WHEN WE GET TO the rehearsal dinner, the room is full of people. Full of people I haven't seen for years.

As I step in, I clamp on to Millie's hand as all eyes turn on us and conversation stops. As eyes turn on me, I feel like I'm in a movie, and I'm the protagonist walking into a lion's den. Now all the lions are salivating, just waiting before taking their chance to tear me to pieces.

I spot Tessa immediately across the room. Charlotte's theme is red, so she's wearing a beautiful red halter neck dress, similar to the two other bridesmaids, Millie included. Her hair is up in a tight, gelled bun, fringe curled at the front. Next to her, Jamie is wearing a red tie with his black suit to match, and his expression darkens as he spots me.

Moving my gaze away, I see Rob and Will coming towards me, faces unreadable. They stop in front of me and Millie, and I feel like Will is about to start shouting. Will and alcohol don't mix and he never could control his temper when he'd had one too many.

I drop my head, preparing to expect the worst, but I half yelp when he throws his arms around my shoulders instead, wrapping me in a hug. I let Millie's hand go so I can hug him back, and I feel a lump in my throat as Rob's arms go around me from the other side in a double hug. I wrap my arm awkwardly behind my back, but after a minute they both let me go and we all step back.

"About time, bro," Will says, putting a hand on both of my shoulders.

I give him a sheepish smile. "Sorry about that."

"Don't be sorry," he says with a shrug. "You did nothing wrong. We're just glad you're back. Got my best bro back."

After Matt and Danny, Rob and Will were who I was closest to at school, especially after the rift opened with Callum and Dee. As well as the football team, they were in all my classes and I stayed at his a few times as well when the Grangers couldn't. His warm blue eyes always had laughter in them, and like Matt, he could pick you up out of any bad mood, even if the bad mood was down of him.

I look around and spot Danny, so I tell Rob and Will I'll catch up a bit later and Millie and I make our way to them... only to realise they're standing with Tessa and Jamie.

"Sorry we're late guys," I tell them, before kissing Charlotte on the cheek and shaking Danny's hand. "Millie was fixing her hair," I chuckle and she swats me.

"For a moment we thought you wouldn't come," Charlotte admits. My smile falters as I look at Millie, but then I pick my smile back up.

"Wouldn't miss this for the world."

She smiles then, before she turns sideways to Jamie, extending her hand. "Arch, have you met Jamie?"

I nod curtly. "Yeah, we've met." I give him a tight smile. "Nice to see you again."

I glance at Tessa for a second, and it seems she hadn't told Charlotte about our scuffle at the hospital. Her eyes plead with me not to say anything, so I just extend my hand for Jamie to shake. He looks from my hand to me before he finally puts it in mine, giving it one firm shake, stiffly nodding at me before quickly taking it away.

As Tessa smiles at me, my gaze moves to her cheek, which has healed nicely. There's now only a tiny cut visible, but I'm only noticing because I know to look for it. To an unobservant eye, it may look like a freckle.

Moving my gaze to her face, she looks happy. Her eyes bright, and she's smiling wide, so I knew I'd been worrying over nothing over the last few weeks. The way she is molded into Jamie's side as she does so is like a painful barb, so I turn my gaze away as Danny turns to me.

"So I gather you've finished college now, Arch? Everything handed in. You're officially a free man?"

Tessa's eyebrows raise and her mouth opens to ask a question, but then she shuts it again as she gets a hard look from Jamie.

I hate this. I want to tell him what I think about what he's doing to Tessa. I want to tell him she's allowed to smile or ask me questions, but I can't. Here he has the upper hand, because he knows I won't make any problems for Danny, so I keep my mouth shut and just stick to answering his question.

"Yep, officially handed in my last assignment last week. Graduation is in March next year. Can't believe it's all finally over with, yeah."

"What did you study again?" Charlotte asks.

"Art and Art History, but I've been doing some business classes too."

