“So the first date in the mortuary?”
“Lie.” I nod.
“Sex on the district attorney’s desk?”
“Total lie.”
“I knew it!” She turns to her husband triumphantly. “Didn’t I tell you?” She puts the silver crown on her head and holds the trophy aloft. “This belongs to us, I think. We’re the Happy Couple of the Week; thank you, everybody—”
“For Christ’s sake, Melissa,” snaps Matt. “No, we’re bloody not.”
Richard, meanwhile, is gazing at me tensely. “So you really haven’t …?”
“Not once.”
“Yesss!” Richard’s air punch is the most ecstatic I’ve ever seen. “In your face. Re-sult! Yesssss!” He looks more aggressive than I’ve ever seen him. God, I love him.
“You flew halfway across the world for me.” I nestle into his shoulder again.
“Of course.”
“And then you flew to Greece.”
“Of course.”
I don’t know why I ever thought Richard wasn’t romantic. I don’t know why we ever split up. My ear is pressed against his chest, and I can hear the familiar, soothing thump of his heartbeat. This is where I want to be forever. I’ve tuned out the rest of the world, although I’m dimly aware of the others’ voices.
“You can get an annulment,” Fliss keeps saying. “Do you see, Lottie? This is brilliant! You can get an annulment.”
“It’s put the sausage in the cupcake,” Lorcan keeps saying. “Cupcake.”
35
FLISS
Well, she was right about the sunsets. I’ve never seen anything as spectacular as this in my life. The sun is slowly glowing down the sky, and it’s not just sinking, it’s shooting rays of pink and orange with such dramatic force, I’m put in mind of one of Noah’s superheroes. “Sunset” sounds quite passive, quite nothing-y. This is more like sun-pow! Sun-take-that!
I look down at Noah’s face, all rosy in the light, and I think again, He’ll be OK. For the first time in ages, I don’t feel angst or stress or anger. He’ll be OK. He’ll sort himself out. I’ll sort myself out. It’s all good.
We’ve had an odd time. Kind of cathartic and uncomfortable, embarrassing and joyful, awkward and wonderful, all at the same time. Nico rustled us up a table at the beach-side restaurant, and all five of us sat around eating meze to make your taste buds sing with joy and slow-cooked lamb to make your insides whimper with ecstasy.
The food here really is good. Must make sure I big it up in my piece.
There were a lot of questions. There were a lot of stories. There was a lot of kissing.
Lottie and I are … OK. I think. There are still sore spots and rough patches between us, but there’s also been a kind of revelation. We’re on the way to a gradual understanding about who we are to each other, which maybe we’ll look at properly later. (Or not bother and just charge on with life, probably more likely.)
Lorcan was the quiet star. He steered the conversation whenever it was threatening to become awkward, and he ordered fantastic wine, and he kept a kind of humorous knee-nudging thing going on with me, which I liked. I like him. I don’t just fancy him, I like him.
As for Ben, he’s disappeared. Which is understandable. Once it became plain that he’d been publicly rejected for another man by his brand-new wife, he skedaddled. Can’t blame him. I expect he’s found solace at a bar somewhere.
Richard and Lottie have gone for a walk down the beach, and Noah is skimming stones at the water’s edge, so it’s just Lorcan and me, sitting on a low wall with our bare feet in the sand. The smell of cooking from the restaurant is mingled with the salty sea air and the faint aroma of his aftershave, which is bringing back all sorts of memories.
I don’t just like him, I fancy him. Really quite a lot.
“Oh, wait. I got you something,” he says suddenly.
“You got me something?” I stare at him.
“It’s not much. I put it aside … Hold on.” He heads toward the restaurant and I watch him, intrigued. A few moments later he comes back, holding a plant in a pot. A little olive tree in a pot, to be precise.
“For your patio,” he says, and I stare at him in disbelief.
“You bought that for me?” I’m so touched, tears spring to my eyes. I can’t remember the last time someone bought something for me.
“You need something,” he says gravely. “You need … a start.”
He couldn’t have put it better. I need a start. As I look up again, his eyes are so warm I feel something stumble inside me.