Page 79 of My Year of Saying No
‘They don’t get out much,’ I said, shrugging.
‘Fair enough,’ he smiled, taking a sip from his glass as we all headed back into the main room.
‘Have you seen Harry yet?’ Jess asked, glancing round for her fiancé, and beckoning madly when she caught his eye.
‘Briefly, when we came in,’ Seb replied, as across the room Harry excused himself from the guests he’d been talking to and ambled over, sliding his arm around Jess’ waist and placing a kiss on her temple as he arrived.
‘We’re so glad you could both come,’ Harry said, waving over one of the hired catering staff to top up our glasses. ‘And it’s brilliant to meet you in person, Seb. I was so excited to get involved with your charity once Jess told me about it. The support you’ve already given me with the training and so on, it’s been great.’
‘Anytime. Obviously, the charity is hugely grateful for the publicity you’ve generated, as well as the donations, so anything we can do to help, just give us a call. Actually, can you hold that a minute, Lots,’ Seb asked, passing his drink to me before pulling a slim wallet out from his back pocket. Withdrawing a business card, he handed it to Harry. ‘That’s got my personal number on too, if you ever need anything. I know you’re pretty experienced at these things, but just in case. You know, pep talks, training ideas, emergency jelly babies, whatever.’
‘Thanks, mate. I really appreciate that,’ Harry said, looking at the card for a moment, before pocketing it in the back of his designer jeans.
‘No problem.’ Seb smiled as I handed him back his glass and he took a sip. ‘What?’ he asked as I continued to focus on him. A focus that was, admittedly, now slightly fuzzy around the edges.
‘Emergency jelly babies?’
‘Excellent for an energy boost as well as delightfully tasty!’ Harry added.
‘You’ve never offered me emergency jelly babies, and we’ve been friends for ages,’ I complained.
‘I would have, had you been training for a triathlon.’
Harry and I exchanged a smile as something caught Jess’ eye across the room. ‘Oh Lots! Your parents are here. Fabulous! I’ll go and get them.’ And with that, she dashed off, returning moments later with my mum and dad in tow as Harry signalled a waitress for two more glasses of champagne.
‘Hello, darling!’ Mum said, reaching out for a hug, followed by Dad. ‘Sorry we’re late. Traffic was a bit snarly coming into town.’
‘I thought you were getting the train?’
‘That strike they were threatening went ahead today, unfortunately,’ Dad replied.
‘Oh.’ I made a point of avoiding as much news coverage of everything and anything as far as I could. It was another aspect of me saying no to things I didn’t want to do. And being inundated with doom and gloom every day with twenty-four hour rolling news was definitely something I didn’t want. It had already made quite a difference. The effect of seeing all those depressing headlines every day had, apparently, been something I’d underestimated and cutting it out had certainly been beneficial. ‘Mum, Dad, this is Seb. And please don’t tell him you’ve heard so much about him as he is developing a complex about it.’
Mum smiled and shook his hand, covering it with both of her own. ‘It’s lovely to meet you, Seb.’ I could see she was itching to say more, but, much to my relief, kept to my wishes.
‘Pleased to meet you,’ Dad said, one shovel sized hand taking Seb’s equally sizeable one. ‘We’ve heard absolutely nothing at all about you.’
Everyone laughed and I doinked my head against Seb’s upper arm, hiding my face.
As my dad released his hand, Seb’s arm curled around me and gave a reassuring squeeze. ‘I’m tougher than you think. Don’t worry about it.’
I lifted my head and raised my gaze. ‘Oh pfft. You’re as much as a softie as the rest of us.’
His eyes widened and he put a finger to his lips. ‘Ssssh! You can’t just go blurting slander like that about. I’ve got a reputation to maintain.’
‘Oh yes, adding sensitive to good looking ex-military man isreallygoing to hurt that reputation.’ Jess frowned momentarily, before her wide, even smile burst through.
Seb returned the smile but quickly lowered his eyes to his glass and took a swig.
‘So, Seb, Lottie tells us your dad is into gardening too? Is that right?’
The relief on Seb’s face to have the attention drawn away from himself and onto far safer ground was palpable as he proceeded to tell Dad about his own father’s green fingered habits.
‘He seems very nice,’ Mum said as I took her over to the buffet, where we began loading up two plates, me holding one for Dad as he continued his chat with Seb.
‘He is,’ I replied, in as casual and non-committal a tone as I could possibly muster before sneaking a glance at Mum, who was busily engaged in filling Dad’s plate with all the things she knew he liked. And then she caught my eye and smiled. Not a huge smile. Just one of those tiny but knowing smiles that mothers have a habit of giving just when you think you’ve managed to sneak something by them.
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