‘You want me to go?’ she said.
‘Yes, but not because you weren’tbrilliant,’ Carlton said, standing up and beginning to walk with her to the door.
Tom lifted his head up and said, ‘I’m glad she’s gone. I don’t want to mess things up with Tess.’
‘Tess would understand,’ Donny said. Apparently Donny didn’t know Tess that well. ‘This is your stag. It’s tradition.’
‘She would not understand,’ Tom said. ‘And it’s not like she’s going to be with a male stripper right now, is it? I don’t want to upset her. Iloveher.’ He banged his fingers vertically down onto the top of the table, hard, very hard, as he spoke. ‘Ow. That hurt.’ He studied his right hand for a moment, turning it all round. ‘Very sore,’ he said.
‘Have another beer,’ Donny said. ‘That’ll stop any pain.’
‘I don’t think I should have had a stag night like this,’ said Tom as he sipped his beer. He’d clearly reached the morose stage of drunkenness. Matt had already reached the hangover stage, courtesy of all the coffee, water and bread. There was no way he was starting to drink again now. Apparently he was too old to want to go drunk, sober and drunk again in one day. He really hoped that having the headache from hell now meant that he wouldn’t still be hungover in the morning. ‘It doesn’t feel right,’ Tom said. ‘Doing this on the same little island as Tess. She’s amazing.’ He slurped some more beer. Looked like he hadn’t reached the sober-and-hungover-before-bed stage, probably something to do with the fact that his best friends had made sure that he drank more than everyone else. Good job he was a big man.
‘She is great,’ Matt agreed.
‘I bet she was amazing when she was a kid as well,’ Tom said.
Matt thought about how annoying she’d been. Three years younger than him, always following him and their other older cousins around, tantrumming when things didn’t go her way. If he was honest, she’d only come into her own when she’d hit her mid-teens. And since then she’d been a lot of fun. And, when it came down to it, he loved her to bits and always had done. He was lucky to have such a great family.
‘Yeah, she was great,’ he said.
‘You’re the only person here who’s known Tess all her life,’ Tom said. ‘I’m so lucky to have met her. I really, really, really love her.’ He stabbed at the table again with his fingers and gave a surprisingly high-pitched scream for someone so large. ‘My fingers hurt. One of them hurts more but I don’t know which one.’
Matt peered at Tom’s hand. ‘Maybe the one that’s sticking out weirdly.’
‘Have some more beer,’ Donny said. ‘You won’t feel anything then.’
‘Tess would have been upset about the stripper. I’m glad she didn’t finish the job. Tess would have been really upset. I don’t ever want to get divorced,’ Tom said. ‘You’re divorced, Matt. I don’t want to be divorced. Because I love Tess. I love her so much. I’m sorry you’re divorced. Are you sad you’re divorced?’
‘I’m fine,’ Matt said. He genuinely almost was. Apart from the dog custody situation. And the fact that he missed Lily sometimes.
He missed Lily a lot.Somuch. And it was hurting all over again now he’d seen her on the island.
Lily. Wrong name. Wrongperson.
He wasn’t divorced from Lily. He was divorced from Gemma.
It was eight years since he and Lily had split up. It was insane that bumping into her briefly had got her so stuck in his mind again. This was not good.
It was because he still had questions about the end of their relationship. He should ask her.
‘Roast chickens for everyone,’ the waiter announced.
‘I think that’s a good thing,’ Matt said.
‘Yeah, I agree.’ Donny gestured around the room. ‘I don’t think there’s a lot of appetite for the massive night I had planned. I nearly booked private ferries to take us over to Paros for some serious clubbing but Carlton talked me out of it.’
‘Didn’t fancy losing Tom overboard or something,’ Carlton said. ‘Tess would have gone ballistic.’
‘Yeah, she would. Yeah, that’s the upside of a nice tame stag night. No injuries.’
Matt was filling his plate with bread and pastries to address his remaining hangover at breakfast the next morning, when Donny tapped him on the shoulder.
‘Morning,’ Matt said.
Donny looked over both his own shoulders like he was playing a spy in a low-budget James Bond farce and then spoke quietly out of the corner of his mouth. ‘I think we need a hospital.’
‘What? Why? Who for?’
