There you are,Eva had typed.
It had been too personal. She’d known it the moment she sent it.
Now, standing in the greenhouse with Serena’s decision locked in, Eva realised it had been their final communication. Maddy had said nothing more.
As Eva stepped back out into the afternoon light outside the greenhouse, Serena, blathering on about ‘important hashtags’, Eva’s phone buzzed in her coat pocket.
Her pulse jumped before she could stop it. It was an email. Linen supplier. Eva exhaled slowly and slid her phone back into her pocket.
You don’t make friends of brides, she reminded herself.You don’t need a reply from Maddy.
She walked toward the car park, invisible to Serena and her mother, now discussing colour palettes.
But as she reached for her keys, a quieter thought edged in, unwelcome and unbidden.
But you don’t want to be herfriend, do you? You don’t want that at all.
Fifteen
The engagement party was being held at Adam’s parents’ house. Maddy and Adam’s entire flat could have fit in their garage, so it was the obvious and thrifty choice.
Maddy stood in the downstairs loo and stared at her reflection.
‘You look nice,’ she told herself. It was more like a command than a compliment.
She was wearing a navy dress. She didn’t do bold colours. They made her feel like a toddler playing dress-up.
Voices drifted down the hallway. Laughter, the clink of champagne flutes, Adam’s father already in full performance mode. Maddy took a deep breath.
It’s just a party.
Her phone buzzed in her hand. For one wild, illogical second, she thought of Eva. Not because she expected her to text, she had no cause. But Eva wouldn’t have feared this evening. She wasn’t scared of anything, anyone.
The buzz was from her mother.
Where have you gone?
Coming, Maddy typed back.
She slipped the phone into her clutch and opened the door.
‘There she is!’ Adam’s father, Harry, called the moment Maddy appeared at the end of the hallway.
Every head turned.
Maddy felt the now-familiar sensation of stepping onto a runway. She wished it were the kind you took flight from.
Adam crossed the room toward her, smiling. He looked handsome and relaxed. Entirely at home. As well he might. His bedroom stood upstairs, untouched, a museum to his childhood. Maddy’s mother had gotten a cross-trainer into her room the day she left for uni. It had been delivered while she was packing the car. But Adam’s parents had the big house. They could afford an unused room. So every time Adam walked into this house, he was coming home.
But Maddy wasn’t really at home anywhere. Except maybe in the library.
‘You okay?’ Adam murmured, kissing her cheek.
‘Of course,’ she said.
‘My mother’s doing my head in,’ Adam said.
Maddy glanced across at Sandy. She looked mute, as ever. She spoke very rarely in Maddy’s presence. ‘Really?’
