As the music began to play for the second time, it didn’t take long for Oliver to come back outside, laughing as he crunched through the snow. I got out of the car to meet him.
‘You and this song . . .’ he said, grinning. ‘What exactly is going on here, Henderson? Have you lost your mind?’
‘I’m grabbing my damn happiness,’ I replied firmly, watching everyone else pile out of the house again, including Molly. Oh God. My audience was now up to seven. Lucy yelled something about getting her coat and pissed off back inside. I took a deep breath.
‘I fucking love you!’ I announced loudly. Molly covered her ears. ‘So very much. In fact, I think I’ve fallen in love with you all over again. I’m not making sense, I know, but this whole mess is my way of saying that the answer is yes, Oliver Webb. I will marry the shit out of you.’
I heard Hazel give a little muffled gasp.
Oliver rubbed his brow and took a step back from me.
‘Hang on. So now you’re saying yes? After saying no?’
‘Yes. Exactly.’ He wasn’t moving any closer to me. I glanced over at Hazel who gently shrugged in confusion. I turned back to meet his gaze. ‘Oliver?’
He bowed his head. ‘Phoebe, this isn’t right. It doesn’t feel right. You turned me down, remember? God, why are you doing this now?’
‘But I – I thought . . . I mean I hoped—’
‘I haven’t just been biding my time, waiting for you to change your mind, for fuck’s sake! And now you do this in front of our friends? In front of our daughter?’
‘Oliver, I was just—’
And then I noticed the smirk on his face.
‘You’re fucking with me, aren’t you?’
‘Yep.’
‘Oh, God, Oliver!’ I cried out, whacking him on the arm. ‘You bastard! My heart! My poor heart! And my poor frozen feet!’
He took my face in his hands and kissed me gently before lifting me out of the snow. I heard Molly and Grace make ewww noises in the background.
‘I would have waited forever for you to change your mind,’ he said. ‘There was no other option.’
‘WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING? I AM FREEZING!’
We both turned to see a pair of Lucy eyes glaring at us from behind a parka that was zipped up over her face. Bizarrely, I didn’t feel the cold anymore.
Oliver started to carry me back towards the house. ‘Nice jacket, Lucy,’ I said nonchalantly. ‘Maybe you can wear it to our wedding.’
Even from behind that parka, Lucy’s shriek could be heard for miles around.
Tuesday December 26th
We had to get the farmer to tow us out this afternoon after I’d managed to wedge our car in between two piles of hard snow. Embarrassing but totally worth it. Molly spent the entire journey home talking about being a flower girl and how excited she was to tell everyone at school. Oliver, however, was less than eager to tell his parents.
‘I’m not telling them,’ he said, pacing our bedroom floor. ‘Not now . . . maybe never.’
‘Oliver, you have to tell your parents we’re engaged! If you don’t, Molly will let it slip.’
He paused to consider this. ‘It’s fine. I’ll pay her not to. She responds well to money.’
I grabbed his arm and pulled him back on to the bed with me. ‘Oliver, you’re overreacting. They’ll be thrilled with the news.’
‘You don’t understand. Your parents were normal about it.’
‘Normal?’ I replied. ‘They said “well done” and then told me that Daphne was pregnant. A dog stole my thunder. That’s not normal.’
‘Mine will be thrilled, sure. They’ll be so thrilled they’ll start planning shit the moment we tell them. Before we’ve even finished the phone call, they’ll be inviting their friends and suggesting priests and chapels in Dublin. Then they’ll get upset when they find out you haven’t even been baptised!’
‘But, I don’t want to get married in a church!’
‘Me neither. Let’s just pack a bag and go to Gretna,’ he suggested. ‘Me, you and Molly.’
I laughed. ‘Run away with me in twenty-nine days, after we’ve filled out our official forms and they’ve had time to process them.’
He grinned. ‘You’ve already looked into this, I see.’
‘Haha! For Lucy.’
‘So we’ll go to Vegas and get Elvis to marry us.’
‘Not in a million years.’
‘New York?’
‘As fabulous as that sounds, you seem to be forgetting that I’m out of work. Planes cost money and it still doesn’t address the problem that you will have to tell your parents. It’ll be fine. I promise!’
Wednesday December 27th
It was not fine. Louise is willing to overlook my non-Catholic persuasion but favours a June wedding in Dublin. Also their local community centre is perfect for our reception and she’ll start making enquiries this week. I tried to distract her by telling her that Daphne the dog was pregnant, but she’d already put the phone down to go and find her mammy’s wedding band in the drawer.
‘I told you,’ Oliver said, shaking his head. ‘She’s like an unstoppable force.’
I flopped down on to the couch and sighed. ‘I saw all the crap Lucy had to put up with and I can’t be arsed with any of it. I don’t want the big dress and the big venue and the big breakdown which occurs halfway through the planning. I don’t want to have to compromise to keep everyone else happy and I don’t want to drag this shit out for years either. I just want us.’
‘Fuck it,’ he mumbled under his breath before opening up his laptop. ‘Pass me my wallet, will you?’
Saturday December 30th
From the moment Oliver booked the flights and hotel on Wednesday, it’s been a bit of a blur. Unlike Lucy who spent months planning her perfect day, we’d been rushing to apply for a wedding license online, hunting for appropriate ID, finding out when City Hall was open over the holidays, and of course breaking the news to my parents. They couldn’t have been happier.
