Page 7 of From Notting Hill with Love…Actually
George winked at me. He knew that “occasionally” I would sneak away from work to catch a movie. There had to be some benefits to doing the job I did, and having to visit cinemas to mend their popcorn machines was one of the few times I got to set foot outside the office.
I bade farewell to George and shivered as I stepped out into the cold January evening once more. The warmth and comfort I always felt at being inside a cinema was at once replaced by the cold reality of life. I pulled my long coat around my shoulders and looked quickly at my watch. If I got a move on I might just make it to the restaurant in time for the first course. I was about to hail a taxi when my mobile phone rang again. I grabbed it from my bag, expecting it to be David checking up on me—but it was Maddie.
***
“No, don’t take the call,” Oscar squealed. “You’ll be late if you do!”
I laughed. “Something tells me you’re getting quite into this, Oscar.”
“Ooh, I like a good soap, me, and this has all the makings of a classic episode. So did you take the call?”
“Yes, I had to. It was my best friend and I hadn’t heard from her in ages.”
“Why? Oh sorry, I’m being nosy again.”
“Since I’m sitting here telling you virtually everything that’s happened in my life over the last week or so, I don’t think that’s classed as being nosy. Maddie’s getting married soon, so she’s been really busy lately…”
“Maddie, I haven’t heard from you in ages.”
“Scarlett, I know—I’m so sorry about that. It’s just with my wedding so close now life’s just been manic.”
“It’s fine. I quite understand.”
“Do you? I would have thought you having a wedding planner to organize your big day took all the stresses away. That’s the whole point, isn’t it?”
I thought about the wedding planner that David’s parents had insisted we hire to help us plan for our big day. Or Cruella, as I’d renamed her. I could feel stress beginning to seep into my body at the thought.
It wouldn’t have been quite so bad if my wedding planner had been at all like Jennifer Lopez from the film of the same name, as I’d envisaged. Or even Martin Short inFatheroftheBride, just for the comedy value. But no, my wedding planner was more like Meryl Streep inTheDevilWearsPradacrossed with Glenn Close playing Cruella De Vil in101 Dalmatians.
“So,” I said, quickly changing the subject away from my own wedding which was never something I chose to dwell on for too long, “whenarewe going to see each other? When have you got a window for me in your busy schedule?”
Maddie laughed. “Don’t be daft, Scarlett, you know I always have time for you. How about this weekend?”
“I could do tomorrow,” I said, thinking it would get me out of David’s planned trip to a DIY warehouse he’d found on the Internet that did discount prices in tiles. What were we supposed to be looking at this time? Was it floor tiles for the kitchen, or wall tiles for the bathroom? I could never remember.
“What would you like to do, Maddie?”
“I don’t know, Scarlett, why don’t you decide—wait, as long as it doesn’t have anything to do with the movies.”
“As if!” I said, trying to sound affronted. “Idohave other interests.”
Maddie laughed. “Scarlett O’Brien, I could count on one hand the times we’ve got together andyou’vechosen what we’re doing and it’s not been movie-related. If I have to sit throughThelma& Louiseone more time, I swear I’ll scream or, worse, stop fancying Brad Pitt—andthatwould be a real tragedy.”
I was smiling at my end of the phone, but I felt I had to defend my girls. “But wouldn’t you just like to take off like them sometimes, Maddie? Get away from it all and have an adventure, find out what mightreallybe waiting for you out there in the world?”
Maddie sighed; we’d had similar conversations many a time. “No, Scarlett, I wouldn’t. Been there, done that, I’m afraid. I’m quite happy with what life’s dealt me now, you know that. And can I remind you while we’re at it just how that film ends?”
There was no point in arguing with her. Maddie was a super-organized, practical person, who’d made just about everything in her life happen for herself. She didn’t believe in fate, destiny, or any of my “airy-fairy” nonsense as she put it, even thoughshe’d met her own fiancé, Felix, in the strangest of places. And you don’t get much stranger than on top of one of the parade floats at Disneyland Paris.
“OK, OK, you win. I know there’s no point in arguing with you. Plus,” I said, looking at my watch again, “if I don’t get to a restaurant soon, I might not have a wedding of my own to organize…” My voice trailed off as I wondered for a moment if that might not be such a bad thing.
“What on earth do you mean, Scarlett?” Maddie asked. “Where are you now? Wait, let me guess—at the cinema, right, just for a change?”
“Yes, I am standing outside a cinema, but only because I was here fixing a popcorn machine. I got called out on an emergency.”
Maddie snorted with laughter. “Only you could call fixing a popcorn machine an emergency!”
“It was for the manager—his cinema is very important to him.” I could feel myself starting to get irritated by yet another person’s apparent lack of regard for what I, and now also George, it seemed, considered important in life. But I didn’t want to start an argument with Maddie—I didn’t have time.