Jamie's eyebrows raise and he looks at Tessa before asking, "How come you took business classes?" He scoffs it, as if there could be no possible reason why I would need to take business classes. "Didn't think an artist would need those?"

"Babe, Archie owns Wall Enterprise Holdings," Tessa says matter of factly, looking at me. "Millie too."

I can't quite believe she's said it, and as Charlotte and Danny give each other a look, as well as Tessa, I don't actually think she'd meant to say it out loud.

He frowns and drops his arm from around her. "Wall Enterprise H-." He looks at her, but then looks at me. "As in... multi-billion dollar company Wall Enterprise Holdings?" Jamie asks, shock now replacing the indifference.

I nod. "Going on three years now."

He looks back down at Tessa, and for some reason he looks angry at her.

She frowns up at him and shrugs before looking proudly at me. Okay maybe she had meant to say it.

I feel like I could be more smug, but then I didn't want to make anyone uncomfortable, Tessa included. I'd be civil with him for Tessa's sake, but that didn't mean I had to like him.

He looks at me, and I know he's itching to ask questions, but thankfully all heads turn to the left when we hear a small bell, signalling the call to dinner, saving me.

As we move through into the dining room, the room is decorated beautifully. There are garlands of roses decorated across the ceilings, every now and again a petal falling to the floor. The tables have huge, rose-entangled centrepieces, with each place having a small, red favour box.

As we find our places, I've been put on the bride and groom's table, sat next to Danny, whilst Tessa sits on Charlotte's side. Will, Rob and their partners are on our table too, and as the wine starts to flow, I start to relax.

Will is in banking, just like his dad, and I'm surprised to hear he's loving it just as much as he dad always promised he would. Thriving under a fast-paced environment, he's an associate at a bank in central London, and despite the long hours, he's enjoying everything they throw at him. He still lives at home, but his partner Lauren tells me they're looking for a place in Epping, which isn't too far away from where the farm is.

I find out he also has a nine-month old son, Otis. He pulls out his phone and flips from picture to picture, and I smile as I realise he is the spitting image of Will. He'd always seemed to hate the idea of kids at school, but now, listening to him recount a tale of Otis peeing in a nappy that wasn't even on yet, he couldn't have been more different. Otis is seriously cute, and I can tell Will is working hard to make sure he makes time for the little lad, despite his busy work schedule. It sounds like he doesn't get much sleep, but I suppose they always say bankers run on caffeine. The way Will was speaking, I certainly believed it. I have to laugh when Lauren tries to change the subject by nicking his phone and locking it away in her bag.

Danny turns conversation to Rob and his fiancee Lindsay. They met at uni, and were getting married next year. Sitting on the other side of Jamie, Tessa had been asking him questions all evening, as he's now Head of PE at the school we went to, where I know she wants to teach.

Conversation moves quickly to travelling, with Rob and Lindsay both being teachers, they use all their large amounts of holiday to travel as much as they can.

"You know, if you ever want to go down to the South of France, or New York, let us know."

Millie nods across the table. "Yeah, we've got the apartment in New York and the house down near Carcassonne. We barely use it now, so its begging for someone to stay in it."

Greg surfs down at Nice, which isn't a million miles away from there, so Millie uses it more than me. Shamefully I haven't been since we all went down, just before we got our A-Level results.

"That's not a bad shout. We were saying France is next on the list, right?" Rob nudges Lindsay and she beams. "Maybe we could take you up on it?"

I nod, having just taken a massive bite of mashed potato. Millie answers for me.

"Absolutely! Just let us know when!"

"And stay as long as you want," I add, having swallowed my mouthful. "It's a relatively good base for the major spots round there... Bordeaux's about three hours, but you've got the Pyrenees, Marseille and Toulouse all about an hour, two tops, away."

Rob grins. "That's next summer sorted! Thanks guys." I nod at him.

"Has your dad still got the houses everywhere?" Will asks.

