Three Amazing Things About You (30 page)

‘Here.’ Joe came forward and dropped something into Rory’s free hand. ‘I made him do that in case his parachute didn’t open.’ He winked at Tasha. ‘Didn’t want it getting messy.’

‘Good thinking,’ said Tasha.

Rory removed the Haribo from the box – predictably, Joe took it and ate it – and replaced it with the real ring. He held it up to show Tasha, then clasped her hand and slid it on to her finger.

Well, not
slid
exactly. The ring was a slightly tight fit, but after a couple of awkward seconds it went over her knuckle.
Phew
.

‘I don’t believe this. How did you do it?’ The diamond glittered in the sunlight, surely more brightly than any diamond had ever glittered before. The ring was simple and exquisite, exactly what she would have chosen for herself.

‘I took Joe along with me to the store on Old Bond Street.’

‘They gave us champagne.’ Joe was smug. ‘At ten o’clock in the morning. It was brilliant!’

‘And he tried to chat up the sales girl,’ said Rory. ‘Without success.’

‘Ah, but it was fun trying.’

‘Anyway,’ Rory went on, ‘you can exchange it if there’s another style you’d prefer. I don’t mind at all – I just want you to be wearing something you love.’

Touched beyond belief by the mental image of Rory and Joe venturing into Tiffany’s and setting about choosing a ring for her, Tasha shook her head. ‘I love this one, more than anything. I don’t want any other style. I’m never taking it off.’ She kissed Rory again, then said, ‘And I love you too. Right now, I’m the happiest girl in the world.’

Carmel’s hands were clasped together against her chest. ‘This is so perfect, I think I’m going to cry. Why can’t something like this happen to me?’

‘Want me to propose to you?’ said Joe.

Amused, Carmel rolled her eyes. ‘Funny you should ask that. No.’

‘OK, that’s enough filming.’ Joe pressed the stop button on his phone. ‘We’ll delete that last bit.’

‘Good,’ said Carmel.

‘But one day you’ll say yes, I know you will.’

‘I won’t.’ She shook her head and pointed to Tasha and Rory. ‘See them? They have it. I want what they have.’

Helping Tasha to her feet, Rory kept his arm around her waist and murmured, ‘Hear that? We have
it
.’

The words felt like chocolate melting through her veins, because he was right. Miraculously, they did. Tasha whispered, ‘I want us to always have it.’

‘Oh we will, trust me.’ Rory gave her a squeeze and she felt his breath against her hair. ‘This is it now, for better or worse. Till death us do part.’

At midnight, they were in their favourite bar in Belsize Park, still celebrating the events of the day. Friends had joined them, champagne corks had been popped and the videos of Tasha’s skydive and Rory’s subsequent proposal had been playing on a loop up on the big screen behind the bar.

The Tiffany diamond ring was still glittering away on Tasha’s finger. She just couldn’t stop looking at it. Every time someone congratulated her, she felt the euphoria bubble up all over again. Asked when the wedding might be, Rory had said, ‘Whenever Tash wants it to happen. The sooner the better, if it’s up to me.’

It had been such an incredible day. Tasha wanted it to go on for ever. She’d jumped out of a plane and raised over eight thousand pounds for her favourite charity. She’d got herself a fiancé, and not any old fiancé either. Rory McAndrew was everything she’d ever wanted and more. Which meant she was the luckiest girl in the world. Life simply didn’t get any better than this.

Although if she were being really finicky, it would be nicer not to have to get up at seven tomorrow morning to go and do the make-up for a wedding in Berkshire.

At half past midnight, Rory said, ‘Shall I call a cab?’

‘No!’ This from Joe, who wasn’t nearly ready to end the evening. ‘You can’t go yet!’

‘I’m shattered,’ said Rory.

‘And I’m working tomorrow,’ said Tasha.

Joe looked at her. ‘That might be true.’ He pointed to Rory. ‘But
that
isn’t. There’s no way you’re shattered. You just want to slope off home and have sex with your new fiancée.’

Rory grinned. ‘It’s a possibility.’

They said their goodbyes. Reaching Joe last, Tasha gave him an extra-big hug. ‘Thank you. Really.’

He hugged her back. ‘My pleasure, darling. You two are perfect together. I’m so happy for you both.’

She kissed him on the cheek. ‘You’re brilliant.’

‘I
know
I am.’ Joe was indignant. ‘Could you have a word with that nightmare friend of yours and please tell her that? All this rejection’s doing nothing for my self-esteem.’

