You Got It Wrong - Part Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

                “I can’t wear this!”

Nina was stood in the hallway staring at herself in the mirror, she’d never felt so uncomfortable in her life. Lilah, as always, looked demure, elegant and beautiful. Nina felt like an Oompaloompa beside her. As Lilah turned her eyes widened and she broke into a smile.

                “Oh my God Nina, you look amazing!”

Nina didn’t feel it, she had a dark purple dress, strapless and knee length, it was too clingy, Nina hated tight things, much preferring to hide under billowing layers. This was her idea of hell. She’d listened to her friend and smoothed her usually unruly hair in to a slick side parting, and it had immediately given her an elfin look, which Lilah was quick to enthuse over.

                “I LOVE the dress, I LOVE the hair...you look the epitome of a successful jewellery designer. Fantastic. Now get those heels on, the taxi is honking outside.” With a perfect spin on her spiky heels, she made for the hallway in her glamorous scarlet dress, leaving the less than confident Nina to follow in her wake.

The wedding reception was like a who’s who of the up and coming London, fringe royalty, some trendy music people, and of course bankers, lawyers and architects, and the wannabes of British politics. Nina stood beside Lilah in an aisle of the picturesque church in Notting Hill and tried not to gawp. She was used to mixing in these circles, her cousin was more famous than she was, but in her modelling world she’d met so many people. But Nina was quite naive when it came to these things. But open mouthed gawping was very uncouth, so she tried to drop her head and look at the order of service.

                “You’re popular!” Lilah hissed in her ear, “look, across the aisle, he’s PROPER checking you out.”

Nina felt sick as she followed her friend’s instruction and met the studious eyes of Theo Peterson.

Spinning back to glare at her friend she shook her head, “the bastard, he’s in my nightmares!”

Lilah looked at her questioningly and she sighed, “that is the grandson...the rude one!”

Smiling Lilah dug her elbow into Nina’s ribs, “you never said he was HOT!”

                “He’s not!”

She chuckled, “he SO is, and you not admitting that speaks volumes Miss Willoughby. All that chiselled jaw and surfer hair. He is H.O.T. And can’t take his eyes off you, I might hasten to add.”

Shaking her head Nina denied that, “he was rude to me; he thinks I’m fishing around for his grandfather’s money. The man is a bastard and I don’t want anything to do with him.”

Again Lilah annoyingly laughed, “you keep telling yourself that girlfriend!”

The service was long, and Nina was glad that they were secreted away in the back of the church, not being close to either of the bridal couple they could watch proceedings from a distance. She was aware of the set of eyes across the aisle from her, but had no intention of getting caught out by him. Instead she planned to be a limpet at her friend’s side.

She looked amazing, for a moment he hadn’t recognised her, that usually erratic hair was smooth, pixie like, her curves framed by that dress. Nina looked amazing. That was no lie. Then Theo sighed, he’d been rude to her, again. Daniel had read him the riot act when he realised. He glanced to his left, his perfect bloody brother stood beside him. He hadn’t wanted to come to this wedding, but as usual Daniel had assured him it was the right thing to do, and he was ALL about the right thing. Appearances. Colin Wootton was a second cousin of theirs, Mansell’s cousin’s son. Theo had met him once and found him a complete pain in the arse, but Daniel told him they had to be at the wedding. If no more reason that to represent their grandfather. But the true worry...other than who would look after Melody was the fear that their father would be there. Hugo Gershwin, the biggest freeloading alcoholic womaniser known to man. There were a lot of wealthy women there today, influential widows and heiresses alike. This was perfect fodder for the man who had fathered both him and Daniel and Theo was dreading a confrontation, because he was yet to meet him without it resorting in a slanging match.

His mind drifted for a moment to his grandfather, he had at least started to recover, but seeing him so frail, so ill in bed, it had scared Theo, he seriously had to start contemplating life without him in it, and that was a frightening thought.

He glanced back at Nina, he’d treated her appallingly again, was he ever going to stop acting like a complete bastard around her? He wasn’t sure. With a groan he remembered how terrified he was when Nina didn’t return with Melody when he expected. But there was no reason that she would take his daughter, she wasn’t Sadie, and he owed her a huge apology. Melody was with his mother’s sister today, at last someone he could trust. He’d lost his mother years ago, but his aunt persisted in trying to keep a relationship open with him, and as he got older, and maybe more philosophical, he began to appreciate those links.

                “What’s the matter with you?” Daniel nudged him and he glanced at his brother.

                “Nothing.”

Daniel lifted his eyebrow questioningly, then looked past him to the place in the room that seemed to have grabbed his attention. “Is that...your child abductor?”

Theo elbowed him back with a grunt, “she’s not...it’s coincidence, ok?”

Daniel started to laugh, and that annoyed Theo even more, “today suddenly got SO interesting.”

The service ended and the congregation followed the newly married couple out into the sunshine. Theo cut through the crowds as fast as he could without appearing rude, but the vision in purple was nowhere to be seen.

As he stood in the road scouring the horizon, Daniel patted him on the back, “is she’s invited to the wedding, she’ll be at the reception. I can’t WAIT to see you grovel!”

Rolling his eyes, Theo followed Daniel to his car for the journey to the reception.

Nina clutched the champagne glass anxiously, pacing as firmly as she could in her heels. Lilah was leaning against the bar smiling, sipping slowly at her own glass.

