Page 32 of The Price of Love
Eventually the lack of forward motion got to me.
‘Do you think we should set a date for the wedding?’ I asked Luke.
‘If you like. I thought we were going to wait until the flat was all okay first. But, no, if you want to get the date sorted, that’s cool.’
We were sitting beside a moorland stream. I was dabbling my feet in the water while Luke watched. He’d taken his shirt off and the sun outlined his muscles, giving his skin a tawny glow. He looked like a young lion with a decidedly predatory gleam in his eye.
‘It’s not that I’m bothered, as such, just, people are asking. And the sooner we have a target date the easier it will be to organise.’ That’s what it said in the latest edition ofBrideanyway. It was advice of the month.
Luke shrugged. ‘You do know that I need to get the business up and running properly, don’t you? Before we kick off the married thing?’
‘Yes, I know.’
‘And that the flat is taking time.’
I knew that, too. Luke was dealing with all the paperwork and there were, apparently, glitches in the purchase because it was a new building. I wasn’t too worried, still hugging the potential of Cal’s house to myself. The flat would be an ideal base for us in town, but the white house was where I wanted tolive.
‘So, you want to settle on a date. That’s fine with me. It just might have to be a fairly long engagement, until things are definite.’ Luke took an apple from the basket of food I’d brought and bit into it firmly. I pretended not to notice the lascivious way he licked the juice from his fingers while looking at me.
‘Twenty-first of October,’ I said spontaneously.
‘Aw, are you sure you wouldn’t rather have a summer wedding? All outdoorsy, you like that sort of thing, don’t you? We could have it on the lawn somewhere.’
‘It’s nearly June now. There isn’t really time.’
‘I meant next summer.’
‘Oh.’ Now, why onearthshould that disappoint me? I wanted the whole shebang, the big dress, the big party, hopefully a hen weekend somewhere insalubrious. It was traditional, wasn’t it? When he’d said a long engagement, I’d been thinking three months. A year would be much better, give me ages to plan, to go through all the brochures, to pickjustthe right dress and slim into it. I knew he wanted to marry me, so why did I need to hurry things? ‘All right, next summer. Twenty-first of June. We can have a solstice wedding.’
‘Very New-Agey.’ Luke threw the apple core into the stream. ‘Now, come over here and show me what other New Age tricks you’ve got.’
As we made love, I found my mind wandering. The twenty-first of June. Well, by then I’d have enough cash to make sure things went with a bang. I shivered underneath Luke, who mistook my anticipation of money for sexual frenzy andredoubled his efforts to drive me deeper into the soft peat beneath us.
Afterwards he sat up, panting, and flicked his hair from his eyes. ‘Bloody hellfire, woman, you are fantastic in the sack, do you know that?’
Gosh. ‘Am I?’
‘Oh, wow, yeah. It’s so great to have someone who throws herself into it, not always fussing and nagging. Sorry. Don’t mean to compare you with past girlfriends, but . . .’ He gave a whistle. ‘Yeah. You’re hot.’
* * *
‘I’m hot,’ I announced to Katie and Jazz when we met up the following evening. ‘It’s official.’
‘Thought I could smell something,’ Jazz said into his pint.
‘Of course you are.’ Katie handed me my drink. ‘Never doubted it for a second.’
‘And I’ve got something to show you. Got it today.’
‘Syphilis?’
‘Jazz! No, look.’ Slowly, tauntingly, from my pocket I withdrew the shiny silver object that Luke had driven over to give me that afternoon. ‘It’s the key to our new flat. And anyway, can youshowsomeone syphilis? Isn’t it sort of invisible?’
‘Until your face falls off.’ Jazz took the key and turned it over on his hand, like an insect. ‘So. When are you moving in? You and Wonder Boy?’
‘Not for a bit. I’m really hoping that this money from Ganda’s invention will turn up soon, so that I can get the finances sorted out for the other house and then spend the rest on the flat and the wedding.’
‘Is Luke not paying for any of this?’ Katie asked carefully. I was a bit sensitive to suggestions that Luke’s and my financial situation might be a little lopsided.
