The Matchmaker

Chapter 23

What had changed Brian so much? Why was he so angry? He had hurt her, she couldn’t deny that, but deep down she knew it wasn’t him. She would get to the bottom of it if it was the last thing she did. If Brian was destined to get married then she couldn’t control that and she would learn to live with it. She would do her best to mend their friendship though and wouldn’t go without a fight.

She went back up to her room and snuck back in. She had hoped not to wake Amy but she needn’t have worried. Amy sat in the lounge area reading a book. Her head shot up in surprise when the door opened.

“There you are!” Amy exclaimed. “Where were you? I woke up and you weren’t here. I was worried sick!”

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t sleep and went for a walk.”

Amy stared at Shannon for a moment then nodded knowingly. “You saw Brian again, didn’t you?”

Shannon sighed, flopped down on the couch and regaled Amy with what had happened.  By the end of the conversation, neither of them had any idea how to approach him. They just decided to lay low and reconsider a plan of action before the party. It only gave them a day but a lot could happen in a day.

That was proven to them the next day.

They woke early and ducked out of the hotel before sunrise so Shannon could get some shots of Perth at dawn. After having breakfast, they decided to travel away from Perth and into the country to see what the sights had to offer. By lunch time Shannon felt happy with the number of photos she had and decided to call that particular job completed.

Before heading back to Perth, Shannon received a call from Nathan explaining Brian had finally called him back. To put it simply Brian had been a blubbering mess and made no sense. All Nathan could get out of it was that he felt rotten for all that had happened and didn’t know how to make things better. That itself convinced Shannon that she needed to do something but she still had no idea what. Once Nathan had hung up, Amy and Shannon talked about what to do but they were unable to think of anything. In the end Shannon concluded she would wait until the engagement party had taken place. She would then get Brian aside once and for all and make him talk.

What she didn’t know was that fate, or should she say coincidence, had its own plan.

As Shannon drove back to the hotel, she heard the familiar sound of sirens. As she glanced behind her she saw three police cars closing in on her. At first she thought they were in pursuit of someone else but when they didn’t pass and one came up beside her and waved her over, she knew they were after her. Her heart started pounding. Her licence was current, she didn’t have any fines outstanding, in fact she had never had a fine in her life, and as far as she knew she hadn’t done anything illegal. Why were they pulling her over? And why were there so many of them?

She pulled to a stop and glanced at Amy who looked petrified. Shannon didn’t feel much better. As the policeman approached the car she immediately pulled her licence out in the hope that if she complied straight away, there wouldn’t be any issues.

“Please step out of the car ma’am.” The policeman ordered.

She did as instructed all the while her heart pounded in her chest. It wasn’t usual to be told to get out of the car for a general licence check. Her mind went over every illegal thing she had done while driving but she failed to come up with anything. The worst thing she had done was overtake on a solid line and that was three years ago! She couldn’t imagine being pulled over by three cop cars just for that.

“I have my licence if you want to see it, sir.” Shannon said nervously handing it to him.

The policeman ignored the licence and stood with his hands on his hips. “Is that your car?”