Married By Christmas Read Online Free PDF

Kensington mansion, where Liv was in the early stages of preparing a very seasonal dinner party for their clients in the last job that they had to do before closing up shop to make final preparations for the wedding. Anna didn’t often come on site: usually she’d be in the office, keeping on top of the finance and administration side of their partnership, as well as the marketing and PR. While Anna could cook – and cook well – her natural domain was the office, while Liv only really felt at home in the kitchen. Normally, she would arrive first to get a feel for the kitchen and then their small but loyal team of sous chefs would arrive some time later, a well-oiled Liv-trained machine of military precision, which had so far pleased all of their clients without fail, bearing in mind they had yet to cater Anna’s wedding. So Liv had been surprised to see her when Anna turned up barely an hour before preparations were due to begin in earnest, ranting on about following her boyfriend.
    ‘Aren’t you listening?’ Anna persisted. ‘Tom, he’s changed. He’s not happy-go-lucky, “sure, whatever you say” Tom any more. There’s something really, really wrong, Liv. And I know you’ve noticed it too. I saw the way you were looking at him at the venue yesterday. It was like everything was perfect, everything was going to plan, right on schedule and then the one thing I didn’t think about, the one thing I didn’t make a contingency plan for has happened! Liv, I think he’s gone off me. I think he’s met someone else.’ Tears sprang into Anna’s eyes as she voiced her darkest fear. ‘Someone normal.’
    ‘No!’ Liv protested automatically. ‘No, not Tom. He just wouldn’t. He’d do a lot of very stupid things, but he wouldn’t ask you to marry him unless he really wanted to marry you, he wouldn’t. I know him too, remember, he’s besotted with you.’
    ‘You see, I knew it,’ Anna said, not really listening to Liv’s attempts at reassurance, she was so caught up in her anxiety. ‘I knew that it wouldn’t last, that it would all go wrong. I tried really, really hard to think of everything that might go wrong, but I never thought of this, Liv. I
really
thought he liked me, I let myself believe it. But what was I thinking? Why would Tom want
me
? I’m weird, and constantly anxious. I write lists
about lists
, I never let my hair down and just enjoy life … and I can’t dance.’ Anna looked miserably at her neat little feet, which were shod in expensive-looking brown suede boots. It was true. Although with her body Anna looked like she should have the lithe grace of a ballerina, combined with the heated rhythm of a South American salsa dancer, whenever she attempted to take to the floor it was like watching a car crash in slow motion. Even people who didn’t know her covered their eyes and looked away. And Anna had been pretty sure that at their last wedding dance tutorial, Ivan the Argentinian tango expert had been very, very drunk. ‘Liv, do you think he’s calling off the wedding because I am so terrible at dancing? I mean I made the teacher actually cry at our last lesson. He actually cried, Liv. In
despair
.’
    ‘OK,’ Liv said, putting down the colander and gripping Anna firmly by the shoulders. ‘First of all, Tom has not called off the wedding. All he’s done is be a bit moody.’
    ‘You see!’ Anna said, pointing at Liv accusingly. ‘See, you
have
noticed it too. And the thing is there is so much to do if I’m cancelling the wedding. I mean we need to stop that food order, before it’s too late, and, well, we can kiss goodbye to the deposit on the venue, and the dress, Liv – what am I going to do with the dress? It’s a
Christmas
wedding dress … Have you got a pen, I need to make a list.’
    ‘Shush!’ Liv said, putting her arms around Anna and doing her best to physically calm her. ‘Anna, come on, get a grip. This is me you are talking to, me. Your voice of sanity,