Let's Call the Whole Thing Off (8 page)

‘Hello, love, sit anywhere you like.’ The blonde curly-haired woman gestured around the near empty room. ‘As you can see we’re not very busy.’ She laughed and picked up a menu from a neighbouring table, handing it to me.

‘Could I just have a tea and maybe one of your rocky roads, please? They’re my absolute favourites.’

‘Ah, a kindred spirit!’ She lifted the dome of the plastic cake box and pulled out a chocolate marshmallow bar and popped it on a plate, placing it on the table in front of me. ‘So are you here on holiday, then?’

‘Um, not exactly. Well, it wasn’t planned or anything, if that’s what you mean. I just came on the spur of the moment. Just to get away for a few days. I’ve got to get back for my wedding at the weekend.’

‘Really?’ The woman’s face lit up expectantly. ‘Oh, how lovely. Let me have a look,’ she asked, lifting my left hand and inspecting my finger. We both looked at the empty space where a ring should have been. Instead, all you could see was the slight red imprint of where a ring might once have been.

I gave her a sheepish shrug as she looked at me for an explanation.

‘Well, that’s one of the reasons I came away,’ I said, desperately avoiding her sympathetic gaze. I’d made a promise to myself to stop all the moping and the navel gazing and the crying, but I could feel those pesky tears forming under the watchful gaze of this woman who I didn’t know, but who was being far too kind for my liking. I looked her straight in the eye. ‘There was a bit of a last-minute hitch.’

‘Bob!’ she called out to the back kitchen. ‘Bring the tea through when it’s ready, would you? I’m going to take a bit of a break myself.’ She didn’t ask, she just pulled out a seat and sat down opposite me. ‘What’s your name, love?’

‘Anna. Yours?’

‘I’m Mandy. Bob’s my other half,’ she said, gesturing to the balding rotund guy who’d arrived at the table bearing a tray with a teapot and cups and saucers. ‘Oh, don’t worry,’ she added, seeing my startled expression as I looked around the empty café. ‘We’re not busy and if we get a rush on, Bob can always take over, can’t you, love?’

Bob nodded and gave a wry smile, looking as if he was used to acting under Mandy’s orders.

‘So, tell me to mind my own business if you think I’m intruding, but what sort of last-minute wedding hitch makes you ditch your engagement ring and come running away to Hollisea.’

I took a sip of tea along with a deep breath.

‘Oh, it’s a long story,’ I said, uncertain whether I wanted to rake over all the details. In some ways yesterday’s events were still so vivid in my head, too painful to think about; and yet in other ways it seemed like it had all happened a lifetime ago.

‘Well, I’m all ears if you want to offload. I’m a very good listener. You have to be in my line of work.’ She clasped her hands on the table in front of her, resting her chin on her fingers and waited.

I sighed and looked into her eyes, which were twinkling at me, the brightest blue I’d ever seen. She had faded blonde hair that curled onto her shoulders and looked to be about forty-five, I reckoned. Attractive in a weary, washed-out way.

‘A last-minute wedding hitch of the “I’ve just found out my boyfriend has been playing away with my best friend” variety.’

‘Oh.’ She grasped my hand. ‘I thought it might be something along those lines. You poor thing. But you’re still going to marry him, after what he’s done to you?’

I shrugged, dropping my gaze.

‘I honestly don’t know what to do. That’s the thing. It’s all come as a complete shock. One day I was happily organising my wedding, the next I didn’t even know if there was going to be a wedding. I still can’t quite believe it.’

‘No, I bet. What a horrible shock.’ Mandy shook her head sorrowfully. ‘And you say the wedding is this weekend? It doesn’t leave you a lot of time.’

I gave a weak smile, that familiar feeling of panic overwhelming me again.

‘Well, no one can tell you what to do. All you can do is follow your heart, trust your own instinct. Have you got any idea what you might do? And what about that boyfriend of yours, what’s he got to say about all of this?’

‘Well, I haven’t actually spoken to him,’ I admitted sheepishly.

‘What? Why ever not?’

‘I’ve not been able to face him yet. I only found out about it yesterday. I read it in my flatmate’s diary. Don’t ask!’ I said, clocking Mandy’s horrified expression. ‘She’s my best friend, she was supposed to be my bridesmaid, but they’ve been having an affair these last few months.’

‘She doesn’t sound much like a friend to me. What a mess!’

