Lily carried on gazing into Matt’s eyes for a couple more seconds – her eyes looked heavy, like she couldn’t pull them away from him – and then turned slowly to Felix. ‘I don’tloveit, but it’s fine. Really. I mean, it isn’t like we have any other options.’
‘Yep, and the conditions will be clear,’ Matt pointed out. ‘And if they aren’t, we won’t go. We can just stay a day longer. The majority of aeroplane crashes are weather-related, I’m sure.’
‘Well, you’ve also got terrorism, engine failure, crashes.’ Felix was ticking flight disaster reasons off on his fingers like he was enjoying himself. ‘I could go on.’ The man was an idiot. Lily was looking more miserable by the second.
‘It’s really hot in here.’ Lily started fanning herself with her hand. ‘I feel a bit sick.’
Felix gave her a little shove. ‘I don’t want to be unsympathetic, but if youdothrow up, please do it on Alfredo. He cares a lot less about his clothes than I do.’
‘Why don’t we wind the windows down?’ Alfredo said, already winding.
Lily leaned her head back against her seat and closed her eyes.
‘So what do we think Carole has planned for this evening?’ Matt asked, anything to try to distract Lily. She looked very pale. ‘She mentioned something about some traditional plate smashing earlier.’
‘I don’t think she’s going down that route.’ Lily kept her head back but opened her eyes. ‘Norm said it was wasteful and annoying and that he was putting his foot down. So then she suggested clubbing together in Parikia and Norm said not to be so bloody stupid and now we’re just going to have another pool-side barbecue, which sounds lovely.’
Chat about the evening ahead got them all the way back to Carole and Norm’s and they all got out of the taxi just as Carole and her jeep arrived in a swirl of dust.
‘Hello.’ Meg jumped out and hugged Lily and then waved at the others. ‘Thank you so much for reserving the flight for us.’
‘Congratulations.’ Lily, who looked like she’d recovered completely from her flight stress, pulled Pythagoras into their hug. ‘I’m so happy for you both. So exciting.’
‘What are we celebrating?’ Felix asked.
‘Pythagoras is moving to Edinburgh with me tomorrow.’ Meg had an enormous smile on her face. During the time that Matt and Lily were together, Meg had had at least three traumatic relationship break-ups that he could recall, and Lily had been there for her every time.
He suddenly wondered whether Meg had been there for Lily whenthey’dsplit up because that had to have been traumatic for Lily, surely. Maybe Meg had been busy having her own break-up – there’d been something just before he and Lily split. Or maybe Lily wouldn’t have let on how upset he was pretty sure she’d been.
‘How long have youknowneach other?’ Felix was looking between Meg and Pythagoras, eyes like saucers. Alfredo gave him the mother of all nudges to the ribs, and he jumped. ‘What? Just asking.’
‘We met last Monday,’ Meg said. ‘Which probably seems quite quick, I suppose, but sometimes you just know when you meet The One.’
‘Yes.’ Pythagoras kissed the top of her head. ‘You do.’
Well, it sounded utterly ridiculous, frankly, to be moving country for someone you barely knew.
Although… Matt looked over at Lily, because he couldn’t help it. Yeah, if he’d been braver and less obsessed with his career in the early years, and followed his heart a lot more, he’d probably have moved country for her almost from the moment he first met her when he nearly tripped over her five miles into the charity walkathon Tess had roped them both into.
Lily had plonked herself down on a rock and said, ‘Time for a little rest,’ and had pulled a tub of chocolate brownies, a little pack of one-shot-tequila mini bottles and some tissues out of her backpack. Matt could still remember looking at her shimmery orange nail varnish-tipped fingers holding the brownie tub out to him, and then into her eyes when she’d smiled at him and said, ‘Always be prepared.’ She’d been wearing a pale-blue top with a wide neck that slipped off her shoulder quite a lot, and she’d had her long curly hair up on top of her head and held in place by a bright-green band. She hadn’t really looked that prepared for a twenty-six-mile walk, other than the refreshments she’d brought. And she’d smiled her gorgeous smile and her eyes had been laughing and he’d grinned back at her and taken a brownie and a tequila bottle and he’d known that he really wanted to get to know her a lot better. And within a couple of weeks, on that plane, he’d been certain that she was his One.
It still felt like she was his One. It felt like maybe he just needed to convince her of that.
She was returning his gaze now. Was she also thinking about the past?
He couldn’t stop looking at her. His lips were forming into a half smile, just for her, and something inside him had changed, settled into certainty. Yes. He should have been a lot braver before, fought harder. Tonight he was going to fight for the chance to restart their relationship.
She was still gazing back at him, but she wasn’t smiling, she was just… looking.
They needed to talk more. Right now. It felt like there was no time to waste. They had maybe thirteen hours before the flight tomorrow morning.
He really wished they were alone. He took a step towards Lily and bumped into Alfredo.
‘Sorry, mate.’ He stepped round Alfredo and carried on walking towards Lily. It sounded like the others were all still talking about how Meg and Pythagoras had met. Felix was exclaimingveryloudly about howgorgetheir story was.
Not as gorge as it would be if Matt and Lily got back together after all this time. In his opinion, anyway.
‘So,’ he said, when he was standing in front of her.
