The Wedding Pact

by Isla Gordon

  Mrs Haverley’s eyebrows were furrowed. ‘You share a bedroom.’

  ‘Not really, we don’t.’

  ‘You kissed at the Christmas party.’

  August blushed at that. ‘Actually we only nearly kissed in the end, all of them have been near-kisses, apart from, um, well we did rehearse one once.’

  ‘I’m sure you did,’ Mrs Haverley muttered. ‘But the wedding photos?’

  ‘Fake.’

  ‘I knew that was Weston.’ With that, Mrs Haverley lapsed into silence for a while, her gaze towards the window. ‘Tell me, August,’ she said eventually, pulling herself to sit more upright and shooing away August’s attempt to help. ‘What do you think your grandmother would have thought of all of this?’

  August felt chastised, and rightly so, and the mention of her grandmother stabbed at her soul. ‘To begin with, I thought she would have found it comical. But when I realised you meant something to her, well, I now think she would have been pretty disappointed in me for lying to her friend and treating you like this.’

  Mrs Haverley was quiet for a long time, to the point August was about to take her leave. Maybe she could come back tomorrow and see what – if any – amends she could make.

  And then Mrs Haverley spoke, her voice quiet, but clear. ‘I don’t think that’s true.’

  August looked up from her hands, to find Mrs Haverley fixing her with a soft stare. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked.

  ‘I remember Pearl quite well and to be quite honest, August, I think I agree with your initial feeling – I think she would have found the whole thing a hoot. In fact, I think she would have done the exact same thing herself in your position.’

  ‘You do?’

  ‘Don’t you?’

  She thought about it, hard, and actually … she did believe her grandma would have seen the funny side. She would have demanded August confess to everything, and insisted she give a proper apology, which would have included anything that could make amends, but she probably would have been just a little amused by August and Flynn’s scheme.

  ‘Did Pearl ever tell you about Dear Richard?’ Mrs Haverley asked.

  ‘No, who was that?’

  ‘Dear Richard was her sweetheart before she got married. A brute who was in the Navy and away a lot. He was all muscles and military training and had the ability to ravish her like nobody else could whenever he came to town.’

  ‘What the hell?’ She’d never heard of ‘Dear Richard’ in her life. ‘Was this before she and my grandad got together?’

  ‘Your grandad stole her from him.’

  Wow. August’s grandad must have been quite the Lothario to steal another man’s girl like that. Especially from someone who was ravishing her like never before. Vom.

  Mrs Haverley continued. ‘Pearl fell in love with your grandad and told him that she would end things with Dear Richard as soon as he next got off the boat. What boat she never said, Pearl didn’t know a thing about the Navy.’

  ‘Was Dear Richard mad?’

  ‘Hardly,’ Mrs Haverley let out a small tinkle of a laugh. ‘He was completely made up.’

  ‘He was what? Why?’

  ‘Pearl created this whole character, even cut a photograph out of a magazine of a strapping young naval officer and put it in a locket around her neck. Dear Richard’s sole purpose was as a deterrent for the unwanted advances of men. Until your grandfather came along, and Pearl decided she’d quite appreciate his advances. So Dear Richard had to be retired, as it were. Well, not quite.’

  August soaked in this information about her grandmother, happy tears springing to her eyes. What a funny, creative woman she was; she’d always been.

  Mrs Haverley continued. ‘I used to say to her, “Pearl, why don’t you just tell these other boys ‘no’?” but she, rightly, argued that sometimes a no doesn’t get them off your back. It should be enough, but it isn’t always. It was a different time.’

  ‘Hmm, not that different, unfortunately,’ August said.

  ‘That’s probably true. Callie is often showing me something she calls “DMs” filled with men getting quite cruel if she says she’s not interested. All sorts of name calling. Stupid behaviour.’

  It made August smile to think of Callie up in Mrs Haverley’s apartment, having a chin-wag and discussing the pitfalls of online dating. ‘What did you mean by Dear Richard not quite being retired?’

