‘You’re going to have some breakfast and watch something nice on TV and then have a shower and then get your hair and make-up done. And we are going to sort something out. Honestly,’ Lily said, ‘it’s going to be fine. Wewillsort it. Could I just get Carole’s number? She might know some people.’
When they’d got Tess into her room and had her sitting in bed watching someGrey’s Anatomy, they closed her door and set off down the corridor.
‘I’ve got to get this face mask off before I do anything else,’ said Aaliyah, outside her own door, ‘and maybe have a shower. Meet in the foyer in half an hour?’
‘Make it fifteen minutes? We might have alotto do.’
Lily made it to the hotel lobby twenty-five minutes later and Aaliyah five minutes after her.
‘Took me bloody ages to get all that green stuff off,’ she said. ‘Shouldn’t have left it on for so long.’
‘The hotel receptionist hasnoideas and says that the owner is away on Paros today and won’t be contactable barring death or a fire, and Meg’s still not answering her phone,’ Lily told her, ‘so I’m thinking let’s call Carole.’
No answer.
‘What’swrongwith everyone?’ Lily said. ‘It’s eight thirty and they have a wedding to go to this afternoon. Why aren’t they answering their bloody phones?’
‘We really need some help,’ Aaliyah said. ‘I’m really sorry but I’m wondering whether we – I saywe, I meanyou– should call Matt. He might have Carole’s husband’s number or someone else’s, and he might have some ideas.’
‘There must be someone else,’ Lily said. After the awfulness of last night, her plan with Matt had been to never, ever speak to him again.
‘Well, who? Tom and Tess’s parents will be getting ready for the wedding and Tess’s mum will also be busy having a nervous breakdown. We need to get going on making plans right now because we’ll need to let everyone know where it’s going to be and try to decorate it to make it look weddingy.’
‘We do need to start sorting things out fast,’ Lily said. ‘Maybe people are just in the shower at the moment.’
Five minutes later no one had answered Lily’s repeated calls and voice messages.
‘Soooooo…’ Aaliyah’s right foot was definitely twitching, like she wanted to stamp it. ‘…in addition to being someone whose number we have, Matt is anarchitect. So he could really help us.’
‘Architect,’ Lily said. ‘Not wedding planner.’
‘He designs stuff, though, doesn’t he? Which we don’t. Just bloody phone him. Surely?’ And Aaliyah actually did stamp her foot.
‘So I’ll call Matt now,’ Lily said.
Ten
Matt
Matt’s phone was ringing as he opened his en-suite door after his shower.
Lily.
Really? Why?
He stared at the phone buzzing away on his bedside table.
He’d been pretty sure when he’d left the dinner last night that he absolutely didn’t want to talk to her again. He’d continued to feel like that while obsessing about their – highly unsatisfying – conversation during a relatively sleepless night.
Now that therewasthe option to speak to her again, though, he felt like, on balance, he wanted to seize the phone, shout a lot and then beg her to meet up with him.
He was going to answer it. He stretched his hand out and… it stopped ringing.
He could take that as a sign that it would be better for them not to speak. Or he could phone her back.
He picked the phone up.
Actually, no. Probably better not to. Or should he?
