Publisher: Book Club Ltd
So something a little different today. I haven't read this book (yet!) but my spot on todays tour is for content and the Lovely Rachel from Rachels Random Resources has given me an extract to share with you all. Having read this extract i most defiantly am adding this on to my digital tbr pile, Chris has already annoyed the hell out of me and i need to know if Kat manages to move on from him. I cant wait to pick this one up, take a read below and let me know if you plan on joining me.
The Wedding
Humiliation
Kat attends her ex-boyfriend’s wedding, only to
experience the ultimate humiliation when he makes a wedding speech.
‘Greetings,
wedding guests.’ Chris’s theatrical voice booms across the clearing. ‘I want to
kick off this celebration by apologising to my former fiancée, Kat. Sorry about
falling madly in love with Minola here!’
Gentle laughter
drifts around the clearing as if this is a perfectly acceptable joke.
My heart
clenches.
‘Kat, where are
you?’ Chris looks around. ‘Ah! There.’
Cool humiliation
works its way around my stomach, as everyone turns in my direction. I try to
hold myself with quiet dignity, but that isn’t possible because I’m halfway
through swigging a Prosecco bottle.
‘Here’s to Kat.’
Chris raises his tumbler. ‘There’s no friend like an old friend.’
The word ‘old’
feels like a punch in the face.
‘Thanks, Chris.’
I raise my bottle. ‘Here’s to your wedding.’
‘And here’s to your
wedding, Kat.’ Chris gives me a lopsided smile. ‘It’s one of your life goals,
isn’t it? Married before you the age of 35?’ He turns to the crowd. ‘Kat told
me that the first night we met!’
Minola’s friends
and family roar with laughter.
‘I also told you
I would start a publishing company and buy a house in Bloomsbury,’ I shout
back. ‘Both of which I did –’
‘Wait, there’s
more!’ Chris roars, clearly pleased with the audience’s reaction. ‘Kat also
told me she wanted two children, and that marriage was to make sure I wouldn’t
run away and leave her as a single mother. Still on the first
night we met!’
Helpless
laughter.
‘But you’re
right about marriage, Kat.’ Chris turns serious and grabs Minola’s hand. ‘It’s
a great thing to do. And even if you don’t manage your life goal, kitty
cat, I’m glad you’re here to celebrate with us.’
My knuckles turn
white around the Prosecco bottle. ‘I might still get married this year, Chris.
You never know.’
‘Wow, Kat.’
Chris shakes his head. ‘Drunk already. I like your style.’
‘I’m not drunk.’
I lean to place the Prosecco bottle on an upright log, but my left leg chooses
that moment to throw itself out and …
Ooof!
I fall, Prosecco
bottle rolling, spilling and fizzing on the woodland floor.
White-grey sky
drifts above me, and I feel twigs, pebbles and dried leaves under various sore
body parts.
Ouch.
‘She’s not
drunk, everyone!’ Chris’s voice soars over me, accompanied by shrieks of
laughter. Then Freddy’s concerned face comes into view. He grabs my hand with
the certainty and force of a blood pressure cuff and pulls me to my feet.
‘What was that
all about, darling?’ he asks. ‘You’re not drunk. You only had three swigs of
Prosecco.’
I redden. ‘Well,
if you must know, it’s true what Aunty Sylvia was saying earlier. About me
having a degenerative disease. I have a touch of MS. And stop calling me
darling.’
‘A what?’
‘A touch of MS.
Multiple sclerosis. Just a little brush of it. Nothing to worry about.
Sometimes it makes my legs unsteady.’
‘Can you get a touch
of MS?’ Freddy asks. ‘I thought it was a pretty serious condition?’
‘Every person’s
MS is as different as a snowflake,’ I say. ‘Mine is relapsing, remitting. It
comes and goes. It’s worse when I’m stressed. Or overwhelmed. Or tired.’
‘I bet you’re
all of those things today,’ says Freddy. ‘Do you want me to find you somewhere
to sit? I can move a log –’
‘As much as I’d
love to see you showing off how strong you are,’ I say, ‘I’m okay. I just need
to stand where no one can see me and eat some yellow food from the buffet.’
‘You know Chris
is an idiot, right?’
‘Yes.’ I sigh.
‘I know. But he’s also funny and exciting and romantic and –.’
‘And you still
love him.’
‘For a
megalomaniac, you’re surprisingly perceptive.’
‘You and I
aren’t so different, Kat. Tough on the outside, soft in the middle.’
‘I’m nothing
like you. And for what it’s worth, I know that me and Chris are over. I have
told my brain, in no uncertain terms, to move on. I just wish my heart would
catch up.’
‘How did you end
up with that man, anyway?’
‘Chris was my
first love. We’ve been together, on and off, since I was eighteen. We got
together just after my mother died.’
‘Ah.’ Freddy
clicks his fingers. ‘That makes sense. He got in while you were vulnerable.
Sorry, darling. Bad luck.’
‘You don’t need
to be sorry.’ I don’t have the energy to rebuke Freddy for saying ‘darling’
again. He clearly has a compulsion. Like tourettes. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me,
I need to get on with something.’
‘Get on with
what?’
‘The final piece
of closure. I need to offer the happy couple my congratulations.’
