‘You could say that.’
‘How was the restaurant?’
‘The restaurant was fine.’ The food had been divine. The atmosphere, however, had been positively frosty and things had gone downhill from there.
‘And how’s Kit?’ asked her sister, zeroing in on the trouble with a precision born from experience.
‘I haven’t a clue.’
‘What happened?’
‘The honeymoon’s over.’ She wasn’t sure the whole thing wasn’t over and her heart actually physically hurt at the thought.
There was a pause while Zoe absorbed this news. ‘Huh?’
‘We had a row.’
‘About what?’
The machine having done its job, Lily lifted the cup and took it back to her desk. ‘Remember the one-night stand he had?’ she said, sitting down and wrapping her hands round it as if the heat might give her the strength to relive the horrors of last night’s scene.
‘How could I forget?’
‘It turns out she works with him.’
Zoe’s jaw dropped and her eyebrows shot up. ‘No,’ she breathed.
‘Yes.’
Taking advantage of her sister’s astonishment and speechlessness Lily sipped her coffee and filled her in on the details of how she’d found out.
‘What did you do?’ said Zoe, once Lily had finished her rundown.
‘Lost it.’
‘I’m not surprised.’
‘I threw a wine glass at him.’
Zoe winced. ‘Full?’
‘Empty.’
‘Classy.’
‘I know,’ said Lily with a sigh. ‘Not exactly my finest moment.’
‘I’d say you had provocation, and look on the bright side—it could have been worse.’
‘How?’
‘You could have taken a key to his car, scissors to his suits and emailed his backers.’
‘There is that,’ said Lily with a grimace. ‘And at least I didn’t bottle it all up as usual.’
‘You certainly didn’t.’ Zoe shook her head. ‘But, Lil, that ultimatum… Really?’
‘I know,’ said Lily glumly. ‘It was wholly unreasonable. Grossly unfair. I shouldn’t have done it. I’m mortified that I did, but I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly.’