Chapter 14.
At nine thirty the following morning they had both showered and dressed. They hurriedly made their way down to the dining room and met up with their friends for breakfast. Jeff made arrangements with Stu and Paul to play golf the following day, whilst Sharmini promised to pop down to Henley and visit Katrina at the weekend.
Sitting in the back of the cab on their way back to Jeff's house in South Norwood they made plans for their wedding, and pondered over the possibility of buying a house on the prestigious estate of Bishops Walk, a tree lined thoroughfare that runs through the middle of Addington Palace's Golf Course. The cheapest house couldn't be bought for under £3 million. It was only two miles from his old house, so things wouldn't have to change that much, and Sharmini would still be close to her family.
Jeff wasn't too keen on the whole Indian wedding thing. Especially after the brush he had with his future father in law.
At first Sharmini wasn't too happy with Jeff's request for a traditional English type wedding, but she understood his reasoning behind it. She did however explain to him that eventually and in the not too distant future, there would have to be a big full on Indian wedding.
Jeff being an understanding type of guy explained how pissed off he was with her father and of course her family would get their traditional wedding, but not until he had made her father wait a while.
The phone call he received from his ex was not unexpected. She obviously hadn't received her copy of the Decree Absolute, and she was still under the illusion that she was entitled to half his winnings. Not wanting to let her down gently, he told her that he had the Decree Absolute, and as luck would have it, it had been issued just one day BEFORE he won the lottery. He asked her how her new bank manager boyfriend was doing. She was surprised that Jeff knew about Keith (The Bank Manager). He told her not to call him again for at least one month, and he might think about giving her something. He'd already thought about having a large stick of rock made up with Guildford written all the way through it. He hung up.
A few days later the wedding invitations went out. Neither of them had ever been there before, but they thought a beach wedding on the island of The Dominican Republic would be as romantic as it could get. An urgent RSVP was on the invites as they needed to know who would need air tickets and hotel rooms. This wasn't the usual invite with the plus one attached. Which pleased Jeff because it didn't include Katrina's lecherous Aussie friend, the one who had his nose half way down Sharmini's dress at the Royal Lancaster.
It was two months before the wedding, during which time Jeff had meetings with Richard Branson, travelled to various golf courses to secure a venue for his charity golf tournament. They even found a house they both liked.
A meeting had been arranged between Sharmini, her father Max and Jeff. It was a tense affair held at the family house. Jeff knew for the sake of Sharmini reconciliation had to be made. He tried his best, but Max could be a stubborn arrogant pompous prick at times, and this was one of those times. Telling Max all they wanted was an apology and things would be ok, he repeatedly refused telling them he did what he did for the good of the family. Unable to come to any kind of a settlement, Jeff told Max that in his job he had seen many top exec's collapse in their offices with either a heart attack, or a stroke, and every one of them that could still talk, wished they could have been kinder to their nearest and dearest, many of them wished they hadn’t left their house that morning in a huff after a trivial argument. He told Max he now had that chance, and if he didn't take it there and then, he would guarantee that one day he would regret his decision and wish he had. He didn't budge so with Sharmini in tears and her father still behaving like an arrogant prick.
They left.