‘I guess it’s not a registry office and then off to the pub kind of a “do” then?’ Amelia asked, as she tweaked the swirling fabric of the skirt into place.
‘I hope not, or I’m going to look really stupid.’
Amelia ran her eyes over me, from the hair pinned into a loose chignon that showed off my neck and bare shoulder, down to the sparkly navy shoes that I’d borrowed from her wardrobe – with permission this time.
‘You look gorgeous,’ she said, closing the distance between us and enveloping me in an unexpected hug. ‘My wonderful, exceptional sister,’ she whispered, squeezing me tightly, as though trying to imprint this moment into her memory. I squeezed her back just as hard, wanting to do the same. My carefully applied make-up was suddenly in jeopardy as my eyes tingled at her words. They’d sounded uncomfortably like a goodbye.
‘Right back at you,’ I said, leaving a faint outline of pink lipstick on her cheek as I kissed her.
She stepped back, giving me one final head-to-toe sweep of approval, but not before I’d seen her swipe a hand tellingly beneath her eye.
‘What you need is a silver evening bag,’ she declared, looking down at the small black clutch I had laid out on the bed. ‘I’ve got a gorgeous beaded one somewhere that I’ve never even used,’ she said, her eyes screwed up in concentration. ‘God, where is it? I haven’t seen it in ages.’
‘I’ve not come across it in your wardrobe,’ I said, realising too late the implications of my words. But my big sister was used to her younger sibling rifling through her clothes, and luckily didn’t pick up on just how well acquainted I was with her closet.
‘It’s in a dark-grey box… I think,’ Amelia said, shaking her head. ‘Crap, I hate the way I can’t remember things as well as I used to.’
I gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. ‘Don’t worry about it. My cab’s going to be here in a minute anyway, so I wouldn’t have had time to swap bags.’
It was the second comment I’d made that caused her to frown.
‘I still don’t understand why your friend Nick can’t pick you up himself, rather than expecting you to make your own way there.’ It wasn’t the first time she’d voiced this opinion and it was getting harder to find a believable excuse to offer.
‘He just can’t,’ I said, which did nothing to put her off the scent.
‘But why? Are you ashamed of us, is that it? Or is it that he doesn’t want to meet your family?’
I was pondering which of those two alternatives to shoot down first when I saw a look of dawning horror cross her face.
‘Oh my God. I know why you don’t want him to come to the house.’
My throat tightened, making breathing suddenly really difficult.
‘You do?’ My voice was a nervous croak.
‘You’re bloody right I do,’ she said, her tone now several degrees colder. ‘He’s married, isn’t he?’
‘I… I… No. No, he isn’t,’ I said, but my stammer and hesitation betrayed just how close she’d come to a version of the truth.
‘Jesus, Lexi. Are you stupid enough to be fooling around with some other woman’s husband?’
If her words weren’t so terrible and damning this would almost be funny, in a very dark, sick, black humour kind of way.
‘I wouldneverdo that,’ I said, trying to drown out the voice in my head that was saying,Really? Wouldn’t you, Lexi? Isn’t that effectively exactly what you are doing?
Amelia was looking at me with such disapproval that I almost wanted to tell her the whole truth about Sam and Nick and even the box of stupid photographs that I now wished I’d never taken. Although if I hadn’t, I would never have met Nick and that was also too terrible to contemplate.
I took a deep and steadying breath and reached for Amelia’s hand. ‘Mimi, I promise you my friend Nick is not married. He was, but he’s divorced now.’
‘So hesays,’ she said sarcastically.
‘So heis.’
It was the closest we’d come to an argument for a long time, and I didn’t like the idea of leaving her on an angry note.
‘If you say so,’ Amelia said, which as everyone knows actually meansI don’t believe you, but I’m not going to push it right now.
Thankfully, at that moment three short bursts of a car horn made us both turn towards the window.