Marrying Mr Write (Mr Write Trilogy) (15 page)

“True, I forget sometimes that not everyone wakes up as perfect as me!”

I throw my comb at him with a laugh as she smiles and shuts the bathroom door.

By nine pm the apartment is full of friends and family having a great time. Pete is staying with us and Mam and Dad are staying with Rafe and Matthew and it’s so good to have them all here. Dad and Pete seem to be getting on fantastically well and Mam looks really happy. She’s had months of worry thanks to me, I need to make it up to her.

Pippa hasn’t turned up yet. I keep checking my phone but there’s nothing. No
excuses, no apologies, nothing. I am so pissed off with her, and I’m hurt. Have I really lost my best friend with no explanation as to why?

I slam my phone down on to the dining table as I look up to see Jacks
on pull someone into a hug. Familiar long black hair falls down over his arm as he eyes me over Pippa’s shoulder and I make my way toward them.

“Decided to show up then?” I can’t help the tone of my voice as I ask,

“I’m sorry Rosie; I didn’t mean to be this late. You know me!” Pippa shrugs her shoulders and smiles weakly. What is going on with her?

I take a breath and tell myself to bite my tongue before we end up rowing in the middle of my party.

“Oh well, you’re here now. Where’s Ben?”

“Parking the car, he’ll be up in a sec.”

“Come on Pip, let’s get you a drink. Rosie, I think your brother needs you!” Jackson ushers Pip toward the kitchen and I turn to see Rafe setting up his karaoke machine in front of the TV.

It’s been about two hours since Pippa got here and I haven’t spoken to her since she first arrived. I haven’t intentionally been ignoring her, it’s just that I have a lot of people here and they all want to congratulate Jackson and
me, and impart their wisdom on the secret to long happy marriages. My three times divorced friend Patricia truly believes that the key to success is variety, I stifled a laugh at this, certain that she didn’t mean vary your husbands but noting the irony of the comment coming from her.

My attention is drawn away from Sophie’s hellishly boring story about her new kitten by Jackson saying my name over the microphone of the karaoke machine.

“Rosie, can you come here for a second please. Don’t worry; I’m not going to propose!” There’s a ripple of laughter at his terrible joke and I take my place at his side.

“Thank you all for coming here to share this night with us. It’s been a hell of a year, but we’ve come through it all stronger than I ever imagined. I can’t wa
it to marry you Rosie, and spend a lifetime of happiness with you, so if you can all raise your glasses please, I would like to propose a toast, to my beautiful fiancée. To Rosie,”

A chorus of ‘To Rosie’ echoes and Jackson kisses me on the forehead before continuing.

“Some of you know the news that I’m about to share but most of you don’t,” I notice Mam’s eyes light up and apparently so does Jackson, “No Bernie, we’re not pregnant! I have decided to give up travel writing. I’ve been offered an editor position at a fantastic magazine in Manchester and I have accepted it, but before I start that, I do have one more book to write. So Rosie and I will be going away for a while. I can’t do it without her.”

People start congratulating Jackson and hugging me and I step back a little overwhelmed, as I do I notice Pippa stepping out onto the balcony and follow her.

“Right, enough is enough Pip, what is going on?” I close the door to the apartment as I step out and Pip looks at me with tears in her eyes.

“Nothing Rosie, I’m just tired that’s all!”

“Bull shit Pip! You seem to forget that I know you better than you do. I don’t know what I have done to upset you so much but I miss you, and I hate you not coming to me with whatever it is that I have done. We’re always honest with each other. We said we always would be!”

Pippa shakes her head and looks at me with conflict visible in her eyes, she wants to open up to me but something is clearly holding her back,

“Is it Ben? Has he hurt you Pip? Please tell me!”

“God no Rosie, he’s amazing. I just…I can’t,”

I take Pippa’s hands in mine and look up into her sad eyes,

“Pip, anything. Y
ou can tell me anything, please,”

She takes a deep shaky breath and steps backward, pulling her hands from mine.

“Ok, but promise me you won’t hate me, please Rosie. Promise me”

“PIP!”

“I’m pregnant!”

It takes a few seconds for what she has said to sink in and when it does I still can’t speak, Pippa is pregnant! I turn to face the street below and I can feel Pip’s anxiety as she steps towards me and starts to speak again.

“I didn’t know how to tell you Rosie
, I…”

“So this is why you weren’t drinking?” My brain is on overdrive trying to figure out what signs I might have missed,

“No, not at first, it really was a bet. I found out just before my party and I freaked out a bit. All I could think of was what you had been through and I was scared. Then you showed up with Jackson and it threw me, I don’t know what I was thinking Ro, I just didn’t know how to tell you. I was still getting my head around it all,”

“We’re supposed to be best friends Pippa!” I look at her and noticing the tears welling in her eyes, look away again, “How far gone are you?”

“Twelve weeks, I had a scan yesterday. Rosie, I was going to tell you but then when you came around to my flat that day, I had been throwing up for what felt like days and I tried to feel better and pluck up the courage to tell you and then you told me that you can’t stand being around pregnant women and it just freaked me out. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do around you after that Rosie. You’re the one person that I want close to me and you don’t want to be around pregnancy, what do I do?”

“Nothing Pip. J
ust look after yourself.” I open the door and head into the flat, Jackson throws me a concerned look as Ben rushes to take my place on the balcony and I make my way into the bedroom.

I
sit down on the floor with my back against the door. I’m shocked. So much has changed for Pippa and me in such a short space of time. She’s pregnant, I should be enjoying this with her, laughing at her morning sickness and telling her what she can and can’t eat, but instead I feel angry. I’m angry with her, she should have told me.  But mostly I’m angry with myself, she’s my best friend and I should be able to put aside my emotions to be there for her, but I can’t. All I feel is hurt, and a little jealous. I’m actually jealous of my best friend instead of just being happy for her.

