I blushed a little. ‘It’s inspired by Skyler, the Pokémon trainer card.’
Jennifer laughed. ‘Of course it is. At least your mom let you choose what you wanted to wear and didn’t make you dress in a meringue and make me dress in teal.’
‘Yes.’
‘And she let us do our own hair and make-up too. She didn’t call that guy – what’s his name, that dramatic one from her show? – to do it.’
‘His name is Angus.’
‘Well, I for one am very happy that Angus is not doing my hair and make-up right now. And who in this day and age is called Angus anyway? Isn’t that a type of beef.’
‘He’s Scottish,’ I replied, looking down at my white sneakers, feeling very grateful that I hadn’t been made to wear heels.
‘You know what,’ Jennifer said, pacing the room now, the dogs hot on her feet. ‘You just have to get through this. Your mom has been wanting to throw you a wedding since before you were born. Just let her have this moment, and when it’s over you’re off to the Maldives to have sex for ten days. Think about the sex and the snorkeling and all the tropical fish while you’re walking past the faux-gold pillars lining the hundred-meter aisle covered in red, velvety petals.’
‘Okay! Fish, snorkeling, sex.’
‘Exactly. Although I would not have put them in that order necessarily, but whatever.’
‘Fish, sex and snorkeling!’ I repeated.
‘Nah, not that order either, but the sentiment is there.’ Jennifer placed her hand on my shoulder quickly and then pulled away equally quickly. She knew exactly how long to touch me for.
‘Thanks for being here.’ I turned around and then reached out and gave her shoulder a little pat too.
‘I wouldn’t have missed this for the world, seriously.’
‘I’m sorry things didn’t work out with Colleen.’
Jennifer shrugged. ‘One of the upsides to this wedding is that I’m sure, among the one-thousand-plus invited guests, I’ll find someone who won’t mind sharing abathroomwith me.’
‘It was more of a changing room,’ I corrected her again.
‘You were pressed up against a bathroom vanity, Pippa. I think that says “bathroom” loud and clear.’
I smiled at her. Jennifer was, and would always be, my best friend. Even if I didn’t communicate with her all the time, even if we didn’t connect for months on end, it just worked.
‘You’re my best friend,’ I said.
She sighed dramatically. ‘I know. I feel sorry for you.’
‘You’re not that bad,’ I joked back.
We looked at each other awkwardly. We weren’t the kind of friends who got gushy and sentimental with each other. Jennifer was naturally dark and somewhat gloomy – at school they’d called her Wednesday Addams – and I was on the autism spectrum. As such, neither of us was comfortable with big shows of emotion and sentiment. But this felt like the right moment.
‘You know I love you, right?’ I said to her.
‘Me too,’ she said, and grimaced. ‘Are we done now?’ she asked.
‘Totally done!’
‘Great!’ she said, and then we gave each other the quickest of hugs and pulled away.
‘Right!’ I looked down at my dogs. I wished they were coming to the wedding with me. But I was too afraid that, had I expressed an interest to bring them, my mom would have had doggy bridal outfits made for them and had them walk down the aisle with the ring. They would have been mortified. ‘Come on, I’ll throw the ball for you outside for five minutes before we go!’
At the word ‘ball’, they jumped and raced for the door. I walked out of the front door and stopped when I saw everyone standing in the driveway. Andrew was there, Andrew’s entire extended family was there and so were my mom and dad.
‘Hi!’ I said, looking around, startled. ‘Don’t you always say what bad luck it is to see the bride before the wedding?’ I asked my mom.
