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31 DAVID

David extricated himself from the hug. He didn’t want to. He wanted to hold Meg until it was all okay and tell her this was the end of her struggles, but he was just happy for now they had found her and the rest could wait. Gus and Ramon were suddenly there too, and they moved forward to hug Meg after him.

‘You’re okay,’ Gus said to her. ‘We’ve got you.’

‘I don’t know if I can do this,’ Meg said, leaning against a railing at the side of the hut, looking at them all. ‘Sorry for running away. I don’t know what I was thinking but …’

David couldn’t figure out if Meg didn’t feel anything or if she had so many feelings, she was having trouble articulating them all at once.

‘I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if I need my parents there, or I need them not there,’ Meg said. ‘That sounds so selfish – you’ve all literally run through the rain – it’s just … you only get to do it once. I don’t know.’

David, too, didn’t know what to say, but looking around the group slowly, it seemed everybody had turned their heads towards him, as if he knew how to solve the problem.

‘Family, Meg, it … it can mean loads of things,’ he said, taking a step towards her. He didn’t know where this was going, but he knew this was a crisis, and he knew he wanted to help. ‘I don’t have parents, at one point through choice, and now I couldn’t if I wanted to … but that doesn’t mean I don’t deserve love, or anything else I want to do. Mark is my family.’

‘I know,’ Meg said.

‘So your parents are one part of the puzzle,’ he continued. ‘As a gay person, chosen family is everything. You’ve not relied on your parents in the same way … You want them involved, but look at the number of people here who are willing to help you. You’ve more than outnumbered the two of them. Think of everyone else getting everything ready over the next few days: travelling, getting their outfits, staying nearby. Think of how Hannah has supported you through all of this. You’ve got half the town excited about the wedding, people you don’t even know who ask me every week about you. That doesn’t compare to your two parents, but it makes a dent, you know. Not everybody could do that, and it’s because you’re brilliant, Meg. You’re warm and funny and as much as you’re lucky to have Hannah, she’s lucky to have you too.’

‘He’s right,’ Hannah said, holding her hand. ‘He always is.’

‘Your wedding will be incredible,’ he said. ‘We’re all looking forward to it. It’s basically the highlight of my summer. You can’t control other people, and if your parents are going to be like that, perhaps they’ve shown you enough times who they are, and you can’t do anything else. Not now. But you can’t put your life on hold for them either. You’re standing up for yourself and Hannah, and maybe that’s your most important family, now. It’s hard to accept that, but I did it.

‘I never thought my parents would get on board … When they died, I hadn’t spoken to them since being a kid, and I will always wonder what might have happened differently, if we’d had more time, if we’d talked more.’ David scratched his head. ‘It’s worth talking to them, maybe, in a less stressful scenario, but then make your peace. When I first met you, I said there’s so much more to life than what your parents want for you. Live for you, not them.’

Mark smiled at him.

‘Life is so hard,’ David continued. ‘You need to do whatever’s best for you to get you through all the days you have ahead of you, not behind you.’

‘Thanks, David.’

‘You’re welcome,’ he said. ‘I should add as a stand-in parent that if you run away ever again, you’ll be grounded.’

He pointed to Mark. ‘Your other dad is incredibly disappointed too.’

Meg laughed, wiping tears from her eyes.

‘Shall we all go home?’ Mark said. ‘I could do with a cup of tea and some biscuits.’

‘Yes please,’ Meg said, shivering. ‘I’m so cold.’

Ramon passed her a blanket from his van.

‘We can regroup tomorrow, see what you want us to do.’

‘Thanks, David,’ Meg said.

‘Thanks, David,’ Hannah said.

Out of some sense of duty, Mark, Gus and Ramon thanked David too.

‘Ramon, can you drive Gus home?’ David said. ‘I’ve got space for us four, but no more.’

‘Yeah, sure.’

Those two ran out into the now sideways rain, and David unlocked the van, telling Meg and Hannah to go in and get the heating on.

‘Good chat there,’ Mark said.

‘I made that up on the spot,’ David said.

‘You keep putting Ramon and Gus together too … You’ve like the Cupid of Milton Keynes.’

David watched from the rear-view mirror, where he could just about see Ramon and Gus smiling and laughing, Ramon helping Gus with his seatbelt, then playing with the blanket Meg had given back to them.

‘It’s not all about Meg, you know,’ David said, winking at Mark. ‘You don’t have to be married to be in love.’

In the car, everybody was too uncomfortably wet and tired to speak. Meg, noticeably, seemed deep in thought, until suddenly she grabbed the radio and turned it down, till the traffic announcer’s voice faded to nothing.

‘I’ve made a decision,’ she said. ‘Tomorrow, I just need a day to relax. No anything from anyone. I’m going to have a lie-in, turn my phone off, all of that. Digital detox, or whatever they call it. Saturday, Hannah, let’s go to my parents, and I’ll tell them properly and calmly how upsetting this all is. I’ll ask them to come on my terms, but if they don’t, they don’t. We’ve planned such a special day and I deserve to have it, and so do you.’ She began to tear up, and she and Hannah reached for each other’s hands. ‘So it’ll go ahead.’

Mark cheered, and it echoed around the van, and he looked like he regretted it, reading the room wrong, but soon they were all cheering, and the mood was back to what it had been on the hen night. David turned the radio back on and turned up the music.

‘Going to the chapel!’ Mark began to sing to the rhythm of the song.

‘Thanks for your speech back there,’ Meg said to David. ‘That was amazing.’

‘If you want me to do one on the day, I will,’ he said. ‘And even if you don’t, after a gin or two, maybe I’ll try.’

‘You’ve done more than enough,’ Meg said. ‘Above and beyond. I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you.’

David thought about wanting advice on him and Mark’s situation, and the struggle with the flower shop, and how he would never get to go and tell his parents how he felt, but none of that was Meg’s issue to solve, and certainly not today.

‘Just have the best day in the world,’ he said, turning onto the high street. ‘For me.’