Page 58 of Last Night
‘So did I. But one had already been opened, it was right on top, and bingo.’
We stare at each other in the low lighting. A breeze is ruffling us and neither of us are shivering. I’m deliberately resisting any of the heavy look of shared understanding that Ed is trying to impart. That is over for good. Talk your way out of this one.
He opens his mouth.
‘Aren’t you two absolutely freezing?! What are you doing out here?’
Both of us turn to see Hester, arms folded over her chest in her navy wiggle dress.
‘Don’t mind me, what were you talking about? Looked intense.’
‘Just the reading …’ Ed says.
‘What about it?’
There’s a pause.
‘I see Eve’s fully equipped,’ Hester says, eyeing my bottle.
Not now. Not here. No way.
‘Yes, I’m having a drink after my best friend’s funeral, if that’s alright,’ I say to her.
‘Justin’s getting them to make him Negronis in there. Bletch,’ Hester says, ignoring me. ‘They taste like travel sickness medication.’
Ed realises he’s gone from one incendiary situation to an even more flammable one, if I decide to share my news with Hester, and says hastily: ‘It’s more than allowed, I might get myself another pint actually.’
‘You’re going to have a hangover,’ Hester chides.
‘Yeah well.’
I have absolutely no interest in filling the dead air that follows with chatter, though I’m aware that if it continues, Hester may fully realise she’s interrupted something. I sense Ed is grasping for something to say but that options are limited in the circumstances.
‘Hey, so – while I’ve got you,’ Hester says to me. ‘I wanted to let you know, as a bridesmaid. After thought and discussion, Ed and I are going to press ahead with the wedding on schedule.’
I reply: ‘Oh?’
‘It can be something for us to look forward to, amid all this grimness.’
‘Right.’
Like me getting thinner, the wedding is rebalancing the scales. It’s one thing to know someone’s insensitive, and another to have them demonstrate just how insensitive they can be when you’re at your most sensitive.
Ed is staring at the ground.
‘I’m going to see if Verity will take Susie’s place as bridesmaid. Don’t mention to her that Susie was the first choice at any of the fittings, will you?! I don’t want her to get huffy at being on the reserves bench. I mean, just you watch, she’s going to fight me every inch of the way on the dress design. She’s gorgeous but there isno onevainer, haha.’
I nod and drink some drink and Ed is avoiding my gaze, in new depths of torment, I’m sure.
Well, you got engaged to her.
Silence.
‘The show must go on. It’s what Susie would want,’ Hester says, catching herself, I think.
As a coup de grâce, her eyes well up with Disney tears. I can imagine a man rushing to put his jacket round her as she trembles. Ed remains frozen still.
Hester has found my breaking point. I’ve never said a word of challenge to her in all the years I’ve known her. But a dam has burst.
