‘Why are you angry with me?’ he asks gently.
‘I’m not angry with you.’ But there’s no conviction to my voice.
‘Yes, you are.’ Pause. ‘I can take it,’ he adds.
I sigh loudly. ‘Did Michael ask you to take me for some driving lessons?’
‘No!’ His reply is indignant.
‘Did he ask you to show me around?’
‘No! Is that what this is about?’
I shrug, feeling more and more foolish with every word that comes out of my mouth. ‘I don’t know,’ I mutter.
He sits up and leans his elbows on his knees. ‘Lily, I like you.’What?‘You’re a mate.’ Oh. ‘I’m not being nice to you as some favour to a colleague.’
‘Okay,’ I reply lamely.
‘What are you up to tonight?’ He changes the subject.
‘Going out with Josh.’ I like being able to reply to this question for two reasons. One, I’m relieved I have plans for a change, and two, I know this answer will annoy Ben. I take a strange sense of pleasure from that.
‘Oh, right.’
Yep, he’s pissed off. Good.
‘Where are you going?’ he asks.
‘Stirling.’
‘Doesn’t that guy ever go anywhere else?’
Of course he does, and Ben knows it as well as I do. But I don’t want to push it any further.
‘What about you?’ I ask instead.
‘Another night in front of the telly, I imagine.’
‘Don’t party too hard,’ I say meanly, and regret it when he abruptly gets up. ‘You off?’
‘Lunchtime’s over,’ he says coolly, holding down his hand to me. I take it and he pulls me to my feet. I follow him up the slope, my face burning.
‘Have fun with the dingoes. See you tomorrow,’ he says with an air of finality as he breaks away to head towards the kangaroos. And quite bizarrely, I feel like I’m going to cry.
That night I find myself in the middle of some surreal game that Josh is playing with Lou. Her Army bloke ex that Shane mentioned to me a few weeks ago is back in town for Christmas, and Lou seems intent on making Josh jealous. He in turn, I suspect, is using me to get back at her. He’s been trying to teach me to play pool, and even though my mind is stuck on Ben, it’s still kind of nice to feel someone’s arms around me as I’m shown how to hold a pool cue and bounce balls off the cushions into pockets.
By ten o’clock Josh has cornered me in a booth while I try to ignore Lou giving us evils from across the bar. Her attempts to flirt with her ex have backfired because he’s currently chatting up a petite brunette by the toilets.
‘It’s weird how our parents hooked up, isn’t it?’ Josh says, his dark-brown eyes gazing intently into mine.
‘Yeah, I suppose so,’ I reply offhandedly, and I know that my indifference is driving him mad. He’s so used to being the centre of every girl’s attention. ‘Have you shagged Lou yet?’
He looks taken aback at my direct question. ‘No,’ he replies, flustered. ‘Why would I do that?’
‘I thought you were into each other.’
‘What gave you that idea?’