‘It is. I haven’t told anyone, apart from Ben and you now.’

‘Ben?’

‘Oh, he’s a good friend of mine, I’ve known him years. He was going to be best man at the wedding. He came round just as I’d found out about the cheating. I had to tell him, although it turned out he actually already knew about it. I had mascara streaming down my face and was about to murder someone, so it wasn’t difficult for him to coax it out of me. It was a good job he turned up when he did or else I’m not sure what I would have done. He insisted I stay at his place last night.’

‘Well, it’s a good job you had him to speak to. I can understand exactly why you wanted to run away, but really you shouldn’t be here.’ She gestured around her with her hands. ‘You should be at home, amongst the people who know you, so you can work out what it is you’re going to do.’ She gave a gentle squeeze of my hand. ‘What does this Ben think you should do?’

‘I’m not sure. He didn’t really say.’ An image of Ben, a crumpled smile on his face, flitted into my mind, and for a moment I wished he was here with me, drinking tea, holding my hand, giving me the benefit of his warm, caressing gaze. Maybe Mandy was right. Maybe I should go home and face them all: Ed, Sophie, Ben and my parents. I knew I had to do it sometime, I just wasn’t sure I could face it yet.

I looked across at Mandy and smiled. Although I’d only just met her I felt as though I’d known her for years, as if I could tell her anything. ‘I know Ben wanted me to stay with him until the weekend but I didn’t want to be a burden on him. I think it’s difficult because although he’s my friend, he’s Ed’s friend too. I suppose he must feel a bit torn. I didn’t want to put him in an awkward position.’ Although the standing near-naked in his bedroom while he aimed a shotgun at my head was pretty much as awkward as it gets.

‘Well, it’s not for me to say, but I think you’d be better off talking to that man of yours, hearing what he has to say and then deciding what the pair of you are going to do. If you’re even thinking about calling off the wedding, you want to be doing that sooner rather than later so that you can get some of your money back perhaps?’

‘Oh, I’m not worried about that,’ I said spikily. ‘Ed can pick up the bill for the wedding. He earns enough. He’s the one who’s gone and kyboshed all the plans. No, it’s my mum I’m worried about. It will break her heart if it doesn’t go ahead. She’s been looking forward to it for months. She’s got the new dress and hat and shoes, the works.’

‘You haven’t even told your mum, yet?’

‘No.’ I averted my gaze from her incredulous stare. ‘I tried to, but—’ Admittedly I hadn’t tried very hard. Looking longingly at my phone and hoping mum would pick up on my silent distress call was as close as I got.

‘Well, you must! Today! If you were my daughter I wouldn’t be caring about a silly dress and hat. I’d be more concerned about you and how you’re feeling. That’s the most important thing here.’

‘You haven’t met my mum,’ I said, giving her a wry smile.

Mandy shook her head. ‘No, I haven’t, but I can’t believe that she wouldn’t want to know what you’re going through. And you can’t marry someone just to please your mother.’

‘I suppose you’re right.’ I sighed. Mandy made everything sound so straightforward, but it wasn’t like that.

‘I was in a bad marriage for fifteen years,’ she confided. ‘My husband cheated on me so I know how that feels. When it first happens you try to kid yourself that it’s a one-off. I was even stupid enough to believe that I was to blame somehow. Maybe if I’d been a better wife, less bad-tempered, more understanding then perhaps he wouldn’t have felt the need to go elsewhere.’ She shook her head, as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was saying. ‘I look back now and wonder why I didn’t leave him sooner, but it’s difficult once you’re in a marriage. I wanted to stay, to try to make it work. But no woman deserves to be treated badly, made to feel second best. Especially not one as young and beautiful as you.’ I gulped and bit on my lip. She would set me off crying again if she carried on like this. ‘You deserve so much better than that. You’re the only one who can know if you want to make a go of it with this Ed, but make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Not to please someone else. I know you’re probably not thinking this far ahead yet, but there’ll be somebody else out there, someone more deserving of you, someone who will treat you like a princess.’

‘Do you think so?’ I said, not knowing whether I’d ever want to go through that whole rigmarole again. Dating was such hard work.

I’d have to watch what I ate, pretending I was really into fruit and salads and healthy-eating stuff and do my best to hide my addiction to Nutella spread thickly onto bread.

I’d have to think about doing some exercise. Uggh.

