perfect together. No one could ever have guessed that just six months later, on our wedding day, it would all have fallen to pieces.
The front door slams shut and footsteps sound on the stairs. I dart behind my door and lean against it. Just then my phone begins to vibrate and buzz with message after message, one voicemail after another. It must be a weird Wifi hotspot. I stare blindly as they keep coming and then, without listening to a single one of them, I switch the phone off and slump down to the floor.
Chapter 12
Bea Hudson: is off to gay Paris! With Adam Hudson .
48 likes, 17 comments.
‘ Come ON, mon grand hunk of jambon , stop being ze slowcoach!’ I grab the sleeve of Adam’s jacket and attempt to drag him down the platform at St Pancras. I glance at the clock and see we have just a few minutes to board our train. He’s being as cool, calm and collected as ever. Nothing ruffles Adam. He glides through life as if everyone and everything will just wait for him. Which, to be honest, they kind of do.
‘ALLEZ ALLEZ ALLEZ!’ I grab his hand and try to run down the platform. But he merely strides alongside me, every step of his matching several of mine. He is smiling wryly, eyes on his phone.
I pull him harder, but he’s too busy tapping away at his phone to respond. If that’s a work email I’ll kill him. It’ll be like an Agatha Christie novel: Death on the Eurostar.
‘Don’t worry, Bea. We’ve got plenty of time.’ I automatically relax and slow down. If he says so, it must be true. Adam never panics. He expects everything to work out his way. It’s not his fault. He had everything bestowed on him as a kid and so is unpractised in the art of disappointment. I am so lucky that he didn’t take no for an answer with me. I told him so last night as we were lying in each other’s arms, limbs entwined, breath mingling, hearts pounding against each other.
‘Didn’t you ever tire of waiting?’ I asked, curling my fingers through the criss-cross of dark hair on his chest, marvelling at how perfect my engagement ring and my wedding ring looked on my finger.
He’d leaned up on his elbow and gazed at me as he shook his head; a sexy, teasing smile had danced across his lips. ‘I didn’t mind when you came to your senses,’ he’d replied, ‘I just knew that you would . . . eventually.’
‘Oh, the arrogance of the man! Always so sure of yourself, huh?’ I’d teased.
‘No,’ he’d corrected me as he laid a meaningful kiss on my lips. ‘I’ve always been sure of us .’
Adam picks up his stride and so do I, and I realise that he’s right.
Adam and I were meant to be. Who cares that my dad wasn’t at the wedding and that Kieran was? Adam is my destiny. He has been from the moment I met him. I’d just lost faith in my ability to make the right decision. That wasn’t Adam’s fault, or a sign of a bad relationship, it was just another consequence of what had happened after Elliot died.
Thankfully, it’s all about the future now. Mine and Adam’s.
Adam leads me into the first-class carriage, puts our luggage up on the rack and then sits opposite me and smiles as two glasses of champagne appear, brought by a member of staff who has clearly been tipped off that there is a honeymoon couple aboard. She congratulates us as she places them on our table, I thank her and am about to lift my glass in a toast with Adam but he’s too occupied with pulling his buzzing phone out of his pocket and staring at it with a harassed expression.
‘Just give me a second to reply to this email. Some client meltdown that no one else can deal with.’ He bends his head, his brows locked in concentration. I stare at him for a moment, taking the opportunity to marvel at the fact that the man I’m looking at is actually my husband. It is a strange sensation to look at someone you have been with for seven years and yet feel like it’s the first time you’ve really seen them. I look at him as a stranger
The front door slams shut and footsteps sound on the stairs. I dart behind my door and lean against it. Just then my phone begins to vibrate and buzz with message after message, one voicemail after another. It must be a weird Wifi hotspot. I stare blindly as they keep coming and then, without listening to a single one of them, I switch the phone off and slump down to the floor.
Chapter 12
Bea Hudson: is off to gay Paris! With Adam Hudson .
48 likes, 17 comments.
‘ Come ON, mon grand hunk of jambon , stop being ze slowcoach!’ I grab the sleeve of Adam’s jacket and attempt to drag him down the platform at St Pancras. I glance at the clock and see we have just a few minutes to board our train. He’s being as cool, calm and collected as ever. Nothing ruffles Adam. He glides through life as if everyone and everything will just wait for him. Which, to be honest, they kind of do.
‘ALLEZ ALLEZ ALLEZ!’ I grab his hand and try to run down the platform. But he merely strides alongside me, every step of his matching several of mine. He is smiling wryly, eyes on his phone.
I pull him harder, but he’s too busy tapping away at his phone to respond. If that’s a work email I’ll kill him. It’ll be like an Agatha Christie novel: Death on the Eurostar.
‘Don’t worry, Bea. We’ve got plenty of time.’ I automatically relax and slow down. If he says so, it must be true. Adam never panics. He expects everything to work out his way. It’s not his fault. He had everything bestowed on him as a kid and so is unpractised in the art of disappointment. I am so lucky that he didn’t take no for an answer with me. I told him so last night as we were lying in each other’s arms, limbs entwined, breath mingling, hearts pounding against each other.
‘Didn’t you ever tire of waiting?’ I asked, curling my fingers through the criss-cross of dark hair on his chest, marvelling at how perfect my engagement ring and my wedding ring looked on my finger.
He’d leaned up on his elbow and gazed at me as he shook his head; a sexy, teasing smile had danced across his lips. ‘I didn’t mind when you came to your senses,’ he’d replied, ‘I just knew that you would . . . eventually.’
‘Oh, the arrogance of the man! Always so sure of yourself, huh?’ I’d teased.
‘No,’ he’d corrected me as he laid a meaningful kiss on my lips. ‘I’ve always been sure of us .’
Adam picks up his stride and so do I, and I realise that he’s right.
Adam and I were meant to be. Who cares that my dad wasn’t at the wedding and that Kieran was? Adam is my destiny. He has been from the moment I met him. I’d just lost faith in my ability to make the right decision. That wasn’t Adam’s fault, or a sign of a bad relationship, it was just another consequence of what had happened after Elliot died.
Thankfully, it’s all about the future now. Mine and Adam’s.
Adam leads me into the first-class carriage, puts our luggage up on the rack and then sits opposite me and smiles as two glasses of champagne appear, brought by a member of staff who has clearly been tipped off that there is a honeymoon couple aboard. She congratulates us as she places them on our table, I thank her and am about to lift my glass in a toast with Adam but he’s too occupied with pulling his buzzing phone out of his pocket and staring at it with a harassed expression.
‘Just give me a second to reply to this email. Some client meltdown that no one else can deal with.’ He bends his head, his brows locked in concentration. I stare at him for a moment, taking the opportunity to marvel at the fact that the man I’m looking at is actually my husband. It is a strange sensation to look at someone you have been with for seven years and yet feel like it’s the first time you’ve really seen them. I look at him as a stranger
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