Читать книгу The Boy and the Bridesmaid: A Short Story - Katey Lovell - Страница 8

Maria wished she’d been more prepared. She should have known her emotions would get the better of her, after all, weddings are notoriously tear-jerking events. Snuffling inelegantly into her napkin, she silently apologised to the hotel staff for sullying their table linen.

She didn’t used to be like this, crying at the drop of a hat. Now the smallest of things could bring a tear to her eye. She’d even cried at EastEnders the other night. Anxiety had changed her; not just the crying, but the panic attacks where she could hardly breathe, the feeling of a hole through the centre of her body, as though she were an apple that had been cored, the difficulty to remain focussed even if things interested her.

She was distracted now. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the band setting up. They were behind the white drape which acted as a partition, but being placed at the end of the top table she could see right around it.

There were four guys in all. One of them, Harrison, she recognised as her cousin Lucy’s boyfriend. He was one of those hipster sorts who wore skin-tight jeans with a plain white t-shirt. James Dean cool. She’d only met him the once, but he’d seemed nice enough and obviously cared for Lucy. Then there was a brown haired guy shifting the speakers, and struggling by the look of it. He beckoned to one of his bandmates, a short redhead who looked a bit like Ed Sheeran, to give him a hand.

But it was the boy at the front fiddling with the mic stand who’d grabbed her attention. His skin was smooth and dark, his hair cropped short to his head. He had the faintest hint of stubble covering his angular jawline and his eyes were fixed with concentration on the job in hand.

Maria had never seen anyone so handsome before, at least, not in real life. If he’d been in the magazines she and Helena had squandered their pocket money on in their early teens, she’d have definitely made room for him on her section of the bedroom wall. He wouldn’t have looked out of place next to the David Beckham posters that had doubled as wallpaper in the room the sisters had shared.