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By Root 1260 0

explained a lot.] But Sarah is an only child and absolutely spoilt. When she got her driver’s licence her dad bought her a brand new MX5 as a present. My dad has always stressed that we should earn things, not have them handed to us on a plate. After a while she started bitching and moaning about my job - you know, when I’d have to be away when a good party was on and all. Anyway, one day she actually suggested I might want to give up flying and go into dealing or something. Can you believe it? I have never wanted to do anything but be a pilot since I was four years old. Flying is my life - you know that. So, I went home that night and thought about it and the next day I called her up and dumped her. That didn’t go down well, I can tell you,’ he said, wearing the smile of a small boy taking pleasure in being caught doing the wrong thing. ‘I decided there and then that I was through with these princess-types and I was going to find myself a nice normal girl who didn’t think the world revolved around her.’

‘So you decided to seek out a homely girl who would be so grateful to have your affection bestowed upon her that she would never complain about anything?’ I said this in a slightly mocking tone but it was closer to the truth than I cared to admit. There had been times when I had wanted to complain about Tony’s many absences but had checked this inclination because I had a feeling he would not like it. Seems I was correct.

‘Now you’re being silly. As if I would have gone after a homely girl. I always thought you were pretty. And now I have got to know the whole package - the fact you are so easy to be around - I truly think you are the loveliest girl I know…and as I said before you do have the most magnificent breasts.’

‘Are you in love with me?’

‘God I hate this sort of talk. Isn’t it obvious?’

‘You know sometimes girls need to be told these things.’

He went silent for a while.

‘Well?’

‘Okay…I love you.’

‘And I love you. See that wasn’t so hard was it?’

‘No…but I’m never going to be good at this sort of stuff. You’ll have to get used to that. [I liked this reference to getting used to it. It suggested a healthy permanence.] Talk is cheap and I’d rather you judge me by my actions not my words.’

And then, embarrassed by all this personal talk, he made a move to kiss the aforementioned breasts and with that all sensible conversation ceased.

So that’s when I found out that Tony did genuinely love me and why he stuck by me against the wishes of his mother. And more importantly I now knew the secret of keeping him happy. I resolved that very day that nothing I said or did would ever stand in the way of me marrying him.

3

A fairytale wedding

Now there’s a title to get your attention - a fairytale wedding, a standard device called on by makers of a soap opera going through a ratings slump; slot in a wedding between two attractive co-stars and the viewers will flock back for sure. I am old enough to remember the fairytale wedding of Charlene on Neighbours, where the bride, complete with corkscrew perm and baby’s breath married her childhood sweetheart, Scott, of the bad suit and blonde mullet. As a matter of fact this was a red-letter day in the Parkes household, Jason Donovan being one of my medium-level crushes at the time. Of course Kylie Minogue went on to much bigger things after that, but she’ll never be able to completely live down that awful confectionery of a wedding dress she got to wear back in 1987.

Anyway, just in case you were getting bored with my story, I am going to introduce a fairytale wedding in this chapter to liven things up, just not yet. You’ll have to be patient, as I had to be. The signs were always there that Tony wouldn’t rush into marriage without careful consideration.

The gossip mags also love a good fairytale wedding, especially when it’s followed roughly eleven months later by a ‘bitter divorce’. I’ll admit that I’ve dipped my toe into this particular literary genre. Of course, everyone says they read them in the supermarket queue, but someone must actually buy them otherwise