I’d have to keep my body in peak physical form, well as peak as it got with me. I’d have to shave and moisturise and polish parts of my body that had been left to their own devices for months and had frankly run riot. It would be a mammoth task.

I’d have to find some interesting hobbies to talk about. Watching back to back episodes of
Come Dine with Me
and
Dinner Date
didn’t really count as a hobby.

I would have to be a much more interesting and entertaining companion than I’d probably been to Ed these last few months.

No, getting back out there seemed far too overwhelming. Ed knew everything about me, all my foibles and funny little ways. I thought he found them endearing. I didn’t have to try too hard with Ed – or at least I thought I didn’t have to. Perhaps I should have tried harder.

The thought only just occurred to me, but maybe that’s where I’d gone wrong. Had I taken him and our relationship for granted? I wasn’t sure I wanted to start all over again with someone new.

‘I know so,’ said Mandy, interrupting my day-dreaming. ‘If I hadn’t left my first husband when I did I would never have met Bob. We often say that it was fate that brought us together, don’t we, love?’ Bob had wandered in from the kitchen and Mandy reached out for his hand. She looked at him as though it was Johnny Depp standing there when in truth he looked more like Johnny Vegas, but what did it matter when they were both clearly devoted to each other. ‘You might not think so now, but you’ll probably look back on this period and realise that this was the best thing that ever happened to you. You’ll go on to much bigger and brighter things, believe me. And who knows, if it doesn’t work out with Ed, you’ll meet someone else, someone special, and you’ll realise then that this was all meant to be.’

She made it sound so utterly believable that all I could do was nod my head in agreement. Perhaps there was some hope for me after all.

‘Thanks, Mandy, Bob. The rocky road was fab,’ I said, putting the last of it into my mouth. I picked up my bag from the floor.

‘Well, make sure you pop in tomorrow,’ said Mandy. ‘Just so as I know you’re all right.’

‘Okay,’ I said, heading for the door.

‘Promise?’ said Mandy, smiling.

‘I promise.’

Chapter Six

Mandy had told me the Hollybush was tucked away down one of the back lanes, but it wasn’t difficult to find. The throb of music beckoned me to the pub that already had people spilling outside on to the pavement, the earlier rain having stopped. For a moment I faltered, wondering whether this was a good idea or not, and whether I shouldn’t just go back to the hotel instead, but then I realised I had nothing better to do. No one would be waiting for me, wondering where I was, so I took a deep breath and ventured inside.

I felt conspicuous, as though everyone was looking at me. I was sure I’d be emitting ‘recently dumped’ signals and people would be giving me sympathetic glances, certain they’d be able to see through me to the terrible secret I was carrying inside. So I was relieved that not even a single eyelash was batted in my direction.

There was a small snug bar with a few tables dotted around and then beyond the bar a bigger room where the main act, The Breaknecks, were playing. I bought myself an orange juice, still trying hard to look as though I wasn’t on my own in a completely strange place, and as if I was just waiting for my huge bunch of non-existent friends to turn up, and found a seat in the corner out of the way.

There was a real buzz about the place and I was more than happy to sit, sipping on my drink, indulging in a bit of nonchalant people watching.

Talking to Mandy had really lifted my mood. Perhaps she was right. Perhaps I’d had a lucky escape. Perhaps all this had happened for a reason and one day that reason would become apparent. The universe worked in mysterious ways and perhaps this was its way of telling me that Ed was the wrong man for me and there was my very own Bob or Johnny Vegas or more hopefully Johnny Depp out there waiting for me. To be honest, if that was the case, I would much have preferred to be told straight and upfront, and been rid of all the heartbreak and trauma, but who was I to question the workings of the universe?

I tapped my foot, swaying in time to the music in my seat. Ed would never have come to an event like this. He wasn’t into live music – not unless it was at Wembley Stadium or the 02 along with eighty thousand other people. There’d been a time when a whole crowd of us, including Ed, Ben and Sophie, had loved these sorts of nights, trawling the pubs, drinking ourselves silly, laughing over complete and utter nonsense until we almost fell out of our seats, but once Ed had secured his job at the investment bank in the City, he seemed to change and those nights became a thing of the past. Instead, he’d preferred to go out to expensive restaurants or to corporate events with his new colleagues. Networking was key, apparently, and although we still had plenty of fun it was a different type of fun. Looking back, that was probably when we’d lost touch a bit with Ben and the others.