Forward Planning

Alan definitely wasn’t one for surprises – so this was either going to be wonderful or an absolute nightmare

- Ginny Swart

Jenny, you’ll never guess who came into my sister’s travel agency and bought two tickets to Míkonos!’ said Margie.

‘Who?’

‘Your Alan! For next weekend!’

‘But that’s my sister’s birthday! We’re supposed to be going to her party. He must’ve forgotten. But, my goodness, Míkonos!’ Jenny went pink with pleasure. ‘I wish he’d have let me know. I haven’t anything to wear.’

‘It wouldn’t be a surprise then, would it? And don’t tell him I told you. Yvonne said he mentioned that he hadn’t told his girlfriend, and she’d kill me if she knew I’d told you.’

‘My lips are sealed. But that’s so thoughtful of Alan. I never thought he was actually listening when I was rattling on about the Greek islands and how romantic Míkonos looked on that TV programme we watched the other week.’

Jenny had been dating Alan for nearly a year. She’d met him when her car had spluttered to a halt on the side of the road one day, and he stopped to help. She’d loved the way he took control, working mechanical magic under the hood, and he insisted on following her home to make sure she was alright. Since then, they’d seen each other almost every night.

Alan was tall and good-looking and, as Margie said rather disapprovingly, a real woman-magnet with his warm grin and deep-brown eyes. He was the kind of guy girls stared at across the room, twisting their hair while they smiled openly. Sometimes he’d engage in slightly flirtatious conversation, but always with a wink to Jenny, his private way of telling her it was nothing serious, that no-one mattered to him but her.

She’d known from the first that he was the man she wanted to marry, and she was pretty certain he felt that way, too.