Before I Do(89)

Josh was sitting with his eyes closed, listening to headphones. He looked exhausted, and in the chair next to him was—

“Granny Parker? You brought Granny Parker?” Audrey said, causing Josh to open his eyes and remove his headphones.

“Audrey?”

Audrey noticed that all the other passengers were now looking at her, and she crouched down to be less conspicuous. “You brought Granny Parker on our honeymoon?”

Josh sighed. “She has a lung condition. Her doctor said a holiday in the sun could do her good.” On cue, Granny Parker coughed weakly.

“Look, I’m so sorry about everything. Yesterday was completely insane. I don’t want to make excuses, but please, can we talk?” Audrey said, ignoring Granny Parker and focusing on Josh. “That can’t be how we leave things—you running off to the airport without me.”

“Me running off?” Josh said, shaking his head in bemusement. “Me running off is not the reason you’re not here beside me. You having another man’s photo in your wallet all this time and then kissing this guy on our wedding day is the reason.” He spoke calmly, quietly, but he was clearly still furious.

Granny Parker tutted and shook her head. Audrey was suddenly very aware of every ear in business class now tuned in to their conversation.

“I knew it wouldn’t end well, as soon as we hit traffic on the way out of London. I felt it in my knuckles,” muttered Granny Parker.

“Please, Josh . . .”

“And then the one thing I asked of you—to give me some space—and you couldn’t even do that, Audrey.”

“I didn’t want you going away thinking I was in love with someone else! I’m not. I swear I’m not, I can explain—”

“Is this woman bothering you, sir?” The flight attendant was back and standing over Audrey, frowning as she realized this was not the romantic reunion she had been promised.

“She is,” said Granny Parker stoutly. “She is bothering us.”

“Josh?” Audrey pleaded.

“I am going to have to ask you to go back to your seat, miss,” said the flight attendant.

“Josh, please,” Audrey tried again, but he wouldn’t meet her eye. He looked so miserable. All Audrey wanted to do was reach out and hug him, but now the flight attendant was taking her arm and physically frog-marching her back to her seat. She could feel the eyes of disapproval from the other passengers, as though she had broken some code of conduct by daring to step on the wrong side of the blue curtain.

“Shame on you,” muttered a woman two rows behind Josh.

“Your fiancé?” the flight attendant asked, her sarcasm clear.

“He is, he was. It’s just a misunderstanding,” Audrey said, but then they were through the curtain and the attendant drew it firmly closed behind her.

As she sat back down in her seat, a girl in the row behind leaned forward and asked, “So, who’s he here with?” Audrey turned around in bemusement to see who was asking her this. The girl was in her twenties; she had platinum-blond hair and several lip piercings. “I’m Keeley, I overheard the whole story. I’m kind of invested now.”

“His grandmother,” Audrey said, too deflated to even care that half the plane had overheard her story.

“Wow,” said Elena. “I wouldn’t have called that. I thought it would have been the sister for sure.”

“I thought it was going to be the best man,” said someone two rows behind Keeley. Exactly how far back had her story gone? She turned around, and Keeley said, “We’re all together, all the way back to row eighteen. We were taking bets on who it might be.”

“All of you?” Audrey turned to look at the group of people behind her, and some of them waved.

“We’re all dancers. We work the clubs,” said a woman with short blue hair next to Keeley.

“You and Josh should come down to Pacha if you patch things up,” Keeley suggested brightly. “I can get you on the guest list.”

“Maybe Josh needs some cooling-off time? Perhaps the plane isn’t the best location for this conversation,” said Clive thoughtfully.

“Excuse me,” came a voice from the plane corridor. It was a man in a leather jacket queuing to use the bathroom between business class and economy. “I couldn’t help but overhear, and I’m afraid I’m Team Josh on this one.”

“Wait, what? Who are you?” Audrey asked.

“Oliver Bevan. I’m sitting up there in business and I overheard your little speech, we all did. Have you told your friends back here that you kissed someone else on your wedding day?”

“She didn’t kiss someone else, this other bloke kissed her,” shouted some random man five rows back. “Get your facts straight, Oliver Bevan.”

“Doesn’t sound like she stopped the kiss, though, did she?” said the flight attendant, who had now joined in the conversation.

Audrey buried her head in her hands, and Clive gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder.

“I think you should just leave the poor man alone,” said a woman with gray hair, wearing dark orange lipstick, who had poked her head through the curtain.

“Team Audrey! Team Audrey!” Keeley’s group started chanting.

This was going to be a long flight.