Page 41 of Best Mistake Ever
I force myself to smile at her. ‘Fine,’ I say. ‘All good.’
But it’s really not.
We spend the twenty-minute journey east chatting about our favourite parts of the festival.
I love hearing the passion in her voice as she talks about the workshops that most caught her imagination.
Notably, the lube wrestling isn’t mentioned.
‘You know, holding the festival at the hotel reminded me why I love the place so much and why I wanted to be able to share it with other people,’ I say.
I feel her looking at me and when I glance over, I see she’s smiling, waiting for me to go on.
So I do. ‘I love how it has the potential to bring people together – to give them a platform for adventure, whatever that translates to.’ I shake my head. ‘Ugh! Listen to me, I sound like a cheesy bloody inspirational quote.’
‘No, no! I like it,’ she says, with real warmth in her voice. ‘We could use the essence of what you’re saying in our marketing campaign.’
‘The essence. How very tactful of you.’
She just laughs at my gruffness and I can’t help but smile back.
A minute later, the sign for the hotel appears and I turn into the driveway and follow it past lush, green lawns and into the visitors’ car park.
This hotel isn’t dissimilar in style to Gladbrooke House and I can see exactly why Dee thought it’d be helpful for me to come and visit. It has the same type of Bath-stone façade and extensive grounds, which are immaculately kept.
As we walk towards the front entrance, she puts her hand onto my arm, urging me to stop for a moment.
‘I hope this is okay: I called ahead this morning and told them we’re thinking about hiring the hotel for our wedding venue and that we’d like to take a look around,’ she says in a low voice.
Her cheeks are pink and she’s having trouble looking me in the eye. ‘I thought it would be useful to see one of their luxury rooms, as well as the spa and the other facilities and I didn’t think it’d be wise to sneak around in case we got caught. I gave them fake names so hopefully they won’t twig we’re from a rival hotel.’ She takes a breath. ‘What I didn’t consider was that they might recognise you, so you might need to pretend you just look like Jonah Jacobson or something and that you hear that comparison all the time. Sorry to put you in that position.’
I nod, my mouth lifting at the corner at her obvious discomfort at asking me to tell a white lie. Or is it because we’re going to have to act like an engaged couple?
‘Yeah, no problem,’ I say, and I see her visibly relax.
I, on the other hand, am anything but relaxed.
‘Okay, so otherwise, are you happy for me to do most of the talking?’
‘The lying, you mean?’ I joke, but I’m alarmed to see her face fall.
She shifts on her feet. ‘I like to think of it more as playacting because we’re not going to hurt anyone with our ruse. And I booked us in for afternoon tea, so we’ll be paying our way.’
Her voice is plaintive, as if asking for my blessing, or perhaps my forgiveness.
‘Er, yeah, sure. I didn’t mean to suggest anything by that. I’m not calling you a liar. You don’t strike me as the type to take advantage of people.’
If anything, my response increases the look of tension on her face.
‘Are you okay?’ I ask, worried now. ‘We don’t have to do this if it’s too stressful. We can just go in for afternoon tea and take a cursory look around afterwards.’
Dee clears her throat and seems to give herself a mental shake. ‘No, no. Let’s do it. It’ll be helpful to see the whole set up. That’s what we’re here for, after all.’ Her professional self is fully back in place now and she looks me directly in the eye this time, her expression assured. ‘Okay.’
‘Okay then, fiancée. Let’s take a look around our wedding venue.’
She grins at this and gives a jerky nod.
Instinctively, I reach out my hand, offering to take hers, then check myself, realising this is probably a bad idea and withdraw it again.
