Crown Me

6.

[Perrie's Pov]

It is a fact that the more someone has on their to do list, the faster time passes. Apparently it went double for people who were planning weddings. I had been concerned I'd be bored after I left my job but now I realised I didn't have time to be bored. Especially not with my mother breathing down my neck about last minute decisions and the hundreds of new etiquette rules I had to follow.

It also provided me with some distraction from the fight Jade and I had had last weekend. We had spent the last few days getting used of our new residency and somehow I'd found that despite my anxiety over everything, I was happy.

Rushing out of a final meeting with the florist I'd managed to keep off my mother's radar, my phone rang, pleased to see it was one of the few people I had not placed on my mental block list.

"Are you calling to talk to me or to tell me a message?"

"I should be employed as your secretary," Caitlin said, not bothering to hide her annoyance at becoming the communications between me and my parents.

"I have about a dozen messages but absolutely none of which are important."

"When are they ever?" I asked as I slid into the back of the Rolls Royce that had magically appeared amidst the afternoon traffic.

"She's going to drive me crazy.  'Tell your Perrie that her cousin Jake won't be able to make it. Tell your Perrie that Jake just called to say he moved his meetings and is flying in. Tell Perrie to remember to offer a gluten free cake option. Tell Perrie it's too late to change the cake and she hopes no one has an allergy.'  Honestly, the only thing I want to tell you is to run while you have the chance."

"I'm sorry." My apology was sincere, although I couldn't help but be glad she was bearing the brunt of my mother's last minute panic. There were already enough other people panicking around me.

"I didn't call to pass on her ramblings," Caitlin said dismissively as though this was all completely normal and to some extent it was considering our mother's penchant for drama.

"Where and when? And what should I wear? I don't think I've ever needed a night out so badly in my life."

"We're meeting at Clos Maggiore for dinner first. Jesy booked a private room and then we're going dancing," I advised, choosing to skim over the number of ridiculous security procedures Jade had insisted on for the evening. I'd grown used to having a constant shadow but it didn't mean I liked it. I also didn't want to draw any more attention to the presence of security this evening. I wanted to be carefree for once.

"I still think we should have gone away for your hen night." I could almost see Caitlin's pout as she spoke. It looked something like our mother's without the added weight of years of disappointment. "I can't believe Jade was so against it."

"I'll see you at six," I said, bypassing her complaint and hanging up. It was hard to explain to someone who wasn't in love why it was so difficult for us to be apart.

Of course, Me and Jade were a little more dependent on each other than most people and we'd spent more time apart than we'd have liked.

I missed being able to walk around London. With the number of foreign dignitaries already arriving for the wedding and the number of meetings and rehearsals planned for the next few days, security had increased to the point of suffocation. But as I gazed out the window I caught glimpses of my face flashing on TV screens in shops, on magazine covers at the corner stand and in a surreal twist, plastered all over souvenir items sold by street vendors. I shrank back when I spotted a rather scary man wearing a shirt with a poorly photo shopped picture of me in a bikini on the front, grateful for the darkly tinted glass of Jade's personal vehicle.