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Over the next hour, and about a hundred cakes, we get the venue, date, theme, and food sorted. I’m on a high—professional and sugar—so the fact that Casper is still scowling beside me is just background noise at this point.
Reggie and I have pages of notes. I took a walk earlier to call the venue to pencil in a date. Casper followed me down the steps and watched while I paced the lawn.
I don’t know what he thought I was going to do. The length of the phone call wasn’t long enough to sneak into his house, find Flora’s jewellery or gold bars, and then get back out here.
I close my notebook with a grin that probably makes me look insane. Nothing can kill my buzz.
“Oh, this is exciting,” Flora says as we stroll towards the maze an hour later.
With the main details worked through, Reggie and I have everything we need for now. When Flora asked if I wanted to tour the gardens before we left, I jumped at the chance.
Reggie and Frederick stay back, discussing the impending cricket season.
Casper is a few steps behind us. There’s no reason for him to be following us but I can only assume he expects me to attack his mother in the maze at this point.
“How long have you and Frederick been married?” I ask. The deeper we get into the garden, the stronger the smell of flowers gets. One day, I’ll have a pretty place like this, just on a smaller scale.
“Twenty-six years. It’s not always been easy but there’s no one else I’d rather muddle through life with. How about you? Anyone special in your life?” she asks.
“No. I broke up with my ex when I got into uni. He was really nice, and I hoped we’d work out, but the more I thought about it, the clearer it became. Long distance wasn’t going to work for us.”
Casper makes some sort of disgusted snort behind us. I ignore it, but Flora scowls at him.
“Do you still love him?” she asks once she focuses back on me.
“Yeah, but not the way I used to. We speak a bit, but I’ve not seen him in over a year.”
“Where is he now?”
“Back home. He works for his dad’s building company. I should check in really.”
She smiles. “Were you together for long?”
“From fifteen to eighteen, so a fair amount of time for teenagers, I guess. We got each other through a lot.”
He was the one I cried on when my mum popped back into my life with grand promises of her sobriety and the wish to be a parent. It never lasted long. He was there when I told her that I didn’t want her to come back when I was seventeen.
“Why the fuck would you want to talk to your ex?”
Ah, there he is. Mister Sensitivity.
Flora turns and hushes her son. I recognise that look. It’s the same one my aunt has used on me growing up. Right now, it makes me smile because I love that he still gets in trouble with his mum.
“Exes are exes for a reason.”
That’s all he has to say for being an insensitive dick.
“I’m sorry for my son’s behaviour,” Flora says.
“Don’t worry. I’m used to him.”
“I hope he’s not always like that.”
I want to tell her the truth but there’s something about the look of concern on her face that stops me. She doesn’t need to be worrying about whether she was a good mum or not. Flora isn’t to blame for Casper. He’s a twenty-one-year-old man-child with a chip on his shoulder and a pretty face.
We turn when Frederick calls Flora back into the house for a phone call.
“I’m so sorry, I’m waiting on this,” she says, running across the lawn like a bossin heels. Frederick walks down the stairs to meet her halfway.
