Page 83 of The Wedding Game

The two of us move off, so I can show her where the bath and Scarlet are. In doing so, I realise I’ve left Chris and Josh alone together.

Two men could not look more awkward if they tried. I glance at them out of the corner of my eye as I dash to fetchthem both drinks. When I return with two glasses of punch, they look grateful.

‘This smells nuclear,’ Chris remarks. ‘What’s in it?’

‘Everything we had left in the cupboard and neither of us wanted to take with us,’ I say. ‘We’re moving out, remember.’

‘Why’s it green and … fizzy?’ He sniffs it dubiously.

‘It’s yum – just drink it,’ I tell him.

Both he and Josh sip their drinks and look a bit concerned.

Josh runs his tongue up and down the roof of his mouth a few times. ‘I’m going to grab that bottle I brought,’ he says and leaves Chris and me alone.

‘You OK?’ I ask Chris.

‘Yeah, you?’

‘You and Josh looked awkward as fuck,’ I say.

He cough-laughs on his drink, which I triumphantly notice he’s taken another sip from.

‘See, it’s not that bad, is it?’

‘Did you make it?’ he asks.

‘Yes.’

‘Then it’s lovely. I shall keep drinking and definitely not throw up later.’

‘Ha-ha,’ I say, followed by, ‘I thought you’d arrived with Victoria.’

‘I did arrive with her.’

‘No, I mean I thought you were together.’

He looks at me. ‘So what if I was?’

‘OK, calm down,’ I say. ‘I’m just making conversation.’

‘You’re being weird.’

‘I’m not. What were you and Josh talking about?’ I try again.

‘We didn’t have time to talk about anything,’ he tells me. ‘You were gone for one whole minute. We basically said hi and then you strong-armed us into drinking this paint-stripper.’

‘Fine. Be like that.’

‘Like what?’ he asks. ‘What’s wrong with you? You invited me and now you’re being all … strange. Not like you at all. What’s up?’

‘Nothing,’ I say.

‘I don’t believe you,’ Chris replies, his eyes searching mine. We move out of the way of the front door as another of Scarlet’s work colleagues arrives, says hi, squeezes past us.

‘Josh is being a bit odd,’ I tell him. ‘Only a little bit.’

‘OK. Are you going to talk to him about it?’

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