‘Yeah? Great. Let’s just go ahead then.’
Maddy smiled. ‘You don’t want to see it?’
‘I have seen it,’ he said cheerfully. ‘I went on their website.’
‘Yes, but don’t you think you might want to actually stand in the space? Get a proper sense of it?’
He put a hand on her wrist. ‘No, I trust you.’
He’d been saying that a lot lately. It was supposed to be comforting, Maddy supposed. Funny how it was starting to piss her off.
‘Anyway, I don’t want to interfere with you and the wedding planner,’ he added.
That threw Maddy for a loop. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, she’s not… I mean, she’syourthing, isn’t she? I’d just confuse things.’
‘You’re allowed an opinion in this,’ Maddy said.
She almost added, ‘I’d actually quite like one, seeing as you set this whole ball rolling.’ But she didn’t.
‘You made her sound a bit scary,’ Adam said with a chuckle.
Maddy almost defended Eva. Then stopped herself, unsure why the urge felt so strong. ‘She’s okay. So, I can give her the go-ahead?’ Maddy asked again.
‘Pull the trigger, baby,’ Adam said.
Maddy texted Eva that they were a yes. A text came back not two minutes later, explaining that Eva had called the venue and placed a hold on the place for the next forty-eight hours until a formal contract was signed, which she would deliver tomorrow.
Man, Eva did not fuck around.
‘Since that’s done… Shall we write the envelopes now?’ Adam asked.
‘Why not?’ Maddy asked. She meant it literally. Why not? What was the reason?
They sat at the table with envelopes and stamps. Adam wrote addresses in neat, confident handwriting. Maddy hovered above her first envelope.
‘You OK?’ Adam asked.
‘Yes. It’s just… my handwriting. It’s terrible. I don’t want them to look a mess and…’
He took her stack with a small smile. ‘You can lick stamps.’
She smiled gratefully. ‘Thanks.’
‘Are you excited?’ he asked casually as he pressed on with his job.
‘Yes,’ she said quickly. ‘In a way.’
He nodded sympathetically. ‘Everyone says this part feels surreal.’
Surreal. Yes. That was a good word for it. The dress, the walk up the aisle, everyone there watching while she repeated all the stuff. The trouble was that none of it had ever seemed like something that was going to happen to her. She was going to get used to that idea eventually, though. Any day now.
But for the moment, Adam had given her permission to find the whole thing weird, so that was something. It might have been nice if he’d dug a bit deeper, but you couldn’t have everything, could you?
They fell into a rhythm, Adam handling the pen while Maddy was in charge of saliva distribution.
By the time the last envelope was sealed, the table was covered in neat stacks. She looked at them and thought:You don’t have to wait to be asked. You can just say how you’re feeling. Maybe he’s feeling the same. Maybe he’s waiting for you to say it first.
