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35 DAVID

16 Hours Until the Wedding

From the window of their flat, David could see Rod’s pub at the bottom of the hill. By sheer luck, his own shop was okay. It was complete chance. He wondered if there was anything he could do for the pub, but everything had been completely ruined by the water. Would it be appropriate to set up a fundraiser? He thought about posting in Work with Pride.

‘Stop thinking about Rod,’ Mark said. ‘You can’t solve that too.’

‘It’s times like this I wish I was a superhero,’ David said, sitting back down at the kitchen table.

‘You’re not though,’ Mark said, irritably. ‘Now, where were we?’

The kitchen table had become a planning station. David had found a comically large notebook downstairs, some kind of sketch pad, on which they were writing out all the things they knew of the wedding and everything that needed to be sorted, fixed or arranged. The time was nine-thirty but David was sure they could do it. Nearly everything that had been planned had gone through him so he knew they wouldn’t need to trouble the happy couple in the final days, and it worked now to be able to get in touch with everybody with just hours to go.

A tiny and, he knew, overly optimistic side of him thought that perhaps they could do it all by midnight and still get a good night’s sleep. This was about making Meg and Hannah’s dreams happen, and David knew he would pull an all-nighter if he had to. He, Mark, Gus and Meg’s friend Ailie were sat around the table, mismatched mugs in front of them, all equally bedding in for the long haul.

‘So, the first bank of things are done,’ David said. ‘Check! Tick! Well done, everyone. Now, let’s move on to the more … difficult ones.’

There had been a few things that were easy to sort or would stay largely the same; they had called Caleb the celebrant to make sure he knew he’d be heading somewhere else, but his job remained unchanged. Ramon’s truck – Gus had called him, and David had heard him call him ‘babe’ – would be fine, and he should continue any preparations he had planned for. On the phone, Ramon had mentioned a friend who had a mobile drinks van, who could come wherever they needed, so they had booked that in too. Martha’s sound equipment was at her home, so all was fine for music, and Angie had said she could make batches of cupcakes with a simple design on. It wouldn’t be a wedding cake, she said, and she seemed a little miffed that the cake she had dropped off just that morning had been soaked through, but in the end the drama of it was too appealing and she agreed to work all night.

David had tried not to let other people’s comments stress them out so every call had been as brief and to-the-point as he could manage. It was only the call to Angie that had gone over ten minutes.

‘There is the table plan to think of,’ Ailie said. She was wearing pink dungarees with a pocket in the front and he had felt comforted by her sense of practicality when she had arrived to help. At least her illustrations would be fine as she had the supplies with her. ‘I know they’re being very casual but there was a clear plan for seating. Wherever we go with, all the tables will be different …’

‘Let’s leave that for now,’ David said. ‘Until we have the venue, let’s not think about it. Any luck on places?’

They didn’t yet have a location, but they would update everybody on that when or if they had one. When they had one, David kept reminding himself. They had all been calling venues or anywhere at all that might take a wedding. Everywhere was fully booked. There was nowhere willing to cancel their usual table reservations or already-ordered food for a last-minute wedding. People seemed confused by the request.

‘Nothing,’ Mark said. ‘Sorry.’

‘The best thing I have is a Chinese takeaway that would give us until seven o’clock, but I don’t think that’s any use.’

‘I thought of Pink Punters,’ David said. ‘They’ve had flooding too though, and they have a special night on tomorrow night that they’ve already sold tickets for, if they can even open.’

‘Do you have any more favours you can pull, David?’ Ailie asked him. ‘Meg said you knew everybody. Is there anywhere we’ve not tried yet?’

‘I’ll keep thinking,’ David said. ‘Angie’s bakery is out; she has classes in tomorrow morning and she’d lose money and we can’t do that.’

‘The other pub still have that event on?’ Gus said.

‘As far as I know.’

‘Shall we get some other bits done?’ Mark said. ‘Time’s ticking.’

‘Okay,’ David said. ‘Oh and Matty’s still fine to do photography so that’s not a problem at least. I text him.’

‘What about décor?’ Mark said. ‘Everything down there was ruined.’

‘We still have all the flowers we planned,’ David said. ‘They’re downstairs.’

‘Will you need more things?’ Ailie said.

‘What about the youth group?’ Mark said, sitting up suddenly. ‘They all loved the illustration class. What about if they put some things together? You’ve got paint and the back room downstairs, where they can make things.’

‘That’s actually a good idea,’ David said. ‘It’s a Saturday night; they’ll all be up. Will you call Benji?’

He took the Sharpie and ticked another bullet point off the list.

