Katie Fforde - Wedding Season

‘Your phone is ringing,' said Hugo.

Sarah snapped awake, found her bag and then scrabbled for her phone. It was Lily.

‘Sarah! Can you come over? I'm not feeling very well.’

‘What sort of "not very well"? Is it the baby?' Sarah was wide awake now.

‘It might be. I've got a pain. Oh, Sarah, I'm so frightened!’

‘Hush, it's going to be all right,' she soothed. 'But where's Dirk?'

‘Spending the night with his best friend. I've rung him but he said to ring you. He's miles away.'

‘Sweetie, I'm miles away.'

‘He's in Liverpool.'

‘Oh,' said Sarah.

‘Where do you want to be?' asked Hugo.

‘Just a minute, Lily.' She turned to Hugo and told him Lily's address. 'How long to get there?'

‘About an hour. Less if we're lucky with traffic.'

‘Lily? I'm about an hour away. I'll get to you as quickly as possible, but really you should ring the doctor. Or Dad.’

‘No. I want you.' Lily sounded tearful.

‘I'll be there soon. Don't worry, Lily, please. Why don't you have a bath while you're waiting? It might ease the pain and if you do have to go into hospital or anything you'll be nice and clean.’

Lily accepted this was good advice and they disconnected.

‘I can't believe I said that,' said Sarah, 'about her being nice and clean. I'm barking!'

‘Well, it did the trick. Lily will be occupied until we can get there. It'll distract her.'

‘That was what I thought, but how do you know it would? You've never met Lily.'

‘I've met plenty of girls like her. They revert to childhood if they're frightened.'

‘Lily is a bit like that. Better than she was though, and being pregnant must be quite nerve-racking sometimes. I really hope there's nothing wrong. I know she got pregnant by accident but she'd be devastated if she lost the baby. But Hugo..

‘What?'

‘You don't have to take me to Lily's. Home is much nearer. You've been such a star already, you don't have to do anything else. Take me there then I can pick up my car. You don't want to be involved in Lily's dramas.'

‘Don't be silly, it would take you much longer to get there that way. We don't want Lily to be alone a moment longer than necessary. Besides, I want to help.’

Sarah spent the rest of the journey trying to work out if Hugo had insisted on driving her for her benefit or for Lily's.

Lily was enveloped in white towelling from slippers to her head. 'Oh, Sarah! You should have told me you had someone with you!' she said, smoothing her hair and going all girly the moment she spied Hugo. It was a reflex action with some women when confronted by an attractive man, Sarah realised.

‘I thought you must have guessed,' said Sarah, examining her sister for signs of imminent miscarriage. 'Can we come in?'

‘Of course.' Lily smiled at Hugo. 'Who's this?'

‘This is Hugo. Hugo, Lily. Are you all right?'

‘Let me get you something to drink or a snack? I could make a sandwich or something.' Lily was looking at Hugo, over the embarrassment of being seen en dèshabille.

Sarah looked at him too. He may well be hungry. It was hours since lunch and although Fenella had offered cake with their mugs of tea she was fairly sure that he hadn't had any.

‘Don't worry about me, how are you?' said Hugo. 'Sarah's been really worried about you.’

Lily glanced at her sister a little guiltily. 'Oh, I think that may have been a false alarm. The bath helped.'

‘So you're not in pain any more? There hasn't been any -you know – other signs anything might be wrong?'

‘Shall I put the kettle on while you two have a chat?' Hugo, the epitome of tact, left the room.

‘You won't know where anything is!' Lily complained after him.

‘I'll find what I need,' Hugo called back.

‘He can't make tea in a house he's never been in!' said Lily, and then, 'He's gorgeous!'

‘That doesn't make him incapable! Now sit down, do, and tell me how you are. We've made a mercy dash to get to your bedside and you're worried about Hugo finding the tea bags!’

Lily subsided on to the sofa and Sarah sat next to her. 'Oh well, I had a bath, like you said, and the pain sort of – went away.'

‘What, completely?'

‘Mm. But tell me about Hugo! He's even better looking in real life and not a bit like Bruce, really. I thought you told me he was just a colleague?'

‘He is.'

‘Are you trying to tell me there's nothing in it? When he drove you to my bedside, so to speak? Sarah, are you telling piggies?’

Half of Sarah wanted to laugh at Lily's malapropism and half of her wanted to strangle her sister for teasing her. She had to nip this in the bud immediately before Lily said something hideously embarrassing. 'We were together -working. We were looking at the venue where Carrie is going to have her wedding.’

As Sarah hoped it would, this diverted Lily's attention from Sarah's supposed love life. 'Go on then, what's it like?'

‘I will tell you, Lils, but first I want to know why you're so fine now when you were practically in tears on the phone.'

‘I told you, I had a pain.'

‘And it went, just like that?’

Lily bit her lip and inspected her fingernails, which had transfers of cartoon kittens on them. 'Mm.’

Sarah studied her sister. 'Is there something you're not telling me?’

Lily nodded.

‘What?'

‘Well, I got into the bath..

‘Hurry up. Hugo will be back any minute!'

‘OK, I'm telling you! Be patient.’

Sarah fixed her with a glare she hoped might get Lily to tell her what had happened.

‘I farted,' said Lily, beginning to giggle. 'I got into the bath and lay back and then – it just happened. Bubbles and everything. Afterwards I felt loads better.'

‘So you didn't think to ring me?’

Lily shook her head. 'I was quite lonely. It's lovely to have you here. And Hugo's dreamy.’

Dreamy Hugo came back into the room. 'I've made some tea and I found a whole lot of left-over balti. Shall I heat it up?’

Sarah started to laugh. She looked at Lily who had her face in a pillow. 'That's a good idea, but not for Lily. Indian food seems to give her wind.’

They spent the rest of the evening eating and watching Sex and the City DVDs. It was cosy and surprisingly enjoyable.

While Hugo was making more tea, Lily said, 'It's good that you've got a man who's so in touch with his feminine side.’

When Hugo came back in he asked why Sarah was laughing so hard, but she wouldn't tell him.

Bron had a dilemma; while she had a perfectly good plan for making Carrie's cake on paper, she didn't really know it would work until she'd made some experiments. It was too early to make the actual cake, but she needed some dummy runs, to make sure it would all work. For this, she needed tools. Roger had a shed full of them, but she wasn't going back there. The obvious solution was James – he was a gardener, they always had tools, didn't they?

Her problem was getting up the courage to talk to him. After his initial friendliness and welcoming attitude their friendship hadn't really progressed. He'd wave at her when he saw her and they'd shared the odd cup of tea over the garden fence as it were, but that was all. She hadn't even seen him for a day or so. For the first time in a very long while, Bron had found herself thinking about a man other than Roger. A man with a very cute smile. And although it wasn't that she wanted to fall into another relationship, five minutes after Roger, part of her was miffed that he hadn't even asked her to go for a drink.

The trouble was, she was developing a bit of crush on him – probably because he was so different from Roger -but she had no idea how he might feel about her. She knew he was single. They got on well, but it was not the sort of question you could ask outright. Bron blushed at the very thought. It really was a little soon after Roger and a crush didn't necessarily mean anything, did it?