He’d deliberately said it loudly enough for Carmel to hear. She patted Joe’s arm. ‘You poor fragile flower.’

‘You’re making fun of me now, but you just wait,’ Joe told her. ‘When you’re old and all alone in your rocking chair, you’ll look back on this and regret not giving me a chance.’

‘You could be right.’ Carmel nodded. ‘Tell you what, if we’re both still single thirty years from now, we’ll get together.’

‘Great. Although we should probably have a practice beforehand, just to make sure we’re compatible. If you like,’ said Joe, ‘we could do that tonight, get it out of the way.’

‘You never give up, do you?’ Carmel gave him a good-humoured pitying look. ‘In your wildest dreams.’

‘And he has those most nights,’ said Rory with a grin.

‘Hey, what’s this? Oh wow, have you just got engaged? Congratulations!’ Alice, the bride-to-be whose make-up Tasha was doing for the wedding this afternoon, spotted the ring in the mirror and twisted round in her chair to clasp Tasha’s left hand.

Tasha said joyfully, ‘It all happened yesterday. I still can’t believe it.’

‘Well that explains why you’re glowing.’ Alice’s eyes danced with mischief. ‘Now we know what you were up to last night!’

Tasha let her think it. In fact, after getting back to Rory’s flat, the wild sex everyone had assumed they’d be having hadn’t materialised. By the time she’d emerged from the bathroom, ready to celebrate, Rory had been out for the count. Well, it had been a long day; she wasn’t offended. And what did it matter anyway? They had the rest of their lives to make up for it.

They’d both slept through until the alarm had gone off at seven. Rory, leaning over for a kiss, had said, ‘Sorry about crashing out.’

‘No problem.’ Smiling, Tasha stroked his chest. ‘I was pretty tired too. What are you going to be doing today?’

He stretched experimentally, winced a bit. ‘Head to the gym. Maybe go for a run later. My muscles are aching after the jump. What time will you be back?’

‘Somewhere around five, I should think.’

‘Want me to cook a roast dinner?’

‘That sounds fantastic,’ said Tasha.

‘Roast chicken, roast potatoes, veg, bread sauce and gravy?’

‘You know what?’ She reached across and kissed him again. ‘That’s a good enough reason to marry you right there.’

‘And after dinner, we’ll make up for last night and have loads of really fantastic sex.’

If only they had time for it now. Sadly, they didn’t. Tasha slid out of bed. ‘Deal.’

But bride-to-be Alice didn’t need to know any of these finer details. Tasha said cheerily, ‘We had quite a party. And the ring’s from Tiffany’s, can you believe it?’

‘Amazing! Do you have photos? I want to see what he looks like!’

So in the middle of doing Alice’s wedding-day make-up, Tasha found herself putting down her brushes and stopping work to show her photographs of Rory.

‘He’s gorgeous. Looks like so much fun. You’ll have beautiful babies.’ Producing her own phone, Alice brought up photos of her fiancé Eric and in turn showed them off to Tasha. A human rights lawyer, Eric was thin, fair-haired and geeky.

‘Yours looks lovely too.’ Tasha
much
preferred hers.

‘He is.’ Alice nodded happily. ‘Ah, I love him to bits. We’re so lucky, aren’t we?’

Tasha paused at one of the photos she’d taken last night in the wine bar, of Rory with his head thrown back as he laughed at something one of his friends had just said. God, he was perfect. And he was all
hers
.

Aloud, she said with pride, ‘Oh yes.’

The wedding had been a triumph. Apart from one bridesmaid having too much to drink and throwing up into a flower arrangement, the whole event had gone without a hitch. Having been asked to stay in order to make sure the bride, her bridesmaids and her mother looked their best for the photographs at the reception, Tasha had been kept busy mattifying faces, redoing lipstick and repairing out-of-control mascara runs.

It had been a happy day, though, and she’d sensed an instant attraction between the best man and the bride’s pretty younger sister. As she had been leaving, she’d spotted them sharing a sneaky kiss out in the hotel’s car park. And that was the brilliant thing: you never knew what might come of this newest of budding romances. Just think, a year or two from now, she could be asked to do the make-up for another wedding, only to discover it was them.

Driving home, Tasha couldn’t wait to see Rory again. Apart from a few hors d’oeuvres, she’d had nothing to eat, so she was also looking forward with a vengeance to her roast dinner. Her fiancé (
ha, get me!)
would be busy in the kitchen now, wearing his favourite blue T-shirt and faded jeans, singing along to the radio as he expertly basted the chicken, turned the crisped-up roast potatoes and flambéed red wine before whisking it into the gravy.

