Cold Feet novel Chapter 31

RICK

“Rick!”

I look up and see Lara. I have met her briefly before but she makes enough of an impression that I couldn’t forget her. She’s like a breath of fresh air.

“Lara,” I say. I get up and she shows me into her office.

“Congratulations!” she says. “At last someone managed to nail down Christine. It’s about time she settled down.”

“You would know better than me on that score. You’ve known her a lot longer than me,” I reply as I sit down.

“I guess. I’m just so happy for both of you,” Lara says.

“Thank you,” I say.

Lara leans forward in her chair and pushes stray strands of hair behind her ear. “So do you have anything in mind for a location?”

We spend an hour going through options. Lara is most helpful and I leave her office feeling that she is truly professional. She’s been more than a help to me. She’s known Christine a long time and she knows most of Christine’s friends. She says she’ll get a list of friends over to me for Christine’s approval. If there’s anyone Christine wants who isn’t on the list she can add them.

I add my own friends. There are quite a few but nowhere near as many as Christine has. It’s okay. It’s not a competition. I think nof adding Viola to the list but then decide against it. What’s the point I ask myself? We don’t really know each other that well and besides, I’ve upset her twice. An invitation will probably just be like driving a dagger into whatever it was we had, more like whatever it was that we never started, if we could ever have called it anything.

I find it easier to push away the thoughts of Viola now that I’ve made a decision and asked Christine to marry me. I focus on my work, the wedding and Christine. It’s enough to keep my mind off Viola and soon I forget about her the way I did when she cut off communication with me the first time.

But sometimes, as much as we try to take control of our lives, it seems there’s something bigger at play. Something we’ll never understand. Something that makes plans for us and when it’s made up its mind about what it is that’s good for us, there’s no shaking it. Whatever it is, it’s bigger than us. And so, try as we might, to put someone or something behind us, if the universe, at least that’s what I call it, decides we’re not done yet, then we simply aren’t done…