I shake my head. "No, we didn't need them. Millie went over to Japan last year, and we've now set up an equivalent of Pete and Henry there," I say, after already mentioning them earlier in the conversation when they asked about WEH. "We only have to go once a year maybe, which doesn't merit needing an entire house there, as nice as it was. We sold all the houses we weren't going to need, and donated all the money to local charities across the world."

Lindsay smiles. "Oh my god, really?" I nod. "That's  truly amazing."

"Yeah. I'm not sure how Rob or Will have told you about Dad, but he never did any of that, never did anything for charity, so that was the first thing Millie and I wanted to change."

I genuinely couldn't believe it when Pete told me there were no pots for any form of charitable donations, and he was absolutely delighted when I told him my plans for the foundation.

"The company makes way more money than we would ever know what to do with, so we thought why not give it to those who need it more than we do."

I sense a pair of eyes on me as I say it, and I look up, seeing that Tessa is watching me from across the table. She knew all about our plans for the foundation, as I was telling her in New York.

"So where are you guys living at the moment?" Will asks. In my moment's distraction, it seems we've moved the conversation along.

"We're house-sitting until these guys get back, but then we'll move into the farmhouse. It's near Harlow, and by the time Danny gets back we should have our main kitchen finished. We already have a working bathroom." I look at Danny and he bows his head. "Danny's team have been doing an amazing job."

"Won't it be a bit gross living somewhere that isn't finished?" Lauren asks.

I laugh. "Probably. But we'll both do bits every day if we live there, and it's already coming on. It's just bits of heavy liftning left really, and then choosing all the appliances and furniture, installing the movie room."

"Movie room," Will nods with a gleeful expression. "X-Box and PlayStation room too?"

I nod. "Hundred percent!"

"Wait did you say the farm's in Harlow? It's not that one on the corner is it? The one that looks haunted?"

Lindsay laughs.

"What's it called?" He clicks a few times. "Stonemill. Is that right?"

"Yup, that's the one."

"I'd seen it had finally been taken off the market, but I hadn't realised it was you guys. That's incredible."

I smile before nudging Millie. "Yeah, Millie's opening a school there too. It'll be awesome once it's all up and running. Quite the operation."

"A cooking school?" Rob asks and she nods. "Linds, you should sign up," he says, but given Lindsay throws what's left her bread roll at him, I'm guessing it's a joke. "She's a terrible cook," he adds.

Millie leans sideways towards Lindsay. "Come see me and we can make him eat some delicious humble pie," she winks.

Lindsay smiles, but she looks to my left as Danny stands, clearing his throat.

"Now, I promise to keep this one short - I'm saving my best speech for tomorrow - but I just want to thank everybody here today, for everything. It's been a really tough few years," he glances in mine and Tessa's directions before continuing, "but Char and I have never felt more loved than we do today, with all our favourite people in one room - family and friends alike."

He picks up Charlotte's hand and kisses the heel of it.

"Now, if it was up to me, we'd be married already," he chuckles as Charlotte swats at him, "but I can't wait to marry my best friend, spending the rest of my tomorrows with you... starting tomorrow." He leans down and kisses her. "To hundreds and thousands of tomorrows!"

He raises his glass before sitting down and kissing Charlotte soundly again, causing us all to cheer and whoop.

Once dessert has been served with coffees, and then taken away, people start milling back into the bar area. Checking my watch, it's close to nine, nearing the time Danny and I should start thinking of heading up to the venue to get everything ready for tomorrow. He must have the same thought, as he glances in my direction, so I excuse myself from the group to find the bathroom. We'd already put the bags in the car, so once he was ready, we could get on the road.

As I look at the room, I'm quite proud of myself for surviving today. Will and Rob would have been the toughest of the group, so I was content the others would be less of a challenge tomorrow. But I knew my biggest challenge was yet to come, and as I went to wait for my coat at the cloakroom, I could sense that challenge walking up behind me.

"You're not leaving, are you?" She asks, her voice sad. She looks back to the dining room and we both see Jamie watching us. "I've not really had a chance to ask how you're doing..."

