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“Stop pulling my leg,” Caz joked, but she didn’t laugh. There was too much truth in those words. And Grace’s face still didn’t read like she was about to burst into laughter and shout,“Gotcha!”

“I’m deadly serious,” Grace said, holding Caz captive with her eyes and the same steely determination she’d often seen in her best friend’s stare. “Did you, or did you not, say that was the last Christmas you were spending trying to date?”

Caz fidgeted in her seat. “Yeah, because it’s just nutters, kids, and more nutters on the prowl for hook-ups.”

“Exactly. Whereas, you know what you’re getting with me.” She nodded, sure of everything she’d just said. “Stable. Steady. I’ve got a good job. We laugh so much. And I already know all your secrets.”

Caz sat back and thought about it. Grace wasn’t one to suggest something she wasn’t serious about. And she wasn’t wrong; they were happiest when it was just them. And romance was a big fat failure for them both thus far—but a baby?

Putting her cup down again, Caz leaned back in her seat. “Alright, hypothetically, let’s say I agreed to this harebrained idea. How are you seeing it working?”

Grace smiled in the way that said she knew she might be winning.

“Well, obviously, we’d buy a house together. Big enough so we both had our own bedrooms, and then we’d just be a family like any other couple raising children.”

“Just like that? No rules? No boundaries?” Caz picked up her mug again. Her drink was becoming a yo-yo in this conversation. “How would we work out bills? And what if you met someone and wanted to be with them? What about me and the child?”

“I’m not going to meet anyone,” Grace said adamantly. “If we do this, I’ll marry you and you’ll be the official parent to said child.”

“Fucking hell, Grace, marry? And never have sex again in my life?”

“You won’t be having sex anyway. You’re sworn off of dating.” And then Grace shrugged nonchalantly. “We could have sex, or you could find someone to—”

“Woah, what? Say that again, more slowly so you can hear yourself talking utter nonsense.”

“I said, we could—”

Caz held up a hand. “I can’t have this conversation, Grace, it’s madness.”

“Is it, though? When you really think about it?” Grace leaned forward. “Between us, we earn a good wage. We would have the perfect house, a nice car, holidays abroad every year, and the family we both want.” She sat back again. “We’d have each other.”

“We already have each other.”

Grace sighed. “So, what I’m not hearing, is a ‘no’.”

“No,” Caz said firmly, but something in the back of her mind meant she had reason to pause. “No, you’re not hearing a ‘no’.”

Chapter Two

June 2025

“You may kiss…the bride,” the vicar said with a smile.

Caz turned to Grace, and like they’d discussed and planned, and even practiced, she took Grace’s face in her hands and planted one on her lips. Nothing too intimate, just a longer-than-usual peck, really, but the oohs and ahhs were perfectly attuned with the sound of cameras clicking and the flashes bursting into light around them, which, of course, made them smile.

“Alright?” Caz asked when Grace opened her eyes.

“Yeah.” She beamed. “Ready to put on a show?”

“I am, Mrs…” Caz laughed and shook her head. “We’ll figure it out.”

The organ began again with the familiar MendelssohnWedding Marchplaying them out, walking hand in hand as guests continued to take photos and stop them with words of congratulations, how beautiful they looked, and how they complimented one another.

It was easy to suspend reality and just go with it.

Outside, under the bright warm sunshine, the photographer moved them one way and another as he snapped all the group shots.

Then it was just them and the photographer. Everyone else had gone on ahead to the hotel where the reception would be held.