  That laugh came again, and Mrs Haverley said, ‘I remember your grandmother telling me that when she and your grandfather first got engaged to be married, she told him, ‘Dear Richard will always love me, and if you treat me badly I shall write to him and he’ll come and show you what’s for and then whisk me away!’ She kept Dear Richard in her back pocket, just to keep your grandfather on his toes.’

  August shook her head. Grandma and her stories, honestly. She felt quite proud of old Pearl though. To think, she’d had an entire imaginary relationship also.

  But August’s smile faded. ‘Nevertheless, what my grandma did, with the whole Dear Richard thing, wasn’t doing anyone else any harm, it was just something she did for herself, that only really affected herself. What I did was selfish, and I was a complete cow for acting like your wishes didn’t matter.’

  ‘We all have our reasons we do the things we do, and when you’re within a breath of reaching your dreams it’s easy to get caught up in doing whatever you can to grasp them.’ Mrs Haverley stopped talking for a moment, her thoughts swimming back to her younger days. She then carried on, saying, ‘I’m not saying I’m not angry at what you did, and what Flynn did, and I feel used and embarrassed. But I think I’ll get over it. I was also at fault for trying to discriminate, as Abe has told me numerous times in the past couple of days – now I understand why – and for that I’m sorry.’

  Abe had stood up for them? He was a nice guy, he deserved to find someone really special. August sent him a little piece of her heart as thanks, in that moment. ‘But you should get a say in who lives in your house,’ August said.

  ‘Well, only up to a point.’ Mrs Haverley adjusted herself on the bed, and her eyelids appeared to grow heavy. ‘Darling, I am pleased you told me and I’m not banishing you in any form, but this has been a lot of information, and I need to get some rest. Once Abe gets here in the afternoon he does go on; he’s insisting on reading me the complete works of Austen at the moment, even though he knows I prefer a good Jackie Collins bonkbuster.’

  August nodded and stood, picking up her bag. ‘Thanks for listening, Mrs H. And I’m – we’re – truly sorry. We’ll understand, whatever you decide to do.’

  ‘Hold on, you said Flynn had just moved here from Japan. You and Flynn have started seeing each other now though, haven’t you?’ Mrs Haverley asked, all of a sudden.

  ‘No,’ August said. ‘We literally met on the day of the open house and nothing’s happened, we’re just friends.’

  ‘You wouldn’t give two hoots if he met someone new?’

  ‘No …’ August replied, though her heart thudded in her chest. Because she would. She would. The thought of him reuniting with Yui was one thing, because she wanted him to be happy, but he’d chosen to come back the UK and now the thought of him choosing to move on from what they had was making her wobble.

  ‘Do you think it hurt him to see you with Abe?’

  ‘No,’ August said, quieter than before. Did it?

  Mrs Haverley’s eyes began to close again. ‘This is very gallant of you both to start screaming your truths from the rooftops, but maybe you need to start being truthful with each other.’

  ‘We’re just friends,’ August said.

  A smile played on Mrs Haverley’s lips. ‘You could have fooled me.’

  With her defences crumbling, August felt her resolve rebuilding, and with every moment that passed she became stronger, more sure than ever of what she wanted.

  It was time to be brave. Because August was fooling nobody anymore, least of all herself.

  Chapter 87


  August

  Leaving the hospital and exiting into the brightness of this winter Saturday, August stretched. It was cold out, but she decided to take a long walk home, and have some time to listen to her thoughts.

  She weaved her way back through the tree-lined streets on the outskirts of Bath and then alongside the river, where sunlight glinted off the water as if inspecting it before the temperature dropped to add a smooth layer of ice on top overnight. She walked with no rush, just her thoughts for company.

  There was a very real chance she would be moving away from Elizabeth Street soon. What a shame that would be. But what a ride it had been.

  While she’d lived there, she’d rebuilt her voice acting career.

