Page 40 of One Moment in Time
‘Okay, this isn’t how we thought this was going to play out.’
His mum spun round and now she was challenging him. Crap. What were the chances that some form of divine intervention would strike in the next five seconds and divert attention from this catastrophe – a meteor shower, alien invasion, hell, a fire alarm would be enough.
‘What do you mean “we”? You planned this, Aiden? How do you even know these people? I don’t understand.’
Zara spoke up to rescue him from that one. He’d expected that Millie would be the more forceful one in this situation, given that she seemed bolder, more up front. In all the video calls they’d had over the last fortnight, Zara had been funny, thoughtful, warm, but when he’d met them last night, he’d realised that Millie was the wilder of the two, the more vocal, the one who liked to dance until dawn. She reminded him of his dad. Always seeking out the party. At 2 a.m. this morning, she’d been up for dragging him to a club and he was having such a good time, he almost went. Now he was glad he hadn’t. Doing this on no sleep would have crushed him.
Zara was still acting as his witness for the defence. ‘Erm, no, it was me who planned all this. I just roped Aiden in, but, like he said, we didn’t expect—’
‘What did you expect, Zara?’ her mum asked her very calmly.
Aiden noticed Millie was waiting in the background, just taking in everything that was going on.
‘I thought…’ Zara paused.
‘We,’ Millie interjected, taking her share of the heat. ‘We thought…’
He watched as Zara took a deep breath, threw a grateful glance at her sister and bolstered by the need to explain, started again. ‘Okay, first of all, Mr and Mrs Gregg, I’m Zara, and this is my sister, Millie – we’re Colin and Brenda’s daughters and despite this being a very strange moment, it’s lovely to meet you.’
‘Ah, Mr and Mrs Gregg – so you two got married. Shocker,’ Zara’s mum murmured, making both her daughters’ heads swivel to stare at her with undisguised astonishment. This was all very obviously out of character and a complete surprise to them.
‘Brenda, let Zara tell us…’ That came from Zara’s dad but withered before it was finished under a death stare from her mother, who, thankfully, had at least unclenched her fists.
Meanwhile, Aiden was, at all costs, avoiding glancing at his mum in case her expression suggested he was about to be put up for adoption.
Zara started again. ‘As I said before, this was all down to me.’
‘Us,’ said Millie, with a supportive nudge.
‘Yes, us. Me and Millie. Aiden honestly had nothing to do with it, other than go along with what we thought was going to be a lovely surprise for our parents. You see, it’s my mum and dad’s thirtieth wedding anniversary in a couple of days and I…wethought it would be amazing to bring them back to the place they got married.’
‘You got married here? When we were here last time? You’re bloody kidding me. Didn’t waste time, eh, Colin?’ This was the first time his dad had spoken, but it wasn’t making any more sense than the last ten minutes.
‘Pot and kettle there, Gary,’ Zara’s dad spat out a challenge, and now Zara’s eyes were even wider.
The waiter came back in for another approach, realised things were no better, and made a second retreat.
What the hell was going on? Were people just blurting out random statements and passive-aggressive digs for the fun of it? Were they being pranked?
Zara kept ploughing on, like someone being consumed by quicksand and desperately hoping she’d say something that would make one of the bystanders throw her a rope and pull her out. Aiden was standing with the lifejacket, but he just wasn’t sure when the best time was to throw it.
‘I’m going to go back to the beginning,’ Zara announced, as if returning to the start could somehow change the outcome of where they were now. If nothing else it might buy them enough time to suss out what the hell was going on. ‘A few months ago, my gran died, and I was going through old photos at her house when I found a picture taken here, back in 1993.’
There was a sharp intake of breath from Zara’s mom, but she didn’t say anything, allowing Zara to carry on.
‘I thought… well, wrongly by the looks of things… but I assumed you’d all come here together and Mum and Dad got married on the spur of the moment. Your names were on the back of the photo – although it was your maiden name, Mrs Gregg, so I didn’t make the connection at first because I didn’t know you were married until Aiden filled in that piece of the puzzle. I actually thought that you, Mrs Gregg, were probably a bridesmaid, and that you, Mr Gregg, were the best man. Like I said, I’m beginning to realise that I may have got that wrong.’
‘I’m afraid you did,’ his mom cut in, before adding a conciliatory, ‘but I can understand why you’d think that. We weren’t a couple back then.’
‘Weren’t you?’ That came from Zara’s mom again, but got no reply from his side of the trenches.
Time for Aiden to weigh in and take his share of the responsibility. ‘After she found the photo, Zara tracked me down through Facebook. She actually tried to contact you first, Dad…’
‘I don’t know how to work that thing. Never use it.’
‘He’s more of a Snapchat guy. Like the young things half his age,’ his mum barbed, and Aiden sighed. When it came to his dad, she just couldn’t help herself.
‘Anyway, Zara found me and sent me the picture. It was just after everything happened with my wedding…’
