‘Not yet,’ Miranda said. ‘Although I might be about to have a heart attack.’
Morag went off to get the whisky. Miranda knocked it back, gasping and wiping her eyes.
‘So that’s why you haven’t given us any details about the wedding,’ Holly said, after Morag had gone. Lewis was sitting there looking dumbstruck, but Holly still seemed calm.
‘It wasn’t planned,’ Jasmine said. ‘I was kind of kidding around, saying wouldn’t it be awesome to just elope, not have to go through the whole big expensive wedding thing, and that I didn’t want anyone to think it was a shotgun wedding– everyone in my family is super fertile; it’s kind of a miracle I’ve never got knocked up before– and the next thing I knew, Charles was booking us on to a flight.’
‘Why aren’t you wearing a wedding ring?’
‘Because we don’t have them yet. We just got a couple of cheap ones for the wedding which we took off on the way here.’
‘If… when you have a baby, where are you planning to live?’ Holly asked.
‘Charles is going to join me in Miami. He can do his work for Gravitas remotely.’
Those bombshells just kept coming.
‘Oh. Oh my God. I need to…’ Miranda didn’t finish the sentence, almost knocking her chair over as she stood. She staggered off to the ladies.
‘Should I go and talk to her?’ Jasmine asked.
‘I really wouldn’t.’ That was Holly. She looked properly upset now. Pale, shaking a little. When she spoke, her voice was quiet. ‘He already has a family, you know.’
‘Of course.’
Jasmine glanced up at Lewis as if appealing for help. He had been awfully silent during this whole conversation.
‘It’s…’ He groped for what to say. ‘I actually think it’s exciting. I mean, you were going to get married anyway so I think it makes sense for you to do it quickly and quietly. And I like the idea of having a little half-brother or -sister. Someone to look up to me.’
The part about Charles moving to Florida seemed to have affected Holly the most, as if that had made her realize how serious all this was. Made her worry she was losing her dad to this woman and their plans to start a new family. I reached out to take her hand, to offer comfort, and held it, limp in mine.
Lewis stood up and opened his arms to Jasmine. ‘Come here.’
Jasmine got up, too, and allowed Lewis to hug her.
As they broke apart, Miranda reappeared, phone in hand.‘I tried to call my dad. He’s not answering. Neither of them are. Did Zack know about this?’
‘No,’ Jasmine replied.
‘I don’t believe you.’ She sucked in a breath. ‘I need to get out of here.’
She moved towards the door of the pub, Lewis following her. Jasmine said she needed the bathroom, and then Holly said, ‘We haven’t paid. I’ll do it. Brenda will just have to put up with seeing me.’
I went outside, instantly hit by a blast of frigid air. Lewis and Miranda were over by his car, talking with their backs to me. I headed in their direction, then stopped. Did I really want to talk to them? The whole scene had made me deeply uncomfortable. In that moment, all I wanted was to go home to Brighton, back to my and Holly’s happy cocoon, far away from these people and their dramas.
The wind carried Lewis’s and Miranda’s voices over to me.
‘Why are you being so nice to her?’ Miranda asked. ‘I don’t get it.’
I didn’t catch his response.
‘And you’re still taking her to see the caves. Isn’t it too late for her to touch the stupid Serpent Stone now?’ Her tone was sarcastic.
This time I heard his reply. ‘It’s for new brides, too. And people who are trying to get pregnant.’
‘I don’t want them to have good luck. I wish she’d dropdead.’ She was talking at a high volume, her voice cracking with emotion. I realized there was an extra layer to this, that made me feel some sympathy for her. If she and Zack had tried to conceive but hadn’t been able to, hearing from Jasmine that not only was she planning to have a baby but that she was ‘super fertile’ must have been painful.
They still had their backs to me, unaware I was listening. Lewis put his hand on Miranda’s shoulder, and she shrugged him off violently.
