Page 47 of The Wedding Game

‘I know, sweetie, congratulations. It was your time. Did you think you’d be out of work for ever?’

‘Kind of, yeah. I’m just … I can’t—’

Scarlet cuts me off from my mania. ‘Have you answered to confirm you’re accepting?’

‘Not yet. I woke up this morning to find the email in my inbox. I almost missed it. I’ll bet I was the only person who applied,’ I muse.

‘Unlikely. You were simply the best person for the job,’ Scarlet says, buoying my confidence. ‘When do you start?’

‘I’m not sure. I need to read the email again, but on the Zoom call Max mentioned that if I got it, he’d like to meet me in person for a proper handover of all the things he wants me to do, and asked what my availability would be like to go to New York. Although he’s not mentioned it again in the confirmation email, so I’m hoping it’s still on the cards.’

Scarlet squeals. ‘New York! Really?’

‘Maybe. I hope so. Anyway, even if not, it’s still such a good job – or at least it’s a bit of an “everything” job, but this is my foot in the door to interior design, surely?’

‘It is. It’s also your foot in the door to paying me the rent I’ve been covering for you, again. Although I admit you’re not really living here at the moment,’ she goes on, and I know she’s not digging.

‘I’m sorry,’ I reply genuinely. ‘Which do you miss more? Me or the money?’

‘Don’t be silly. I don’t need the money as much as I need my best friend.’

‘Are you OK?’ I ask, realising how absent I’ve been, ensconced in Josh’s house for a couple of weeks.

‘Yes, I just miss you,’ she says.

‘I miss you too. I’m coming home.’

‘Don’t do it for me,’ she replies.

‘It’s time. I feel as if I live here now, only I’m surrounded by family heirlooms that aren’t mine. It’s kind of strange, like a ready-made set-up.’

Now that I think about it, all of this is strange: inhabitinganother person’s house, another person’s life. I look from the garden back to the house, to check Josh hasn’t got a kitchen window open while he cooks, which would mean he could hear me. He doesn’t.

‘I think it would be good for Josh and me, because,’ I lower my voice, just in case, ‘I’m a bit bored.’

‘Of Posh Josh? Really?’ Scarlet asks.

I tut. ‘Don’t call him that,’ I say. ‘He’s really down-to-earth. And no, I’m not bored of Josh. I really like him,’ I tell her. ‘But I don’t think it’s healthy to be living together after such a short amount of time knowing each other. It’s not the norm, is it? It makes me worried, as we had a couple of fantastic first dates and … almost skipped the rest of the getting-to-know-each-other period. I know it’s only been two weeks, but we’ve fallen into an easy way of life together and I wonder if …’ I trail off, happy to let Scarlet surmise and jump in, as she often loves to do, although she doesn’t immediately.

And then she finally saves me. ‘Life in the country with Josh not all it’s cracked up to be?’

‘Not so quickly, it’s not. Not when you’re trying to get to know someone. I’m forever dusting the house, I don’t drive, and Josh is busy all the time because—’

‘Because he’s a sexy farmer,’ Scarlet says and laughs at her own joke.

‘I really want to get to know him better, and I think we did that well when we were dating – I want to go back to that sort of sparkle. That’s all.’ And I mean this. We’re in the kind of routine of a couple who’ve been together a few years, not a few weeks. ‘It’s my fault,’ I say. ‘I’m jobless and am basicallysponging off a man in his country house. I need to earn back my self-respect. Starting with coming home, seeing Josh for dates at weekends, beginning my new job and getting back my sense of purpose. Waking up in someone else’s house every day and only needing to worry about what to plan for Josh’s dinner ten hours later isn’t healthy.’

‘No, it’s not,’ Scarlet concurs. ‘Come home and worry about what you’re cookingmefor dinner.’

‘When I come home, the first thing we’re doing is having a takeaway,’ I tell her darkly. ‘There’s no Deliveroo out here in this backwater and I miss it.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

October

‘That’s what I like about him,’ I tell Scarlet as we dissect each other’s news over a Thai takeaway and a bottle of cheap red. I’ve missed glugging cheap wine rather than delicately sipping the expensive stuff with Josh. ‘He’s so easy to be with. Everything about Josh is so … nice. When I tentatively told him I was making plans to go home, he said he’d miss me. I reminded him that it was always part of the plan that I’d only be there for a short while. He looked sad and just said, “Oh, OK”.’

It does make me wonder if I’d outstayed my welcome a bit, though, and Josh was too polite to say so. It can’t be easy sharing your precious space with someone in the long term. I ponder that while Scarlet tops up my glass.

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