Page 135 of From Notting Hill with Love…Actually
“It’s both of them, actually,” Dermot piped up. “SleeplessinSeattlewas based onAnAffairtoRemember.”
Everyone turned and stared at him.
“It’s my girlfriend,” he said, blushing under his hat. “Shewatches all those kinds of films.” His voice deepened. “I’m more of an Arnie guy myself, obviously.”
We all turned back to the card still held in my hands.
I shook my head. “This is all just madness. I can’t believe I’m standing out here now even looking at this—let’s all go back inside and continue with the service. I…I shouldn’t have dragged you all out here, I’m sorry.”
I looked to where David had been standing a few minutes ago but he’d gone.
“Where’s David?” I asked, looking wildly around me.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. “He’s gone back inside the church, Scarlett,” my father said gently. “I think he’d heard enough.”
I looked up at the church and felt a wrench in my stomach.PoorDavid—what was I putting him through on our wedding day?
“Are you absolutely sure about this, Scarlett?” Dad asked in the same gentle voice. “Are you sure it’s what you want—to go back in there and marry David? This invite, and the way it wassupposedto be delivered,” he said, looking at Dermot and Finlay, “seems just the kind of romantic ending you’d get in one of your movies. Except this time it’s happening for real. Are you sure you don’t want it to end a different way?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“Howdoyou feel about Sean?” my mother asked, appearing on my other side. “Do you love him?”
I hung my head. “Yes, I think I do. But it’s complicated.”
I could feel everyone willing me to tell them why.
“It just is, OK?”
“He obviously loves you, Scarlett,” my mother said, “to go to all this trouble.”
“I thoughtyouwere against him?” I said, turning to her. “I thought you said he was a Daniel Cleaver.”
My mother looked confused.
“I believe he’s a character inBridgetJones’s Diary,” Dermot suggested helpfully.
We all stared at him again.
“Yes, I’m aware of that—thank you,” my mother said, slowly turning away from Dermot. “But what’s that got to do with anything, Scarlett?”
Oh, this was just getting far too complicated to explain now. “Look, forget I said that. It just makes moresenseto marry Mark…I mean David.”
“Why does it, Scarlett?” Maddie asked now. “If you love Sean more? Yes, I know you’re here at the church about to get married, and it would be easier to just go through with it all now. But this is just one day—we’re talking about the rest of your life.”
“Because…” I stuttered.
“See?” Maddie continued. “I knew this would happen after I saw you two together at my wedding.”
“Sean is the chap you took to Maddie’s wedding?” Dad asked in surprise.
“Yes—why?” I asked, wondering what that had to do with anything.
“Because David told me about this absolute cretin that went with you to Paris, said he was a right slimeball and was all over you that night. He described him as a complete loser.”
“David would say that, though—he hates Sean.”
“And with good reason, it would seem now. But Sean’s not a loser,” Dad said, defending him. “Nor is he a cretin, come to think of it. He’s a very smart, astute businessman. And a nice genuine young fellow too.”
