Page 28 of You Only Live Once
‘I’m pretty used to working in the rain, so I’m sure a quick jog to the office won’t do me any harm.’
‘That’s true. I’m not really sure why I got it, to be honest, because I like my study. I have my sofa there, all my books, all my research material. I didn’t really need the outbuilding, but you see all these gorgeous garden offices and I guess I got caught up in having the space, and what I thought I needed.’
‘Easy enough to do,’ he replied, drying his hands on the towel. ‘I think we all get caught up like that from time to time until we find out that what we actually need is the opposite of what we’re doing.’
I felt like we might stray into dangerous territory, so I gave him a brief smile then plonked the pizza down on the table. ‘Enjoy!’
‘Had a good day?’ he asked in between mouthfuls.
‘I have, actually. It got better as the hangover wore off, of course.’
He gave a quick shrug of his eyebrows. ‘Yeah, perhaps we shouldn’t have opened that second bottle of champagne after all.’ His grin contrasted with his words.
‘I would like the record to state that that was your idea.’
‘Fair enough.’
‘Can I ask you something?’
‘This sounds ominous.’
‘No, not really. I’m just sort of wondering… how exactly I got to bed last night. It’s just that I don’t remember going up the stairs and I never sleep in my clothes.’
‘That would be me. You nodded off down here and I couldn’t wake you. Admittedly I didn’t try that hard, you looked so peaceful, so I took you up.’
‘Oh! You didn’t need to do that. You could have just left me here.’
‘I could. That’s true. I just figured you’d get a better sleep in your own bed.’
He was right. I’d nodded off down here before and woken up part way through the night, chilly, with a crick in my neck.
‘I hope that was OK. I didn’t want to take any liberties and it took me about twenty minutes to decide what to do in the first place. I thought this was for the best, but it was literally a drop and run scenario.’
‘You don’t have to make me sound quite so much like a bag of old potatoes,’ I replied, laughing.
‘You’re quite chatty when you’re asleep, did you know that?’
‘Oh God, am I still doing that? Mike used to say I spoke more at night than I did in the day.’
‘I think he might have been right.’
‘What did I say? Nothing too embarrassing, I hope.’
‘Most of it I couldn’t understand.’ He paused for a moment, wavering.
‘Oh no, what is it?’
‘Nothing bad.’ He touched my arm reassuringly. ‘You mentioned his name.’
‘Who?’
‘Mike.’
I felt something fall in the pit of my stomach. ‘Did I?’ I asked softly. ‘Did you hear what I said?’
He shook his head. ‘No. You just said his name.’
We sat in silence for a few moments.
