Page 73 of Wedding Crasher

‘Hey gorgeous.’ Rupert breezed in and flicked his hair back in that way that was really starting to get on her nerves.

‘Hey yourself,’ Marla said.

Something in her flat tone must have alerted him to incoming thunder clouds, because he dropped his keys on the nearest chair and pulled her into his arms.

‘You okay?’

He frowned as she ended his kiss a nano-second after it started and squirmed out of his embrace.

‘Not really.’

Marla watched his jaw work furiously as he tried to decide how to play things.

‘Bad morning at work?’ he tried.

She shook her head and sighed.

‘It’s not work, Rupert, it’s us.’

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. He ran a finger around his neckline to loosen his collar.

‘It’s lunch, isn’t it? You’re too busy. I’ll call and cancel, we can just walk down to the café and grab a sandwich if you like?’

‘It isn’t the lunch arrangements, Rupert. It’sus.’

Marla repeated the ‘us’ more firmly this time to stop him from attempting to side-step the issue again.

‘Okaaaaay.’ He dragged the word out as if he were trying to reason with a five-year-old. ‘What about us?’

She detected a note of irritation in his voice and tried not to rise to it.

‘I … I feel as if we’re rushing into things. You know, the wedding and all.’

He nodded slowly.

‘Riiiiight.’

He dragged that word out too, and Marla fought back the urge to slap him.

‘So we’ll slow it down then. Get married later on. No big deal,’ he said brightly. ‘Grab your jacket, we’ll miss our table.’

Marla sucked in air and looked out of the window for a second before meeting his eyes again.

‘That’s the thing though, Rupert. I don’t want to get married – soonerorlater.’

The spoilt schoolboy in him surfaced instantly.

‘But you said yes!’

‘No. I didn’t. You assumed it.’

‘Marla, we had a whole audience who would beg to differ! You can hardly back out now.’

His outrage would have been funny in any other situation.

‘Can’t I?’

‘No you bloody well can’t. You’ll make me look a total fool.’

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