The Honeytrap Heartbreaker

11.

She had no idea why he wanted to meet so urgently but it sounded like good news. She arrived at Aqua first – which rarely ever happened – and got them both a table whilst she waited.

Adam came floating in about fifteen minutes later and looked as if he was ready to throw the menu at Ella as she took her time deciding what cocktail to order. The waiter came back swiftly with a cosmo for Adam and a tequila sunrise for Ella and Adam was practically itching with excitement at this point. Ella was enjoying making him wait.

"So I've got some news..." Adam blurted, not so subtly spreading his hand across the table.

"Is it to do with the new bling?"

"I'm getting married!" Adam squealed.

"OH MY GOD! Congratulations!" Ella exclaimed, she stood up from her seat and ran over to give him a squeeze.

"Tell me everything, who asked who, where, when, come on I need details!" She pleaded.

"Well you know me I don't mess around and once Nick had your seal of approval everything just moved kind of fast and I was actually thinking about asking him. Then not last night the night before he told me to get dressed for dinner, so I put on my Gucci shirt and tie, you know the one with the little-" Ella shook her head at him, gesturing at him to move on with the story. "Yeah so I figured we'd be going somewhere posh and I came out of the bedroom and he was just in shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops with a picnic basket in his hand. I wanted to go get changed but he wouldn't let me, he walked me about a hundred yards onto the beach and set up this little picnic for us, he had a blanket and champagne and strawberries and tiny little macaroons."

"Adam, get on with it." Ella demanded.

"Sorry, yeah so we were nibbling our way through this picnic basket and he asked me to get the last dip of out the basket for the chips so I reach in and there's no dip but there is a tiny blue box. So I pull it out and open it to and there was this beauty inside and as I turned to look at him with my shocked face he was on one knee and I just knew then Ella, I knew I loved him, I knew I wanted to marry him."

They both jumped into each other's arms and Ella couldn't stop congratulating him and asking more and more questions. A few more cosmos later and Adam eventually dropped the bombshell, which is probably what he was more excited about than the actual engagement.

"Anyway, we're having like a celebratory engagement meal, party thing in a couple of weeks and we would love for you and Tom to come. It's not negotiable though, we've already paid your deposit." Adam smiled.

Adam and Nick were sat at the top of the table; the seating was co-ordinated with calligraphic name cards on each seat. Ella was at Adam's right with Tom next to her, Tom pulled out the chair for her carefully to avoid dirtying the satin white seat covers, there was a lace blue bow on the back of each seat, she knew Tom would make a joke of it later, he wasn't into this kind of thing, it was too over the top – trying to show off how much money you could waste. She laughed to herself as she caught him eyeing the chair up and down.

Tom shook both of the guy's hands, tucked Ella on the seat under the table and sat himself next to her. Ella didn't recognise most of the people already sat at the table. They were on time which was unusual for them so they were still waiting on just under half of the seats to be filled. Adam had told Ella there were 28 people attending in total.

Most of Nick's side was full already – she exchanged pleasantries with most of them but she wouldn't even remember their faces tomorrow let alone their names. Tom was his charming self as usual and had pretty much everyone on the table swooning over him and his pathetic dad jokes.