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‘I guess that depends on why you’re standing us all up. You know Katie and Lily-Ann will be disappointed. So what’s your excuse, and you better make it goooood.’

‘I’m going away with Amrita.’

‘Really? That’s exciting! Where are you going?’

‘To her cousin’s wedding.’

‘You’re meeting her whole family? Wow, Jamie, that’s huge. I hadn’t realised you were getting so serious.’

‘I know. It is fast. I’ve been trying to take things slowly and be respectful, but Hudsbury has been doing its thing and trying to nudge us together.’ He laughed. ‘When it’s not been pushing us apart.’

‘Oh, I know what that can be like.’ Mia chuckled.

‘Yeah. But Mimi, I really think this could be something special.’

‘Then I’m really happy for you, J. It’s great to hear you so excited about a woman.’

‘Happy enough to tell Katie and Lily-Anne I’m skipping our dinner?’

‘Ha! No chance. You can upset Katie by yourself. I’m not doing your dirty work for you. She scares me a bit too!’

‘Yeah, but she wouldn’t hit you. She would me.’

‘Only when you really wind her up.’

‘Yeah, but teasing Katie is part of the DNA of our friendship. And you know she gives as good as she gets. Anyway, how’s your wedding planning going?’

‘That’s one of the reasons I’m not telling her you’re skipping out. Not to mention she’ll have questions of her own!’

‘Hang on, what do you mean, your wedding planning is one of the reasons? What’s wrong, Mia? You and Aiden are OK, right?’

‘Yeah, we’re good, J. Better than good, really. It’s just… not all of our plans are going as smoothly as we’d like.’

* * *

‘Just let me get this straight.’ Katie took a breath and grabbed another of Aiden’s chocolate fudge bonbons. ‘What? I need it. You’ve just told me that right now – five weeks from the date you want to get married – you have no venue, no caterer, no officiant and your invitations have all gone out wrongly. How is this even possible?’

‘Well…’ Aiden grimaced, not sure where to start.

‘The storm last week took down power lines and damaged the roof and apparently it’s going to take a few weeks to repair. The caterers had some sort of admin snafu and are double-booked… and they were so apologetic that we felt bad and told them to honour the other booking because they took that first,’ Mia explained.

‘It seemed right.’ Aiden shrugged and squeezed Mia’s hand. ‘And it’s not like we have a venue any more. And we could try to cater it from the café, but I didn’t want to put all that stress on my friends, and it’s not really what we do at Sugar Rush.’

‘What happened to the officiant?’

‘Her daughter had her baby early,’ Aiden replied.

‘And she’ll need the extra help with a premature baby who arrived by emergency C-section,’ Mia added. ‘But she said they’re both doing well. So that’s all good.’

‘Well, I’m glad it’s worked out well for them.’ Katie spoke from between gritted teeth. ‘And it’s probably for the best for you, too. Nowhere to get married, but that’s fine, because there’s no one to actually marry you. Which works out nicely because you don’t have a wedding breakfast either.’

‘Or a dress.’ Mia spoke quickly then bit down on another bonbon.

‘I’m sorry. What?’

Uh-oh. Lunar ruffled her feathers before taking off.

‘Chicken!’ Aiden yelled after her.