Free Married by Christmas by Scarlett Bailey Page A

size, because there’s a final dress fitting that I’ll need you to go to, and you’ll have to take over all the last-minute arrangements for me. Of course I’m a bit taller and bigger in the bust than you, but I’ve thought of that – all you need to do is stand on a book, wear my bra and stuff it with socks, that should work.’
    ‘Anna …’ Liv was seriously considering deadlocking the front door and throwing away the key. ‘I wouldn’t be your friend if I didn’t ask you one last time. Are you sure that you are really prepared to go to the United States of America, population three hundred million and counting, to try and find a needle in a haystack, in order to still marry Tom in a week’s time?’ ‘I know how much this means to you, but you’ve got to look at the big picture here. You’ve got to look at this incident in the context of your entire life. If you still love Tom, and you still want to marry him, he will still be here in a month or two or three. The world won’t stop turning if you don’t marry him on Christmas Eve!’
    Anna stared blankly at Liv, as if she’d just spoken to her in Swahili.
    ‘You were on the other side of the front door when I was talking to Tom, you know why it matters to me, you know that without having to eavesdrop, you know better than anyone. You are the last person I should be justifying this to.’
    ‘I know, I know, but I just want to protect you from making a mistake. What I’m trying to say is, are you sure you are being rational?’
    ‘No,’ Anna said, turning on her heel and going back into her bedroom. Liv watched as Anna took her suitcase down from the top of the wardrobe and laid it open on the bed, then opened a drawer and transferred a selection of already neatly folded clothes, which Liv knew would be a pre-prepared capsule wardrobe, perfect for impromptu trips to the US of A. ‘No, I’m not being rational, or logical. I’m doing what my heart is telling me to do. And like I said to Tom, where would I be today,’ Anna continued, ‘if I’d just given up trying when things got a bit tricky?’
    Liv shrugged. That was a hard motivation to fault even if in her heart she knew that this time Anna was going too far.
    ‘Look –’ Anna paused for a moment, holding a bouquet of freshly ironed socks labelled Monday to Sunday, retrieved from the drawer in date order ‘– I’ve given a year and a half of my life to Tom so far, and most of it has been really great. It’s been the nearest I’ve had to normality since you and your family took me in and I know how lucky I am that he wants to marry me, even though I am not some Amazonian sex worker who enjoys gluing tassels to her bits and bobs and sliding up and down a pole. Tom still wants to marry me, and I want to marry him, so why not do everything I can to make it happen the way that I want it? To marry him on Christmas Eve, exactly as planned, not in six months’ time, or however long it takes for him to get his effing act together.’ Anna paused again, re-collecting her composure, which just for a moment had shown signs of cracking.
    ‘I’m getting married by Christmas, Liv, if it kills me. I am not going to let this one thing that I have always wanted, all of my life, be swept aside by some … some big-titted tart!’ Anna lifted her chin in a moment of defiance, before Liv saw that familiar uncertainty in her eyes again.
    ‘Look after him while I’m away, won’t you?’ Anna asked her. ‘Maybe pop round on the way back from the airport and see how he’s doing. Help him understand why I’m doing this, because I know he doesn’t.’
    ‘Shouldn’t you be the one to do that?’ Liv suggested.
    ‘I’m going,’ Anna said, glancing at her watch. ‘I’ve got to now.’
    ‘Anna,’ Liv tried once again, ‘this is madness. Where are you even going to start?’
    ‘New York of course,’ Anna said, rolling her eyes. ‘Where else?’

Chapter Four
    Anna supposed she was lucky to get