Bo nodded, and Willa stepped into her house, pulling Bo towards her for a hug.
“Wills,” Bo sniffed again. “I’msad.”
“Oh, Bo.” Willa squeezed her tightly. “Fuck him, right? Let’s open the wine. We can sit in the dark, and you can tell me what happened.”
“Nothing good happened.”
“You mean you told him you loved him?”
“I didn’t need to,” Bo said miserably. “He told me he’d already figured it out.I’m obvious,that’s what he said. He then ended it. But don’t worry,” she felt her eyes fill with tears once more. “He’s going to keep his guests away from my garden and get an electrician in tomorrow, so there’s that.”
Willa stared at her for a moment. “No wonder you look like you do. Where is he? Mr Two out of Ten? Want me to kill him?”
Bo shook her head. “No, thanks.”
“Are you sure? We could, I don’t know, jam his hand into electrical cabling and blame the foxes or something.”
“I’m sure, but thanks all the same.” Bo took a deep breath. “I love him, Wills. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him.”
“Even after what he did? Even after what he said?”
Bo nodded. “Yes. Even after that.”
“He doesn’t deserve you,” Willa remarked, and she squeezed Bo again.
“It doesn’t matter whether he deserves me or not.” Bo sighed. “It matters whether he wants me or not, and he’s decided he doesn’t. Case closed. Flower dead. Concerto finished.”
“Asshole.”
“That’s the thing,” Bo replied, looking at Willa with eyes that still stung from her earlier crying. “I don’t think he is. He told me himself: it isn’t his fault that feelings got involved, and it isn’t mine either. It just happened. We had an arrangement, and I broke it. He’s not an asshole for that.”
“He’s an asshole for how he dealt with it though. He could’ve been nicer about it, Bo.”
“He’s getting an electrician in. And keeping his guests away from my garden.”
“What? You mean like the two who just poured the remainder of their drinks into your pond?”
“What?!” Bo sat bolt upright, peering out of her window. Sure enough, two young women were stood by her pond, talking and laughing, their empty glasses floating on top of the pondweed. Fury immediately filled her. “That pond is a fragile eco-system. I have breeding great crested newts in there,” she said indignantly. “How are my newts meant to have baby newts if they’re all too drunk to get laid?”
Willa shrugged, but Bo was already on her feet.
“I’m going to talk to them, and then find Max,” she said to Willa. “You stay here and keep the wine cold.”
“What? No,” Willa protested, standing too. “There’s a party up there. I’m joining it.”
“We’re not invited, Wills.”
“So? They weren’t invited to your place.” Willa nodded to the women outside. “But they still came over anyway. Come on,I want to meet Mr Two out of Ten. I want to see the dick who broke your heart.”
“His name is Max.”
“Max then. I just want a peek. Look, when I find him, I’ll tell him to come and move his guests. Then you won’t have to.”
Bo hesitated. “You’re Willa Abbott. People will recognize you.”
“So? What if they do? I’ll just say I’m a lookalike. Berg and I use that excuse all the—” Willa’s face shifted. “Look, I’ll just take a look at Mr Two out of Ten, get him to move his guests on, and then I’ll sidle back down here, okay? It means you don’t have to talk to him, and the breeding ground of your great breasted boots—”
“Great crested newts.”