She’s had a scan and it’s all going well, she’s going to have a baby and I’m still not sure that I ever will. I don’t want to feel like this, but right now, with alcohol flooding my veins and
my emotions at an all-time high, I can’t help it. Tears pool in my lower lids before escaping, I feel like a terrible friend. I cry as I listen to the noise from the other room gradually fade out and I know that the party is over. I stand and gather myself hoping that Pippa isn’t on the other side of my bedroom door when I open it, she isn’t.

“Hey gorgeous, I thought you were asleep.” Jackson is collecting glasses and Rafe and Matthew are in the kitchen
tidying up,

“Yeah, sorry to be a party pooper. Did everyone have fun?”

“Yeah of course they did baby, it was a great party. You didn’t miss much. It fizzled out within an hour of you heading to bed.” Jackson puts down the glasses and pulls me into a hug, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not right now, I’m exhausted to be honest,” I smile and pull away from Jackson, starting to tidy up the living room,

“Leave that Rosie, go to bed. Honestly, it’s fine.” He smiles and I head back toward the bedroom.

“You are a bloody terrifying driver Alvez!”

I step out of the car feeling lucky to be alive and safely in
Cornwall.

“Jackson, I drive no faster than you do! And unlike you, I have won trophies for driving
fast; you just don’t like not being in control!”

I frown as I realise that Rosie is probably right and she starts to laugh as I open the boot to retrieve our bags.

As we’re shown to our room and get a glimpse of where we’ll be staying for the next five nights, I notice Rosie’s eyes light up. The room
is stunning with a huge ornate white four poster bed, plush textiles and an open fire opposite the bed. A massive roll top bath dominates the bathroom and the large panoramic windows along the far wall of the room overlook the picturesque harbour below.

We decide to eat at
the hotel restaurant tonight but are determined to sample all that Cornwall has to offer for the rest of our time here. We’re going out for the day tomorrow, to the Lost Gardens of Heligan and then to the Minack Theatre the following day, and who knows what else. There’s so much to do in Cornwall and with a forecast of five gloriously sunny days ahead, we’re going to make the most of it.

I throw the pile of leaflets and
‘what’s on’ brochures onto the bed and I watch as Rosie looks at her phone again before frowning and dropping it back into her bag.

“You could call her you know!”

She has been avoiding Pippa since the party. She ignored her calls in the few days that followed and now Pippa has stopped trying. Rosie clearly misses her but is so stubborn that she won’t make the first move.

“Who? I was just checking the time,” She smiles and I shake my head in response.

“Rosie, it has been two weeks. You can’t go on like this forever. Call Pippa, apologise and get your friend back.”

“Jackso
n I can’t, you don’t understand. I …” She trails off and turns to look at the boats bobbing about on the calm water of the harbour,

“Tell me then,” I wrap my arms around Rosie’s waist and kiss the top of her head. She takes a deep breath.

“I was jealous you know, jealous that she was pregnant. What kind of friend does that make me? I was horrible to her Jackson, I should have hugged her and congratulated her, but I looked at her like she had some horrible disease that I didn’t want to catch. And it hurts you know. I try to phone her, when I pick up my phone I want to press call but I panic when I think about it. I don’t know if I can be there for her when all I can think is that it should be me.”

I tighten my arms around her and let quiet set in for a moment, I need to choose my words carefully.

“When you found out you were pregnant, were you scared?”

“Terrified,”
she tenses in my arms as she remembers the feeling and probably everything that has happened since then,

“And you turned to Pippa. Rosie
she needs you, right now, your best friend needs you. When you see her and hug her, you won’t be thinking that it should be you, you’ll be thinking about what she needs and what you can get for her, because she’s Pip. I know it’s scary, but it’s time to move on now Rosie. We will have our time. Call her.”

I leave Rosie sitting on the bed with her phone in her hand and head down to the bar. I need her to make up with Pippa, and I need her to face her emotions. We can’t avoid pregnant women and babies for the rest of our lives.

An hour later I look up to see a smiling Rosie walking toward me,

“Ready to eat? I’m starving!”

“Erm, yeah. Did you call her?”

“I did, we’re good. Now can we eat?”

When Rosie wants to keep something to herself, she is frighteningly good at it. She’s not going to share the conversation that she had with Pip, but it doesn’t matter. She’s happy and so am I.

We started the tour
in Hastings and made our way along the south coast of England. After five fantastic days in Cornwall, Rosie and I headed to Bath and then on to a gorgeous guest house in the Cotswolds. From there we went on to Aberaeron in Wales, across to County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. We went to the Isle of Skye and down through Scotland to Edinburgh, on to Alnwick and today we’re heading to the wedding capital of the UK, Gretna Green.

“Jackson, I don’t like it here.” Rosie looks at me as she bites into her monthly Galaxy ripple and I laugh, “In my head I thought it would be really romantic and quaint, but it feels really … new! And all built up for tourists.”  She looks sad as she reflects on her disappointment with Gretna Green. “But, if they have availability, we could just do it!”

It takes a moment to realise what she’s just said.

“What, get married? Rosie are you serious? You just said you don’t like it here!”

“Well I don’t, but I
just want to marry you as soon as I can. Look at them Jackson,” She motions toward a newlywed couple having their photographs taken a few feet away, “It doesn’t matter to them that there are tourists everywhere watching them, clattering coffee cups and rustling crisp wrappers, they’re just happy and in love. I guess it is romantic in that case. Any of these people would be witnesses for us, let’s just see if they can fit us in!”