"It's okay, I understand," I answer that question first before answering the other one. "And I am. Danny and I are headed up tonight to start things off before tomorrow."

"Oh yeah." Recognition and relief floods her eyes. "I knew that. How long will it take?"

"An hour maybe? We're apparently picking something up along the way, just up the road."

"Oh yeah, that will be the altar! He designed it himself," she beams. "And it's a surprise for Char, so don't tell anyone else. He swore me to secrecy," she points a finger at me, "so act surprised."

I can't help but laugh. "I will." I look at her again. She really does look amazing in that dress.

"I like your hair like this," she says, reaching her hand up to touch it. She stops herself halfway to my head and brings her hand back down.

"Remember when you used to braid it?"

"How else do you think I learned to braid hair?" She laughs. "Between yours and Matt's." She stops herself, but then she giggles again, setting me off too. The two of us only stop when a tall figure stumbles up beside her.

She stops laughing, but smiles up at him before melting into his side.

"You leaving man?" He asks, his voice sounding hopeful. "It was nice to see you." He gives me a sarcastic wave as he stumbles again. It appears he may be drunk.

"Jamie," Tessa warns him, giving him a hard look.

"I am," I tell him. "But not because you want me to." I regret the words as soon as I say them, as they're harsh enough for Tessa to frown at me and for Jamie to clench his teeth.

Jamie takes a quick step towards me, but Tessa steps in front of him. He pushes against her, but it helps he's drunk, and she easily pushes him back another step.

"Jamie, stop it, you promised me. You promised me you wouldn't be like this."

"Like what? He was just trying to kiss you Tessa!"

"What?" Tessa and I say together.

"Jamie, he wasn't," Tessa says firmly. "He was nowhere near me!" She pushes at him again as I take a step back, distancing myself. "And you're drunk. I told you I needed you today, and you get drunk here?"

I wanted to help her get him out of here before he made a scene and upset Charlotte. He's pushing against her now, and she's struggling, but she pleads with her eyes to help as she manages to shove him down into a chair. It's going to take more than just her to get him into a car.

"I'll be back in a sec," I tell her. "Just putting this stuff in my car."

I don't wait, I run to the car park and pop my coat on Danny's back seat and turn to head back, only it seems Jamie has followed me out.

"You just couldn't stay from her could you!" He spits viciously before his fist collides with my jaw, taking me by surprise, making me fall to the cold floor.

"Jamie!" Tessa shouts as I fall to the ground, pain lancing up my face. She pulls him backwards before coming over to me, examining my now-singing jaw. No blood has come away on her fingers this time, but it fucking hurts. Why do people always hit me in the jaw?

"What the hell?" I push myself sideways, testing the skin.

"Stay away from her!" Jamie yells.

I scoff again, ready to shout back at him that I was nowhere near her, but Tessa shouts before I can say anything.

"I knew this wouldn't work!" She stands between me and Jamie before pushing back at him. "I knew you wouldn't keep your promise!"

"Tess, come o-"

"No! There's no getting out of it this time. I can't do this." She wraps her arms around herself and steps towards me. "Tonight was a test Jamie, and you failed, just like I knew you would!"

I can see how cold she is, but I don't move to touch her, knowing it would only make it worse.

"Test? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" He half laughs, clearly not realising how serious she is.

"It means you aren't coming, Jamie."

Now he's starting to get it. He goes to protest, but she put her finger up to stop him. To his credit, he does, and the look in his eyes now tells me he's finally seeing the error in his actions.

"This is Charlotte and Danny's day, and they want Archie there." The words sting slightly as I take that to mean she doesn't want me there, but I remain still. "I can't trust you not to cause a scene, so you're not coming." She drops her head but keep her eyes on him. "I d-don't want you there."

Looking behind us, we've drawn a crowd. It's small, only a few people, but both Charlotte and Danny are there, both of whom look horrified.

"I- I... I'm so-" Jamie stammers.

"No!" Tessa shakes her head. "If you were sorry, you wouldn't have done it. You keep telling me you're sorry afterwards, and that you'll be fine, and then each time you're not. I've had it, Jamie, and tomorrow matters more to me than you do right now."

