Page 18

Chapter Three

“Tom is acting weird.”

“How can you tell?” Diana asks as we lean against a post, watching Tom and Freddy order drinks at the bar.

Even from this distance, I can see my boyfriend has a big smile on his face and is listing slightly, like a ship about to go down with all the flags flying. Mind you, I can’t criticise. It’s been an evening of bar-hopping interspersed with touristy things and then more bar-hopping, and I can feel the effects on my own balance.

“I just know,” I say, smiling at her as she leans into me with her head on my shoulder.

We’re back in the Jordaan neighbourhood in a pretty little bar by the canal. Fairy lights are strung haphazardly everywhere, so the wood-panelled rooms glow like jewellery boxes. “Last Christmas” is booming from the speaker, and everyone around us is happy and loud.

Through the window, I can see a little patio belonging to the bar. Arlo and Jack are out there, sitting at a table and cuddling under a blanket.

Diana follows my gaze. “Thank god Jack got rid of that nasty cockgoblin, Steven.”

I snort. “It’s been a long while coming. Jack and Arlo will go very well together. Arlo gives him confidence and loud love, and we all know he’s been head over heels for Jack for ages.”

“I’ve gained the impression on this holiday that Arlo can be head over heels just walking along the street.” I laugh, and she smiles at me. “How’s Tom with them being together?”

I shake my head. “He’s fine now he knows Jack is serious about his brother. If he hadn’t been, Tom would have been distinctly less fine. You know what he’s like.”

“ Very protective.”

I eye my boyfriend. “And yet still odd this holiday. He keeps pausing as though he’s going to say something really important. He did it ten minutes ago.”

Something seems to be amusing her. “And what did he say?”

“He told me that when you die in Amsterdam, you have to be winched out of a window.” I shake my head. “I think he meant if you live in one of the canal houses, the coffin has to come out of the window. Otherwise, Amsterdam would be full of cranes schlepping dead people about.”

Tom picks up a handful of drinks, and catching my gaze, he nods towards where Arlo and Jack are sitting. I grin, and he offers me his crooked smile, which always makes my knees a bit wobbly. It comprises twenty per cent mischief and eighty per cent sweetness, and it’s my kryptonite.

Freddy comes over to us, carrying a tray of drinks.

“How many shots have you bought?” I say. “Freddy, there’s only six of us on this holiday.”

“You’re only young once.”

“And if we lapse into an alcoholic coma, we’ll stay that way.”

Freddy drops a kiss on Diana’s nose. “Alright?”

She twinkles up at him. “Perfect, babe.”

He gives her a wide grin and makes his way outside to join Arlo, Jack, and Tom.

Diana sighs. “I’m going to marry that man.”

I inhale and end up choking on my own spit. “Are you?”

She winks at me. “Eventually. I’m not the type of woman who finds someone as amazing as Freddy and lets him go.”

“I’m so glad you said that. He deserves someone who’ll love him because Freddy is pretty fucking epic.”

“Well, I’m the woman for the job.”

I look out the window at Tom sitting talking to his brother and Jack. He’s waving his arms around, and he has a funny, almost sad look on his face. My heart starts to hammer. Even as I watch, Arlo leans over and hugs his brother.

“Oh my god, what’s wrong with Tom?” I breathe.

“ What ?” Diana looks over. “Oh, he’s fine.”

“What’s going on?”

She hesitates and then gives a graceful shrug. “I’m far too drunk to answer that one. Shall we join them?”

Tom is now banging on the table to emphasise whatever he’s saying. Arlo and Jack are watching him with smiles tugging on their mouths.

“Yes, I think we should,” I say slowly.

Outside, the air is biting, and I can definitely feel the booze affecting me now. My face is hot, and I’m swaying slightly. All around me are twinkling lights, and for a second, I wonder if my vision has gone, but then I realise it’s the Christmas decorations swaying in the winter breeze and the lights from the houses opposite reflecting on the canal.

“You are very right about everything, Arlo,” Tom is saying as we near them.

“About what?” I ask as we get to the table. “What’s Arlo right about?”

Tom stares at me for a long second and then gets ponderously to his feet. He staggers a bit and then steps backwards. “I’m fine,” he says reassuringly.

“Are you sure, Tom? You’re actually shouting,” I say worriedly.

“I am perfect,” he says. He throws his arms out in a gesture I last saw onstage when I made him go and see Macbeth in Stratford. “Or I would be if I had you.” He steps back again.

I stare at him. “You do have me,” I say, unable to keep the confusion out of my voice. What is going on here? My eyes narrow as he takes another step. “Oh, Tom, do be careful. You’re a bit too close to the canal.”

“If I had your hand in—” He leans towards me but then seems to lose his balance. He takes yet another stumbling step back. For a second, he seems to hover, and then he vanishes from sight… And we hear a small splash as he lands in the canal.

“Shit,” Freddy says rather casually for such a catastrophic event.

My heart is hammering so hard that I can’t breathe “Oh, my god! Tom !” I shout loudly, my voice echoing across the canal. “He’s dead.”

“It’s okay,” Jack says immediately.

I ignore him and race towards the edge of the canal, aware of the others following. “Tom?” I shout. “ Tom ?”

“I’m here.”

I sag with relief when I see him standing in the canal. “Oh my god,” I breathe, falling against a tree. “Tom!”

“The water isn’t that deep here,” Jack continues, saying something to Arlo that I can’t hear for the thundering in my ears.

“Tom, come out!” I shout. “You’re soaking wet.” I have visions of him catching pneumonia or getting a terrible waterborne disease, and I can feel myself getting hysterical, which is a novel feeling for someone who’s avoided feelings for so long.

“No,” he proclaims. “I give up.”

