Page 26 of The Wedding Forecast

‘No spark?’

‘Too early to say.’

I am watching Patrick move around the room as we talk. He accidentally bumps Gary, who slightly spills his water, and then turns around and huffs about it.

‘I think he’s interested,’ Mac says.

‘How could you possibly know?’

‘I’m pretty good at reading body language,’ Mac says.

‘What did his body language say?’

‘It said, he thought you were cute.’

‘Cute.’ I make a face.

‘Cute is good.’

‘Cute is fine. But he’s supposed to be the love of my life. He needs to think I’m more than cute.’

‘Beautiful. I meant to say, he thought you were unbelievably, breathtakingly beautiful.’

‘No, I know what the body language of a guy who thinks I’m unbelievably, breathtakingly beautiful is.’

‘Oh yeah?’ Mac says, tipping his head a little towards me and smiling. ‘What is it?’

‘See the way you’re leaning in to me right now? Like that.’

Mac laughs.

This is flirting, I realise. Flirting with Mac is easy. Because there are no stakes. He’s like a flirting blank canvas. A scene partner. You lob a ball to him, he’ll hit it back, but it’s just a warm up, not a real game.

‘Are you giving a speech tomorrow?’ he asks me.

‘Yes, are you?’

‘No, Joel is doing the honours.’

‘How do you feel about that?’

‘Fine.’

‘Surely the professional actor should be the one giving the speech.’

‘Well Joel is the best man. And apparently he gives a lot of presentations in his work.’

‘Let’s put it this way, he’s not as good a public speaker as he thinks he is.’

‘Is this an objective assessment or an ex’s assessment?’

‘Both. He gets nervous. He’ll have no idea what to do with his hands if he can’t grip a PowerPoint clicker.’

‘Hands are tricky. You have to not think about them. If the thought “What do I do with my hands?” enters your mind in front of a crowd, it’s all over, you’re ruined.’

‘Now I am going to be thinking about my hands nonstop.’

‘You’ll do great.’