Bea just ignores him.
‘Is this the business we talked about me potentially investing in?’ Beau can’t help but ask.
‘Run a mile, chap,’ Chester warns him. ‘She’s going to bleed you dry with that one.’
‘Yes,’ I reply, ignoring Chester. ‘It’s a safety thing.’
‘That does sound a little silly,’ Beau says as tactfully as he can. ‘I can’t imagine much of a market for it.’
‘It’s not silly, it’s all part of something bigger, to keep women safe,’ I insist. ‘That’s not the whole idea – there would be a button that will message your friend, giving them your real-time location, in case something happens, and a panic button in case something really bad happens. Maybe even something that links to a rape alarm, in your bag, so that if you’re in trouble you can just hit something on your phone – it’s not always easy to rummage around in your bag. The phone – or even a smartwatch – is more subtle.’
‘Where on earth do you spend your time, Lana?’ Bea asks me, genuinely horrified. ‘Because it sounds like you’re trying to make a safe way to fraternise with murderers and sex offenders.’
‘The world is full of murderers and sex offenders,’ I remind her. ‘And they don’t always look like they belong onCrimewatch, most of the time they look like you and me. Ialmost had my drink spiked recently and, honestly, I still think about it, even though I got off lightly…’
‘Can we not talk about sex offenders over dinner,’ Dad insists.
Yes, because that’s the takeaway from that sentence.
‘Sorry,’ I say flatly.
‘Well, I think it’s a great idea,’ Ethan says firmly.
‘To be fair, EPJ, you want to marry her, so you would,’ Chester teases him.
The dinner conversation moves on from sex offenders, unsurprisingly, but all I can think about is the reaction from everyone. What planet do they live on, where they think that women don’t need to keep themselves safe? And Beau especially – I’m surprised at him. One minute he’s all about helping me follow my dreams but then he’s telling me my dreams are silly?
When dinner is over, I can’t wait to leave the table.
‘Lana, I was thinking, we could watch a movie,’ Ethan suggests. ‘Go to the kitchen, grab us some snacks, and I’ll go upstairs and get something ready.’
He’s too excited to wait for a response. He dashes off upstairs, just as Beau walks off in the other direction.
For a second, I wonder which one to follow. I’ve been trying to get Beau to like me and he seems like he might, so you would think I would want to go to his room, but then I think about how dismissive he was of my app, and how small he made me feel. Ethan, on the other hand, is like my cheerleader, and we might even be together now, if we weren’t such a car crash when we were together.
I take a deep breath as I make my decision – the only real choice – and head up to the room that I’m sharing with Ethan. He gets me, and he thinks I’m great as I am, and that’s the kind of person I should be spending time with.
Yes, Beau is an earl but, really, I’m not sure what else he has to offer apart from empty charm.
Ethan is the one for me. Tonight, I mean. Although, now that I think about it, he really does seem perfect for me. Apart from the car crash thing, of course. It’s a shame that might always get in our way.
41
Ethan seems different tonight.
He was his usual self at dinner, and then when we came up to our room and put the movie on, but around two-thirds of the way throughStep Brothershis laughter seemed to die down, and now that it’s finishing he seems positively frozen in time.
‘So, are we going to talk about you proposing?’ I ask with a laugh, now that the movie is over.
He flashes me a little smile.
‘Tell me that wouldn’t have been romantic, if it were real,’ he replies.
‘Oh, no, super romantic,’ I agree. ‘Plus you have the tactical advantage of threatening to undo a girl’s safety harness if she says no.’
He laughs at my joke but then it’s like someone hits the mute button again.
‘So, did you do that to help or hurt?’ I ask curiously. ‘Although I guess your help does always seem to hurt.’
