Page 41 of The Layover
‘She’s …’
If Myleene had asked me an hour ago, I’d not have hesitated to say yes, she’s every bit as awful as we were led to believe. Try-hard and fake and pulling that naïve act that set my teeth on edge all while being selfish and vindictive and not caring if she was hurting anybody else’s feelings.
Except now, I think about how sad she sounded when I explained why I wanted to talk to Kay before the wedding, how hurt she looked when we talked about what a condescending arse Marcus is and she tried and failed to defend him. That strikes me as someone who cares very much about what other people feel. It’s also easy to see why someone like that wouldn’t even realise if Marcus was taking advantage of her friendship and her crush on him.
I think about Francesca’s expressive eyes and heart-shaped face, how soft her hair looks and the mismatched, colourful pins on her jacket she kept fidgeting with, and that blaze of fire in her eyes when she tried to put me in my place for being rude. I probably owe her an apology for that; wedidget off on the wrong foot.
‘She’s very pretty,’ I tell Myleene, ‘and she seems like a … nice person, for the most part.’
Aside from planning to break up a wedding, of course.
‘Oh. That’s a bit disappointing,’ Myleene says. ‘The way Kay’s talked about her, and all that stuff Marcus says, I assumed she’d be …’
‘Yeah. Me, too.’
‘Well,’ Myleene jokes, laughing, ‘just watchyoudon’t fall prey to her man-eating ways!’
‘Ha. Right. No danger of that.’
I think about the way her head ticked to the side when she smiled. Definitely cute, I decide.
Feeling a bit more like myself, I tell Myleene to show me the view – she’s out on a terrace while the partying carries on inside. Even though we can’t quite see them in the dark, she points out the lush gardens and the pavilion in the middle where the wedding will take place. All the while, she’s chattering a mile a minute about how Mum and Dad went to a salsa dancing class with some other relatives earlier and how cringe it is because they’re all giving it a go again now dinner’s over and they can ‘tear up the dance floor’, and how she’ll be sure to video so I can see, too. She mentions that Marcus is busy getting drunk with his mates and pulls a very unimpressed face about it, and how he and Kay had a ‘little spat’ earlier because she thought he was flirting with the waitress, but then Kay toldeveryonehow fit her masseur was, and it’s a lot of pent-up wedding nerves and drama.
‘Sounds like I’m really missing out.’
Myleene laughs. ‘Please, you’d hate it. Consider yourself lucky you’re stuck there, missing all this! Why do you think half the grown-ups took themselves off to this dance class earlier? They’re not about it, either.’
‘Probably for the best.’
‘Yeah … Anyway, I should go. Promised I’d help Joss check on the flowers and stuff for the ceremony.’
‘Isn’t it past your bedtime?’ I joke, but not really – it’s getting late; does she need to be running errands like that right now?
‘Bride’s orders. Gotta pick up the slack for Gemma and help Kayleigh de-stress so she can get her beauty rest ahead of the big day!’ Myleene salutes, stern-faced enough to make me laugh in spite of it. She might be a bit melodramatic at times, but she’s nothing if not committed. She’ll always step up to the plate and help out.
Not like Kay.
We say our goodbyes, and she disappears from the screen.
My own reflection stares back at me.
He looks like he needs a stiff drink, and I decide I am more than happy to oblige.
Chapter Twenty-one
Francesca
There’s so much I want to ask Gemma – about Kayleigh, about their friendship, about her relationship that just ended.
There’s something else I want to ask her too, something far more pressing about Marcus, but it’s such an ugly question that I can’t stand to dwell on it, let alone ask it.
From my stints social media stalking Kayleigh – and by extension, her friends – I always thought Gemma had everything together. She wears such lovely clothes, is always posting that she’s out somewhere doing something. Drinks with the other bridesmaids, her old school friends; day trips with her (ex-)girlfriend; dinner parties and movie nights with bougie snacks. I would never know she’d been passed over for a promotion, trying and failing to move, had a relationship fall apart around her – one serious enough that she was picturing their wedding.
It makes me feel so silly to realise it; because of course she’s not put her entire life out there on Instagram. Don’t we all just pick and choose the better moments we want to share?
It’s sad, though, that she must be going through so much. It doesn’t sound like she’s even – or maybe, especially – been able to talk to Kayleigh, her best friend, about any of this. I get the impression she’s been bottling it all up, until now – something I know aboutplenty.
I’m not sure it’s my place to ask about it all, but even if I wanted to, Gemma steers the conversation away so quickly I can do nothing but go along with it.
