Page 43 of A Poisonous Plot

“Maybe he was just playing it cool so things wouldn’t be awkward.”

“I don’t think so. He asked me to hang out tonight like we always do.”

“Maybe he’s going to come over and kiss you again.”

“No,” Lily said, while her traitorous stomach erupted with a quiver of butterflies.

“But you want to kiss him again?”

“No,” Lily said unconvincingly.

“Are you going to continue to try to convince me that you only see him as a friend?”

“I was never lying. Not to you, anyway. I may have been lying to myself. But we can’t be more than friends, so it makes no difference how I feel about him.”

“Why can’t you?”

“Because he’s Flynn the womaniser,” Lily said with an eye roll.

“I bet he’d give up his womanising ways for you.” Seren pursed her lips. “I suspect he already has.”

Lily put her hands to her face, then pushed them up through her hair. “He’ll be leaving in a few months, and he’s also my best friend. I can’t risk messing that up.”

“Oof!” Seren slapped her hand over her heart. “That hurts.”

“My bestmalefriend,” Lily said while her lips stretched into a grin.

“That’s okay then,” Seren said. “I still think you can’t rule out a relationship with him just because he’s your friend. It’s also going to be difficult to hide your feelings when you spend so much time with him.”

“I know, but he’s not sticking around. Even if this wasn’t an unrequited thing, it makes no sense to start something with him.”

“My guess is it’s not unrequited,” Seren said, raising her chin and smiling at a young couple who walked in. She gave Lily’s hand a squeeze and told her she’d be back in a minute.

“I have to go soon anyway,” Lily said, as Seren walked away. “Flynn is coming to my place to hang out.”

The thought made her undeniably jittery.

“How come you were snooping around Arthur’s place?” Seren asked when she returned.

Lily grimaced. “I just wanted to have a little look around his garden.”

“To see if he has any poisonous plants?” Seren set her hands on her hips and tilted her head.

“I didn’t find anything incriminating,” Lily said with a shrug.

“Of course you didn’t. It’s Arthur. Please can you strike him off your list of people to question about this? I promise you it was nothing to do with him.”

“Okay,” Lily said with a distinct lack of conviction. She wasn’t like Dante – she couldn’t exclude people from her investigation because they didn’t seem like the sort. “I’m fairly sure it’s someone who’s involved with the garden centre. Do you know a guy called Denzel who works up there?”

“Denzel Harris?” Seren nodded. “You can cross him off the list as well. He’s friends with my dad. I’ve known him all my life and he’s a good guy.”

“He wasn’t happy about me asking questions.”

“What kind of questions?”

“Mostly he didn’t like me asking where people were on Friday evening when the baskets were delivered.”

“You asked him for an alibi?” Seren rolled her eyes. “I’m not surprised he wasn’t thrilled about that.”

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