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The ballroom had been transformed overnight. The ivy and flowers that had been suspended from the beams were gone, as were the magicians and acrobats. In their place was the stage set for the perfect modern, middle-brow, middle-class wedding. The chairs, arranged in rows of six on either side of a central aisle, were covered in white calico with lilac bows on the back. At the front of the room, the registrar was arranging papers on the smaller of two flower-laden tables, while the groom paced, and then sat down, and then stood up again.
The room was filling up with people. Cheerful people. Brightly-clothed people. Loud people. Dominic closed his eyes in defence against the light and noise and colour. He could do this. It was one day. Get through the day. Smile for Theo and Tania. Everything else could wait until tomorrow. He forced his eyes open, and looked around. Helen and Alex were sitting together about halfway down the length of the hall. There was an empty seat beside them. Dominic paused. He watched Alex’s head loll slightly to one side, and come to a fleeting rest on Helen’s shoulder. A firm elbow in the ribs made Alex jump awake. Dominic smiled.
He took a seat, on his own, at the back of the room. The last few guests shuffled in around him. The scene was set. Everything was in place. All they needed now was a bride.
Dominic glanced at his watched. Five minutes past. That probably didn’t even class as being ‘fashionably late’ yet. He peered forward, through the forest of bodies, at Helen. What was she thinking about last night? The back of her head wasn’t giving him many clues. Maybe what happened last night was just a moment, and one moment every decade did not make a relationship, however electric those moments were. He had a relationship with Emily. They had plans and a future. She’d already picked new tiles for his kitchen. That was a relationship.
The stranger next to him shuffled in her seat and knocked his arm. He winced as a shot of pain pulsed into his shoulder. Tentatively he rubbed the arm. Really sore. Bruised maybe. The woman next to him looked concerned. ‘Are you all right?’
He nodded. ‘It’s a sword fighting injury. You know how it is.’
Whether she knew how it was or not, she didn’t get chance to respond. The music stepped up a notch into something vaguely wedding marchy. In the front row the groom and best man stood, and the motion rippled backwards through the room. Dominic twisted his neck to see the bride who walked slowly a few paces down the aisle. He twisted back again. Emily was following her. It was an odd experience – having a practise run at watching the woman you were going to marry walk down the aisle. He tried to imagine the tingle of excitement and nerves and anticipation that he would be expected feel if that big day ever came.
‘Wait.’ Dominic turned back towards the voice. Tania had stopped halfway down the aisle. ‘Wait a minute.’
Theo stepped out into the aisle. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing. Everyone wait a minute.’ The bride hoiked up her skirt and ran out of the back of the room. A murmur went up. Dominic watched the registrar lean towards Theo who shrugged. In front of him, he saw Helen crane her neck to see what was going on. Their eyes met.
‘Sorry! Sorry!’ Tania ran back down the length of the room, clutching something in her hand. She hurried past Theo at the front of the room and accosted the waiter who’d been dragooned into pressing ‘Play’ on the music at the appropriate time. After a few seconds of conversation, she made her way back to her starting point. ‘Sorry!’
A new tune blasted out of the speakers.
The woman next to him raised her eyebrows. ‘What’s this?’
‘Blondie.’ Dominic laughed. ‘I think it’s Blondie.’
A laughing Tania made her second trip down the aisle, and proceedings finally got underway. There was reassuring quality to the promises the couple offered to each other. There was something solid about the idea that you were absolutely committed to another person for ever. That was what Dominic was supposed to have chosen. It was what he’d always been destined to choose. He watched Emily standing to one side of the happy couple and tried to muster the butterflies again. They wouldn’t come.