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41 DAVID

It was hard to move amongst the crowd, and even crossing to the other side of the road seemed to take twenty minutes. Everybody was trying to clear a space, led by Ailie and Martha directing people with the microphone. Rather than being an MC, Martha had become some kind of crowd control, telling people about cars parked in the wrong place or lost clothes found on the floor in between the songs.

‘Hi, David,’ Meg said as he joined her group of friends. ‘Was the news thing okay?’

‘I was made for the cameras,’ David joked, flicking non-existent hair behind his ear. It had been okay. He thought he’d done well, given how out of his comfort zone the whole thing was. He’d talked about the shop and the street and what it was like to live and work here. He’d followed Benji’s lead, mentioning the subscriptions and talked about his engagement to Mark while the footage captured earlier had played over the top of the segment.

‘I think they want to talk to me in a minute,’ Meg said. ‘Apparently they’re re-packaging it for the morning show as well.’

‘At least you don’t have to speak live!’

‘But first,’ Martha’s voice boomed from the speakers, which seemed to be getting louder, ‘can I invite you all to watch the couple’s first dance?’

Soon, Meg was being led by Hannah into the middle of the circle. Martha began to play their first dance song, ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’.

David was now standing next to Meg’s parents watching the couple, and he was deliberately trying not to look to his left. After a while of them dancing, Meg’s arms on Hannah’s shoulders, and staring into each other’s eyes, whispering things the crowd couldn’t hear to each other, Martha invited ‘the newly engaged couple’ to join them. He couldn’t see Mark and was scanning the crowd for him when Ava touched his arm.

‘Congratulations,’ she said.

‘Thank you,’ he said, pausing to say something else before Mark’s hand was in his and, seconds later, he found himself spinning Mark round in front of the crowd.

‘Do the Dirty Dancing routine!’ Salma was shouting.

‘Not with his knees!’ Mark shouted back.

He felt somewhat self-conscious but it felt like the crowd was there to support them rather than just observe, which buoyed him up. He could see out of the corner of his eyes that a lot of the flowers seemed to have been made into flower crowns, giving the entire crowd even more of a festival vibe. Soon, everyone had joined and was dancing together.

‘Do you think our wedding will be like this?’ Mark said into his ear.

‘Well the shop will be a cheap venue,’ David said. ‘We know we can do it.’

‘Stress-free, right?’ Mark said.

‘Maybe we can put the extra time into choreographing the dance?’

‘What are you saying about my dancing?’ Mark said, breaking off from David to try out a new move.

After a couple of songs, swapping partners with Hannah and Meg, David genuinely felt his knees needing a rest.

‘Do you want a drink?’ he asked Mark.

‘Espresso martini?’ Mark said, pointing at the drinks bar, which seemed to have a rather extensive cocktail range for what was essentially a camper van.

‘That’s what I was thinking,’ he said. I’ve barely had a coffee today.’ He took Mark’s hand in his, leading his fiancé through the crowd. He looked up to see, faintly, what looked like a rainbow.

‘Surely not.’

‘It can’t be,’ Mark said. ‘That’s too much – surely not.’

‘I think it is,’ he said, and there were gasps from the crowd as people realized, and soon, the music was playing to a crowd of people, nobody talking, all looking up to the sky.

One of the businesses, was it Chilli Con Barney or Anneka’s Rice, he wasn’t sure which, had laid out café-style chairs and tables, and David and Mark now sat with Carl and Matty as the dancing continued. The sun was still up in the sky and they were in that peculiar part of a wedding where nobody knew what time it was. The crowd, initially more of an older crowd out for the day, was replaced by the festival atmosphere led by groups of teens and people in their twenties enjoying the last of the sun with a drink or two.

‘Are we tired?’ Carl said. ‘I could do with a lie-down. Did you not think of a lie-down area for the older gays, David?’

‘You’re welcome to take a second upstairs,’ Mark said. ‘But you may become afflicted with what I believe is called FOMO?’

‘Fear of missing out,’ Matty said.

‘Fear of my oldness,’ David added.

‘Very nice,’ Carl said.

‘Make sure you go and get an illustration of yourself from Ailie,’ Matty said. ‘She’s stopping soon.’

‘Yeah we need to,’ Mark replied.

‘Do you think we were ever like that when we were young?’ David said, pointing out the groups of young people around, them dancing in circles. The youth group had formed a circle and people were occasionally entering the middle of the circle to dance.

‘I wasn’t,’ Mark said. ‘Much too shy.’

‘I wouldn’t have had my ears pierced either,’ Carl said. ‘I’d never have been allowed.’

‘I wouldn’t have worn these clothes,’ Matty said. ‘Dad would never have let me out the house.’ He got up to continue taking photos of the conga line that had now started down the street.

David sighed, whether with sadness or resignation. You couldn’t change the past, Mark always said, only the present. You couldn’t even control the future either; nothing was guaranteed.

‘They’re all so …’ David said. ‘I don’t know, they’re still teenagers and awkward and acting in ways they’ll be mortified about in years to come, but not in the same way. They’ve all got a sense of self. I don’t think we had that.’

He looked out at the group who seemed to feel completely unwatched, or perhaps not caring. He noticed Benji dancing with Fred. Their heads were getting closer and they kissed quickly. It was the first time, it seemed, that others in the group knew about it too. David hadn’t even made the connection. A couple of the others made noises at them, but they smiled and shoved them away. Benji looked instantly lighter, a secret unburdened.

The rest of the group, David observed, which included others he hadn’t seen before who must have been from the school, were dancing in pairs, holding each other, opposite and same-sex pairs. Rod’s sons were dancing with the group. Rarely was David able to observe life like this. Nobody else was watching, and nobody else cared. Looking left and right, he realized it was only the four of them who were watching, contemplatively.

‘We can’t let them have all the fun,’ he said. ‘Shall we go and dance?’

Charli XCX made way for the wedding classics of ABBA, and soon they were again on their feet, lining up and entering a circle with Angie and Martha, who had left Salma in charge of the decks. She kept having to go back to tell her to stop playing Dua Lipa deep cuts.

David’s knees were hurting, but he didn’t want to stop this moment, so he stayed in the circle dancing till his knees, calves and feet couldn’t take it anymore. They all cheered as Ramon, finally done serving food, walked into the circle holding Gus’s hand, and he realized he had more energy in him yet.