I mean, how many gorgeous adrenalin-junkie thrill-seeking super-sporty types are also capable of making stupendous gravy?

Seriously, they were pretty thin on the ground.

But when she fitted her key into the lock and pushed open the front door, the heavenly scents of roast dinner were sadly lacking. The air in the flat smelled of . . . nothing at all.

Had Rory forgotten about the meal and gone out with Joe? Could he have met up with friends at the gym and decided to join them for a drink or two afterwards? Or had he changed his mind about cooking and decided to take her out to their favourite restaurant instead?

‘Hello?’ No, the kitchen was empty, as was the living room. ‘Are you here?’

The next moment, Tasha heard the creak of the bed. So he
was
here. This made even less sense, unless— She froze, remembering what had happened to one of Carmel’s friends the other week. Returning home unexpectedly, she’d burst into the bedroom and caught her boyfriend in bed with the girl from the flat upstairs.

Well, hopefully she wasn’t about to walk in on
that
scenario, particularly since Rory’s upstairs neighbour was a sixty-year-old history teacher with a vast swollen belly and a ZZ Top beard . . .

Pushing open the bedroom door, she said, ‘OK, if you’re having sex with Beardy Bernard, you’re in big trouble.’

‘Huh? Oh God, what’s the time?’ Rory rolled over and winced as he opened his eyes. ‘Is it five o’clock already?’

‘Almost half past. You poor thing, are you ill?’

He pulled a face and nodded. ‘Sorry, didn’t mean to sleep this long. I was going to cook dinner.’

‘I’ve never seen you sick before.’ Sitting on the bed next to him, Tasha smoothed his tousled hair back from his forehead.

‘That’s because I’m never sick. I started feeling a bit rough last night, thought I’d be back to normal today.’ He shifted his head against the squashed pillows. ‘But I’m not.’

‘How rotten.’

‘I think it’s flu.’

Tasha smiled, because she’d guessed he’d say that. ‘It’s probably not flu, not at this time of year. You’ve just caught a bug.’

‘This definitely feels like flu,’ said Rory.

He looked so sad, how could she not humour him? ‘OK, maybe it is.’

‘How was the wedding?’

‘Great. One puking bridesmaid, otherwise everything was fine. The hotel was amazing; they ran the whole event like clockwork and the staff were lovely.’

‘What does that mean?’ He broke into a wry smile. ‘You wouldn’t mind us getting married there?’

‘Who knows? It could go on the long-list.’ Tasha laced her fingers through his, admiring the look of their clasped hands and the way the diamond flashed light like a tiny sparkler.

‘Sorry I didn’t get the size right.’ Rory touched the narrow platinum band. ‘We can have it sorted, no problem.’

Tasha shook her head. ‘No way, I’m not giving it back to them, not even for a day. I’d rather stop eating until my fingers get thinner.’

He stroked the back of her hand. ‘Sorry about dinner too.’

‘Don’t be daft, doesn’t matter at all. I’ll make something quick. How about you, are you hungry?’

Rory coughed and wearily shook his head. ‘Wouldn’t mind a cup of tea, though.’

Tasha left him to rest and went into the kitchen. But a couple of minutes after she’d started frying bacon and buttering bread, she heard him call out, ‘Are you doing bacon sandwiches? I could probably manage one of those.’

Of course he could. Amused, she peeled off extra rashers and added them to the sizzling pan.

Men: they were never quite as ill as they liked to make out.

Bea hadn’t got any better at keeping secrets.

‘Is everything OK?’ said Hallie, watching with interest as she sat on the end of the bed and fiddled with a toffee eclair wrapper.

‘Everything’s great.’ Bea nodded over-brightly. ‘Yes, great!’

She might as well be holding up a placard that said: FEELING GUILTY AND TRYING TO HIDE IT.

‘You can have another toffee eclair if you want.’ Hallie pushed the bag across the duvet towards her. ‘Help yourself.’

Bea had tied the wrapper from the first one into a tight knot. She shook her head.

‘Look, something’s up,’ said Hallie. ‘Why don’t you tell me what’s going on? Just say it.’

‘OK, something
is
up.’ Bea expelled a long breath and began twisting the bangles on her wrist.

‘I know. It’s pretty obvious. Also, it’s Tuesday and I haven’t seen you since Saturday.’ Hallie gave her a playful nudge with her foot. ‘Have you gone and found yourself a new best friend?’

‘
No
.’ Bea pulled a regretful face. ‘But I’ve kind of got a boyfriend.’