My phone dinged with a WhatsApp message. I reached for it. Seb and I were doing OK and had seemingly managed to move on from the hiccup. The fact he’d been on some dates certainly seemed to indicate that was the case. I knew I had no right to wonder about those dates, but I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t help wish that I’d met him some other way than through work. Maybe Jess was right. Maybe he wouldn’t or couldn’t come. I opened my phone.
Hey. I just got an invite to an engagement party from Jess and Harry. He’s doing a charity challenge for us. You OK with me coming? I won’t if you’ll think it’s weird or makes you uncomfortable. (As I know you’re happy to say no, I feel able to ask this in complete confidence that you’ll answer me honestly ??)
I turned the phone screen towards my computer.
Jess squinted. ‘I can’t read that. I haven’t got my contacts in. As it is, you’re kind of fuzzy round the edges.’
‘I’m fuzzy round the edges at the best of times.’
Jess rolled her uncorrected eyes. ‘What does it say?’
I put the phone back on the coffee table. ‘That Seb’s just received your invite and would I mind if he went.’
‘I hope you’ve replied and told him you wouldn’t.’ Jess said, clearly forgetting she’d just offered to uninvite him.
‘Not yet.’
‘Why not?’
‘It’s just come in! And I haven’t decided if that’s the right answer yet.’
‘Oh pfft. Of course, it’s the right answer.’
I gave Jess a look, which she immediately shrugged off. Possibly because she couldn’t see my expression clearly or possibly because it was Jess and her curiosity was a force to be reckoned with. Also, even with my plan in place, I knew that she knew that I was never going to stop Seb from going to the party.
‘Your mum and dad have already said they’ll be there. And Mario and Andy, of course.’
‘Are Harry’s parents coming?’
Jess let out a bit of a sigh. ‘Yeah.’
‘How’s that going?’
‘Slowly. I guess it will just take them some time to get used to the fact Harry’s not chosen from the stable of “suitable types” they’d expected him to.’
‘They can’t not love you, Jess. And just look how happy you make Harry. That’s got to count for something.’
‘Yes. But I also didn’t go to private school, and I’m mixed race. I’m pretty sure, as far as they’re concerned, that’s two strikes against me.’
I pulled a sympathetic face, but Jess batted it away.
‘It’s fine. They’re an old money family and Harry’s their golden boy. It was unlikely ever to be free from drama. And you know me, I love a bit of drama.’ She gave me a wink. ‘I think it was a bit of a shock initially. He was expected to hook up with some titled pony club type after a deal their parents did while they were both in their prams.’
‘Does that still happen?’ I asked, a little surprised.
‘More than you’d think, apparently. Anyway, this lady wotserface rather put paid to that when she eloped last year with a penniless Romanian musician.’
‘Ah.’
‘Yeah, so I think at the moment they’re considering that, although I don’t have the titles, or monied background, I may actually have a lot more sense. And, of course, I’ll look fabulous in all the photos.’
I grinned. I loved this aspect of Jess’ personality and it reassured me that she had that inner strength not to let prejudice ruin the life she was choosing.
‘What does Harry think about it all?’
‘He stood up at the first family dinner he took me to in order to meet his parents, toasted me and, in a roundabout way, told them that we now came as a package. Without me, they didn’t get him either. But in that kind, adorable, cute way of his.’
‘That still left them in no doubt that he wasn’t about to take, or let you take, any shit over his choice.’
