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‘Audrey,’ said Audrey.
‘Clive,’ said Clive.
After peering around to ensure the flight attendant was nowhere in sight, Audrey scuttled back up the aisle, weaving through passengers waiting for the toilets. When she finally got to the curtain and peeped through, she saw Josh immediately. She would have recognised his thick head of hair anywhere. Yes! He was on the plane! She couldn’t see who was sitting next to him, though.
‘Miss, I’m afraid you can’t go through there.’ The same flight attendant yanked the curtain closed and furnished her with another hard stare.
‘Oh, I know, I’m just looking for someone,’ Audrey said, attempting her most disarming smile. ‘My fiancé is up there, I’m surprising him. He doesn’t know I’m here.’ Both of those statements were true. The woman’s face instantly transformed. ‘I wanted to make a grand gesture,’ Audrey went on. ‘Maybe you’d let me use the Tannoy so I could let him know I’m here?’ Audrey conjured an image of declaring to the whole plane how sorry she was. Maybe she could sing a song like Adam Sandler did in The Wedding Singer. She had nothing prepared, but she could probably make something up on the spot.
‘No one uses the Tannoy,’ said the flight attendant sharply, as though Audrey had just asked if she could man the controls of the plane and fly a loop-the-loop. Then she tilted her head to a sympathetic angle. ‘Look, if you wanted to nip in there, just to say hello, I’ll make an exception, just this once.’
‘Thank you so much,’ Audrey said, slipping through the class divide.
Josh was sitting with his eyes closed, listening to headphones. He looked exhausted, and in the chair next to him was –
‘Granny Parker? You brought Granny Parker?’ Audrey said, causing Josh to open his eyes and remove his headphones.
‘Audrey?’
Audrey noticed that all the other passengers were now looking at her, and she crouched down to be less conspicuous. ‘You brought Granny Parker on our honeymoon?’
Josh sighed. ‘She has a lung condition. Her doctor said a holiday in the sun could do her good.’ On cue, Granny Parker coughed weakly.
‘Look, I’m so sorry about everything. Yesterday was completely insane. I don’t want to make excuses, but please can we talk?’ Audrey said, ignoring Granny Parker and focusing on Josh. ‘That can’t be how we leave things – you running off to the airport without me.’
‘Me running off?’ Josh said, shaking his head in bemusement. ‘Me running off is not the reason you’re not here beside me. You having another man’s photo in your wallet all this time, and then kissing this guy on our wedding day is the reason.’ He spoke calmly, quietly, but he was clearly still furious.
Granny Parker tutted and shook her head. Audrey was suddenly very aware of every ear in business class now tuned in to their conversation.
‘I knew it wouldn’t end well, as soon as we hit traffic on the way out of London. I felt it in my knuckles,’ muttered Granny Parker.
‘Please, Josh...’
‘And then the one thing I asked of you – to give me some space – and you couldn’t even do that, Audrey.’
‘I didn’t want you going away thinking I was in love with someone else! I’m not. I swear I’m not, I can explain—’
‘Is this woman bothering you, sir?’ The flight attendant was back and standing over Audrey, frowning as she realised this was not the romantic reunion she had been promised.
‘She is,’ said Granny Parker stoutly. ‘She is bothering us.’
‘Josh?’ Audrey pleaded.
‘I am going to have to ask you to go back to your seat, miss,’ said the flight attendant.
‘Josh, please,’ Audrey tried again, but he wouldn’t meet her eye. He looked so miserable. All Audrey wanted to do was reach out and hug him, but now the flight attendant was taking her arm and physically frogmarching her back to her seat. She could feel the eyes of disapproval from the other passengers, as though she had broken some code of conduct by daring to step the wrong side of the blue curtain.
‘Shame on you,’ muttered a woman two rows behind Josh.
‘Your fiancé?’ the flight attendant asked, her sarcasm clear.
‘He is, he was. It’s just a misunderstanding,’ Audrey said, but then they were through the curtain and the attendant drew it firmly closed behind her.
As she sat down in her seat, a girl in the row behind leaned forward and asked, ‘So, who’s he here with?’ Audrey turned around in bemusement to see who was asking her this. The girl was in her twenties, she had platinum blond hair and several lip piercings, ‘I’m Keeley, I overheard the whole story. I’m kind of invested now.’
‘His grandmother,’ Audrey said, too deflated to even care that half the plane had overheard her story.
‘Wow,’ said Elena. ‘I wouldn’t have called that. I thought it would have been the sister for sure.’
