Married By Christmas by Scarlett Bailey

the very fact that he has told you now, that says a lot.’
    ‘Yes, it says that he’s a—’ Anna’s fuming was swiftly interrupted.
    ‘In love with you enough to face up to your very considerable wrath even though he must have known that it could cost him your relationship,’ Miles finished for her. ‘That although he realises what a massive fuck-up he is, he cares enough to tell you the truth eventually, to face you down and do the right thing. Perhaps you are looking at this all wrong. After all, how easy would it have been for him not to tell you about the stripper at all, to just do nothing and let the wedding go ahead. I think the fact that he’s told you now shows that he truly loves you.’
    Anna blinked at Miles, sucking on her bottom lip as she tried to take in what he was saying. ‘You’re one of those, aren’t you? One of those types. Liv is one too. Optimistic, romantic, idealistic. It’s because nothing really bad has ever happened to you so you don’t know …’
    ‘Know what?’ Miles asked her.
    ‘That you have to keep looking, waiting all the time for the next bad thing,’ Anna said. ‘It’s your only chance of stopping it from happening. Except that I didn’t see this coming.’
    ‘Maybe you need to start looking out for all the good things,’ Miles said, spreading his fingers as if he were casting a spell to illustrate his point. ‘Like the fact that the man is trying his best to do the right thing now, he hasn’t lied or run away, he’s just made a mistake.’
    ‘I suppose he
was
seeing a solicitor about it when I tailed him to Pizza Express,’ Anna said thoughtfully, causing the ‘I Heart London’ lady’s eyebrows to soar skywards. ‘I suppose he was
trying
to sort it out, in his own cack-handed, shambolic way. It was much too late and with frankly the sluttiest solicitor that I have ever seen, but still he
was
trying …’
    ‘There you go then.’ Miles smiled. ‘And did he get it sorted? An annulment or whatnot? Is this last-minute trip an all-expenses paid apology to help you calm down before the big day?’
    ‘No,’ Anna said, sitting back in her seat and looking around, as if she’d just woken from a dream or a trance, and was realising exactly where she was and what she was doing for the very first time. ‘No, he didn’t, he couldn’t. It would have meant postponing the wedding which is why … Well, to cut a long story short, I booked a last-minute ticket to New York to see if I could find his wife and get her to sign the papers in person.’
    ‘Sweet Jesus,’ I Heart London muttered audibly.
    ‘I thought you said you weren’t spontaneous,’ Miles said. ‘That’s radical! That’s the most spontaneous thing I have ever heard! You go, girl.’
    ‘No, Miles, no.’ Anna shook her head. ‘It’s not spontaneous. It’s desperate, and controlling and crazy and really it should be Tom that is sitting on this plane, doing this. I pretty much asked him to try and he pretty much said don’t be so ridiculous, and yet I am still here sitting on this plane being ridiculous because I just can’t let it go. And the truth is I don’t know if I will have a wedding when I get back because probably around about now –’ she checked her watch ‘– Tom will have realised exactly how mental I am and he’ll be running a mile.’
    ‘No, he won’t,’ Miles said, unexpectedly taking her hand. ‘He’ll think how lucky he is to have such an amazingly romantic, spontaneous, optimistic, brave and incredible woman, who still wants to marry him, despite the high levels of fuckwittery that he has recently displayed. If he loves you that is what he will think.’
    ‘Do you really think so?’ Anna asked. ‘Only no one’s ever called me amazingly romantic or spontaneous before, in fact I’m fairly sure that I am the opposite of all of those things.’
    ‘How can you be, if you got a plane at moment’s notice to try and save your wedding?’ Miles asked and, when