‘Oh darling, that’s wonderful!’ Mum gushed. ‘How exciting – married in New York!’
I heard Dad yelling his approval in the background followed by a faint bark from the dog. ‘Thanks, Mum,’ I replied. ‘We’re spending a week there so we’ll have lots of photos . . . Listen, I’m sorry we’re not having a big family wedding but—’
‘That’s not important,’ she said. ‘We have you for the rest of our lives – this day is for you and Oliver.’
It was great to have their support but I had no doubt they’d be happy either way. They also offered to pay for our hotel for the week we were staying; a gesture we gratefully accepted.
My friends, of course, were disappointed that they wouldn’t be there, but they took the news well when I had them over for lunch.
‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ Lucy asked, looking at Hazel in disbelief. ‘I would never have gotten married without you there. This is entirely selfish behaviour.’
‘Aw, don’t be like that,’ I pleaded. ‘I feel terrible enough. We’ll all get together when we get back, I promise.’
Hazel was far more diplomatic with her disappointment but I could tell it was there. Although I never imagined getting married in the first place, the reality of now doing it without my friends’ involvement made me more than a little sad. I think it’s the first major thing Lucy and Hazel haven’t been involved with since I met them. Christ, they drove me to hospital when I went into labour at Lucy’s house during dinner; Hazel calmly navigating traffic while Lucy called Oliver and told me repeatedly to ‘fucking breeeaatthheee’.
I know Oliver would have liked his sister to be there, but there’s no way she’d have kept quiet to the rest of his family, and having them guilt-call us every ten minutes wasn’t an appealing thought.
Still, this time next week it’ll be all over and I’ll be a married woman. Haha! Holy shit!
Sunday December 31st
New Year’s Eve began with the sound of a
snoring Irishman and the tired grumps of an equally-exhausted, soon-to-be flower-girl who’d just spent nearly fifteen hours travelling from Glasgow, including a three-hour stopover in London. I was too excited to sleep. Not only was I getting married, but I’d never been to New York. To be honest, I wasn’t sure which prospect excited me more.
I sat back in my seat, staring at the small television screen without paying attention to the in-flight movie. I envied Oliver’s ability to pass out – my brain was swarming. The plan was to turn up at the City Clerk’s Office on Tuesday after the holiday to get our license, then return on Thursday to wait in line to get hitched. We’d need a witness but apparently getting one there was easy enough. Oliver had packed his best suit to wear for the ceremony but I still had to buy dresses for Molly and me. Nothing too outrageous or expensive but something I felt special in. Also, was I going to change my name? We gave Molly Oliver’s surname when she was born but Hazel was right – Phoebe Webb has too many B sounds. Phoebe Henderson-Webb? Do I want a double-barrelled name? Do I want Oliver’s name at all?
My thought train came to a halt when the captain announced that we’d be landing at Newark shortly. As I leant across Molly and looked out of the window, my stomach back-flipped with excitement. God, this was thrilling. This time last year I was buying ugly potatoes and enjoying a sexless relationship, now here I was, flying over New Jersey on my way to get married! Was that the Manhattan skyline in the distance? I nudged Oliver to wake him up.
I felt his hand press on my leg as he peered over me to catch a glimpse of the view, waiting for him to marvel with me at the skyline before it disappeared. I wanted us to have a little moment while Molly slept.
‘Wow . . . is that IKEA down there?’
Moment denied.
‘This all feels very surreal,’ I said quietly, trying not to wake Molly up. ‘You ready to get hitched, Webb? You ready to be an actual husband?’
‘Definitely,’ he replied. ‘Though soon you’ll be a Webb too. Wife Webb!’
‘I still haven’t decided what my wife name will be, thank you very much. You could always take my name – Husband Henderson has a nice ring to it.’
‘I like Webb,’ he responded, grinning. ‘It reminds me of Spiderman.’
Oliver took my hand in his and held it while we sat silently for a moment, contemplating what lay ahead. Well, I was; for all I know Oliver might have been thinking about IKEA. ‘It was nice of your parents to pay for our hotel this week,’ he mused. ‘They transferred the money to me straight away. £2000. More than our hotel actually cost.’
‘Brilliant!’ I replied. ‘Looks like we have some extra spending money! Let’s buy me some shoes.’
‘Actually, it’s already gone,’ Oliver confessed. ‘I wanted to help some friends out. Don’t be mad.’
‘Oliver, you gave someone part of our wedding fund without telling me?!’ I snarled as quietly as possible. ‘Who the hell needed the money?’
‘Lucy did,’ he replied. ‘Oh, and Hazel. I split it between them. It was the right thing to do.’
‘My Lucy and Hazel? I don’t understand.’
‘I thought they might like to come and see us get married,’ he replied. ‘Turns out I was right. They arrive on Wednesday.’
‘You’re lying.’
‘Not this time.’
I gave a little squeal and pounced on Oliver, kissing his sneaky little face. ‘I can’t believe you did that! I love you! Oh my God, my friends are coming to my wedding! This is literally the best thing you have ever done in your entire life.’
Passengers in the middle aisle were beginning to stare, along with the cabin crew, but I didn’t care because only one thing mattered: Oliver Webb had just pulled off the greatest grand gesture of all time.
Relight my Fire Page 25
