Page 79 of The Night Before Christmas
Bex sounded odd. As if she was calling from the bottom of the sea… although that seemed unlikely. Felicity tried returning the call but it rang out. She made a mental note to try again when she was feeling a bit more awake and headed for the shower, where the mental note immediately got washed away along with her tension headache and half a bottle of her best shower gel.
It was only the next morning that Felicity finally remembered to call Bex back. She really was a crap friend.
‘Oh! My darling I’m so glad you called me. I really need to talk to you.’
‘I’m here, what is it?’
‘It’s about Adam.’
Felicity felt a shiver. ‘What about him?’
‘I don’t know if I should tell you like this. Are you free to meet me?’
The shiver turned into five cold fingers crawling up her spine. ‘I can’t – I have to get to work. What is it? Please just tell me.’
‘I don’t know… I’m not sure where to start…’
‘Just say it.’
Don’t be dead, don’t be dead, don’t be dead.
‘Well, the thing is, well, basically, um, he’s asked me to marry him!’
Bex shrieked so loudly down the line that Felicity dropped the phone in surprise. After a few seconds of fumbling, she managed to retrieve it from under the sofa and turn it the right way up, heart hammering, palms sweaty.
‘Felicity! Are you there? Did you hear me?’
‘Yes, yes, I heard you.’
‘Did you hear what I said?’
‘Yes, I definitely heard what you said.’
‘Are you mad with me? Are you angry?’ She sounded terrified.
‘No! I’m bloody relieved! I thought you were going to say… something else.’
‘What?’
‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘Oh, well that’s fine then. I was so worried what you might say!’
‘I can see why. So run this by me again. Adam – my ex-boyfriend Adam, just to be clear – he proposed to you and you said yes?’
‘Ha ha, didn’t I mention that bit? Of course, I said yes. It’s Adam!’
Am I living in a parallel universe?
‘Yup. It’s Adam.’
‘Please say you’re not mad?’
‘I’m… I’m happy for you, actually,’ said Felicity, although she felt a bit faint all of a sudden and sat down in her armchair with a bump.
Was she? Maybe not happy as such. Shocked, mainly. But not jealous, that was for sure. Definitely not. Okay, maybe a teensy bit jealous.
Shocked. Jealous (a teensy bit). Mainly completely confused.
