Page 77 of A Colourful Country Escape
‘He’s my boss, Jake.’
‘So make him not your boss.’ Jake shrugged. ‘Other jobs are available. Or be your own boss. You were a great help when I was setting up JakePix and the shop; you know the ropes. And weren’t you an online entrepreneur once?’
‘Massive exaggeration,’ Lexie replied. Although she did secretly keep fancying herself as her own boss again. ‘Anyway, he’s loaded, whereas I come from this jumble sale.’ She waved her arms around her. The garden admittedly looked better than usual, but nothing could hide the simple property in its questionable state of repair.
‘So? What is this, Jane Austen times? Who cares what dowry you come with?’
Lexie flicked her eyes skywards. ‘Tell your boyfriend to stop being a sarcastic twat,’ she said to Mia. Although she couldn’t help thinking it did sound a bit foolish when he put it like that.
‘Rich people are annoying, anyway. I mean, Ben’s all right when you get used to him. But I’m not sure I could marry into his world.’
‘Money is the root of all evil,’ Lexie heard a female voice muttering nearby. She peeked over her shoulder to see a commune dweller in what looked like a hessian dress, preaching to Lexie’s great aunt Mabel. ‘We renounce money and all its malevolent trappings.’
OK, so that sounded pretty odd too. Would she start wearing itchy hessian and handing over her beaded purse to the gods of whatever, if she carried on thinking like this?
‘So you’ve had a few sneaky thoughts about marrying him!’ Mia squeezed her arm.
‘Obviously not,’ Lexie lied. In truth, she had played out a few possible scenarios. But it had always ended in her feeling silly. ‘Anyway, he’s got to marry a suitably rich woman or his mum will screw him over. He won’t inherit the business, and she’ll probably kick him off the family estate and murder the peacocks.’
Mia gasped.
‘Sounds like a massive charade,’ said Jake. ‘When you clearly like each other.’
‘Why is everyone saying that?’ Lexie flapped her arms in frustration.
‘Because they’ve got eyes?’ Jake shrugged. ‘Anyway, if he feels the way I think he does, he won’t give a toss about the money.’
‘Urgh. I don’t really know how he feels,’ Lexie conceded. She was running out of fight.
‘Someone gave me a pep talk on this very subject once,’ said Jake. ‘She came banging on my darkroom door, red faced and hair like a pixie. Do you know what she said?’
Lexie knew this was about her, when she’d been persuading Jake to make a play for Mia when he’d been sure all was lost. ‘Can’t remember,’ she muttered.
‘It was something about not being afraid to make a fool of yourself for love. To say how you feel or live a life of regret. Then you called yourself Paddy McGuinness and booked me a flight to Fernando’s – well, Venice – to tell Mia that I loved her.’
‘Oh.’ Well, she’d booked flights again, all right. Three flights to Marrakech. But who knew who would be declaring their love to whom.Ménage àbloodytrois.
‘Make sure it’s not always other people’s lives you’re sorting out though, Lex,’ said Jake.
Seeming to sense that Lexie needed cheering up, Mia interrupted. ‘Hey, if it makes you feel any better, Drew left the band.’
Mia was the singer in the same indie rock band as Drew, although Mia had always been vocal on how slutty she thought Drew was for cheating on Lexie.
‘It was probably for the best,’ Mia continued. ‘I couldn’t like him after how he treated you. Anyway, better still. He was forced to leave because his new fiancée Tricky Tabby didn’t want to marry someone who was in a “crappy band” as she so politely put it. He had to cut his hair and start wearing a suit to work in Tabby’s dad’s boring investment business. So marrying someone from the same wealthy background isn’t an instant ticket to eternal happiness either, in case you were wondering.’
Lexie couldn’t help grinning at that little gem. She was past caring about Drew, but she had always believed in karma. Sometimes it was a beautiful thing.
And when Ben appeared through the crowds of hessian and tambourines, Lexie smiled even more. Jake took back his camera and angled Ben and Lexie under the tissue-paper flowers for some photos of their own.
‘And a few for the social media accounts,’ said Lexie, handing Jake her camera phone.
After the photos, Lexie left Ben with Mia and Jake while she went to freshen up. She’d given them both her best don’t-say-anything-stupid eyes before she’d left, but who knew what the cheeky pair would get up to. She couldn’t play bouncer to Ben all day, or she’d never get to pee.
Anyway, she’d only be five minutes. What could possibly go wrong?
Chapter 38
When Lexie returned to her parents’ garden, Ben was chatting amiably with her mum. Could this commitment ceremony get any worse?
