“Bia’s not getting here until tomorrow, is that right?” Laura looked over one of the clipboard girl’s shoulders at whatever was written there.
“Right. She’s getting the sleeper train.” Since Bia was taking Oliver’s place, Laura wouldn’t have minded her crashing the dinner tonight too, but Bia now had a job as an estate agent—which by her own account she was quite good at because all you had to do was persuade people, Jose—and couldn’t get out of a viewing last thing today, what with it being a Friday.
“Well, as long as she’s here on time,” Laura said, tapping her fingers against her thigh. Laura and Bia didn’t know each other that well, but they’d met a few times at Josie’s birthdays and things like that, and Josie imagined Laura was thinking of the last party they’d been at together—Josie’s leaving party before she’d moved to New York—where Bia had gotten the time wrong and showed up an hour late, thinking that she was half an hour early, with decorations for the table in the pub that she’d intended to put up to surprise Josie before she arrived.
“She will be,” Josie said firmly.
Laura huffed out a breath, looked at her mum. “Could you do me a favor and try to find Dad? I want to make sure he knows the plan today and tomorrow.”
Laura’s mum—Andrea, Josie was pretty sure her name was—smiled, and stroked Laura’s arm in a reassuring way. “He knows the plan, love, but I’ll go and get him, I think he’s in our room.”
“Thanks.” She turned to the clipboards. “I think that’s it for now, thanks.”
They nodded in unison. “We’re here if you need anything,” one of them said.
As soon as they’d departed, Laura dragged Josie down to sit at the top of the stairs. “They’re good here, you know,” she mused, glancing around their floor. “I thought they were a pain at first, but they’ve actually done quite a good job.” It was high praise coming from Laura—Josie had no doubt she had the potential to be a total bridezilla, if only because she’d want everything to be done exactly her way and had so much experience putting things into action from being a publicist. “It’s been so stressful, trying to organize an outdoor wedding in Scotland of all places—the weather looks like it’ll hold, but we’ve had to have a contingency plan just in case.” She tapped her fingers against her knees, currently covered in faded blue jeans. “Anyway, distract me.” She looked at Josie. “You’re here early, I wasn’t expecting anyone so soon.”
“Sorry,” Josie said immediately, “I—”
But Laura waved Josie’s apology away. “No, no, I don’t mean that—I’m more wondering how you did it.”
“Oh. Well, I stayed in Edinburgh last night—didn’t want to be late for the dinner or anything.” And trying to get the train and do it all in one day was a risk, in Josie’s eyes. Plus, as much as she loved her aunt, an extra night on her own away from Helen was something she’d jumped on.
Laura nodded her approval—Josie knew that early was definitely better than late in Laura’s book. She shook her head back, blond hair almost down to her waist now, then eyed Josie critically. “Why the hell haven’t you been to see me?” Josie frowned and Laura waved her hand in the air. “In London, I mean. Haven’t you been back since, like, May?”
“June,” Josie corrected. Laura’s brow furrowed and Josie gave her a little guilty smile. “Well, June technically. The second is still June.” Laura made a “hmph” noise and Josie gave her an apologetic look.
“How was it then?” Laura asked. “New York?”
“It was…” Josie waved a hand in the air. She sighed. “Do you know what, so much of it was great. We did everything you’re supposed to—Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center—everything. And I went to all these cool parties with Oliver.” It had been like something out of a film, Josie thought now. They’d arrived in an apartment provided by Peacock’s that neither of them would have been able to afford on their own, only a forty-five-minute commute away from the center of Manhattan, and had sat on their brand-new sofa drinking champagne that first night even though they were both knackered. The first month or so, Oliver had planned every weekend, determined to show her that he meant what he’d said about making it up to her, and had taken her to all the sights. It had been a total whirlwind in the beginning, and for a time she’d allowed herself to believe that she’d made the right decision in leaving London.