‘What about the wedding dress?’ Ailie said. ‘That’s a big one.’

‘And she only really liked that one, right?’ Gus said. ‘In the shop?’

‘It was so stupid of me, when I went to remove her mum’s one I should have just brought hers too.’

Ailie sighed. ‘The dress will be the thing to set her off tomorrow if that’s wrong.’

‘She did the same with prom,’ Gus added.

‘Hey, what happened to us all staying positive?’ Mark said. ‘David, get the good biscuits out. I was saving them for eleven but I think we need them now. Why don’t you call Susan, and see what she can do? Maybe they stock duplicates. Will someone call Campbell Park? It’s not a hundred per cent going to be sunny but maybe we need to start thinking about outside venues.’

‘Gotcha,’ Gus said.

David walked off into the bedroom for a moment of peace. Could they do this? There was so much left to do.

‘Yes, hello, Susan,’ he said. ‘It’s David Fenton. I called earlier … Right so, you’ll never guess what’s happened …’

An hour later, the notepad was now full of words, criss-crossing and written over and over each other. More things had been confirmed, and David was doing an okay job at keeping people on track, but he knew the question of the venue kept rearing its head and was unavoidable. Meg and Hannah’s flat was too small, as was theirs. Neither had a garden.

‘Do you think her parents would open up their house and garden?’ Mark said. ‘Hannah told me where they live. Those houses there aren’t tiny, not for the number of guests we have coming.’

‘I just don’t think we should meddle,’ Ailie said. ‘It sounds like it’s still a mess.’

‘I agree,’ David said. ‘Let’s leave them to decide if they’re coming.’

‘Any other luck on venues?’ Gus said.

‘I think I’ve called every pub in the county,’ Ailie said. ‘Nearly every single one is playing the rugby and won’t move it.’

‘How boring,’ Gus said. ‘Maybe it’s camp to have it in a manly pub while the rugby’s on?’

‘Do you want to go to a manly pub?’ Mark said.

‘Not really.’

‘Are there any other places on this high street we could have it?’ Ailie asked.

‘Everywhere’s too specialized,’ David said. ‘The hairdresser’s has those sinks in the way, the bridal shop is too small, the supermarkets can’t move their aisles, not that they would …’

‘What about downstairs?’ Mark said. He put both his hands out on the table. ‘Oh my God. How have we not thought of that at all? David, you don’t mind being closed for a day do you?’

‘Of course I don’t.’ He did, really, or he should, but not for this occasion.

‘Okay,’ Mark said. ‘Well that’s it then?’

‘I didn’t even think of the shop because … well that big table can’t actually move out of the room, and it’s all dirty, it’s not exactly the place for a lovely white dress. And it’s small. What are they going to do, sit on the counter?’

‘Well firstly there might not even be a lovely white dress … Second of all, I just checked your weather app,’ Mark said. ‘It’s saying now it will actually be dry all day. Sunny, even. People could sit outside too, and if we have Martha’s sound system, they’ll be able to hear on the microphones.’

He saw Gus and Ailie looking up at the clock surreptitiously.

‘I just … I wanted them to have it somewhere special.’

‘Lilies is special, David,’ Gus said.

‘I think we might be out of time,’ Mark said. ‘This is a really good option but it’s also kind of the only one we have. We can make it special. We have time to do that, if we agree now that it’s there.’

‘It’s too late to cancel the orders for tomorrow though,’ David said. ‘So they’ll all arrive and be in there too.’

‘What if they become part of the décor?’ Gus said. ‘The flowers spill out into the street, so it all feels like one space, even if some people are inside and some are outside.’

‘If it’s half outside,’ Ailie said, ‘you’ll need loads more décor.’

‘Benji’s messaged me,’ Mark said. ‘They’re all coming in five minutes to make some decorations downstairs, and they say they can do the morning as well. Jacques said he can come wherever, so he can supervise?’

‘It sounds like it’s happening,’ David said. ‘Whether we like it or not.’

‘I think we should get food in,’ Mark said, standing up to get his keys. ‘Keep everybody going for a couple of hours. I’ll go see what’s open.’

‘The shop is a mess,’ David said. ‘We’ll need to clean it too. I can’t ask the kids to do that.’

‘We’ve got four of us here,’ Gus said. ‘Ramon could come too. I could text him.’

‘Good idea,’ Mark said, patting him on the back. ‘I’m sure Carl and Matty would come too.’

‘Do we need to tell everyone then?’ David said. ‘Do we even have everybody’s contacts?’

