Page 45 of Flowers Go Flying in Crumbleton

‘Cappuccino for me, please!’ said Jo, taking advantage of the fact that her boss was momentarily tongue-tied.

‘Cake?’ said Murray.

Jo turned to Milly with wide eyes. ‘Marry him.’

Milly smirked as a combination of terror and amusement flitted across Murray’s face.

‘Don’t mind Jo,’ she said. ‘She thinks she’s a comedian.’

‘Right…’ said Murray, doing the hair thing again.

Wibble!

‘I’ll have the same, please,’ said Milly, keen to buy herself a few minutes to get her head together. ‘And since you’re offering – we like the meringues.’

‘We do!’ said Jo, nodding with reverence.

‘Coming up,’ said Murray, smiling and shooting her a wink before ambling off.

‘So…’ said Jo.

‘Yeah,’ said Milly, resigned to the fact that she was going to spend the rest of the day getting well and truly grilled.

‘You’re dating one of the wedding guests?’ said Jo.

‘Murray was the best man,’ said Milly.

‘Nope - the best man was short and arsy,’ said Jo, shaking her head. ‘Your guy saved me from him – so he already gets brownie points.’

‘Oh – you must have met Josh,’ said Milly as the penny dropped. Jo’s message threatening to flob in the best man’s hipflask suddenly made sense. She hadn’t been talking about Murray at all. ‘Murray said he’s a bit of a knob – and thoroughly miffed the groom didn’t ask him to be best man. He took over after the ambulance came for Murray. His speech knocked years off my life.’

‘Sounds like the guy,’ said Jo. ‘Anyway - back to more interesting things - you slept with the best man?’

‘Jo!’

‘What?’ said Jo. ‘Fine. If you want to be all Elizabethan about it… you’re being courted by the best man?’

‘His name’s Murray,’ said Milly, not really wanting to confirm or deny anything.

‘And he’s the one who got knocked out by the bouquet?’ said Jo.

‘Yep,’ said Milly.

‘Right,’ said Jo. ‘So - what’s it like kissing someone with missing teeth?’

‘He’s got all his teeth!’ laughed Milly.

‘Oh,’ said Jo. ‘Well, that’s disappointing.’

‘Not really,’ said Milly with a sigh.

‘Eww, gross!’ said Jo.

‘No seriously – all his teeth are still intact.’

‘I wasn’t talking about the teeth thing,’ said Jo. ‘You. You’ve gone all… sweet and melty. It’s disturbing!’

Milly let out a snort of amusement.

---