  While she’d lived there, she’d pushed herself to go on her first big theatre audition.

  While she’d lived there, she’d found the part of her that wanted to reach for her goals again.

  While she’d lived there, she’d reconnected with a part of her grandmother’s past.

  While she’d lived there, she’d made friends that she hoped would give her another chance.

  While she’d lived there she’d fallen for a guy she was playing house with, a guy who was kind, who challenged her, who was more adventurous than he gave himself credit for, who wore glasses when he read (ohmygod yum), and who made her heart race every time she came home to him. When he looked at her, she forgot all pretences. When he kissed her she forgot everything.

  With every step that took her closer back to Flynn, August pictured the memories and life they’d built together since last summer.

  All of this had happened while she lived on Elizabeth Street, but now it could all be taken away, she wasn’t worried. The drive to be the person she wanted to become had always been in her; if she lost the apartment, that wouldn’t change.

  When she reached Elizabeth Street and started ascending the hill, her pace quickened. She needed to tell Flynn how she felt, it was time for her truth to him to be set free. What it would mean for the two of them, she didn’t know. Much like a lot of these truth-bombs, she couldn’t predict, or control, or influence, or fake her way through the consequences.

  On the way up the hill she savoured every tree, every house, every memory she’d made on this street in her lifetime and the lifetime of memories she’d made living within her home since last summer. She breathed in the cold winter air, smelled the smoke circling overhead from wood burners up and down the road, touched her hand along the railings, imagining, as she always did, all those Austen-like people who had done this two hundred years ago.

  August had wanted to live in the house on Elizabeth Street for so long, and even if it all ended tomorrow, it had been a dream come true.

  Chapter 88

  Flynn

  Flynn paced the apartment, waiting for August to arrive home, waiting to tell her what he should have told her months ago.

  When she’d sat on his bed that morning, he knew he couldn’t keep doing this dance with her. If he’d learned one thing from going back to Japan it was that now was the time to be brave, to take the adventures.

  Who had inspired him to take this whole crazy adventure of a marriage pact in the first place? August.

  She was the one who brought the person he wanted to be out of him. And he wanted to be with her.

  The door opened and there she was, his flatmate, his faux-wife, his friend. August had flushed cheeks like she’d been walking fast in the cold air, her hair misted into tangles in the breeze. Her bright clothing was like a summer’s day no matter what the weather.

  ‘I need to tell you something,’ he blurted to her.

  ‘OK,’ she replied, her soft smile lighting up the apartment as she closed the door.

  A thickness settled in the air between them, a thousand unspoken words, a future in other people’s hands, and more than anything in that moment he wanted to stride over to her and kiss her.

  But he couldn’t, he didn’t know how she felt, only how he felt, so it was time for him to brave telling her.

  ‘I’m going to tell you something,’ he started. ‘I want to hear how it went at the hospital, I want to hear everything, but first you need to be the one to listen because no matter what’s about to happen, you need to know something.’

  August raised her eyebrows and removed her coat, hanging it without taking her eyes off him.

  His fear melted away as he looked at her, because this was August. If it all came crashing down at least she would know somebody loved her.

  Flynn took a breath. ‘Because of you I feel alive and ready to see all the things I want to see. I want to take control of my life, and have adventures, and laugh, and love, and bring the woman I love on a sleeper train to Scotland with me.’ He paused, searching her expression. ‘Because of you, I’m happy. And not because you’ve changed me, because you’ve inspired me. And you need to know that you should never change. You’re impulsive and daring and you’re sunshine. I’ll always think that about you, no matter what you say next.’

  ‘Flynn—’ she started to interrupt, taking a step forwards. He held up his hands. ‘I know you and Abe have got close, and I respect that and I’ll back off and move out or whatever needs to be done, but I can’t keep being your flatmate.’ Flynn started to move towards her, he couldn’t help himself. ‘Even if the neighbours hadn’t caught us out, I don’t think I could have kept pretending to be married to you anymore.’

