Page 97 of You Belong With Me

‘Also by you?’ Elliot said, and Edie had an unease in her stomach she pretended wasn’t there.

‘Yes. Meg screamed, and I came running. I worked out Declan was catatonic and woke him up.’

‘How did you do that?’

‘He was about to piss in the bin, and I yelled.’

‘Right,’ Elliot said, swigging from his beer bottle. ‘And is he?’

‘What?’

‘Hung like a horse?’

Elliot wasn’t sparing her. What was she meant to say?Comparison is the thief of joy?Edie knew there was no version of this going well.

‘I guess so – it wasn’t the pressing issue at the time.’

Elliot shot her a look that said ‘I guess so’ was three words of agreement too many.

There wouldn’t have been a good way for Elliot to learn about this, but Edie reckoned this might be one of the worst. Declan and Kieran returned with more drinks, but things never recovered, and they soon called it a night.

On arriving back at the hotel, Edie’s phone buzzed with a WhatsApp from Declan. Elliot saw her see it arrive. She palmed her phone swiftly back into her bag. Declan no doubt meant well, but pissed alerts when he knew she was with her boyfriend were hardly likely to help.

‘You can read it,’ Elliot said.

‘It’ll keep,’ Edie said.

‘If you don’t want to open it in front of me, I’m not going to feel great about that,’ Elliot said.

‘I’ve not got anything to hide!’ Edie said.

‘Then read it.’

Edie pulled her phone out with her heart racing, and Elliot’s point was being made. She felt sure it’d be nothing and at the same time, worried as hell.

Edie opened it.

Tommo, I’m so SO fucking sorry, and I have absolutely blasted Kieran for that tactless remark, totally inappropriate. He was drunk (obviously). I will always be grateful for the way you rescued me from jumping off a cliff over that escapade. I really hope it didn’t cause you any trouble. Elliot seems a lovely bloke. Night. X

‘Tommo?’ Elliot said, taking his jacket off and throwing it over the back of a chair.

‘Thompson.’

‘Yes, thanks, I got that far – I didn’t know you were at the stage of special nicknames. Or him messaging with your sister. How did you rescue him?’ Elliot said. He was maintaining his threatening calm.

‘I talked about how I knew what crippling shame felt like after the wedding incident. That it passes, and it doesn’t stay that acute forever.’

‘He didn’t do anything wrong on purpose, did he?’

‘No! He was a victim of a couple of misadventures. I feel really sorry for him. Do any of us want to be naked in frontof someone we just started working with? Apart from, y’know, Ines Herrera.’

A cheap shot that tumbled from Edie’s mouth before she’d vetted it, a clumsy and obvious attempt to level up.

She threw her coat over Elliot’s, as the temperature became even more frigid.

‘That scene was intimacy coordinated and its precise detail haggled by our representatives to every last gesture – there was no room for it turning into anything spontaneous,’ Elliot said. ‘Also, I don’t know that Ines wanted to do it, exactly. She was prepared to do it, which isn’t the same thing. It’s much worse for actresses with all that stuff.’

‘All right, I was only joking. I’ve not been impressed by herboundariesin the past.’

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