‘Dude, I hate to rush you,’ I say, knocking urgently, ‘but I am going to leave a massive wet patch on this floor if you don’t get out here right now.’ I squat down on the floor to compress the wee and then immediately bounce back up because obviously that made the need worse.
The lock clicks and the door opens. Steam frames Will as he strolls naked out of the bathroom.
‘Too good for towels?’ I say, amused. He side-smiles and I suddenly forget my bladder as I look at him.
Oh no, there it is. I run, slamming the door behind me as I go.
When I come back out, my body singing with relief, he’s in the living room, folding washing. He’s put some pyjama bottoms on and his hair is combed through and slicked back. I sink into the sofa, my eyes closing, fully exhausted and thinking how that seems to be my constant state of being lately. I feel him pass close by me, leaning down to peck me on the head, and I murmur a quiet ‘hi’ at him.
‘Nice week?’ he says gruffly. The smell of aftershave reaches me where I sit. He smells good.
‘Hmm,’ I half answer as my phone vibrates in my pocket.
It’s Lauren, reminding me to get the hen emails sent out tonight. Oh man, I’m so tired. Does it have to be tonight? I’ve had such a long week at work. Rex told a contestant yesterday that she had nice tits and she – quite rightly – stormed off the set. We had to spend a frantic half day looking for someone else to replace her at the last minute. But even when we’d found someone, it still meant shooting ran late for the rest of the week. Oh, and I also got stuck with talking to the woman’s lawyer. Aslan was supposed to sort it, but he explained that I’m ‘just better at that stuff’. It’s convenient that I’m so much better at the things he doesn’t want to have to do.
It’s been a very long week and Will deserves some of my time too. Surely the hen emails aren’t all that urgent? I can totally just have an evening to myself with my boyfriend, can’t I?
I realise Will’s been talking while I think, and I open my eyes properly, trying to focus on what he’s saying through my haze of exhaustion.
‘... Do you fancy that? It could be really fun. And nice to spend some time together, don’t you think? We could race there and back since it’s not far.’
I have no idea what he’s talking about. I give him a thumbs up and hope that’s enough. ‘Yeah, um, send me an email with the details and I’ll put it in my diary,’ I say and he nods. I drift away again as Will keeps talking.
‘... And she’s acting like I don’t know what I’m doing – it’s very frustrating. We had a chat the other day and it was like she had no faith in me at all. I just don’t know how to handle it.’
Er, work problem? Must be a work problem.
‘That sounds so...’ I reach for the right adjective. ‘Frustrating?’ I try.
He looks at me oddly. ‘That’s what I said,’ he says, but he’s smiling. ‘Anyway, it doesn’t matter all that much. She’s only on secondment with us for another few months. I just need to get through this period and then she’ll be back in theUS. It would be nice if I could prove myself to her in that time but it’s not the end of the world and then I can...’
He’s walked through to the kitchen to get a glass of water and I pounce on the chance to close my eyes again. The hen emails can definitely wait until morning.
I work my weekend out in my head. If I go to bed now, I can get up early to do them before I go out to meet Franny for breakfast. I have some work to do before Monday, but it can probably wait until Sunday. That’s it, then – decided. I’ll send them out in the morning. I’ve already looked through the Excel document Lauren gave me with everyone’s contact details. The idea is that I can keep track of everyone once they’ve confirmed attendance and made payments, but the reality is that I’m going to have to transfer it all into a Word document because I don’t have the first idea how to use Excel. I tried to copy and paste something earlier and it turned it into a mathematical formula. Fuck you, Excel. Oh – a thought occurs to me – but if I hold off sending them, there’s a chance Lauren might check up on me. She’s got such a tight, specific schedule and she’s being a bit funny about things not being done the very moment she’s asked.
I pause to consider how wrong it is that I’m scared of my best friend. But hey, whoisn’tterrified of brides?
I start to count up how many hours of sleep I’ll get if I go to bed now. Really, I should stay up a bit longer and listen to Will’s story. Sympathise about this... work... person? Must be a human person he’s complaining about – he saidshe, didn’t he? We really need to get some quality time in together. Catch up. I really do miss him and he must be getting annoyed with me being so busy all the ti...
When I next open my eyes, Will is silently carrying me up to bed wrapped up in a blanket.
From:[email protected]
To:30+ contacts in your address book
Date:1 July
Hey lovely ladies,
Hope you’re having a great week and enjoying all this, er, rain.
Most of you probably don’t know me, soHELLO, I’m Lauren Bolt’s maid of honour, Lilah. Does this call for a yay? I think it might do:YAY.
Hopefully you already knew she was engaged and I’m not ruining the surprise for any of you!
So anyway, Lauren’s keen for me to get you guys all booked in for her hen do. I was supposed to send this email out yesterday, so please don’t tell on me. We’re only just at the beginning of making arrangements for it, and I will be coming back to you with a lot more details later in the year, but here’s what we know so far!
•It’ll be in Marbella.