She's visibly shaking, and I want to stand beside her, but right now I'm just in awe of her.

"Go home, Jamie." When he doesn't move except to take a small step towards her, she gives him a hard stare. "Go. Home."

He stops, looking at the rest of us. But she doesn't need to say it again. He gets it now.

He looks at me, and for a moment I think he might come at me again, but after a few seconds, he walks away, pushing through the crowd and back inside. Everyone is shocked, and when Tessa looks round and sees everyone, her cheeks go crimson red before she dashes inside. Charlotte follows her, catching up to her in the entrance way, and I watch until I feel a presence next to me.

"Arch are you okay? It looks like he hasn't got you too badly." He leans down to examine my jaw.

"I'm fine," I say, testing the skin around my mouth. "Yeah. It was a sucker punch. A bit of ice and it shouldn't bruise." I can taste blood in my mouth but I think that's only because my teeth have cut my tongue. That I could deal with compared to a bruise ruining any photos tomorrow.

He walks me back to the bar and I can hear Tessa and Charlotte's conversation.

"What happened?" Charlotte asks.

"I'm so sorry." Tessa wipes a shaky hand over her hair, and I suddenly realise she's not wearing a coat. I take mine off instinctively, putting it round her shoulders. "I don't even know what happened. He asked me for a glass of water, so I went and got one for him. Then when I came back he'd gone. I turned my back for one minute, I swear."

Charlotte looks at me, her eyes accusatory.

"He didn't do anything to deserve this," Tessa adds quickly, defending me. "Archie, I'm so sorry." A tear escapes and runs down her cheek as she moves to look at my jaw.

"Hey, don't be. Bit of ice and I'll be right as red roses," I joke, trying to lighten the mood.

"I'm so sorry," she says again, turning to Charlotte, who pulls her into a hug, putting an arm around her.

"Tess, it's okay. But I'm glad you said it. I like Jamie, but if he had done this tomorrow..."

"He's absolutely not coming tomorrow, Char." She says it with absolute surety. "I've given him more than enough chances, and I've had it."

Charlotte pulls her back into another hug as the crowd all heads back inside. It's just us four outside now, but Charlotte waits until Tessa has calmed down a bit more before she looks at Danny. Tessa moves herself over to me, knowing what Charlotte wants, and for the first time in six weeks, I can properly hold her. She puts her head against my chest as she wraps her arms around my middle. I close my eyes as I breathe in her scent, and I can feel the tension leave her shoulders as I stroke a calming hand over her back.

"Guys, we'll be back in a minute." They disappear inside, leaving Tessa and I standing outside my car, still in each other's arms.

I don't say anything. I just hold her, revelling in the relief of having her there. Her breathing slows as she calms, before finally she pulls away to look up at me. Her green eyes are a little red from her tears, but they're still big and beautiful.

"Part of me knew he would do that. I'm so sorry Arch. Does it hurt?" She tests the skin and I flinch slightly as she gets the sore spot.

"Don't worry about me, Tess, I'm fine."

She sighs and drops her head into my chest again, allowing me to put my arms around her again. We stand here for a few more minutes, until I spot Danny and Charlotte coming back towards us. I clear my throat and Tessa looks up and turns around, moving out of my arms and back into Charlotte's.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I say. "I'll be the sod in tails standing next to this handsome chap," I say louder, gesturing to Danny as he comes up next to me.

"And I'll be the one in red, standing next to this vision," Tessa says, squeezing Charlotte.

"And I'll see you at that altar," Danny adds, taking a step towards Charlotte, kissing her soundly.

She waves as we get in the car and they both wait until we pull round the corner.

"You okay?" I ask, patting his shoulder.

He sighs. "Yeah." He looks across at me. "Never better."

I smile back at him, and for a split second, I envied him.

Tomorrow he was about to marry his soulmate. I just wished that, someday, somehow, I could marry mine.