                “We can’t leave? Really?”

Lilah shook her head, “nope. Sorry. We promised we’d be here.”

Nina started to shake her head, “but it’s better that I go than cause a scene, surely?”

Pulling away from the bar, Lilah stepped towards her friend and grabbed her arm, “this is a five star hotel, there’s a free bar, we have a room booked upstairs...and there will be almost two hundred people here. WE can avoid him and still have a good time, ok?”

Nina wasn’t convinced, so she did all that she could, tossed back her head and drained the champagne.

They were the amongst the first to arrive at the venue, deliberately, but as the room started to fill, Nina dragged Lilah out on the riverside veranda, and they sat at a table elegantly sipping their drinks, and reaching for canapés when waiters carried trays past.

                “I’ve never seen you this het up over a man.”

Lilah threw that comment then sat back, almost like lighting a firework. Nina knew that she was goading a reaction from her, and hated that she was so predictable.

                “Don’t start Lilah, I am not het up over him, I’m bloody livid...and I have no intention of spending any more of my day talking about him...or to him!”

Lilah gave a knowing look then with a smirk turned back to her drink, at the same time Nina scowled.

The bride looked dazzling in her Vera Wang dress, a leaf out of Kate Middleton is was classy and elegant, and Colin was beaming beside her. When they entered the reception everyone stopped and the couple greeted everyone individually as they wandered into the dining room to the elaborately decorated tables. When they spotted Nina and Lilah who were at the latter part of the line, the two gushed, entwining their hands as they displayed their rings.

                “We can’t thank you enough Nina!”

She groaned, the rings were only a symbol, she hated that these two placed so much importance on them. It worried her.

                “I just mad what you designed, that’s all.”

The new Mrs Wootton gushed at that, “you did SO much more. Everyone has commented on them, I hope you don’t mind us telling everyone about you.”

                “Not at all!” Lilah leaned across and cut off any garbled response from Nina. “We love that you share things. It’s all good for business.

Then they moved into the room and took their seats at a large round table to the back of the room.

                “There he is.” Lilah hissed as she topped up her glass from a passing waitress. “Two o’clock, front row of tables...must be family!”

Nina refused to look, vocally, “I am NOT looking. Now can we please change the subject?”

The food as divine and the wine free flowing. The guests in their table were all fringe players in the Wootton life and it was fun. Lilah won the sweepstake for the length of the Best Man’s speech, and a gay couple called Fred and Bryan predicted that the father of the bride would say the words ‘my darling daughter’ nineteen times. Each victory was met with raucous shouts, and shots of tequila from the free bar.

All in all it was a fun time, but as the crowd gathered milled back into the reception room, Lilah had excused herself for the bathroom, leaving Nina as a sitting duck. She’s been hiding away in a corner praying for invisibility when a cough alerted her to the one man she had no intention of getting into a conversation with.

                “I have nothing so say to you.”

Theo giggled, she was going to do this, she was going to avoid looking at him, try to ignore him like a child would. Leaning against the wall beside her, he sighed, “I’m not going away.”  Her response was to turn her nose up in the air, and he was overwhelmed with the desire to run his tongue over the column of her neck, despite her petite build, it was elegant, shapely. He shook his head, he’d never been attracted to a neck before...hell, he wasn’t attracted to her, she was a nuisance he was getting out of his system, that was all. He didn’t need another woman, least of all this hellion.

Taking a deep breath, he stared at her nose instead, her angry profile, “I owe you an apology...”

                “Again!” She snapped.

He smiled, “and a thank you. Last week...it really helped having you care for Melody.”

                “She’s a cute kid...unlike her father who thought I’d kidnapped her. Wish I’d never bothered.”

Theo grinned, anger was better than silence, “I was out of order. I get that.”

Finally her head snapped around to glare at him, “that’s it? You are the most rude and arrogant bastard I have ever set my eyes on, and THAT is what you quantify as an apology? Theo Peterson you are a prick, and really, I never want to set eyes on you again.”

She made to walk away, but his fingers darted out, wrapping around her wrist, “don’t go. I am really truly sorry.”

Snatching her hand away she shook her head, but the venom had left her voice, “this isn’t the time or the place.”

Nina was panting once she reached the bathroom, locked in a cubicle; she sat down on the closed toilet lid and wondered why she was barely able to breathe after so angry a confrontation. Her arm still buzzed from where his fingers had grabbed her and no matter of shaking it seemed to make the life come back to it. Tears prickled her eyes, and that confused her too. She hadn’t cried since she’d read the letter her father had written her after he’d died, the one where he apologised for not believing her, for never loving her enough. She looked to the ceiling hoping to stem the tears. 

This was nothing, this was no reason to cry, some man who meant nothing to her.

Leaving the cubicle, she freshened up, patched up her blotchy cheeks, then swiped clear gloss across her lips. Her reflection stunned her, her flat hair was a shock compared to usual, but that was nothing compared to her wild eyes, that was how she looked, wild.  Blinking a few times, she turned for the door, because she wasn’t prepared with dealing with the way she felt after their encounter.

Outside in the corridor, sat on a low window sill was Theo, and he looked as frazzled as her.

                “We need to talk. Seriously.”

She wanted to say no, but found herself nodding her head, then following him in the opposite direction to the wedding.