“ What ?” My voice is so high it’s screechy, and for a moment, all I can do is panic. “Don’t do it! You’ve got so much to live for.”

Arlo comes to stand next to me, watching Tom with twinkling eyes. “He’s not talking about drowning himself.”

I sag in relief. “Then what is he on about?”

He rolls his eyes. “Please just listen to him, or we’ll be here all night.”

“Thank you, Arlo,” Tom calls from the canal. Even soaking wet with his hair flopping in his face and mud streaking across his nose, he’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. “As I was saying, Bee, I give up. I planned this whole trip thinking I was going to get the perfect moment, but now I know I don’t need it.”

I shake my head. Should I get him a blanket or join him in the water? If he’s going to catch pneumonia, I shall do it with him. “What on earth are you on about?”

“Beethoven Amadeus Bannister, I’m trying to ask you to marry me,” he shouts.

Everything stops. The noise. The wind. Even the stars and moon seem to pause.

I take a shuddering breath, and everything seems to come back to life. “ What ?” I whisper.

The others are all talking excitedly, but I ignore them, focusing all my attention on Tom. My beautiful, wonderful, and chaotically romantic man. Tears fill my eyes.

“Oh my god. Really, Tom?”

He gives me a drunken grin. “Really, really, babe. I love you so much. Will you marry me?”

The noise of a car engine sounds, and we all turn to see a police car pull up next to us. Two officers get out and walk steadily to our side, where they, too, look down at Tom standing there.

“Tom’s going to be arrested,” Arlo says happily.

My mouth twitches. Only a Wright would get arrested during a proposal. Our story will be one of those his family tell all the time, embellishing and adding flourishes, and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of that tradition.

“I think it is time to come out, sir,” one of the policemen says. “It is very cold in there.”

“I’m warmed by the glow of my love,” Tom informs them solemnly, and I can’t help but smile at him. I’m so fucking in love with this remarkable man.

“Well, sir,” the policeman says phlegmatically. “Love is a wonderful thing, but it does not prevent hypothermia.”

Tom shakes his head ponderously. “I can’t come out. Not until my beloved agrees to marry me.”

I blanch. I can’t believe I haven’t fucking answered him. “Oh, Tom,” I shout. “Of course I’ll marry you.”

His smile is brighter and more sparkly than the Christmas lights around us.

It takes three of us to haul Tom out. It’s trickier than it looks, as he’s soaking wet, and no one put convenient steps in their canals. But in the end, he’s out. Before I can embrace him, the policemen step forward, swaddling him in blankets that they’ve retrieved from their car.

“Sit in the car, sir,” one of them says. “You will warm up there.”

I hover anxiously as we walk along. He’s shivering badly now, and his teeth are chattering.

“Are you alright?” I ask as they open the door. We slide in, and Tom gives a big, happy sigh as the heat envelops us. “Tom?”

“I’m fine,” he says, pushing the blanket down and spitting out some fluff from it.

“Are you sure?” I push his hair back, seeing his grey eyes soft, warm, and so happy that my heart skips a beat. My saying yes has made him look like this.

We smile at each other. “You just asked me to marry you,” I finally say after he makes no attempt to break the silence.

His eyes twinkle. “I did, and you said yes.”

I can’t bear to be apart from him anymore. I throw myself into his arms, feeling him hug me tight and kiss my hair. He’s wet and doesn’t smell too good, but he’s more mine now than ever before. “I love you so much,” I say fiercely. Then I press kisses to his face until he laughs.

“I love you too, Bee. You’re everything to me.”

We grin helplessly at each other again.

“We’re getting married,” I say softly. “I can’t believe it, Tom. Was that what you were trying to do all holiday?”

He nods. “It had to be perfect.” A wry look crosses his handsome face. “I had all these wonderful scenarios in my mind. So, obviously, that meant falling in a canal and nearly getting arrested.”

“The best proposal,” I say fiercely. “I wouldn’t have had it any other way, love.”

“Really?” he asks anxiously.

I nod. “The best. And if you do get arrested, I’m going to throw myself into the canal too, so they’ll have to arrest me as well.”

His lip twitches. “You’d do that for me?”

“Tom Wright, I would do anything for you.”

He kisses me, and it’s sweet and soft and just exactly what I need. When he pulls back, I follow his mouth drunkenly for a second and then pout when he doesn’t kiss me again.

“I have something for you,” he says solemnly, reaching into his pocket and producing a wet velvet box.

I put my fingers to my mouth. “Oh, Tom. It’s wonderful.”

He snorts. “Maybe you’d better open it first.”

I nudge him, grinning, and then open the box. A trickle of canal water flows out, and then my mouth falls open at the sight of the ring. I take it out of the box, and it sparkles on my palm — platinum with one diamond in it. There’s something carved into the band. I squint but can’t see what it is in the dull light of the police car. I look up at him, and he smiles.

“I’ll show and tell you everything back at the hotel.”

“So, they’re not arresting you?”

“Doubt it. You sound almost disappointed. Were you looking forward to a life of crime, my love?”

“We’d have been the best spree criminals the world has ever seen,” I say seriously.

He smiles. “There is no one with whom I would like better to plan a criminal enterprise. But shall we go back to the hotel instead? I need a bath.”

“You certainly do,” I say with far too much emphasis, making him burst into laughter.

When I look out of the car, I jerk. “Your mum and dad are here.” I turn back to him. He doesn’t seem surprised. “Did you know?”

He nods. “Sal and Ivy are coming tomorrow too.”

I grin at him. “You pull out all the best stops, Tom Wright.”

His face goes soft. “I did that the Christmas I found you, babe.”

That deserves a kiss, and I fall into it. I’m dimly aware of the police radio going and the laughter of our friends and Tom’s parents. We’ll get out and see them in a minute, but for now, I have all that I want and need in my arms.