  He stood in front of August and reached out a hand to graze against hers. ‘I can’t keep holding your hand. I can’t keep putting my arms around you. I can’t keep kissing you.’ His eyes moved to her lips and her breathing slowed. She tilted her chin towards him, her eyes on his mouth also. He swallowed, and said quietly. ‘I can’t keep having you climb in my bed.’

  August nodded, a tiny movement of her head, her gaze moving from his lips up to his eyes.

  Flynn moved a fraction closer to her and said, ‘I’m in love with you, August. So I can’t do those things anymore if you don’t feel the same.’

  She smiled at him, and moments before their lips touched after what felt like too long but also just the right amount of time, she whispered, ‘You took the words right out of my mouth.’

  This kiss felt right. It felt like everything it had been back when they were practising, and more. The room seemed to be spinning, they touched each other’s faces, backs of necks, they breathed against the lips before them, and they gave their hearts to one another, fully.

  ‘Are you ready for this?’ August whispered, when they pulled apart. ‘Because this is real life now, no more curtains dropping or scenes ending, this is us.’

  ‘I’m so ready,’ Flynn replied. ‘I’m ready for us to take the next step in our relationship, and move from husband-and-wife, to boyfriend-and-girlfriend. Are you?’

  She pretended to think for a moment. ‘I don’t know, sounds a bit risky … ’

  Flynn laughed, and before he swept her into another kiss that would take them a long time to come out of, he let his eyes take her in, wanting to remember this moment for all of his life.

  Chapter 89

  August

  Later that evening, while Flynn fixed them dinner, August’s phone rang. Seeing Abe’s name, she went to her room to take his call.

  August took a deep breath; this was it. But you know what … it was okay. She and Flynn had found each other, they were each other’s home, they’d picked each other. They’d picked themselves and their happiness and their futures, no matter where they ended up living.

  ‘Hi, Abe,’ she answered. ‘How’s your mum been this afternoon?’

  ‘She’s doing fine,’ he said. He sounded more like himself again – the more relaxed version of himself that she’d got to know over the recent months. She liked that voice, and she hoped he could forgive her one day so they could be friends. ‘I just came from the hospital, actually, and listen … She’s handing the management of the building over to me, so she wanted it to be my cal
l whether we ask you to move out or not.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘I told her we didn’t really have any legal grounds to ask you to move out, and of course we got into the same discussion we always do.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter about legalities, Abe, if you and your mum want us out, we’ll understand and we’ll go.’ Saying it out loud stabbed August in the heart, but she would stick by her word.

  ‘Well, Mum did give me her recommendation. But she also said that because of us – me – my complicated feelings and “sad, lonely, womanless life in London” as she so aptly put it – I had to make the final call.’

  August looked around her room, at her little balcony and her pile of scripts and then at herself in the mirror. ‘And?’

  ‘And … you and Flynn can stay.’

  Her heart did a somersault before her ears asked her to check in case they were malfunctioning. ‘Did you say we could stay, as in, keep living here?’

  ‘I did. You’re good tenants. Neither of us particularly wants to start the search again, and Mum said something about a pearl being angry at her from up there if she kicked you out, whatever that meant. So if you two want to stay, I’m happy for you to stay.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ asked August, keeping her voice quiet. ‘Abe, I don’t want you to feel weird.’

  ‘Really, August, I will be fine.’ He paused, before saying quietly, kindly, ‘Go and be happy.’

  ‘You too, Abe.’

  When August hung up the phone she held it to her for a second, holding Abe for just a moment like she’d barely had a chance to in real life.

  She then let him go.

  August sat for a few minutes in her surroundings, in her bedroom, with her Flynn on the other side of the door. She wouldn’t take any of this for granted again. From now on, August Anderson would use the drive she knew was in her to work for her dreams.

  That said … she’d never give up her adventurous streak.

  Thanks to that, a whole new adventure was about to begin.