‘I’m not leaving you like this.’
‘You should,’ Maddy said, more quietly. ‘There’s probably some caterer somewhere fucking up that only you can stop.’
‘I don’tcareabout that right now.’
Maddy let out a small, unsteady breath. ‘Well, I do. Or I’m supposed to. That’s the problem.’
There was a pause. Then Eva said, ‘You were going to say something.’
Maddy closed her eyes. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘It does tome.’
Maddy turned then, slowly. She was so bloody tired. The day was too long. Her life was too long.
‘I couldn’t stop you,’ she said, ‘because I didn’twantto.’
Maddy looked at Eva, searching her face for something. Something in her that saidI can’t handle what you’re going to say.
Instead, Eva just stood there, very still.
‘And I think…’ Maddy started, then faltered. ‘I think that’s because—’
She broke off, pressing her lips together, like she’d gone too far already. Was this it? Was she going to say it? Was she going tothinkit?
Eva took a step closer, carefully, like she was approaching something fragile. ‘Because what?’
Maddy let out a breath that almost sounded like a laugh but wasn’t. ‘I don’t know how to say it without it sounding bigger than I can deal with right now.’
‘You can just say it,’ Eva said quietly.
Then, slowly, as if each word had to be chosen and understood at the same time: ‘Because I… I’m iron-deficient!’
Eva’s eyebrows shot up. ‘What?’
Maddy shook her head at her—Just gimme a second.‘A few years ago, I was feeling so exhausted all the time, and I kept getting colds. So I went to the doctor, and she prescribed iron. And I suddenly feltright. My immune system kicked in again, and I had energy, and… That’s what happened when I met you. Only I didn’t know I was missing anything until I got a big shot ofyou. And then suddenly…’ Maddy stopped and sighed. ‘You’re exactly what Ineed,Eva.’
Forty-Four
Eva felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. ‘I didn’t expect this.’
Maddy let out a weak, humourless laugh. ‘You and me both.’
‘No, I mean…’ Eva ran a hand through her hair, pacing once, then stopping again. ‘I thought I’d come up here, apologise, maybe get you back downstairs, wrestle this whole situation into something resembling a wedding, and instead… This.’
‘This?’ Maddy echoed.
There was a beat. Then Eva said, more carefully, ‘You need me?’
Maddy winced slightly. ‘When you repeat it like that, it sounds… unhinged.’
‘That’s not what I think,’ Eva said quickly.
Maddy looked at her, eyes wide with fear. ‘Then whatdoyou think?’
‘I think I told you that you didn’t have to go and get married, and you made a choice,’ Eva told her. ‘And I took that choice seriously.’
From below, a cheer went up, followed by the unmistakable sound of someone attempting a speech. Glasses clinked. Someone whooped.
