Page 35 of Will You Stay Another Day?
Their chat moved onto the Vegas trip, the pools at the hotel, the shops and food hall, and Lili explained why she wouldn’t go now.
‘Not without Em,’ she said firmly and then fell into silence. Dylan didn’t mention Harry. Perhaps he hadn’t contacted him about the trip yet.
A man with a grey beard stained with blood lounged opposite them, his arm in a make-shift sling. A couple sat next to him, the woman with a plastic bowl on her lap, eyes blotchy, her companion with his arm around her. Another man sat on his own, half asleep, stinking of beer and pot. He didn’t look much older than Rosie.
‘How are you doing?’ asked Dylan, his eyes searching her face, concern etched across his features. ‘No headache?’
‘I’m fine, Dr Davis,’ she said. ‘Honestly. No need to worry. I’m wasting everyone’s time. I definitely didn’t faint. I slipped on your anorak.’
‘Us doctors have to tick all the boxes and I… I was really worried, Lili.’ His voice hitched the tiniest bit.
But why would he care so much? Guilt perhaps. Guilt was a bastard. That feeling Lili got when she thought about the houseboat party and how she should have insisted on going with Em; how she could have reminded her not to drink loads on top of her painkillers and therefore stopped her from falling into the sea.
Dylan’s nose wrinkled as the woman vomited. ‘We could do with one of your incense sticks,’ he said as if forcing his tone to be brighter. He glanced at Lili. ‘Do you mind me asking… Did I interrupt some sort of… religious meeting?’
‘What? No! Well, I mean, some might call it that but not me.’ He wouldn’t understand. Old objects to him were just trash. ‘So, did you message Harry?’ she asked, keen to change the subject.
Dylan raised an eyebrow. ‘Okay, now I’m even more intrigued. You weren’t having an orgy, were you? Have to say that guy’s biker jacket was a bit of a turn-on, and he seemed pretty chuffed.’
‘Stop being a jerk,’ she said, wishing her voice didn’t sound so tight.
He smiled uneasily. ‘Fair enough. Harry… yep, I did. Sorry, I should have said. I managed to get hold of him yesterday.’
Lili nodded, wondering why it had taken so long. Harry had a phone.
‘He’s really grateful for your offer and gutted he can’t take you up on it. He’s made friends along the way and they’re off to… Vietnam. It’s cheap, welcoming and really scenic apparently.’
What was she going to do with the hotel booking? She’d asked for the time off work way in advance, over a year ago – Ware & Care were good like that – and HR had written the request down, saying they couldn’t promise but didn’t see any obstacles. Lili assumed that the dates off still stood. Even if she could face going and invited Meg along, her colleague had recently moaned about hardly having enough holiday left for Christmas, plus was saving to rent, and Tommo hated flying.
It wasn’t long before the consultant saw Lili. Her pulse was taken again, so was her blood pressure. All the test results had come back normal. She examined Lili’s hip and wrist and questioned her in detail about how she felt in herself and if she had any pain elsewhere. Lili was allowed to leave on the understanding that if she got a headache or nausea, she was to contact her GP immediately, or return to A&E if it was out of hours.
The drive home was silent. She stole a sideways look at Dylan. Lili had rather abruptly changed the subject when he’d asked about the incense and what she’d been doing. He’d only been curious and she hadn’t anything to hide; she wasn’t embarrassed about her freedom ceremonies. Lili had simply become tired, over the years, of explaining to people who were taking the piss. Not that Dylan would ever do that. He was thoughtful and caring, having sat with her for hours in hospital. They pulled up outside her cottage.
‘Want to come in for a hot drink? There’s that lovely pie you brought over,’ she said.
‘Better not. Work tomorrow. Would you like me to help you inside?’
‘No. I’d like you to accept my apology.’
His eyebrows knotted together.
‘You asked me what I was doing this afternoon.’
‘What? Lili, seriously, I was just being nosy, ignore me. Look…’ He sighed. ‘If I’ve been quiet, it was due to talking about Harry. I… I was hoping he’d be home soon, but now I find out he’s off to Vietnam. His trip has made me realise how I’ve depended on him over the years in so many ways – maybe at the expense of making other good friends.’
They looked at each other. She leant forward and gave him a hug, to her surprise with purely platonic motives, wanting to convey her understanding.
‘You’re amazing, you know?’ he said. ‘I mean, Em is gone forever but you can still sympathise with me. The last year must have been shit.’
He looked so sad. Genuinely. Dylan understood, or at least he was trying to.
‘A freedom ceremony,’ she blurted out. ‘That’s what this afternoon was about. A kind of funeral for inanimate objects.’
Dylan burst out laughing. ‘Come on, Lili. You’re not still confused, are you? Or am I still your gladiator?’
Shit. She was hoping he’d forgotten that.
‘Don’t flatter yourself. The fall clearly caused that confusion, due to me loving historical Netflix dramas.’ Dylan’s laughter wasn’t vicious, or sneery like some people, and to be fair, laughing had been her first reaction. ‘I got the idea for the ceremony after visiting Japan, and it made sense with the work I do.’ She explained about the ceremonies she’d heard of whilst visiting Tokyo and Kyoto, and the customers in Ware & Care who struggled to hand over boxes of donations, occasionally changing their mind. ‘And there’s also a yearly event in Japan that is attended by seamstresses who honour needles which have been used or broken during that year.’
