Matt opened his mouth to ask her how she was doing now and then saw how her shoulders had tensed.
‘Sounds like I’m going to end up being tempted into two slices,’ he said lightly.
Lily took forks out of her cutlery drawer, very slowly, like she was waiting to see if he was going to say anything else, and then turned round, smiling.
‘Prepare to beveryimpressed by my baking,’ she said.
The rest of the evening was great. They told each other all about what had been going on with their friends – Lily had a lot to say about Aaliyah’s engagement and Meg’s latest break-up – and work, and it was great. Obviously they just needed to spend more time together. It wasn’t ideal how often he had to work away at the moment and how Lily had to work nights sometimes when he was home. Building your career was important, though.
They didn’t see each other again for ten days after Matt left on Wednesday morning after agreatnight together and not much sleep.
He’d been to New York and flew in on the red eye on the Saturday morning, which was perfect – apart from the lack of sleep on the flight – because he’d arrive just in time for breakfast with Lily to start their weekend off nicely. He was going straight to her flat, because he couldn’t wait to see her, basically. New York was his last work trip for a while, so finally they were going to get to spend more time together.
Lily was in her pyjamas when he knocked and let himself in, sitting on her sofa with her feet curled under her, reading a magazine. His heart clenched and his stomach dipped when he saw her, the way it always hit him the first time he hadn’t seen her for a while – or even just a day – how much he loved her and how lucky he was to have her.
‘Hey.’ He plonked a kiss on her forehead, and then sat down next to her, winding his fingers into her thick hair and pulling her in gently for a proper kiss. God, that was good.
‘Missed you,’ he said eventually. ‘I need to take a post-flight shower if that’s okay. Want to join me?’
‘Yes, I think I do.’ Her naughty smile wasgorgeous.
After their shower, they wound up in bed together and it wasn’t until nearly lunchtime that they were ready to get up.
‘I love you,’ Matt told Lily. This felt like the best time they’d had together for weeks. Like whatever distance had developed between them had gone. ‘I’m really looking forward to being in London with you for the next few weeks.’
‘I love you too.’ She smiled at him and he caught his breath. He could happily spend the rest of his life seeing her smile like that. ‘And me too.’
He really wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Definitely.
Wow. When he thought about it he’d maybe known that from the first time they met, but he hadn’t articulated it internally until now.
But hetotallywanted to spend the rest of his life with her. And he’d like –love– to make that formal. Maybe he should start planning a proposal.
He leaned in and kissed her and said, ‘I love you,’ again.
She laughed and said, ‘And I love you too.’
This was one of those magical moments in life that you’d probably remember forever.
Forty-five minutes later, Matt was still lying lazily back on the pillows as Lily pulled on jeans and a top. He glanced over to her bedside table as she took her earrings from there. There was an unstamped envelope addressed in her grandmother’s handwriting on there.
‘How are you feeling about your granny now?’ he asked.
She had her back to him as he spoke and he had an excellent view of her shoulders, which visibly stiffened again. She got tense every time he mentioned her grandmother. She stopped moving for a couple of seconds and then turned round, slowly, looking like she was paying way more attention to fixing her earring in than you normally would unless you were very drunk or something.
And then she took a deep breath, looked him in the eye and smiled, like she was making a big effort, and said, ‘Up and down. I’ll tell you more later today. I probably have too much to say for right now. We’ll miss the skating if we don’t get going, and those slots are hard to come by.’
‘Of course.’ Matt smiled at her. Wow. This felt a big step, like she’d just made some kind of decision to open up to him. ‘Great.’ He smiled at her again. ‘Yep. I’d better get dressed too now so that we can go and strut our Torvill-and-Dean stuff.’
As he moved to push back the duvet, his phone rang. He picked it up to check the screen. His boss, Julian. On a Saturday. Bloody hell.
‘So sorry,’ he said. ‘I’m going to have to take this quickly.’
Ten minutes later, when Julian had finished barking out unreasonable demands, Matt said, ‘Could I call you back in an hour or so when I’ve firmed up my plans?’
‘Make it twenty minutes.’
Right.
