‘No,really. Look over there.’ Lily wriggled away and pointed.
‘Woah.’ Matt reached for her dress, fast, and handed it to her, and leapt into his shorts so quickly that he nearly fell over. ‘How are we so close to the villa? I felt like we walked quite a long way.’
‘Maybe we were distracted.’ Lily finally had her dress back on. That felt alotbetter. ‘I can see Norm’s head in the garden.’
‘That kind of implies he might be able to see us.’
‘Yup.’
‘Let’s go. Let’s just style it out. Out for an early-morning walk.’ Matt jumped up and then pulled Lily to her feet.
‘Wait. Underwear.’ Lily picked it all up and Matt stuffed it in his pockets and then they both sniggered like kids.
‘Morning, Norm,’ they both said on their way past him, not stopping to chat.
‘What time is it?’ Matt whispered as they went inside.
Lily pointed at the kitchen clock.
‘So we have another hour before either of us needs to shower and pack,’ he said.
‘That’s not a lot of time to sleep,’ Lily said.
‘So little time that there’s really no point bothering with sleep at all.’
‘I think you’re right.’ Lily put her fingers to her lips and led him in silence to her room.
A couple of hours later, they were all standing next to Carole’s jeep, in the full glare of the morning sun, surrounded by their bags.
Lily felt herself stagger a little and took a sideways step to stop herself falling over. She was going to die of tiredness. Actually going to die. She was struggling to interpret basic speech and her eyes were dry and prickly, and if she closed them she started swaying on her feet. She was too old to cope with staying up all night, especially when it was followed by having to pack in a rush in boiling heat. She wasn’t too old to haveamazingsex, though.
‘Lily, you’re smirking at your own thoughts.’ Meg was peering at her far too closely. ‘Lily.’
‘Mmm?’
‘When you’ve been getting a lot yourself youtotallyknow when someone else has got some.’ Meg looked over her shoulder at the men and then back at Lily with her eyes wide open. ‘Did you sleep with Matt?’
‘Shhhh.’
‘Oh my goodness. Are you two back together?’
‘Shhhhhhhh.’ That was a very good question. Were they? They hadn’t actually said anything about that. They’d been too busy doing stuff. It felt like they needed to talk some more.
‘Lily. We need totalk.’ Meg’s jaw was going to hit the floor if she wasn’t careful.
Lily looked around for something to point out to distract Meg, and saw Norm walking towards them lugging suitcases.
‘Did one of us forget our bags?’ she asked.
‘No. They’re mine.’ Norm stopped walking and then chucked his bags into the boot of his car.
‘Are you going somewhere?’ Lily asked.
‘Yep,’ he said.
Lily opened her mouth to ask where but before she could get the words out, Alfredo yelled, ‘You’re joking,’ into his phone. After a lot more yelling, he ended the call and turned to the others and said, ‘So we only have four seats on the flight now. We’ve effectively been gazumped on two of them. We get a refund for those two, like that’s any consolation.’
Lily looked at Meg and Pythagoras, who were standing gripping each other’s hands tightly.
