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‘Oh,’ the woman said with both surprise and disappointment. ‘Well, if it doesn’t work out, let me know.Icould have you paired off like that.’Shesnapped her fingers, turned and walked away.Krishgroaned.
‘Whatdid you do that for?’Hebent over and collected the card pieces off the grass.
‘Becauseyou’re taken!RememberJess?’
Heflinched.Curious. ‘DivyaVermais the biggest matchmaker inIndia!Shecould single-handedly fill up my bookings for next year.’
‘Yeah, well…’Theconviction she’d had a moment before fled.Shewas too tired to fight. ‘Sorry.’
‘AndI’mnot, by the way.’
‘Notwhat?’
‘Notengaged.’
Nearby, confetti canons fired and multi-coloured tissue paper floated down around them, getting stuck in his hair.
Surelythe noise of the canon had obscured what he said.Orher ears weren’t working.Oneof them was blocked up by the walkie talkie speaker, so she must have heard wrong. ‘Sorry, what?’Apiece of tissue paper attached itself to her lips and she flicked it away.
‘I’mnot engaged,’ he repeated with a tinge of sadness.Hisumber brown eyes fastened on hers and held tight.Shecouldn’t have looked away if she wanted to, especially because of the pain.Hispain.Hiseyes swam with it.
PoorKrish.DidJesssay no?
Ordid he decide not to ask?Didhe go toParisat all?Didthey break up?
Ifthey’d broken up, did that mean hewasn’ttaken?
Shewas too afraid to ask.Whateverthe answer, he was obviously upset about it.Nowwas not the time to launch into a cross examination.
Thevoice of a wise rat cut through the noise:Justask him, for chrissake!
Francescagulped and gathered her courage. ‘Areyou…are you still together?’
Herwhole body froze with fear, as though she’d woken up from a nightmare but couldn’t move, convinced that robe on her door was actually an axe murderer.Whathe said next could change everything.
‘No.’
Sheexhaled, not realising she’d been holding her breath.Thepain in his eyes morphed into something else.Aquestion.Shewasn’t ready to answer it. ‘Well,I’msorry to hear—’
‘Mayday!Mayday!’ cameStella’svoice over the headset, like she was in a plane about to crash.
Ina blink, the moment was lost.Krishtouched the button on his collar. ‘Stella, what’s wrong?Over.’
‘It’sWally,’ she said. ‘He’sbeen in a fight and pushed one of the groom’s cousins into the pool.’
25
Nobodyspokeon the half-hour journey to the bed and breakfast.
Afterthe constant craziness of theMehndinight and theSangeet,Stellaappreciated the silence to decompress.Shehad forgotten how frenetic weddings could be.Thenon-stop concentration, always looking for an interesting angle, the endless movement, all on less sustenance than she needed because she was too busy to eat properly.Itwas like running a marathon after consuming a chocolate bar.
Thatbeing said, it had proven a welcome distraction from her anger towardsConnor.
Whenshe’d texted him to ask whyGracewas atClaudia’s, he wrote back (one hour later):Workemergency.Don’tworryGracehappy.
Shetexted back, saying she knew he was doing the interviews that she thought he’d cancelled, but he didn’t reply.
Asidefrom his deception, the thing that angered her most was that she’d spent ages putting together a list of daddy-daughter activity ideas forConnorandGrace, trying to make it easy for him.Littledid she know that he had no intention of using it.Hadhe just been humouring her?Wastingher time?
