AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘How well do you know her?’ I asked, watching her stop to whisper something in Catherine’s ear.
He shrugged. ‘Not very. She’s an old school friend of Cath’s.’
He was lying to me again. My heart began to thump. ‘You must have had a lot to catch up on, then,’ I said.
He looked at me strangely. ‘I’ve barely seen any of them this morning, Han. I was busy doing all your jobs, remember?’
He was on the defensive. He did that when he felt under pressure, I’d seen it before.
There was a whoop as the photographer took a group shot of Catherine and the bridesmaids. They all threw their bouquets in the air and caught them, except Alison, who dropped hers.
‘Relax, Hannah,’ he said, trying to laugh it off. ‘I know what you’re like when you haven’t had much sleep.’
I finished my drink, placing my empty glass on a nearby table and starting on my next. He was hiding something from me, I could see it in his eyes, in the sweat slicked across his upper lip. And then, because he could have been nicer about it all, and because I was too exhausted to pretend any more, my resolve to wait and hash it out later, in private, seemed to dissolve in the blink of an eye.
‘I read your texts,’ I said, very quietly, so that nobody but him could hear.
I saw him swallow, watched his left eye twitch.
‘What texts?’
‘The ones from Alison,’ I said. ‘What was she trying to get hold of you for?’
He rubbed at his eyebrow nervously. ‘It was nothing, Han. Something about the wedding, that was all. She was getting fed up with Cath and needed some advice.’
‘That’s all it was?’
He put his hands on my shoulders, pressing down too hard, looking into my eyes in what he probably thought was an earnest and sincere manner but really felt like the opposite of that. ‘You’re being silly. Jumping to conclusions.’
‘You’re hurting me,’ I said quietly.
He let go, dragging his hands through his hair.
‘It’s my sister’s wedding, for God’s sake,’ he hissed. ‘I’m not having this ridiculous conversation with you here.’
And then there was the tinny chiming of metal on glass signalling it was time for the speeches. Si took a step back so that there was half a metre between us, but really it felt like much more.
