I put the handset down in its cradle.
Oh, my God…
What am I going to tell him?
Best get it over with…
I pour two stiff whiskeys then go in search of James and find him on the terrace in a sheltered sunny spot, reading.
He glances up at my approach, reaching to accept the offered glass. “Thanks. A bit early isn’t it? Softening me up for something?”
Shuffling my feet, I take a sip from my own glass.
“You are softening me up for something.” His eyes narrow. “What is it?”
“Um… about that party…”
His eyes thin to slits. “Aha? What about it?”
“Well, I told Ben he could come so long as he was on best behavior, which he promised...”
“So you said. And?”
“… but then he went and told our mom, and the family… And… well, they’ve invited themselves along.”
“Who have? How many of them?”
“All of them, I think.”
His eyes register horror. “You mean… we’re going to have a re-run of the wedding? With all your aunts and grannies and the rest?”
“I think so, yes.”
“I thought we’d agreed on a small select group of friends?”
“What do I do, James? I can’t just tell them they can’t come…”
*****
Richard
“Didn’t you tell me this would be a small gathering?” I look over the thronging room. “I think I took the last space in the car park.”
James looks glum, brooding into his glass. “Michael invited Ben, and Ben invited the rest of the Summerford Hoard.”
I’m struggling not to laugh. “An Agony of Aunts?”
“Is that the collective noun for aunts?”
of Aunties?
Both of
Grumbling of
eyes, “You think
Tell me, is Marie here too, to complete
a mouthful. “We
between the shoulders and he glugs on his drink. “Great party, James. Nice and buzzy. Just the thing
room. I follow it, over the swarm of Michael’s relations, settling
going to
see any sign
will beat you to
He makes the smallest of gestures to
*****
unfold from across
Should I introduce myself?
is their
hand with her mother,
The Three Graces…
hair, the same bewitching eyes,
hand, not in the way of a man, to shake, but tentatively, fingers outstretched.
lights of flash and play over tears
And so is Charlotte.
to see, isn’t it,” says a voice
reverie, I find Chad standing by me. “It
“I always thought Jenny was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen or ever would see. Never thought
*****
them, Charlotte and her mother, both smiling and
Both happy.
Michelle…
Mitch?
Shelley?
to the weird
What was it?
Second cousin…
ways more like my Elizabeth than her own daughter; the way she holds herself, the way she moves. Gracefully, she sashays as she walks, her hips swaying. The movement is feminine and
Courtesan…
but always with that sensation that at any moment, the game might
daughter. Then he casts around the room, sees me and
on his tray, he looks
sure. Elizabeth’s
“I’ll go find her.”
appears, strolling in her high heels and
similar to
with only really the age difference showing between
My sweet Elizabeth…
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