“Hey!” Emma’d been contemplating her next move when AJ popped at her side.
“Hey.” She grinned back at him. “That was amazing, thanks.”
“You’re thanking me?”
“Well, yeah. You provided the entertainment, didn’t you?”
He started laughing, “That, I did. Or maybe Nick did. Did you see the way the place lit up when he took his top off?”
“Yup,” Em giggled. “It only took him fifteen years to make everyone’s dream come true!”
AJ snorted. “Not you too! His chest’s not that amazing!”
“Maybe, maybe not.” She shrugged.
“Mine’s much better.”
She rolled her eyes, “You have too many tattoos. And anyway, you always take your top off so it’s not anything new. Whereas Nick knows how to keep some mystery going, you see.”
“Whatever.”
Em bit her lip in an effort to stop herself from laughing out loud. It was too easy rattling him.

***

“Nick, can we talk?”

Sue stilled at the sound of Kevin’s voice. She’d known it would come of course. After all, they had invited him for a reason. But she found she wasn’t ready. She’d enjoyed being in a bubble with only Nick and her. Safe from what everyone else would think or do.
“Sure. Shoot.” Nick said, his voice not betraying his emotions. Except his arm had tightened around her back and she could him start to tense.
“Uh, alone?”
“No, sorry Kev but Sue’s my wife and she deserves to stay.”
“Oh, right. Right. Speaking of which, wife? When did you get married? Where? How long have you known each other?”

Sue turned around in Nick’s arms to face Kevin. She noticed the whole room had gone quiet, everyone wanting to know the answers to Kevin’s questions. "I'll answer each of those questions in turn. Yes, wife. We got married almost a month ago in Vegas. How long have we known each other? A little over two years. We met on the same day. But you have obviously forgotten me."
Kevin narrowed his eyes, "We have never met."
"Actually we have Kevin, more than once in fact. The first time was outside the hotel in London. You had your picture taken with me. It was the morning after Nick’s brother was born. I jokingly passed Nick my phone number and email address and it went from there."
"And the other times?"
"At various parties Nick invited me to. Although he didn't know who I was." she turned and smiled at her husband.

"But..." Emma looked at her friend. Something with the story didn’t ring true. Sue averted her eyes.  “So you have known him for ages, have you Sunny?"
"Sparky, please don't. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I just didn't believe it was him emailing me."
"But you told me about..." the death glare from Sue shut her up. ”OK. We will talk about this later." She turned to Kevin "And you. Be happy for your friend, will you? Even an idiot can see how in love with each other they are."
"Who do you think you are telling me who I should and shouldn't be happy for?  I'm sure you're happy. Your friend just married one of the most eligible bachelors in the world! I'm sure it's a different world to the trailer she came from! As long as she signed a pre-nup for when this sorry excuse of a marriage fails, I’m happy!"
"Sounds like it." Em muttered under her breath.
"Ummm Kev?" Nick whispered. He looked at his friend. "We didn't do a pre-nup."
"I’m sorry, I think I misheard you... I'm sure that you wouldn't have been so stupid to have got married to that..." he waved his arm around while trying to think of the right word, "thing without a pre-nup, are you?"
Sue could feel Nick stiffen behind her. "Thing? Did you really just call my wife a thing?"
"You heard me."
Nick opened his mouth to answer.
"Please leave cuz." the whole room turned to look at Brian. "If you've got nothing nice to say to the happy couple, then you aren't welcome here."
"Hear hear." AJ joined in. "Whatever the circumstances of the wedding are, it doesn't matter. We knew that Nick had been up to something but didn't know what. But he has been so good to tour with the past month and we have obviously got his new wife to thank for it." AJ nodded to Sue who mouthed her thanks with a smile.
"Fine. I'm leaving. Just remember that I won't be around to fix the mess when the shit hits the fan."