‘So do you think you’ll ever see Dan again?’ Lily asked Zoe the following morning.
Wasn’t that the million-dollar question? thought Zoe despondently as
she looked at her sister and shrugged. ‘I really don’t know.’
After the horrible end to last night it didn’t seem likely, but, God, she hoped that whatever she and Dan had it wasn’t over. She hadn’t slept well. She’d tossed and turned all night, reliving the conversation, silently cursing his unflinching denial and driving herself crazy with all the things she’d said but probably shouldn’t have. Who was she to try and tell him what his problems were? She was hardly fault free.
‘Well, frankly, why would you even want to?’ said Lily with a sniff. ‘He might be the most eligible bachelor on the planet and whatever but he sounds like he was a complete arse last night. I mean, fancy doing something like that. To you, of all people. You’re the most loyal person I know. He’s clearly got baggage you do not want to end up with.’
‘Probably.’ Definitely, more like, and an entire train carriage full of the stuff. ‘But he has his reasons.’ Not that she’d be divulging any of them, even if she hadn’t signed that confidentiality agreement.
Lily snorted. ‘Well, he’s a man so that’s one pretty good reason. Self-centred to the hilt, no doubt, so what can you expect?’
After a brief but turbulent marriage to what she tended to describe as a weak, pathetic, unfaithful louse, Lily didn’t have the highest opinion of men. And after last night, neither had Zoe, but nevertheless self-centred wasn’t an adjective that sprang to mind when she thought of Dan.
‘Actually, I don’t think he is,’ she said, recalling the zest with which he’d adopted the role of her boyfriend all those weeks ago and all the recent effort he’d been putting into building up her self-esteem.
‘Well, it sounds like he could definitely work on his interpersonal skills.’
‘His interpersonal skills are fine,’ she said.
‘You’re hardly one to judge,’ said Lily archly.
‘Hey,’ she said, indignation momentarily pulling her out of her despair.
‘What? You’re the first to admit you can be a bit odd and socially inept at times.’
‘I prefer quirky.’ Dan had come up with that one night when she’d been explaining her love of numbers and she thought it sounded rather good.
‘I’m sure you do. And what about “socially inept”? Do you have a euphemism for that too? Because it seems to me that “socially inept” is a euphemism for the messes you sometimes get yourself into.’
‘Gee, thanks.’
‘You’re welcome. But why are you standing up for him when he’s behaved so appallingly?’
Zoe sighed. ‘I have no idea. But he’s not altogether bad. Just a bit misguided.’
‘Now that is a euphemism,’ said Lily darkly.
Maybe it was. ‘Did I tell you he asked me to sign a confidentiality agreement?’
Lily’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened. ‘No! Really?’ Then she frowned. ‘God, who the hell does he think he is?’
‘Someone in the public eye who’s been burned before?’
‘How long have you been seeing each other?’
‘A month or so.’
‘And hasn’t he got to know you at all in that time?’
‘I’d like to think he has,’ she said with a faint smile as she recalled all the long lazy conversations they’d had.
‘So has he ripped it up?’
‘I haven’t asked him to.’
Lily looked outraged. ‘You shouldn’t have to.’