My Countryside Hunt

"This is such a wonderful venue," I rolled my eyes; preparing myself for whatever she was going to say. Although, when I thought about it, whatever it was couldn't possibly make the night worse than it already was. Nikki had gone off somewhere an hour and a half previously and despite two 'toilet' trips, I hadn't managed to find her. Whilst playing doting Uncle, Sandra's kids had managed to spill bolognaise down my shirt and as I had left my room key in the room, and Nikki had buggered off with the other one, I was left stranded. Most of the guests had made their way out onto the massive outdoor terrace, admiring the sunset on what was an abnormally clear night; thus leaving me alone with Mum at our table, with a few people we had never met before chatting away to each other at the other tables. "Do you think you'd like a white wedding?"

"Mum," I looked at her as if I were scolding a small child.

"Not you as well,"

"What do you mean 'not me as well'?" I stared at her curiously, terrified of what might come next.

"Well, I merely mentioned the possibility of her being my daughter-in-law and within seconds Nikki was gone," Oh god. A million thoughts ran through my head. Maybe Nikki had packed and left? She seemed to be pretty keen on dodging any questions involving the future of our 'relationship'; maybe it had become a bit too much for her, she never had been that good at lying.

"Mum!" Maybe she was wondering the grounds somewhere?

"Don't 'Mum!' me, you've been courting for quite a while now, it's only natural that you wo..."

"Courting?" For a moment my mind was distracted from the pressing matter of Nikki's whereabouts. "What are you? Victorian? Edwardian?"

"Courting is a perfectly reasonable word,"

"If you were born in the 1700s,"

"Loads of people still use it."

"Loads of people? The leftover First World War veterans? Nobody says courting, Mum, it..." I realised I'd become sidetracked. "Mum, courting isn't the point. What did you say to Nikki?"

"I merely suggested that it could be her in a year or so,"

"What could be her?"

"Standing alone on a balcony for the most of the night because of pre-wedding jitters, not eating for fear of not being able to fit into the dress..."

"Oh, just all the positive sides of getting married then?"

"I made it more appealing when I suggested it to her," I wasn't really sure how to carry on the conversation after that – I couldn't tell her the real reason for Nikki's dodging of the subject, and if I even tried to make up the excuse that she was a commitment-phobe, Mum would have most definitely spent half an hour lecturing me with her you're-the-commitment-phobe-grow-a-pair speech, which she had previously used when I was unsure whether I wanted to meet a girl's parents. "Although, given your track record, she'll be dead before you decide to ask her," As it turned out, I didn't need to even mention the subject; Mum got onto all by herself. "Sharing your life with someone else is the natural thing to do, you know?"

"Yes, I'm well aware,"

"You don't seem to be. You seem to be taking every action possible to avoid the natural thing,"

"Did she say where she was going?" The sooner I escaped my mother, the better.

"To get some air or something," She waved a hand vaguely towards the French doors that led out onto a patio, where most of the wedding party were stood conversing among each other, which itself ended at a large pond, before allowing the expanse of grounds to stretch out towards the trees where I had turned off the main road the day before – the cars now only visible as tiny specks of light. "Anyway, I..." I didn't let her finish before standing up.

"I'll see you in a bit Mum,"

"You're buggering off as well?"

"I'll just check on her," I smiled and made my way to terrace, trying to think up a strategy.

After a long 5 minutes of standing next to random strangers, trying to look involved in a conversation that I wasn't even listening to, so that my train of thought wasn't interrupted by a family member, I finally decided that I was probably best checking the room again. There was no point spending the night wondering around the stupidly large grounds, if she was tucked up cosy in bed – which was a real possibility. Too much wine and she was out like a light given half the chance.

She wasn't there.

So, I started my hunt. To survey whether she was somewhere in the crowd of guests, I managed to find a balcony on the second floor, practically right above the patio. Unable to find a blonde in a pale blue dress, I went out the front entrance, anxious to avoid my family, and began a circle of the hotel. Once I realised she wasn't anywhere close to the building, I knew I couldn't search everywhere, so I looked at one of the little map leaflets, and set off, planning to visit each of the main points of interest.

I'm really rubbish at updating. Blame it on a mix of writer's block and 6 hours of exams in a week.

No Nikki in a chapter :(