He turns to look at me over his shoulder. He looks like crap. In a very hot, Gregory kind of way, he looks like he hasn’t slept at all. ‘You said you couldn’t be at the Shard.’
‘Oh. Why?’
‘You said you couldn’t be where it all happened.’
I search my memory and come up empty. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cause such a faff.’
He leans forward and pulls his hands through his hair.
‘And I’m sorry for getting drunk. I know you didn’t want me to… to make myself vulnerable. It just sort of happened.’
‘Scarlett, I wouldn’t ever want you to get that drunk. I didn’t know where you were. You were so upset, I thought that something had happened to you. Youwerevulnerable.’
‘I know.’ I turn the glass of pink liquid around in my lap.
He moves his full body, lifting one knee onto the mattress, and rests a hand on the duvet on top of my leg. ‘It wasn’t just about you being vulnerable. I knew this would happen. You’ve been carrying too much around and I knew if you got drunk…’ He shakes his head and disappears somewhere. His eyes are distant. ‘The truth always comes out in drink.’
And the penny drops. ‘Gregory, I swear I didn’t say anything to anyone. I wanted to. But I didn’t.’
He looks up at me now, his face the image of confusion.
‘Amanda and I had a fight. Oh, God, Amanda. I just left her! I was so angry, I walked out of the bar and left her.’ I dart from the bed, searching for something: my bag, my phone.
‘Amanda’s fine, Scarlett. Williams picked her up.’
‘Williams was at the bar?’ I slump down on the sofa, defeated after my brief, unsuccessful search. ‘I really don’t remember that at all.’
He sits up straight, his eyes still distant but the cogs of his mind whirring. ‘What do you remember?’
Let me see. ‘Dancing. Then bloody Luke wanting to do shots. Amanda wouldn’t do hers so I had three.’ My body shudders. ‘Amanda and I argued. That’s why I left. I was angry and upset and… I…’ I glance quickly up to him and find two irises set on me, scrutinising my words. I hate myself for being so needy.
‘Go on.’
‘I just wanted to talk to you. I missed you and what Amanda said…’
‘What did she say?’
I look at him, into those big, dark-brown eyes, the angles of his face, day-old weekend stubble lining his jaw. The guilt comes back.
‘I remember crying.’
He nods.
‘Oh, God, I was sick! I was sick outside the club.’ My hands move to my mouth. ‘I can’t believe I did that. I’m a disgrace. That’s hideous.’ My head shakes as I close my eyes, my entire insides cringing. ‘I always used to be the sober one. The one helping everyone else throw up, dabbing mascara from other girls’ cheeks. What’s happened to me?’
‘Being drunk, even being sick, doesn’t make you a bad person, Scarlett.’
‘Oh, no. My nightdress.’ I tug the silk around my body. ‘We went to the Shard. Was I sick there too?’
‘In spectacular fashion. I showered you there and changed you into some leggings and a shirt.’ He motions to my clothes, on top of a folded duvet on the floor. ‘You were frantic in the apartment. So I packed some things and drove here.’
My eyes flick from the bed to the folded duvet on the empty space next to me on the sofa. ‘You slept on the sofa?’
‘I was worried you’d be sick again.’
I can feel my brow furrow. ‘Why didn’t you stay in the bed with me?’
He sighs, his shoulders sagging. ‘You really don’t remember what you said to me on the phone last night?’
