Page 4 of The Wedding Forecast

‘Anna. You can stay with us, you know. Your father can sleep on the couch and you can share with me.’

‘Thanks, but I don’t need to stay with you.’

‘It’s not healthy to be sharing a house with Joel and his new girlfriend.’

‘The bridal party is staying together, that’s what we’re doing, it’s fine, it’s one weekend, I am fine with it, it will be fine.’ I’m a so-called writer who can’t think of another word for fine, apparently.

‘If you say so.’

‘I say so. See you tonight.’

Tonight is the rehearsal dinner. The first of the official events. The rehearsal dinner, the wedding ceremony itself, the reception, and the day-after brunch. Two days, forty-eight hours, probably more like fifty hours, depending on what time I leave the brunch. I can smile and be charming and be around Joel and his girlfriend for fifty hours. If we take out sleeping time, it’s only thirty-six hours. Easy. The events aren’t even the parts I’m worried about. It’s the downtime at the house where things might get difficult.

There are six of us staying there. Hayley and Luke, who are the bride and groom, me, the bridesmaid, Joel, the best man, Joel’s new girlfriend Bianca (she has no role), and Mac, Luke’s childhood best friend who is flying in from overseas and is a groomsman. It’s a lopsided bridal party, but Hayley didn’t mind and Luke really wanted to include Mac once he knew he was coming from the other side of the world. Also there’s a very negative energy having two exes as your entire bridal party, so Mac is there to balance out the bad juju.

Hayley is not a monster. She cleared the idea of me staying in a house with Joel a hundred times.

‘Are you sure?’ she’d asked.

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘Sure sure though.’

‘Yes.’

‘Joel is definitely bringing Bianca.’

‘I know.’

‘You don’t think it’s a mistake?’

‘I do,’ Luke had chimed in, but we ignored him, because this was between me and Hayley.

‘I think it will be fun,’ I had said firmly. I wasn’t going to let my breakup ruin a single moment of her wedding plans.

The four of us, together again. Just like old times. Plus Mac, who exists to me mostly as a mythical figure in Luke’s stories about his highschool days. And Bianca. Who I’m sure is very nice. Very, very nice. My heart is beating faster. I can do this. I have to do this, for Hayley.

Hayley and I are best friends. But it’s more than that. There are layers to it. We’re second-generation best friends. Our mothers are best friends, and when Mum and Bobbi both had daughters a few months apart, they decided their daughters would be best friends too. This is the kind of decision that normally inspires a firm desire from the children to hate each other and do everything in their power to prove their parents wrong, but Hayley and I aren’t that rebellious I guess, because we’ve been inseparable from the beginning.

We went to different high schools but the same uni, and in her third year, Hayley met Luke. They fell in love, Luke introduced me to his friend Joel, we fell in love, and suddenly Haley and I went from two to four. We spent our twenties together. Friday night dinners at the pub, poker nights, movie marathons, holidays. We all went hiking in New Zealand together.

‘Is this about us?’ Hayley said, as soon as she saw the title of my book.

‘No.’ On this point I was very insistent. ‘There’s a dead body, for a start.’

‘I know. But. Two couples on a hike. Feels very familiar.’

‘The setting was an inspiration. That’s all.’

‘Just the setting.’

‘Mostly.’

‘I always wanted to be in a book,’ Hayley said.

‘You’re not in it.’

‘A few little bits of me are, though, aren’t they?’