Page 107 of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe
Charles cleared his throat. “Thank you, Jeremy and Guy, for that comprehensively embarrassing biopic. I am supremely grateful that mywife”—he stopped for the enthusiastic applause and foot stamping that the wordwifeinduced—“was already privy to almost all of those revelations, or she may just have turned and run away.” A ripple of laughter. “I have loved Jenna since I was eleven years old. Puppy love became teenage infatuation became adult love that just wouldn’t quit, no matter how hard I tried to make my heart be quiet.” Nory saw Jenna slip her hand into his. “My heart was lost to Jen from the moment I saw hergiving a boy in the year above what for, for running in the corridor on our first day of school. I knew right then that I’d love her forever, even if she never loved me back as anything more than a friend.” Jenna wiped a tear from her eye, and Nory was surprised to catch Ameerah surreptitiously doing the same. “I wish I could go back and tell sixteen-year-old me that one day, Jenna Baxter would do me the honor of being my wife.” He turned to look at Jenna, who was looking back up at him with pure infatuation in her eyes. “I have loved you for so long. Everything that happened before I knew you was merely a prelude to loving you. Everything that has happened since has been the result of my loving you. And I promise that everything in my future will revolve around loving you.”
Charles bent to kiss his new wife, and Nory could tell that they didn’t notice the standing ovation or hear the whoops and shouts; all they could see was each other. And as Nory clapped, she hoped that no one saw her own tears fall—happy tears for friends and hopeful tears that maybe one day someone would feel like that about her.
Later, as they slow danced to George Michael’s “Careless Whisper” (which Nory had always thought was something of an oxymoron), Isaac’s hands were splayed out across her back, holding her close, he kissed her neck and whispered into her ear, “Would it be impertinent to ask if you’d like to come back to my place tonight?”
Nory shivered with delight. “It would be remiss of you not to ask me back to your place tonight,” she replied, and she felt the low rumble of his laughter vibrate through her body.
“Thank you for asking me to be your date.”
“Thank you for coming,” she said.
Those with small children began to drift off first, back totheir rooms in the hotel and the pubs down in Hartmead. By eleven thirty, only the die-hards remained. To Nory’s surprise, the cast ofDays and Nightswere not the party animals she’d expected at all, and most had been gone by half past ten, shortly followed by theOK!photographer.
Eventually only the shits-and-giggles gang remained. They had retired to the atrium, which had large, comfy sofas surrounding a crackling open fire, all except Guy, who had been hoofed up the stairs to bed by Jeremy and Charles.
Aside from Pippa, who sat closest to the fire, her long legs tucked neatly beneath her, they were all in couples. Katie rested her head on Jeremy’s shoulder, his arm around her, an expression of deep peace on his face. Jenna had her head in Charles’s lap, her tiara on the rug, her long gown spilling across the sofa in a waterfall of silk. Ameerah and Dev sat practically on top of each other, their legs in a comfortable tangle, each of them looking as though they had just won the top prize in a raffle. Isaac had his arm loosely around Nory’s shoulder, by turns stroking her hair and running the tips of his fingers up and down the back of her neck. She could feel him smiling as he watched the goose bumps break out across her arms at his touch. His other hand held hers, and she idly brushed the work-roughened tips of his fingers as they talked. She loved this feeling of being close to him, of beingwithhim.
“I’m so exhausted, I could sleep for a week,” yawned Jenna.
“You’re exhausted?” Pippa arched an eyebrow. “All you had to do was turn up, darling.”
Jenna lifted her head and poked her tongue out at Pippa.
“Everyone knows you don’t get tired, Pip, you’re a machine,” teased Charles.
“It is true. As humans go, I am very effective,” Pippa replied.
“And modest,” added Nory.
“Self-deprecating,” Ameerah threw in.
“Society does quite enough of that for women over thirty,” said Pippa. “Especially single women. I don’t need to add to it.”
“Hear, hear,” agreed Katie. “In my profession, modesty about your expertise is taken to be weakness. If I want the same respect as men in the field, I have to adopt the same arrogance and self-confidence that men have.”
“That’s a bit unfair,” said Charles. “I wouldn’t describe myself as arrogant.”
“It’s not a personal attack,” said Katie placatingly. “It’s conditioning. Men are as much a victim of it as women. It starts in the nursery. Girls are conditioned to be self-deprecating...”
“Nobody likes a big-headed girl,” Nory added.
“Exactly. And boys are taught to bestrong.” Katie did quotes in the air. “And self-confident. Historically, male and female personalities have been pigeonholed from birth. That’s why we have men unable to express their emotions and women apologizing profusely on every step of the career ladder.”
“We’ll be changing history for our little miracle, won’t we, darling?” said Jeremy, lovingly resting his hand on Katie’s bump. “No girl- or boy-only traits; this child will be encouraged to embrace the full range of human idiosyncrasies.”
Katie smiled at her husband and closed her eyes contentedly.
“You always were a goddamn hippie,” said Charles, smiling fondly at his friend.
“I think you’re absolutely right,” Jenna said. “If we have sons, I don’t want them growing up in fear of their emotions. And if we have girls, I’ll be teaching them to kick arse!”
“I think your child is very lucky,” said Isaac to Jeremy. Nory thought her heart would burst.
“Thanks, mate.” Jeremy smiled.
“How about you two?” asked Charles, pointing at Isaac and then Dev. “Did you have to deal with the same macho bullshit we did as kids?”
“Charles, what kind of a question is that?” Jenna admonished.
