
‘It looks like congratulations are in order.’
She glanced down, suddenly realising what he’d meant. ‘Oh,’ she looked flustered for a moment, clenching her fist and opening it again. ‘Yes. Mark proposed last summer. We’re… we’re getting married next month.’
Seb smiled. ‘That’s wonderful, Maria. Congratulations,’ he nodded to Mark, who returned the smile. ‘You’ve got a special woman there. But I guess you already know that.’
‘I certainly do.’
‘It was great to see you, Seb. You look really well.’
‘Yep. Doing good. Thanks.’
‘I’m really pleased. Look after yourself.’ She leant and placed a gentle kiss briefly on his cheek.
He gave a sharp nod and watched as they turned and walked away.
‘Seb?’ I prompted him after a few moments. The couple had gone, but his eyes were still fixed on the distance, his mind somewhere else.
‘Hmm?’ he turned back to me and, for a second, it was almost as though he was surprised to see me there, and I saw the wash of sadness across his face.
‘Someone you know?’ I asked. Clearly it was, but I didn’t really know what else to say, and Seb didn’t appear to be about to offer any explanation.
‘Err… yes. Yes, that was…’ he cleared his throat. ‘That was Maria.’
I’d kind of gathered that much. I was more interested as to who Maria actually was and why her presence had had such an impact on Seb.
I waited. Nothing.
‘And Maria is?’
‘My ex.’ He looked at me and clarified, ‘My ex-fiancée.’
35
Suddenly everything fell into place. He’d mentioned before that none of his relationships since had been particularly long lasting, and his ex from the health spa had said something about them just not having chemistry. Carla was gorgeous and so was Seb and although I knew that wasn’t exactly a prerequisite for a happy match, I also knew that it was hard to get chemistry to bubble when one of you keeps a lid on things.
I still didn’t know whether Maria had walked away from Seb, or whether he’d pushed her away, but from the look on his face now, it was a situation he regretted. And now she was due to marry a man she appeared very happy with.
I reached out to him but he was still distracted. The closeness of earlier, the attention, the lustful impatience… it had all gone.
‘You seem a little distracted. Shall I leave you to it?’
‘Huh? No, no. It’s fine.’ He turned briefly as he heard his name being called before turning back to face me, glancing at his watch as he did so. ‘It’s getting late so feel free to go if you want. I’ve got some things I still need to tie up here.’
‘Ooh, that sounds promising,’ Lady Genevieve Carstairs purred as she approached, wrapping her hands around one of Seb’s biceps.
He turned his head towards her briefly, the smile automatic and distracted. Not that she seemed to notice.
I shifted my weight, suddenly feeling like a third wheel. All the promise of earlier had dissolved into nothing. Even the celebratory fireworks had left trails of smoke across the twilight, but looking at Seb now, there was no trail of the feelings he’d professed just a short time ago. Seeing his ex had changed something, but with Lady Carstairs entwining herself around him, there wasn’t even an opportunity to ask him about it. To try to find out what had changed in those moments. And whether it was irreversible.
‘Oh!’ Genevieve widened her eyes and glanced between us. ‘Oh gosh, I haven’t interrupted anything, have I?’
I hoped for her sake she didn’t have any acting aspirations because she was bloody awful at it.
I did my best to keep my features immobile, even though I was inwardly screaming, Yes!
