‘I’m really glad we got to talk about all of this,’ she whispered.
‘Me too.’
She wiped her cheeks and stood up with another one of those fluid yoga movements.
Matt stood up too. It felt like a big effort. ‘I should go.’
‘Yep.’ Lily moved over to the door and opened it.
When he got to the door, she stood on tiptoes and put her arms round his neck and pulled him into a fierce hug.
He held her tightly and buried his face in her hair for a long moment. God, he loved her scent.
This was almost certainly the last time he’d ever hold her.
‘Goodbye,’ she mumbled into his shoulder a few seconds later.
‘Bye.’ He could barely get the word out.
They let go of each other.
And she closed the door behind him.
He stood and stared at it. It was wooden and panelled, but modern.
He was pretty sure that image of the closed door would be imprinted in his memory forever.
God.
He’d always thought that if he’d knownwhythey split up it maybe wouldn’t have hurt so much. Not true as it turned out.
Part of him wanted to bang hard on the door and tell her that he loved her and he thought she might still love him and what else did you need in a relationship.
And the rest of him knew that that would be stupid and the best thing for him was to walk away and not get hurt again.
So he walked off along the corridor.
Fifteen
Lily
Thatnoise. Bloody phone. Lily flung her arm out of bed and smacked the phone and the alarm stopped. Thank the Lord for that. She put her head under a pillow and went back to sleep. And then off the alarm went again. She smacked the phone again and then turned onto her back and peeled open her eyes. Eurgh. So gunky. She should really have taken her make-up off last night.
And, oh. Matt. She should really not have had that conversation with him. She didn’t think he’d felt better afterwards and she definitely hadn’t. She’d ended up crying for hours and not going to sleep until about 6 a.m.
What time was it now? She reached down to pick up her phone. Eleven thirty. Shit. She should really have set the alarm for a bit earlier.
She was going to have to be quick if she was going to be on time for her lunch meeting with Felix and Alfredo.
She took a quick look at her messages. Yesssss: Felix and Alfredo had overslept and would she mind meeting half an hour later. She wouldadoremeeting half an hour later.
She had two messages from Aaliyah and now the meeting was later she had time to read them before she finished packing her bags and checked out.
Goodbye, hun. Didn’t bother going to bed – only stopped dancing for long enough for a quick shower and change in time to get myself on the first ferry. See you back in London. Can’t wait to see my babies later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OMG. Have you heard from Meg????? Call her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And a missed call from Meg.
