Page 24 of A Winter Wedding Adventure
Ginny turned to her in indignation. ‘I can’t believe you just said— Actually, I can. But you make yourself that way on purpose, whereas I…’
Kira stilled, her thoughts stalling on Ginny’s suggestion. All this introspection was making her stomach churn. One odd evening with a soft-eyed opera singer should not make her outlook shift and Ginny didn’t know what she was talking about. No one knew the mistake she’d made all those years ago and she had to keep it that way.
‘But don’t tell me you haven’t had a crush on your share of dickheads,’ Ginny continued with a grin.
‘A crush? How old are you?’ Kira had certainly slept with a dickhead or two, but she hadn’t had crushes since she was a teenager. She was all or nothing and since ‘all’ would never work, she was left with ‘nothing’.
‘But the biggest problem is the bride, and not in the usual way.’
Kira pricked up her ears. ‘What’s she like? Mattia made her sound like a saint.’
Ginny dropped her lipstick and the case made a clack against the sink. ‘Oh, my God.’
‘What?’
‘I just realised you spent a whole day with the opera singer. Alessandra talks about him like he doesn’t really function in normal life. I hope he wasn’t an arse – or a diva.’
‘That’s a stereotype,’ Kira grumbled. ‘It was fine. He’s normal.’ It wasn’t quite true, but she was unreasonably annoyed with the bride for underestimating him. She held her breath, waiting to see if Ginny would pick up on her carefully blank tone.
But Kira was saved by the wedding drama. ‘You’ll be able to help me.’
Beckoning for Kira to sit on her bed while Ginny took up the opposite position on her own, she gave a wriggle like a dog settling into its blanket and leaned conspiratorially close.
‘Get this: the bridesmaid is the opera singer’s ex!’
Kira hesitated, tempted to pretend she didn’t know but struggling to produce an appropriately false reaction. Luckily, Ginny ploughed on.
‘Alessandra set up Carla and Mattia and she’s heartbroken that they split. You know how brides think everyone else should be happy too?’
‘No.’
Ginny laughed as though she’d made a joke. ‘Well, Alessandra said she also feels guilty about moving permanently to London after the wedding and she wishes her friends still had each other. I suppose it’s a cliché: weddings are the best place for new love to bloom.’
That statement made Kira want to barf.
‘Anyway, she asked me today – in this lovely, gracious way she has where you don’t feel imposed on even though she’s totally imposing on me – if there was a way we could get them together – like make them spend time together, alone if possible.’
Kira’s skin was suddenly cold. Stupid fine blouse. She should have kept her thermal shirt on.
‘Alessandra says they’re sure to get back together because it was a misunderstanding, the reason they broke up, and they’re both such lovely people who can’t hold a grudge.’
Nostrils flaring, Kira bit the insides of her cheeks so she wouldn’t say anything.
‘She says it’s her dearest wish that her friends recapture the love they had,’ Ginny said with a mock swoon.
Images of Mattia’s face as he’d told her about Carla flashed in Kira’s memory. It was my fault. His tone had been pained – with misplaced guilt, she’d assumed. But he must have felt something strong for Carla at one stage, enough that he’d mentioned finding a solution to the problem with therapy. What he’d described also was a kind of misunderstanding: Carla had thought he wanted to break up. Lashing out because of wounded pride wasn’t something Kira could blame the woman for.
‘I thought you were a wedding planner and not a matchmaker,’ she said, managing an even tone with some effort.
‘I did wonder whether to point that out, especially since she told me all of this while I was busy tying up the wrapping on the wedding favours.’
‘What the hell is a wedding favour?’
Ginny blinked at her. ‘That’s a conversation for another time. The point is, the bride is always right.’
Kira couldn’t resist. ‘I think I’m beginning to get this: the bride is always right and the groom is often a dickhead.’
‘Ha ha, Kira. But the point is, all we need to do is to try to seat them together, get them into a snowball fight – that sort of thing. It shouldn’t be too much extra work and it’s for a good cause, but I need your help, because I have a thousand other things on my mind.’
