Love Redesigned (22 page)

‘It’ was a wedding invitation. Another bloody wedding invitation. Ten years ago, Jessie had loved going to weddings. They were fun occasions to get dressed up, see some friends, meet some new people and have a good time. Now, Jessie was jaded by them. Each wedding she went to was just a glaring reminder of the widening gap between Jessie and her circle of friends. The gap had been imperceptible at first, but now it was definitely noticeable. People were moving on, coupling up, and subsequently sticking to their own kind: other couples. The result: a lonely Jessie. Her friends probably weren’t doing it deliberately, but she felt increasingly left out, and the number of dinner and social invitations she received was definitely on the decline. At least, she
hoped
they weren’t doing it deliberately.

The jaded feeling was exacerbated by the fact that she harboured some doubts about the couple whose matrimonial bliss she’d been invited to attend. The couple in question consisted of Charlie’s best friend, Nick Donaldson, and one of Jessie’s good friends, Natalie McAllister. They looked like a great couple on paper, but the problem was that Nick was a total sleazebag. Before he met Natalie, Nick was a notorious womaniser. Notorious in capital letters. Unfortunately, Natalie was too besotted with the bugger to see him for what he really was. She believed she’d tamed any undesirable tendencies in the beast and that was it. They were meant to be together forever.

It didn’t help that Jessie felt a tad responsible for introducing them. It had been Jessie who’d suggested—well, practically begged—Natalie to join her for after-work drinks rather than go on their planned late-night shopping trip. When Jessie had heard Charlie was going for drinks, she’d been desperate to go as well, in yet another feeble attempt to catch his eye outside of the office arena. Natalie had been a perennial pal, and without too much persuasion had agreed to be her wing girl for the night. Once in the pub, Nick (probably playing Charlie’s wing man) and Natalie had caught each other’s eyes and that was that. Smitten. The whole shebang. Well, that’s how it was for Natalie, anyway, and Jessie supposed he seemed pretty keen too—when she was nearby. Trouble was, when she wasn’t superglued to his side, he had a roving eye—and a crass mouth to boot when it came to talking about women.

Apart from that, they made a perfectly decent couple, and Jessie hoped it would work out. She didn’t
think
it would, but she hoped it anyway. There was no way Natalie would have listened to anything negative Jessie or anyone else had to say about Nick, so Jessie kept her true feelings to herself to keep her friendship with Natalie alive.

No, Jessie wasn’t really looking forward to these impending nuptials. On the plus side, she would get to see more of the lovely Charlie Davenport outside of work, and hopefully this wedding might be the day he’d finally see her as something more than just a colleague. It was worth a shot, Jessie thought to herself as she slowly opened the wedding invitation. After all, he
had
said he’d ‘see her there’.

Jack was back. Back in London. Back to the city and the people who’d made him want to run away seven years ago. Disappointingly, not much had changed. A new building here, an attempt at a skyscraper there. London was practically the same. Nothing like the constantly evolving massive metropolis of Shanghai he’d just returned from. Why he was back, he wasn’t too sure. But Nick’s wedding had come at an appropriate time for him to make an appearance. Plus, he was curious. Seven years in China without a sniff of Blighty was a long time.

‘Yes,’ he kept telling himself as he looked in the mirror, knotting his tie.

‘Time for a visit. Maybe not forever, but for a while anyway,’ he said, trying hard to convince the image staring back at him.

It was like some string that he thought he’d severed long ago had pulled him back for this stupid wedding. Jack hated weddings with a passion, and for the life of him he couldn’t understand why any man would want to tie himself down to one person. The concept of monogamy for a length of time longer than a few weeks was simply beyond him.

But someone had to keep an eye on his womanising and roguish older brother. At least that’s what he kept telling himself. In reality, he knew he was probably no better than Charlie when it came to women. Although no one in the family had actually spelled it out to him plainly, he had inferred from what
hadn’t
been said about his brother that Charlie was up to no good and close to breaking point. Again.

Charlie’s problem was that he did everything by extremes. Whether it be women, drugs, alcohol, gambling or even work, Charlie had done it all and overdone it all. Jack hoped that seeing his brother in a social public environment—such as, say, a wedding—would guarantee against Charlie going ballistic. Charlie hated being called out on his reckless behaviour, and had been known to put his foot through the odd door on occasion, or even take his frustrations out on the dog. Hopefully there wouldn’t be a dog at the wedding.

Charlie especially hated being lectured by his younger brother, who could do no wrong. Which was true, and Jack knew it. Of the two boys, Jack had been his mother’s baby, and both her sons knew it. When Jack had gone off the rails, Mummy had been there to pick up the pieces, and to be a pillar of strength and support. When Charlie had gone off the rails, he’d been shipped off to his grandfather for what his mother had referred to as
tough love
.

To his credit, Charlie had never treated Jack badly because of this overt favouritism, but there was an unspoken rivalry between them which prevented them from ever becoming really close. Maybe Jack’s return to England would give them an opportunity to mend old wounds, to get to know each other again. Jack hoped so. Maybe it was a yearning to repair those familial ties that had brought Jack back. But whatever the reason, he had to get through this blasted wedding and try and start afresh with Charlie. That was the order of the day; anything else would have to wait.