For once, Anastasia had a good reason for being late. Usually she would just have overslept or her car had failed to start for the millionth time or she was running behind on something at the hospital where she worked and had forgotten plans she had promised to keep, but this time she was attending her friend Kate's bachelorette party and her flight had been delayed by two hours. Being the maid of honour to a girl who lived over four thousand miles away had been a challenge so far, one that had meant she was forced to skip most of the important events so far or Skype so that she was at least virtually present, but it was less than a week until the wedding now and she was hoping to make up for lost time.

She had barely had time to stop off at her hotel – she was going to have to talk to Kate about it, she'd agreed to let her pay but she had meant for Kate to put her up in the cheapest place she could, not some five star suite which was bigger than her house.

Ana applied just enough make up to look presentable

"You really didn't have to come, Ana." Kate told her for the thousandth time as she stood in her best friend's apartment for the first time ever. As Ana had spectre it was decorated tastefully, mostly done in monochrome with pops of colour which had been how Kate had decorated the flat they'd shared for nearly three years. "You just got off an eleven hour flight, I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to go back to the hotel."

"No way! Ana insisted. Despite having grown up in the Highlands of Scotland, it was an Edinburg accent that she spoke with, influenced by her parents both coming from the city and developed when she had spent her three university years there where she had met Kate who had wanted to escape to a British university instead of going to college. "All my times being devoted to you now, I slept on the flight and I'll stay awake until Saturday if you need me to. I'm making up for everything I haven't been able to do."

"In that case I want to introduce you to Elliot!" Kate exclaimed clasping Ana's hand tightly and leading her over, tapping the man that Ana assumed was her fiancé on the shoulder. He wrapped an arm around Kate as he turned around and grinned at Ana.

"The elusive maid of honour joins us at last!" Elliot reached out to shake her hand. He was definitely handsome enough for Kate, and could foresee the pair of them creating some very attractive children together. "It's a pleasure to meet you at last, Kate's told me a lot about you." Ana raised her eyebrows. She doubted very much Kate had told Elliot many of the details of their friendship when they had shared a flat, especially details about trips to Newcastle that Ana was sure Kate would be sensible enough not to tell a man she was planning to marry like the night she'd had a threesome in the bathroom of a nightclub or the night she'd slapped a girl in an alley because she was eyeing up the same barman that Kate was. Hopefully now she was getting married such incidents were firmly in the past for Kate.

"Good things I hope."

"Exclusively." Kate assured her. Kate didn't have any bad things to tell about Ana anyway, she'd never been as wild as Kate had. She had tended to drink her way through nights while Kate had flirted. Ana woke up with hangovers while Kate woke up needing the morning after pill.

"Are fiancés supposed to be at the bachelorette party?" Ana asked teasingly. They looked so happy together Ana imagined they never spent any significant time apart.

"Not really, we decided to just do a join bachelor and bachelorette party. Neither of us really cared about that whole last night of freedom thing." Elliot explained. Ana didn't comment that the reason Kate didn't care about having one was because she'd had enough for three lifetimes already, but she didn't, only smiled at them both.

"That's a really sweet idea." she assured them both.

"Would you like a drink, Ana?" Kate offered. She'd obviously been deemed a good enough actress that Kate could leave her alone with Elliot.

"Any sort of whiskey and coke, heavy on the whiskey." Kate mouthed her drink order along when Ana said it, she was used to either fetching it or ordering it for Ana at bars. Kate went off to get what Ana wanted and Elliot shook his head.

"She thinks I don't know how crazy you two used to be." Elliot said fondly, like he though it was adorable of her. "Her old Facebook isn't private,mor it wasn't when I met her anyway." Ana nearly physically recoiled, after they'd finished university together

"And you don't mind?"

"Of course not. Her past doesn't matter, she was young and she's different now she's settled in a relationship. Besides, I used to be crazy too so it would be pretty hypocritical of me to judge her." Elliot told her. Ana smiled – she was liking Elliot a lot so far and she had pretty high standards for liking the men in her friends lives.

"You should tell her that you know." Ana advised, not that she was exactly an expert when it came to relationships, but honesty was important, right?

"I know, but I don't want to force her into talking about something she doesn't want to. I don't want her to feel like I'm attacking her." Elliot was scoring top marks for everything he was saying at the moment, that was for sure. Ana was delighted that Kate had found someone so accepting who made her happy and seemed so completely enamoured with her. She'd never had experience of Kate's taste in a man who would last in her life longer than a couple of nights at the most so it was reassuring that she had picked someone so great to spend her life with.

"I was worried, you know, with being far away that she might have picked someone shit to marry. You're much nicer than I expected." Ana was always brutally honest, luckily Elliot took it well and laughed instead of being offended.

"I'm very glad you approve. She's been worried since I asked her that you wouldn't like me."

"Kate's got a lot of experience with me not liking the significant others of our friends… I have high standards on their behalf. She was exactly the same… We both used to say you're not a true friend if you don't hate at least one boyfriend and annoy them into breaking up with them. Our friend Dana was the worst, she picked these awful guys and got so annoyed with us when we told her how bad they were. Kate used to just write lists and send them to her anonymously and she knew Kate was doing it but she couldn't prove it and that annoyed her even more. We were really bitchy nineteen years olds. She married a guy about a year ago, month after that he got sent to prison for embezzlement. We did try to warn her."

"And you were worried I was going to be like that?" Elliot asked. Ana looked down at the ground, slightly embarrassed.

"Well, I had only ever seen you for thirty seconds on Skype. It's hard to make a judgement of someone when the most you've ever said to them is hello before your best friend told them she was too busy to talk to them." Ana explained, slightly relieved when she saw Kate coming back with her drink. "Thank you!" she said as Kate passed her the glass.

