Relief and surprise caused Nell’s emotions to swell. ‘And how did that go?’
Cat looked up, her eyes welling with tears again. ‘About as well as can be expected. She called me an ungrateful child, told me she was doing all of this to help me and that if I wasn’t going to appreciate her, she wouldn’t help anymore. Dad had to basically physically restrain her and now she’s stomped off to bed with a headache. I never wanted to hurt Mum and maybe if I’d been stronger right back when we went wedding dress shopping, I’d have set the tone and stopped us all getting hurt. Her heart’s in the right place but she’s taken it all too far. Even Dad told me I’d done the right thing. He said Mum was tying herself up in knots too.’
‘And how’s Kieran now?’
Happiness spread over Cat’s face as she beamed. ‘He’s really pleased. He said he wanted to help but he was too afraid to get involved and I kept pushing him away. I told him I was worried that if he got involved then the wedding prep and our special day would turn into a warzone. Mum has been pretty terrifying. But we’re going to do it together now. We’re going to go back through the list of what’s been organised and make sure we’re happy with it. As the wedding is at the hotel, and you know what we like, we were kind of hoping we could sort most of it between the four of us. I know there’s only a week to go, do you think we have time to put things right?’
‘Of course we do,’ Nell replied enthusiastically. It would be a challenge, but if they all worked together there was no reason why not. But the four of them also meant Tom and she had no idea how to talk to him or what to say at the moment. ‘I love you, you crazy bird.’
‘I love you, too. I’m sorry I’ve been such a pain in the bum.’ Cat pulled her cake towards her. ‘How did it go with Tom?’
Nell sighed heavily. ‘It didn’t. He was weird and standoffish last night. It was like he wanted nothing more than to get away from me. Then he saw Harry dancing with me and just left. And you’re right by the way. I’ve been living my love life in my head instead of in reality. I don’t know why. It just seemed safer somehow.’
Cat eyed Nell then her cake, but didn’t take a bite. ‘I think your imagination is a wonderful thing, and we all love that about you, but like with me and Mum, it’s about taking control and not letting it control you.’
‘You’re so wise,’ Nell teased. ‘So, what’s first on the wedding list?’
Cat forked a tiny piece of the chocolate mousse cake into her mouth and savoured it. Nell did the same, waiting for her response. ‘The one thing I don’t think I can fix – my wedding dress.’ Cat pushed the plate of delicious food away. ‘I shouldn’t really be eating this, the bloody thing is tight enough as it is, even with my horrendously unsexy suck-it-all-in-and-not-let-me-breathe underwear.’
‘Why can’t we fix that? Can the dress be let out?’ Cat shook her head and Nell knew she’d been right, that this was one of the main causes of the problems they’d had. Nell believed that every time a bride talked about her wedding dress, she should be excited to wear it and have a dreamy expression on her face. Whenever Cat had talked about hers, she’d scrunched up her face like she could smell something foul. The purchase of the dress had been the start of things going wrong. Nell remembered the day they’d all gone shopping and though she’d mentioned her reservations, there’d been no talking Cat into changing her mind or telling Brenda no. ‘Cat, do you actually want to wear your dress? After everything you’ve gone through with your mum, now’s the time to get the wedding you want and that means every aspect of it.’
‘I hate it,’ Cat answered quickly without a hint of hesitation. ‘Absolutely hate it. I mean, I’m sure it would look lovely on someone else, but it’s too long for me, the bodice is so tight it makes the tops of my arms look enormous and then it’s all massive at the bottom and it weighs a tonne. I won’t be able to get on a toilet in it and I can’t even imagine wrestling with that bloody
