Page 73 of You, As You Are

He paused. For the first time, guilt that this was all a lie rose up in his throat. Vera pursed her lips in a smile that looked like it held back emotion, using it as a defence, and a part of Iain crumbled.

How was he supposed to tell her that the man she trusted her granddaughter with was a fraud?

He carried that thought all the way up the chilly staircase to Maisie’s door, knocking a few times and receiving only silence.

“Daffy?”No answer.“Maisie, it’s Iain. You in there?” Lights in her windows that he’d seen from the street suggestedyes.

Ted whined at the door, squished between the groceries and the wall.

Iain didn’t know why he was doing this. He could’ve let Vera come up to check on Maisie like she’d wanted to. He got out his phone and called her number, listening to it ring from inside in an annoyingly chirpy tone.

“Iain?” Her dulled voice came as an echo down the phone from what he heard through the door.

“I’m outside your flat.”

“Hang on.” Maisie didn’t sound like herself at all. Tense. Strained. Nose completely blocked by that cold Vera mentioned.

The call went dead, and the door opened a minute later.

“What do you want?”

Woah. She looked like … shit. Iain didn’t let that thought out. Not if he wanted to keep his head.

Picking up the grocery bags, he said instead, “I ran into Vera bringing these for you. She said you’re sick. She doesn’t need to be getting ill either, so I brought them up.”

Maisie’s glare could’ve melted ice.

Iain wasn’t accustomed to this, but he knew what would work. “Ted wanted to say hello.”

Her attention fell in inches down to his dog whose tail thumped against the wall.

“Hi Ted.” It was the most unenthusiastic greeting he’d ever seen Maisie give.

“No ‘hi’ for me?” he taunted as Ted performed a sniff inspection on Maisie’s black jogging bottoms.

“Sorry, I’m—” Her whole body clenched, face scrunching and shuttering.

Iain let go of the bags, his hands instinctively reaching for her. “Woah, there. Are you okay?”

“I need to sit down,” she managed.

“In. Go in.” Iain ushered Ted inside, picked up the groceries, and shut the door behind him.

It took ten seconds to dump everything in the kitchen and find Maisie on her sofa, lying flat out like she was preparing to be wrapped up in bandages. He crouched to her level, taking stock of her ruddy face and the pile of tissues on the floor.

“What’s wrong?”

“I have a cold,” she said, eyes screwed shut as she pushed down beneath her stomach.

Iain wasn’t an expert, but colds didn’t present likethis.“This doesn’t just look like a cold, Maisie.”

“I don’t want to tell you—” A sneeze made her halt mid-sentence and her whole body groan. “Ugh, you don’t need to know.”

“You. Are. In. Pain.” He lowered his tone.

“Have you never met a female before?” Maisie bit out, running her hand across her stomach back and forth. “We’re always in pain.”

What was she talking about? Always in—oh shit. He was an idiot.

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