Free Married by Christmas by Scarlett Bailey

rebounded off her nose.
    ‘What?’ Tom followed. ‘What do you mean, Anna?’
    ‘I mean, the flight’s booked, the visa’s sorted, I’m about to pack my bag. I’m going to New York to try and sort this mess out and make sure we get married by Christmas, because I’m not ready to let this go, Tom. I can’t stop trying until I know there is no hope left. I just can’t. I’m not that sort of person. Now, Liv’s coming with me to the airport, so you’d better go. I’ll let you know when I have any news.’
    ‘Wait,’ Tom said, struggling to keep up with the rapid turn of events. ‘You’ve booked a flight, already?’
    ‘I want to marry you, Tom,’ Anna said. ‘I want to marry you this Christmas. And I haven’t given up hope yet.’
    ‘Then, right, well, book me a flight too, we’ll go together,’ Tom said, realising far too late that he had done and said much, much less than Anna had expected from him.
    ‘The flight’s full now, it’s too late,’ Anna said. ‘Look, go home. Stick to your schedule for the wedding, help Liv with the final details. Let me at least try and get this sorted out.’
    ‘But, Anna,’ Tom said, ‘it should be me doing this.’
    ‘I know,’ Anna said sadly. ‘It should be. But it isn’t, is it?’
    ‘Do you think you’re doing the right thing?’ Liv said, watching Anna make her final arrangements. Tom had only been there for a total of ten minutes but somehow it felt like everything had changed, and if it felt like that for her what must Anna be feeling like?
    ‘Of course I am,’ Anna said. ‘If I don’t do this, if I don’t at least try and sort it all … I’m not the sort of person to give up because something is a bit difficult, am I? If I were then I would never have made it this far.’
    ‘I know, but the way he looked when he left. Like …’ Liv tried to put into words the look on Tom’s face, but she couldn’t find the right ones and she couldn’t help worrying that in her determination to fix things, no matter what, Anna had inadvertently broken what she and Tom had. Perhaps she had gone too far this time, even for Tom? But still, he hadn’t tried to stop her, he hadn’t said, ‘If you do this it’s over between us.’ He’d just … looked bewildered.
    ‘You really need to talk to him some more.’
    ‘I know and I will,’ Anna said. ‘But for now a few hours apart, some time to get our heads straight, is just what we need. I mean we haven’t even talked about why he never mentioned being married.’
    ‘Exactly!’ Liv paused for a second while she examined her motivations for what she was about to say, and decided that she was saying it to be a good friend. ‘Don’t you think you should be talking about whether or not you should be getting married instead of rushing across the Atlantic to try and make it happen? A lot has happened and only a short time before the wedding. Don’t you think you need to talk about why you are finding out about this now, instead … Well, I don’t really know how to describe what you are doing any other way than madness.’
    ‘That’s one opinion,’ Anna said, hurriedly rolling her underwear into neat little saugages which lined up in her case, and then swiftly reorganised them into similar coloured groups, without even giving it any conscious thought. ‘But on the other hand, nothing has happened at all. Nothing that a signature can’t undo straight away.’
    ‘I just wonder if you need to try more to communicate what you really feel,’ Liv tried again, her mother’s advice about leaving Anna and Tom to it ringing reproachfully in her ears.
    ‘I do need to communicate with him, and I will,’ Anna said. ‘Which is where you come in, because while I’m not here you have to be me. Once I know where I’m staying, I’m going to need that awful Martha woman to FedEx me the papers, and you are going to have to make sure the wedding stays on track. It’s lucky really that we are mostly the same