Now the seamstress, having finished her alterations, helped Lily out of the dress and carried it off, leaving Lily to step down off the dais and pull on her clothes aware that her sister was watching her every move.
‘What?’ she muttered, unable to bear the scrutiny a second longer as she did up her jeans and made a mental note to buy a belt.
‘When did you last eat?’
Eat? Had she had a piece of toast last night perhaps? She couldn’t remember. ‘A while ago,’ she said.
‘Fancy some lunch?’ said Zoe.
Nearly throwing up at the idea of lunch, Lily swallowed back the wave of nausea and shrugged her jacket on. ‘Thanks, but I don’t think I could stomach lunch right now.’
‘Then you can watch me eat.’
‘Not sure I want to do that either.’
‘Too bad,’ said Zoe, taking her arm in a surprisingly firm grip and marching her out of the shop, ‘because I’m hungry and we need to have a little chat.’
*
Five minutes later, Zoe, with a determination Lily would never have expected from her previously non-confrontational sister, had found a pub, ordered two plates of fish and chips and two glasses of white wine and had plonked her down at a table in the corner.
‘Right,’ said Zoe, effectively blocking her escape by sitting down opposite her and then giving her an oddly fierce glare. ‘This has gone on long enough.’
‘What has?’
‘You. The long face. The wallowing.’
Lily stared at her sister. What the hell? ‘I’m allowed to wallow,’ she said as her heart gave a great squeeze. ‘Kit and I broke up. I’m devastated.’
‘Well, get over it, because I’m not having you lose any more weight. This is the second time your dress has had to be taken in in a week. Carry on at this rate and there’ll be nothing left of you.’
‘Thanks for the sympathy, bridezilla. And come to think of it, where is that anyway?’
‘Where’s what?’
‘The sympathy. You’re supposed to be mopping me up the way I mopped you up when Dan ended things with you.’
‘This situation is entirely different.’
‘Different how?’
‘You’re being an idiot.’
Lily gaped, the tears receding as indignation took over. ‘Excuse me?’
‘Well, you are.’
‘I can’t trust the man I love. I’m heartbroken.’
‘That’s just it.’
‘That’s just what?’
‘All this nonsense about you not being able to trust Kit is rubbish.’
Rubbish? Rubbish? ‘It isn’t rubbish,’ said Lily mutinously. ‘It’s the crux of the matter. The defining feature of our relationship. Ex-relationship.’
Zoe eyed her shrewdly. ‘So go on, then, tell me, what has he done to make you not trust him?’