I can’t help laughing at this. They hadn’t told me that detail when they asked me to do this interview.
“Of course, I fainted clean away. It was so terrifying finding a body in the fridge, so he only got to propose properly once the paramedics arrived and I was sufficiently conscious.”
“It was a bit of a botched job, I’ll admit,” says Jasper, “Though it does go to show how exceptionally spacious Furlong Fridges are—I put them in all the Contessa Kitchens. Luckily, despite scaring her half to death, Suki still said yes. We’ll have to split our time between London and Jersey, but we’ll make it work.” Jasper leans over to kiss Suki’s head, then rolls up his sleeve to reveal a small “Suki” tattoo written in italic on his forearm. “I never thought I’d be the type of person to get a tattoo.”
“I’ve got one too,” says Suki, “but I won’t show you where.”
And then they start tickling each other, giggling and whispering in a way that makes Avril and me feel we’d both like freakishly large fridges to climb into.
* * *
*
Once we’ve wrapped filming, I have to run; I’m meeting Ted for dinner after his shift at the hospital.
“Laura, are you sure I can’t persuade you and Ted to do an interview for us?” Suki asks. “Your story is almost as good as ours, and it’s always good to have friends of the Love Life family doing their bit to support the brand.”
“No, I don’t think so, Suki. We’re—” I try to think of a tactful way to say that we don’t want to share our story with anyone else. “We’re trying to keep things low-key.”
“Fine.” Suki sighs. “Well, I’ll give you the nod at our wedding to make sure you catch the bouquet. Oh, and Henry Cavill is coming too, so if you want an upgrade on Ted, let me know and I’ll sort out the seating plan.”
We say our good-byes, and I run to the train to take me down to Chelsea and Westminster.
The Fulham Road is damp from an earlier rain shower, the pavement busy—people queue for buses, pull their coats around them, and hurry off to wherever they are going. The streetlights have just come on in the early evening light, and there is an amber glow in the air. After waiting outside the front of the hospital for five minutes, I see Ted come out through the doors, looking left and right a few times before he clocks me. I don’t call out to him. Sometimes, I love just watching the way he is in the world; I savor this stolen moment to take him in before he sees me. He’s grown his beard back, at my request, but it’s short now, well groomed, and I love it, my Beardy McCastaway.
He sees me and tilts his head, shrugging as though to ask why I didn’t call out his name.
“All right, Lady Muck?” he says.
“How was it? Your last day.”
But he doesn’t answer, he just picks me up off the ground, folds me in his arms, and kisses me as though it were the first time. It’s his I-don’t-care-who’s-watching kiss, and it floors me every time.
“What was I saying?” I ask, light-headed, when he finally puts me down.
“You asked about my day.” He smiles. “It was fine, emotional, but I’ll stay in touch with everyone, I hope. How did the interview go with Suki and Jasper?”
“Bizarre,” I say. “I still can’t get my head around those two together. Nothing about them as a couple makes any sense, but then you see the way they look at each other and—”
“Kablammo?”
“Well, yes. Vanya says Suki’s completely changed; she even lets people work remotely now, mainly because she’s in Jersey half the time herself. Oh, before I forget—Dee rang. She, Neil, and baby Isaac are all going to come and stay next weekend, Vanya too, so they’ll all be there for the exhibition launch. We might put Vanya in the house and the others in the cottage—apparently Isaac’s a terrible sleeper and is up half the night with colic.”
“If we ever have a baby, Laura, you do know we won’t be able to relegate it to sleeping in the cottage?”
“Yes, I know, but we’ll cross that sleep-deprived bridge when we come to it, shall we? Dee won’t mind, she loves it there; it’s cozy.”
Jasper pauses, unzipping his backpack to retrieve his copper bracelet from an inner pocket, then he fastens it back onto his wrist. He’s not allowed to wear jewelry on shift, but otherwise, he wears it all the time. I made it for him; it’s a plain copper band with his half of the coin embedded in the front.