Page 38 of Try Hard
She held her hands up. “Nothing. Just… if I’d only recently reconnected with someone, I don’t think I’d have seemed asclosewith them as you two seem.”
I sucked a breath through my teeth, knowing it was easier to brush the accusations away with jokes. “Don’t let Sammy hear you say that. I think she might get jealous.”
Kim laughed. “Don’t worry about her. She can’t resist an athlete or a celebrity, and, what do you know? You’re both.”
I couldn’t help myself from looking across the room for Ophelia. I’d known that was all it was. There was no sign of her, though. Still off wherever Tanika had dragged her to.
Kim nudged me when I didn’t reply. “Sammy’s not the one I invited for you.”
It took a minute for the penny to drop, the cogs spinning in my brain and refusing to come to the obvious conclusion. “Who was?”
“Pfft. Fia, obviously.”
I stared at her. “Kim, I appreciate the… consideration, but… what?”
She huffed a little. “Well, that’s not the only reason I invited her. Obviously, we were friends back in school. I’d havefailedFrench without her for sure. But we hadn’t been in contact for years and we were never very close outside of school, but, you know, in school, we were good.”
“Yes, thank you. I do remember.”
She grinned like the cat that got the cream. “I knew you would.”
I pursed my lips, fighting a sigh as I scrubbed my face. I’d talked to Kim enough back in school. We’d had a few classes together, and she’d always been fairly social, which probably explained how she’d been friends with Ophelia. Kim was not the type of personality Ophelia naturally gravitated to, but, if such personalities made an effort with her, she stuck with them. She was loyal. However, Kim and I had never talked about Ophelia, and I hadn’t once thought she was paying enough attention to know how I’d felt about Ophelia, even back then.
Kim watched me, her smile getting bigger and bigger until I laughed.
“Kim,” I said. “I’m going to need you to explain, please.”
She laughed in response. “Fine. So, I was a little oblivious to what was going on back then. Hell, I mean, Kieran and I didn’t even get together until five years after we all left school because I’d never realised he liked me, but I think that was for the best. Plus, now, we’ve been together for ages and we’re going to have the biggest, best wedding anyone’s ever had, and it’s all because we waited and saved for this, so, really the past is whatever.”
I nodded. She spoke quickly at the best of times but that was especially rapid. “You’ve found each other now, so that’s what matters.”
“Right.” She beamed and straightened up her dress, her hands running over the sequined fabric. “But, that means that I didn’t know you had ahugecrush on Fia.”
I cleared my throat, one side of my mouth turning up in amusement. “A huge crush?”
“That’s what Kieran said, and, especially after today, I’m inclined to believe him.”
“Good start to a marriage, honestly.”
Her teeth bit into her bottom lip as she lit up, delighted. “You’re not denying it?”
“Would there be a point?” I shook my head. “Kieran, Adnan, Imran, Paul… They all knew. As you pointed out, there weren’t a lot of conversational boundaries.”
She gripped my hands and held them between us, vibrating with excitement. “Eek! Well, yes, so, obviously Kieran wanted to invite you to the wedding, and we were in a massive conversation about school and everyone who was coming from back then, and he dropped that you’d had a huge crush on Fia, and she and I had been friends, and then Tanika heard about it, and she and Fia had been practically besties back then, and she thought it was a great idea to invite her. You know, for the two of us to catch up with her, but also… for you.”
Kieran and I hadn’t seen each other in person much lately, but we were still in a group chat together—an active one. Where was the friendship loyalty?
Kim was going to be his wife, though. He had far more loyalty to her than to me. And, if it helped get Ophelia here, was I really going to be upset about it?
“You’re using your wedding to try to matchmake me with someone I had a crush on in secondary school?”
She shot me an exasperated look. “Don’t say that like it’s in the past. You looked plenty like you still have a crush on her when you were feeding her your pancakes.”
I laughed. “Of course you saw that.”
“I seeeverything,Eve.”
“It’s your wedding, Kim. You’re supposed to be concentrating on a million other things.”
