Page 96 of So, I Met This Guy . . .

‘What’s in them?’

‘Um . . . gin and Campari, I think, and something else. I can’t remember.’

Rory wrinkled his nose. ‘I’ll stick to beer.’

‘You can try mine if you like, see if you like it.’

‘No, thanks. I’m not into fancy cocktails.’

‘It’s not a fancy cocktail, everyone was drinking them in Italy.’

As soon as she mentioned Italy, Flick knew she shouldn’t have. Rory’s face clouded.

‘Well, you won’t be drinking those when you’re back home.’

‘Oh, I don’t know, I’ll have to get Colin to serve them at the pub,’ she teased, but Rory didn’t laugh.

‘I missed you.’

‘I’ve only been gone a week.’

‘Didn’t you miss me?’

‘Of course.’

She was lying. She hadn’t missed Rory at all.

‘Come here, you.’

Draping his arm around her shoulder, he pulled her in close for a kiss. Flick tried to relax, but he was being all weird and insecure. Flying out here, surprising her like this. What had got into him? Rory hadn’t been like this when he’d gone off with the lads to Germany last month to watch the UEFA Champions League. A whole week in Munich and she barely heard a peep from him, other than a couple of thumbs-up emojis whenever she’d texted to see how it was going. Or the time he’d gone camping in Scotland for Callum’s stag weekend – which from her memory, was a very long weekend – and he’d gone off-grid. Which she suspected was another word for whisky-tasting.

‘Nice place this.’ Rory looked around at the hotel bar. ‘Can’t believe The Local Echo stretched to this! How does it work then, do you just put in your expenses at the end?’

‘Um, yes.’

‘Must be doing better than we thought, old Seymour.’

‘Hmm.’

‘Charges an arm and a leg for the classifieds. Remember when our kid got married?’

Our kid being Rory’s brother. Flick nodded vaguely.

‘So—’

‘So—’

‘What shall we do this weekend?’

‘Well, to be honest, I’m supposed to be working.’

‘Oh, c’mon, I’ve flown all this way to see you! Can’t you take a day off? What’s so important about this story anyway? What’s the big secret?’

Flick felt herself clam up. She didn’t want to tell Rory. He always trivialized her job on the paper. ‘It’s not like you’re saving lives,’ he’d retort, if ever she got stressed about work. And while she knew he was just saying that to make her feel better – ‘I’m just trying to put things in perspective, babe’ – she couldn’t help wondering whose perspective exactly, because it only made her feel worse. In fact, just the fact he’d shown up, expecting her to drop everything to make time for him, was indicative of his attitude towards her career.

‘Oh, it’s nothing.’

‘Can’t be nothing. Not if it’s top secret and they’ve got you out here,’ he continued. ‘I thought the local paper was supposed to be about local news, anyhow?’