"No problem. Elliot, Christian's here."

"Great, I'll be back in a minute." Elliot said as he walked off in the direction of their kitchen.

"Who's Christian?" Ana asked Kate,

"Just Elliot's younger brother, he's the best man. I'm sure Elliot will introduce you… Just a warning, he can be slightly stand-offish so don't take it personally, it's just how he is. I don't think he likes me very much, he has a thing about journalists so he might not like you by association. That's him with Elliot." Kate nodded, indication to Ana's left and she tried to turn discretely. Ana felt herself blushing just looking at him – he had to be the most attractive man she'd ever seen in person. She forced herself to look away, although it wasn't for long when Elliot brought him over.

"Ana, this is my brother Christian, Christian this is Kate's maid of honour Anastasia." Elliot introduced them before he excused himself and Kate to say hello to his parents. He definitely lost points in Ana's eyes for leaving her stood awkwardly with his ridiculously good looking brother. Christian gave her a polite nod and extended his hand which she shook very tentatively.

"It's nice to meet you." Ana felt compelled to say when he remained silent.

"Is your accent Scottish, Anastasia?" he asked. She nodded, quite impressed. A lot of people guessed Irish first if they weren't familiar with the accent. "So, when did you move over here?"

"Oh no, I don't live here. I'm just over for the wedding. I live in the Highlands so I couldn't really afford to come out before this… You must have thought I was a just a bit of a shit best woman if you didn't realise I didn't live here, not going to any of the stuff other than this…" Ana mused. Maybe he just hadn't noticed that there wasn't a maid of honour there.

"Best woman?" he asked, hint of amusement on his face.

"It's a joke me and Kate have. I was annoyed someone got the title of best man but I didn't get to be the best woman. Maid of honour is, as titles go, pretty rubbish, so Kate said it could be my unofficial title as long as I didn't let it get to my head." It wasn't that funny saying it out loud but she and Kate had thought it was hilarious, but that might have been the wine they were drinking constantly while they'd spoken for three hours.

"Of course. What is it that you do?"

"I'm a nurse. There's not much else to do where I'm from, we're pretty much out in the middle of nowhere so if you want to stay local either you go into something medical, become a teacher or run a shop. There was a load of people when I was little who'd try and commute to Inverness but it's a two hour drive near enough and half the roads become impassable when it snows which is quite a lot in the winter so that stopped. Most people just move away when they get old enough."

"And you've never thought about moving somewhere a little less remote?" he asked. Most people didn't understand why she wouldn't move to a city but Ana liked her small little town, knowing everyone's names and her easy workload.

"Fuck no. Well, not recently. I went away for university but I came back as soon as I could. I like being a little out of the way and my mum left me the house so I couldn't bear to sell it and I wouldn't have the money to move away if I didn't."

"I see." Christian, she had to say, was annoyingly good at keeping his emotions in check. She couldn't get a read on him at all no matter what he was saying which was irritating because she knew for a fact she had an incredibly expressive face and he could probably tell everything that crossed her mind if he cared to pay attention, which in all honesty he probably didn't. He spotted someone across the room and as Ana saw it was a young, pretty girl she felt her stomach lurch a little. She told herself off – he hadn't shown the slightest spark of interest in her and just because he was a bit attractive she was upset at the idea of him being in a relationship. Pathetic. When she went home it was definitely time to get a boyfriend if this was how attached she was to a good looking stranger. "If you'll excuse me, that's my sister Mia, I need to go and say hello. She's been in Paris for the last year." Ana would be lying if she said there wasn't some relief – not because she wanted him, although she definitely wouldn't have said no, just because she'd feel a bit guilty looking so lustfully at someone else's boyfriend.

"He's the only member of Elliot's family that I haven't been able to charm. Everyone else loves me." Kate said with a sigh as she walked back over and caught Ana's glance resting on Christian. She hadn't realised she was staring and made herself look away and up to Kate. "No use pining over him, Ana. Elliot reckons he's gay." Well that was even worse than him already having a girlfriend. "He's never said, Elliot's just never seen him date a woman." At least it wasn't confirmed.

"I'm not pining over him." Ana lied. Kate ignored her completely, probably aware that she wasn't telling the truth.

"Well, I forbid you from going near him anyway." Kate said firmly. Ana looked at her questioningly – Kate had never told her what guys she could go near before and she felt annoyed that she was trying to now before she saw that Kate was smiling and clearly making a joke. "I told you, I want a cliché free wedding. No conga line, no over-used first dance song, and most definitely no maid of honour hooking up with the best man."

"I don't hook up with people Kate, you know that. Queen of the virgins, remember?" That was the title Kate had given her at university. Once it had bothered her, now she wore it with pride, although it was a bit pathetic to be a virgin attending her best friend's wedding. Kate had already had so many more experiences than Ana that she was ready to stop having them and settle down – although Ana was pretty sure she only wanted to have sex once she was in an actual relationship. She definitely couldn't face being as promiscuous as Kate once had been.

"Well then, that's fine." Kate decided. Usually she would have argued the case of making her own decisions a little more but it was Kate's wedding, if Kate was ever allowed to be bossy this was definitely the time for it.

Still, she found herself casting another glance over to Christian. Maybe she didn't hook up and maybe he hadn't seemed particularly interested in her but as he caught he looking and smiled, trying not to blush, Ana decided that admiring him from afar for the next week was perfectly fine. And, if he happened to want to talk to her again, maybe even flirt a little, who was she to stop him?