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The truth of Cora’s words flooded through her, washing away every lie she’d been telling herself for weeks, until all that was left was the shiny clean knowledge that, yes, she was in love with Alex.
But was that enough?
‘I don’t know what to do,’ she whispered, and Cora wrapped her arms around her.
‘Tell me about it. I’m getting married the day after tomorrow and my fiancé is furious with me.’ Cora groaned, and let her head fall to rest on top of Lily’s. ‘We’re both a mess.’
‘But only one of us has to sort this out before Saturday,’ Lily said, straightening up so Cora had to move away. ‘My issues can wait. Let’s sort you out first.’ She might have been a rubbish maid of honour so far, but if she could fix this tonight, maybe she’d win back some best friend points.
‘And how exactly do you plan to do that?’ Cora asked, reaching for her wine again.
Lily sighed. ‘Okay, bottom line. What will make you feel better tonight?’
‘Seeing Rhys,’ Cora replied without hesitation.
Of course. Well, if that’s what it took… ‘You know it’s not exactly good form to gate crash your own fiancé’s stag night though, right?’ In fact, Lily was pretty sure it was written in one of Evelyn’s rules of etiquette. Although, given what she’d learnt about Evelyn and Max, she wasn’t sure even her mum was obeying those rules any more.
‘We don’t have to go in,’ Cora said, slowly, like she was thinking through an idea. ‘I just need to see him.’
‘This is like the Virgin Mary thing, isn’t it?’ Lily said. ‘Unlikely to make any actual difference at all, but you’ll feel better for doing it.’
‘Pretty much,’ Cora admitted.
‘Right then. Grab your coat.’
* * * *
‘Good grief, could you two look any more miserable?’ Gareth adjusted the bright pink wig on top of his head and signalled to the bartender for another three pints. ‘This is a stag do, not a wake. And we’ve got another three pubs to do before we hit the strip club, so you’d better both cheer up.’
‘No strip club,’ Rhys said. It was, Alex thought, possibly the most words he’d spoken at one time all evening.
Gareth tsked and rolled his eyes, then turned his attention back to the buxom blonde barmaid.
‘You promised Cora no strippers, huh?’ Alex asked.
Rhys shook his head. ‘She wouldn’t care. Probably wouldn’t even notice if I brought one of them home. But that place is terrifyingly awful.’
‘Well, I’m glad to be spared it all the same.’ Alex eyed his soon-to-be cousin-in-law carefully. ‘Everything okay with you and Cora?’
Rhys sighed. ‘It will be. Once this bloody wedding is out of the way.’
Ah. So that was the problem. ‘It does seem to have become rather… all encompassing.’
‘Yeah. And, honestly, she’s more interested in Lily and your relationship than she is in ours.’
‘Lily and I don’t have a relationship.’
‘That’s kind of the problem, mate.’
‘Oh. Sorry.’
‘So you should be. Told you that you were an idiot to get involved.’ Rhys gave him a weak smile. ‘Kidding, mate.’
‘Only partly though, right?’ Alex knew what people were saying, already. Had heard it suggested that he’d stolen Lily away from her fiancé, then dumped her when he got bored. He couldn’t imagine it was any more fun for her, knowing the truth of it. ‘But we’re just friends now. It’ll all be okay.’
Rhys gave him a look. ‘Sure. Course it will.’
‘Right!’ Gareth turned back from the bar, three pints and three shot glasses on his tray. ‘Here’s what we’re going to do. We are going to sit down at that table by the fire, and I am going to instruct the two of you in the ways of love. And then we’re going to the strip club, because this is supposed to be a bloody stag night, even if you have managed to scare off all your other friends.’
‘They’re in the back,’ Rhys pointed out. ‘Playing pool.’
‘You’re going to instruct us in the ways of love?’ Alex asked. ‘You remember that your wife just kicked you out, right?’
‘And we’re definitely not going to the strip club,’ Rhys added.
Gareth slammed the tray onto the table just hard enough to make a noise, but without sending anything more than foam cascading down the sides of the pint glasses. ‘Sit.’
Exchanging glances, Alex and Rhys did what they were told.
‘Okay. You first.’ Gareth picked up his pint glass and waved it at Rhys. ‘You are marrying the love of your life on Saturday. You are nowhere near good enough for my cousin, and should be pathetically grateful we’re even letting you into the family. And just because Cora has lost her mind right now doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still be worshipping the very ground she walks on.’ He pushed a shot glass towards him. ‘Now drink this.’
Rhys blinked at him. ‘What is it?’
‘Doesn’t matter.’
As Rhys cautiously sniffed at his shot before shrugging and throwing it back, Gareth turned to Alex, and Alex tried not to shrink back in his chair at the determined look on his brother’s face.
‘And as for you…’ Gareth shook his head. ‘It’s not supposed to be this hard, Al. You can’t decide to get married and just grab the first girl you see and decide to make her fit the bill. But you can’t change the way you feel, either. If you love her, you love her. Pretending to just want to be friends won’t change that, you know. You can’t wish away love just because she doesn’t fit with what you think Dad wanted you to have in your life.’
‘That’s not what I’m doing,’ Alex said, but he didn’t sound convincing, even to himself.
‘Al, if you love her, you love her. End of story. You just have to figure out where you go next. Now, drink your shot.’
Alex picked up the small glass, eyeing the contents with suspicion. ‘It’s not tequila, is it? You know I hate –’
‘Just drink it.’
A lifetime of being the younger brother kicked in, and Alex did as he was told, spluttering and blinking as the tequila went down. ‘Jesus, Gareth, couldn’t you have picked something that cost more than a quid?’
But when his eyes cleared, he realized that Gareth and Rhys weren’t paying him any attention at all. They were staring at the window behind them, and when he looked, he could see why.
On the other side of the glass stood Cora and Lily, pressed in close to the tiny window. Through the grimy glass, Alex could just make out Cora mouthing, ‘I’m sorry,’ and waving at Rhys, who grinned and waved back. ‘Goodnight,’ Cora mouthed, and blew a kiss.
Lily didn’t say anything, or make any hand movements, but the smile she gave him warmed Alex far more than the almost-lethal tequila had.
‘See?’ Gareth murmured. ‘It’s all very easy when you don’t try to make it hard.’
‘Maybe you’re right,’ Alex said as Cora and Lily disappeared from view again.
Rhys turned back to them, still grinning broadly. Apparently all he’d really needed was proof that his fiancée still remembered who he was.
‘Let’s have another of these,’ he announced, holding up the shot glass. ‘And then we’re going to the strip club!’
* * * *
The day before the wedding went by in a blur. Before Lily had time to think, she was squeezing into her fancy lingerie and tugging on her raspberry bridesmaid dress, and too busy making sure that Cora was okay to even have time to think about what had happened last time she wore that dress.
‘He’ll be there, right?’ Cora asked, a dozen times on their way to the church.
‘Alex already texted,’ Lily reassured her, each time. ‘Rhys is there, pacing the church, waiting for you. Your happy ever after starts here.’
And it did. Lily stood, bouquet in hand, and watched as her best friend since childhood promised to love, honour and cherish the man she loved – and as he promised it back. How could anyone not believe i
n love and marriage right then?
But really, Lily mused as the vicar droned on, it wasn’t the public ceremony that convinced her. It was the private moments. The way Rhys always took a glass of water up for Cora at bedtime, because she always forgot. It was Cora singing Rhys’s favourite song while she cooked dinner. It wasn’t a spare room full of wedding books and samples – it was Cora at the window last night, and Rhys beaming back at the sight of her.
