Page 102 of Outlier

I blinked at her. “I-I don’t understand.”

I knew Ollie was Felix’s best man, and Mike was doubling up as his other best man and walking Lucy down the aisle. I wasn’t sure where I fit in.

“Emily, Lottie, Claire, Hayley, Florrie andyouare my bridesmaids,” Lucy said patiently. “So, you need to get up off your butt and come stand at the front of the church. You agreed to it at the hen party. Remember?”

I blinked at her.

Lucy’s hen party had been the first time I’d really drank to excess. But I’d been sad about the carer thing and confusedabout Mike after Margot’s revelation—and, for the first time, I’d felt like I could trust the people around me enough to lose some control.

I had a vague memory of Ollie, Felix and Mike turning up towards the end, despite the fact it was meant to be just girls. But I wasn’t sure what exactly happened after that. All I knew was that I woke up in Buckingham Manor the next morning with a very sore head.

And I didn’t actually remember agreeing to be a bridesmaid, which was very disconcerting, because I always had almost perfect recall of everything I experienced. But, then again, I never usually drank that many shots of tequila.

What else didn’t I remember?

“Are you sure?” I asked, then lowered my voice to a whisper so that the others couldn’t hear me. “You don’t have to ask me.”

Lucy was frowning at me. “Why do you think I wouldn’t want to have you as a bridesmaid? You’re one of my best friends!”

I blinked at her. “I am?”

“Wow,” Lucy said. “Vics, I’m tryingreallyhard not to take offence here. But yes, I think you’re one of my best friends.”

“Oh…”

“So you need to come up to the front of the church.”

I nodded and then followed her up to where everyone else was standing.

When the vicar started going through the ceremony and where we’d be positioned, I pulled my phone out and put it on the altar, switching it to record.

“Vics?” Lottie asked softly in my ear. “What are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m recording the information so that I can reference it later, and run through it in my mind with the audio queue. I’ll be able to recall the words correctly without the recording, but there may be nuances I miss, which I can ask Abdul to interpret when I play it for him. I’ll probably make a PowerPoint at home.”

“Why?”

I shrugged. “I don’t want to get overwhelmed on the day. If I know what to expect, I won’t be startled. I don’t want to embarrass Lucy and Felix.”

“Okay, honey,” she said softly, giving my hand a very quick squeeze, which wasn’t one of our signals—I had come to understand it was how Lottie communicated affection. Why me recording a vicar speaking should inspire her to feel affectionate towards me was a mystery. But then, there were often aspects of human behaviour that I didn’t understand.

“It’s not an exam, hun,” said Lucy, frowning over at me. “You don’t have to stress out about it, okay?”

I shifted on my feet, feeling uncomfortable with everyone’s attention on me. I was ruining this already. “I know… I just?—”

“Leave her be,” snapped Mike. “Let’s get on with this horse-and-pony show.”

Lucy glowered at her brother, her hands going to her hips. “This is my wedding, you big oaf. Not a horse-and-pony-show.”

Mike rolled his eyes as Hayley said quietly, “Can we have ponies?”

“Oh yes!” shouted Florrie. “Legolas would make a great ring bearer!”

“That pony is not becoming a part of my wedding,” Felix said through gritted teeth, and honestly, I felt the man’s pain. He’d taken a lot of abuse from the Mayweather animals during his courtship of Lucy.

When I looked at Mike, he gave me a small smile and a wink.

We weren’t even together anymore, and he was still looking after me. He’d taken the focus away from me when he could see I was uncomfortable, and he did it without even thinking.