Page 23 of Kiss Me Ever After
A beat, then:
Amber: I’m not joking.
Of course, she would know about our kiss.
Justin: She’s not interested in me anyway.
Lies. Her response to my kiss shouted the exact opposite to ‘not interested’.
Amber: Is that what you think? Then why have I just spent an hour on the phone to her, talking her out of texting you to come back?
She followed up the words with the rolling eye emoji. I grinned. I could always rely on Amber to take the bait and tell me how it was.
Justin: Maybe I’ll go back later.
Amber: Don’t you dare!!! She doesn’t need to see you again tonight.
Justin: But I can see her tomorrow?
Amber didn’t respond immediately. I could picture her, face screwed up in concentration as she tried to decide what would be best for her friend.
Amber: We can see her tomorrow. Take her out and do something nice. It will take her mind off the trauma of you running out on her again.
Touché.
10
Lennon
“Oh my God,Lennon! I’m so sorry!” Bryony enveloped me in a hug the moment I stepped through the door.
After Justin had left, I downed the two glasses of whisky, then had a third for good measure. Amber had called at exactly the right moment, and I cried and rambled down the phone to her for over an hour. She wanted to come over, but I refused, instead taking a bath and having another drink. Then I went to bed, my sleep disturbed by dreams of Justin running away from me again.
“I shouldn’t have let you lock up on your own.” Bryony released me and held me at arm’s length, looking me up and down. “Are you okay?”
Wearily, I nodded. Four glasses of hard liquor plus a restless night had left me drained, it was a struggle to engage.
“We’ve been here since seven,” she said. “Making a start on the clean-up.” She gestured to the main part of the cafe where the tables and chairs were pushed to the side and the floor was wet from being mopped.
We went into the kitchen. The floor was already spotless. I hung my head, guilt creeping in again. It should have been me tidying up.
“I ran the end of day report,” began Si.
My blood ran cold. The takings. How badly had they been hit?
“It seems we were lucky. Most of yesterday’s sales came from cards. There was only about three hundred pounds in the till,” he explained.
“Plus, I’d been careful about putting any excess cash in the safe which they didn’t find.” Bryony pointed to the back room.
“Opportunist kids by the sounds of it.”
“Which doesn’t make it any less scary for Lennon,” added Bryony, frowning at Si. “The police are coming over this afternoon to take a statement. You mentioned a friend? He’ll need to be here too.”
Shit.
About a million times last night I’d begun a message to Justin. But I couldn’t find the right words, or in fact any words, which made sense. Amber had talked me down from drunk texting him.
But if he needed to be here to talk to the police, I didn’t have any other option.
