Page 16 of The Invitation

“We didn’t have spas in my day, Grand Girl. The only massage you could get was when you rode the rickety old bus into town going over all the cobbles.”

I laugh and watch her hands shake as she tries to cut into a carrot. “Want me to do that for you, Grandma?”

She gives up and sighs, and Grandpa is quick to give her arm a reassuring pat, noticing her trembles. “Knitting is becoming trickier,” she says. “I keep dropping my stitches.”

“Then you should slow those needles down.” I chop up everything on the plate that needs chopping and hand back her knife and fork. “There.”

“Thank you, Grand Girl.” She leans in. “Now, where was this spa?” she whispers, obviously trying to keep me talking so I’m not uncomfortable. She has no idea.

“Oxfordshire,” I whisper back, observing Dad and Nick chatting.

“All that way for a spa?”

“It’s called Arlington Hall. Very posh.” I scrunch my nose. “There was a helicopter pad too.”

“Oh, I say. Fancy.”

“Very. I had a hydrating aromatherapy body wrap.”Lucky body wrapper.I shudder in my seat. Feel the heat as well as I felt it in the steam room. The Adonis.Have dinner with me.I look up at my ex. Clean cut. Pruned. Boring. Nothing like the man at Arlington Hall.

Nick smiles and sets down his knife and fork, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “That was delicious, Jenn,” he says, holding up his glass of red. “Happy birthday, Amelia.”

Everyone raises their glass and chants a happy birthday, and I smile, sinking into my seat. “Thank you.”

“Here.” Nick pushes the little box toward me. Oh God, why would he? I die a thousand deaths. Is he expecting me to open it in front ofeveryone? I feel terrible enough, without this added layer to my guilt. “I got it a few months ago,” he explains. “Before we ... well, before you left.”

I look up through my lashes from the box to Nick. “You shouldn’t have.”

He shrugs. “It’s nonreturnable, so I thought you may as well have it.”

I stare at the box. Just stare.

“Open it then,” Dad says, excited. “Kill our curiosity.”

I want to kill you, dear Father.Taking the box, I pull the paper off and flip the lid open. And inhale.

“I went back and got it,” he says. “You obviously loved it.”

I stare down at the gold bracelet I saw in an antique store in Camden a few months ago when Nick and I were walking back to our apartment after dinner with colleagues.

“Nick,” I breathe. I can’t accept this. I also don’t want to humiliate him. Everyone’s eyes move between us, and I wish the floor would open and swallow me whole.

“What a thoughtful gift.” Dad smiles broadly. I want to wipe it off. “Isn’t it, Jenn?”

“Very thoughtful,” Mum says quietly, avoiding my eyes.

Take the gift. Just take it and return it after this whole horror movie is finished and I don’t have an audience. So I smile and take the bracelet out of the box, putting it on my wrist. I could quite honestly slap the smile off my father’s face. “Thank you, Nick.” The wretched guilt enflames.

“Well done,” Clark whispers from beside me, as if commending me for my restraint.

“Amelia went to a spa today!” Grandma blurts. God love her. She might be nearly ninety, but she’s got every sense, including her Tension Sensor. I smile across at her as I fiddle with the bracelet. “What was it called again, Grand Girl? Fancy, it was.”

“Arlington Hall,” I murmur.

“Arlington?” Nick questions, interested.

“Yes, have you heard of it?”

“Hasn’t everyone? Why would you go all the way to Oxfordshire for a spa day?”

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