The Guest List

by Lucy Foley

But no matter what happens, life is only a series of days. You can’t control more than a single day. But you can control one of them. Twenty-four hours can be curated. A wedding day is a neat little parcel of time in which I can create something whole and perfect

He came back in one piece, didn’t he?

Its weird tho... Its like he has feelings for her or something

The note was delivered through our letter box three weeks ago. It told me not to marry Will. To call it off.

Well its definitely charlie

My closest friend is male: Charlie. In effect, this weekend, he’ll be my best man.

Thats just weird girlfriend

He always made time for me.

It was only then that I started to miss having him to myself.

Ew hes married girl....If you wanted him you shouldve spoken up sooner

He bites into the exposed skin of my shoulder. A pluck of lust low in my belly, a snapped elastic band. With it goes the last of my resistance.

Thats what it is... Its lust with will

I would argue that it isn’t rash, or impulsive, as I think some suspect. If anything, it’s the opposite. It’s knowing your own mind, knowing what you want and acting upon it.

Are you trying to co vice us of all of that or are you tryinto convince yourself of that?

So this is what worries me. Why would Will keep a friend like Johnno around simply because of a shared past? Unless that past has some sort of hold over him.

I could ask you the same about charlie

Femi’s a surgeon, Angus works for his dad’s development firm, Duncan’s a venture capitalist—whatever that means—and Pete’s in advertising, which probably doesn’t help his coke habit.

“Is she the one who used to have a crush on you?” I ask, dredging this fact up from some half-remembered conversation with Jules.

“Will,” Charlie says, with a curt nod, stepping away immediately. It’s borderline rude when Will’s being so welcoming.

Yeah charlies the one who has a crush on jules now....

And I find myself wondering whether, since kids, I feel different to Charlie, or whether he fancies me as much now my boobs are not the same boobs they were before breastfeeding, now I have all this strange slack skin on my belly.

And yet it is important for a couple to still desire each other, isn’t it?

And he was always the one she called when she did break up with them. Part of me wonders how he feels now,

seeing her settled at last. I’d guess not entirely happy.

I’m like 90 percent sure Charlie and Jules have screwed at some point in the past.

If you love someone, really, you don’t do anything to hurt them.

But that’s nostalgia for you, the tyranny of those memories of childhood that feel so golden, so perfect.

It’s a strange thing when you consider that the dead on this island far outnumber the living, even now that some of the guests have arrived. Tomorrow will redress the balance.

A cormorant on a steeple: that’s an ill omen. The devil’s bird, they call it in these parts. The cailleach dhubh, the black hag, the bringer of death.

“Come on!” Duncan chides. “It’s only bubbly, not crack. Or are you going to tell us you’re pregnant?”

Lol good now charlie can have a taste of his own medicine

“So did you ever fuck?” Johnno asks. And just like that: it’s the question I’ve never been able to ask outright.

I’m too much for him. I’m too angry, too driven. He would never have picked me.

Um am i surprised shes a total pick me girl???

There’s nothing less sexy than a lack of ambition, is there?

Like I picked him out to go with a pair of shoes. Like I’m marrying him just because he fits perfectly into my life—

Weeeeeeeelllll.... Arent you?!

“But I have to say that I’m proud of myself, for having brought up such a strong-willed, independent daughter.”

Damn if this aint a narcissist

“Are you saying that you would have made me happier?”

“I wasn’t asking because of anything like that,” he says. “Not out of jealousy … or anything.” “Really? Because it sounds to me like you’re a bit jealous.”

In my experience those who have the greatest respect for the rules also take the most enjoyment in breaking them.

It’s me. I’m the bad thing. What I’ve done.

What xdid u doooo

Though, as proven last night, Charlie always gets a bit funny around posh people—a little unsure of himself and defensive.

Everyone already seems to have forgotten about Olivia’s crazy stunt; it could have happened on another day entirely.

So heartless...

know that I should be gazing back adoringly but I’m still so cross about what he said earlier that I can barely bring myself to look at him.

Gf you did it to urself