Page 36 of The Wedding Cake
“Don’t get me started onthat excuse for a man.” Hannah flashed her teeth.
“I can only apologise from the bottom of my heart, too,” said a thoroughly attractive blond male, who hopped out of the back of the Freya’s of Marbella van, practically vibrating. “I’m T-Tim… the g-groom. I mean theex-groom. Mervyn should have split his time equally between the two weddings. He seemed so committed and competent when we decided to do business with him, but I’m quickly starting to realise it was all a bit of an act.”
“Damn right he should have checked up on everything here,” Hannah added, as a third person got out of the van, introducing himself as Ricky to a glut of raised hands and waves. Alice hadn’t met him before and rightly assumed he was a behind-the-scenes employee at team FOM. Damn, she loved the grass green Somerset shade of his hair.
“Why doesn’t he employ ateam?” she asked, thinking of the decidedly dodgy Mervyn. “Clearly his professionalism and attention to detail was one giant façade, when we met him for all our supplier visits. He’s happy enough to take everybody’s money but all the old git really cares about is cutting corners so he can fill his coffers.” Alice sighed. “Nice to meet you though, Tim.” She held out her hand and Tim shook it in his decidedly cold one. Ricky moved in for a handshake too. No, she definitely wasn’t imagining Tim’s lack of body heat. Ricky was room temperature in contrast. “I’m sorry to hear about what must have been a truly tragic and disappointing day for you. There are no words to make it better, so I’m not even going to attempt to sugar-coat things. But we do have the cocktail bar up and running. So come on in, have a glass or two and then we can discuss how we’re going to deal with the wedding crasher.”
“I’m fine. Honestly,” Tim replied in earnest. “The signs were there for some time that it wasn’t meant to be. I should have called things off with Piper months ago… but then I wouldn’t have met Frey...”
Alice’s antennae perked up as Tim realised he’d lost his filter with that quirky statement. Oh, heck.
“I’m driving so it will have to be a mocktail, if that’s okay?” said Hannah, intermittently glancing at her watch.
Tim, Hannah and Ricky followed Alice and River through the finca and out to the lawns, where a sea of people raised their glasses to them – some rather tipsily running over to Tim for a consolatory hug. Bruno and Zara filled their glasses and Alice led the visitors to a quiet nook half in the shade, half in the sun so that Tim could thaw out and gather his thoughts. River recounted the moment they realised they had a gatecrasher in their midst, and Alice shivered at the near miss, thanking her lucky stars for Hayley and her extreme heroics. Again.
As if on cue, Hayley sniffed out the clandestine meeting and introduced herself to Tim, Hannah and Ricky. Not before placing a platter of sliced wedding cake in front of them. Which was probably the last thing all three of their guests wanted to look at, even if they were hungry. Their friend had zero tact.
“Forget all the Marvel icons plastered around my bedroom,” cried Ricky. “It’syouI want framed above my four poster, you absolute legend of a woman!”
“That can easily be arranged, honey,” said Hayley, quite seriously. “I’ll have a quick chinwag with the photographer, like.”
Ricky beamed and Alice cringed at her friend’s lack of modesty and decorum.
“We can’t thank you enough,” said Hannah.
“Any day, chick. That’s what I learned Krav Maga for.”
“Oh.” Tim perked up. “I’ve been hearing a lot about KM and how effective it is as a self-defence mechanism. It sounds like something I really need to add to my fitness instructor repertoire. You’ll have to tell me more.”
So Hayley did… And then half an hour later it was time to get down to business.
“That was fascinating,” said Hannah, the first nanosecond anybody could get a word in. “I hate to interrupt you but we really need to take the numpty in the tower off the bride and groom’s hands now. I’m sure you’ll want to get back to your guests.” She turned to Alice and River.
“Actually, we’re in no rush. It’s been lovely having everyone pile into the finca before and after the wedding – most of our family and friends are in Spain for a holiday – but it also means we’ve definitely had our quota of them!” River replied with a behemoth eye roll.
“I’ll take Jack the lad over to the posh villa,” said Hayley. She glared at the finca’s tower where their intruder was hopefully still incarcerated, and wiped red velvet icing from her hands with a napkin. Alice had lost count of how many slices their friend had devoured – and rather impressively, too, since she’d been doing most of the talking.
River and Hannah went to protest at the same time but Hayley held up a hand to stop them saying another word. “I’ve got this. I’ve not had a drop of alcohol to drink, since I’m on guest-ferrying duty to and from hotels – hence cracking open your very best wine earlier in the week while I had the opportunity.” Hayley sighed at her martyrdom. “I’ll take the twit back to Marbella and we’ll sort things from there. I could use a bit of muscle power to get him on board and off again though. Any volunteers? Hannah and Ricky: I’m looking specifically at you two. I know that Tim’s no stranger to a gym but it wouldn’t be fair to send him back to all that chaos. The poor bloke deserves to salvage some happiness from today.”
“Of course we’ll go,” said Ricky, jumping from his seat. “I cannae wait to see you in action.”
Hannah stood too and began to shift from foot to foot.
“Could you handle this on your own with Hayley?” she asked her colleague, her eyes not quite meeting his. “I should get the van back to FOM.”
“Fair point,” said Ricky and Hayley in unison, and Alice sensed she had witnessed the start of a beautiful friendship.
“Do you think you could dispose of a couple of extra nuisance wedding guests in the process?” River asked, cocking his head toward the sun loungers at the pool where Bear and Alex were sprawled out, knocking back a queue of cocktails.
“My pleasure,” Hayley replied. “Just leave them to me.”
“What about you, Tim?” asked Alice. “You’re more than welcome to stay here but I don’t like to think of your family and friends stranded over in Marbs. Want to coax them onto Hayley’s coach once she’s deposited the waifs and strays? They could finish the day in style with us. We can’t offer caviar and Bollinger but we do have a churros cart.”
“That would be awesome,” said Tim. “I promise none of us will outstay our welcomes. I haven’t had a chance to catch up with my family or friends properly all day – not without a camera lens pointing at us. But, erm, Hannah.” Tim pivoted to talk to FOM’s assistant. “I just want to check… if I did tag along with you now in the van, would that mean I’d get the opportunity to speak to Freya? Just quickly?”
“Oh, Freya’s gone, Tim,” said Alice, hating to be the bearer of bad news.
Tim, Hannah and Ricky turned in her direction en masse, eyes wide.
