Page 144 of Kiss Me Like You Mean It

‘I only just found out about this black tie thing,’ I huff. ‘Don’t you want me to check on things downstairs before people start arriving? You’ve had me up on the second floor all afternoon and I still needed to clean up after those final touch ups.’

‘No, no,’ Magda grips my arm and starts dragging me out the door, ‘that’s all been taken care of.’ She marches me down the corridor and Jack’s amused laughter follows us. ‘But you really need to look your best. The whole town is turning out and people are very excited. Rita’s wearing a tiara!’

Sounds drift up from downstairs. It sounds like a suspiciously large number of people running around. I’m sure that was Phil that was booming away, and if the Roseport Players are involved, things are almost certainly getting out of hand. Someone was bashing cymbals together earlier, and when I asked about it Magda said the school marching band wanted to play during the firework display.

My ominous ‘What firework display?’ had been met with silence.

‘Bloody hell,’ I mutter, looking down at myself, covered in dust and paint stains from all the last minute jobs I’ve been crawling around doing. ‘I need to go home and have a shower.’

‘Don’t be silly,’ Magda laughs. ‘There are so many bathrooms here. I thought you and Lee would like to stay over tonight anyway.’ She stops outside the door to the library room. ‘What do you think?’

I smile. ‘Yeah, Lee would probably love that, actually.’

‘Excellent.’ Magda opens the door and basically shoves me inside the room. ‘Then you take your time, and make yourself presentable.’

When she shuts the door behind me I take a moment to look around. Lee’s favourite room has turned out well, but it’s not the quality of the work that catches my attention now. Magda has obviously been scheming because the bed is covered in red rose petals. There’s a tall silver ice bucket next to the two armchairs that holds a bottle of seriously good champagne. On a table next to it are two champagne flutes and a plate of chocolate-covered strawberries.

Yeah, Lee is going to love this.

Not wanting to delay things further, I shower and change into the tuxedo Jack handed me. He’s a bit broader than me these days, so I’m surprised to find that it fits like it was made for me. It’s been such a long time since I wore one of these things that I’m still fiddling with the bow tie when there’s a knock at the door.

‘Come in,’ I call, and Jack slips inside.

He runs an assessing eye over my suit. ‘That looks good.’

‘It’s great. Perfect, in fact. Now I really am worried – are you travelling with tuxedos in a range of sizes?’

‘Hey, all bodies fluctuate,’ he smirks. ‘Sorry if it’s a bit loose in the crotch, though.’

I treat him to a withering look.

His eyes slide away from mine and he coughs before he reaches in his pocket. ‘I figured you wouldn’t have cufflinks.’

‘Not all of us travel with cufflinks on their person, no. I thought I’d just roll up the sleeves or something.’

Jack’s expression switches to one of outrage. ‘This is an Armani tuxedo, Nico. Show some respect!’

‘Fine, fine, sorry!’

‘Anyway, I have a spare pair you can borrow.’ Jack holds out his hand, a pair of simple black and gold cufflinks in his palm.

‘Thanks, these are really nice,’ I say, admiring them as I quickly twist them into place.

‘Yeah,’ Jack swallows. ‘They were my grandpa’s.’

I look up at him. ‘Are you… crying?’

‘What?’ He blinks outraged. ‘Obviously not. There must still be some sawdust or something floating around in here.’

‘Okayyy.’ I watch him, bemused, as he blinks again.

There’s another knock at the door and this time my mum bursts in without waiting for an answer.

‘Oh, Nicolas,’ she murmurs, staring at me, and she definitely is crying. ‘You look so handsome!’

‘Thanks, you look lovely.’ And she does, she’s a knockout in a long blue velvet number. She’s also clutching a large envelope in her hand. ‘But why are you crying?’

‘It’s the sawdust in the air,’ Jack jumps in. ‘You’re just immune to it because you have builder’s lungs or whatever.’