One
Maddy didn’t notice she was getting proposed to at first.
She was standing near the drinks table at her great aunt Margaret’s eighty-ninth party—they weren’t waiting for her ninetieth birthday to throw a bashjustin case—while a stranger was telling her a story about getting lost on the way here. The woman was funny and dry. She had dark hair pulled back loosely. She spoke with emphatic hands.
‘So, I’m driving around for ten minutes thinking, this cannot possibly be right,’ the woman said, smiling. ‘And then I see a balloon tied to a gate.Hasto be it, right?’
Maddy smiled and nodded.
‘So, I knock on the door and it just kind of opens. And I go in and yell, “Happy birthday, Margaret!” And guess what it was.’
Maddy shook her head, rapt.
‘A dog birthday party,’ the woman said. ‘Not even a big one. Just four adults standing in a kitchen singing to a spaniel in a bow tie.’
Maddy burst out laughing. ‘How did they react?’
‘After we sorted out the confusion, they were just excited at having another guest. They tried to talk me into staying.’
Maddy chuckled and took a sip of her wine.
The woman tilted her head. ‘So how do you know the family?’
‘Oh. Um.’ Maddy hesitated, like she always did when it was her turn to talk. ‘Margaret is my great aunt.’
‘She’s my gran’s friend. I guess I’m just here to make up the numbers,’ she said with a half-smile. ‘You here with a boyfriend, or…’
Maddy nodded. ‘Yeah, Adam.’
‘How long have you guys been together?’ the woman said, eyebrows lifting slightly.
The attention on Maddy caused her shoulders to tighten a skosh. ‘Twelve years.’
‘That’s impressive,’ the woman said. ‘You must have met youngish.’
‘Uni. My house gave a party, and he turned up.’
The woman studied her for a moment, and Maddy felt an odd nervous flutter in her tummy. Her social anxiety had kicked in.
‘I’m Jess,’ the woman said, holding out her hand.
‘Maddy.’ Their hands touched. Maddy noticed the strength in them, the softness in them. She bet Jess gave a hell of a massage.
‘So,’ Jess said. ‘Twelve years. How does that feel?’
Maddy opened her mouth to answer and then paused. Howdidit feel?
‘Fine,’ she said. ‘Good. Normal.’
Jess smiled. ‘Normal.’
‘Yeah,’ Maddy said, then added quickly, ‘I mean, it’s not like it’s boring or anything. We’re just comfortable.’
‘Comfortable is underrated,’ Jess said kindly.
If you were my friend, everything would be better,Maddy thought.
She felt that flicker in her tummy again, stronger this time. Slightly different from her normal anxiety. She tried to pinpoint the feeling, but never quite found her way to it.