‘I think let’s just put a sign on the pub in the morning, then it’s just a short walk,’ Mark said. ‘We don’t want everyone texting Meg and Hannah now and freaking them out. As far as the guests know, everything’s happening tomorrow as planned.’

‘Okay,’ David said. ‘Then let’s go downstairs I guess.’

At the doors to the flower shop, five or six of the youth club including Benji and Fred had already arrived.

‘Thank you so much for coming,’ David said. ‘It’s very good of you to give up your Saturday night.’

‘Mark said there’d be beers,’ Fred said. ‘On the text.’

‘I’m sure he didn’t say that, but nice try.’

‘Is Meg okay?’ Benji asked.

‘I think so,’ David said. He checked his watch – ten minutes to eleven.

‘She should be sleeping. I’ve told her to leave it all to us and we’ll sort it.’

‘Wow, scary,’ Benji replied.

‘Not scary!’ David said. ‘It’ll be fine. I can’t believe all your parents let you out.’

‘Well mine like you two, and they heard about Meg and Hannah’s wedding, and they said they didn’t mind,’ Fred said.

‘My dad was out anyway, so I was at Fred’s,’ Benji said.

A couple more kids arrived and David let them all into the shop, showing them where the cardboard and paints were. They all got started, excitedly talking about what they were going to paint and, rather than try to manage the situation, David let it pass over him. It would sort itself out. Whatever they could do would help. He noticed Benji was filming everything.

‘Do we need all of this on camera?’ he asked him.

‘It’s in case you need it,’ Benji said. ‘I was filming at the pub too … I don’t know, feels like a big moment. You want footage so you can show how you managed to make it all right in the end.’

‘Okay,’ David said. He didn’t feel like it was beneficial to show anybody how gross the flooded pub floor looked, nor what a disaster Meg’s wedding had turned into, but Mark always said you had to pick your battles with Benji, and this felt like one of those times.

‘Anyway, in you go,’ David said. ‘Hopefully it won’t take long. Benji, can I chat to you for a minute?’

‘Yeah?’

‘So, I just wanted to say …’ They were standing outside the shop and he wanted to make sure Benji heard him, without him feeling like he’d been singled out again. ‘Sorry for treating you like a child the other day in the shop. I didn’t realize you’d left and I’d hate for you to feel unwelcome. I should have let you into that conversation with Hannah.’

‘That’s okay.’

‘Well it’s not really,’ David said. ‘You are still young but you’re sixteen and you deserve more respect, same as when I told Meg you’d been on that date. Anyway, I wanted to say that and that what you’ve done with the shop’s online presence is amazing. I’m not going to be able to pay you – I don’t have the cash, so it might have to stop soon – but I think you’ve done wonders.’

‘Why do I have to stop?’

Benji was looking at him, completely confused.

‘Well, it seems unfair to me,’ David explained.

‘Do you get paid for helping with the youth club?’

‘No, I don’t.’

‘Then how is this different?’ Benji said.

David stared at him blankly.

‘You’re doing me a favour, giving me stuff to put on my CV and that. Let me keep doing it? Please?’

David peered into the shop and saw Ailie and Jacques directing the kids with what he knew must be an incredible vision for what they wanted. She was taping huge boards together and had found few wooden pallets that he could see she was imagining becoming something else. Jacques was holding a giant love-heart neon sign.

‘Okay, Benji, we’ll carry on for now. Why don’t you post about tomorrow so people know the shop’s closed? It would be great, actually, if you could tell the shops either side of us what’s happening and that there might be noise and disturbance in the street. And maybe tell people nearby – you could door-knock, or you could get some of the local news pages to post? I’ll tell everyone from Work with Pride.’

‘Okay,’ Benji said walking back into the shop. He turned and shouted: ‘But only if I get a beer!’

Mark arrived at the shop with the fish and chips he’d picked up from down the road – that beautiful forty-two-second journey – and he kissed David softly on the cheek as he passed. The night was fresh with the falling of the rain and now the clouds had fallen, you could see perfectly through the night and up to the stars.

David stood, indulging himself, just for a moment. The stars always made him think of his parents. Not that he thought they were up there or anything like that, but that those stars were there long before his parents were born, and would be there long after him or anyone he knew. The lights on the other side of the street made a line of yellow down to the bottom of the hill. There was the sound of cars in the distance, people heading off somewhere, or returning home to loved ones, and David could feel the chill of the night in his nostrils. Maybe it was time for another coffee. There was no telling how long this would take, and if this was going to be the shop’s last hurrah, he wanted it to be something incredibly special.

Life could still be really exciting, it turned out. Even in your mid-fifties.