Maybe she’d try one of her best friends. Not Tess, obviously, because she was still on her honeymoon.
Aaliyah didn’t pick up and again Lily didn’t leave a message and then Aaliyah texted back to sayOn nursery run, catch you later xxxx
And Meg didn’t pick up, Lily didn’t leave a message, and Meg didn’t text either but she obviously had a lot on her plate at the moment with Pythagoras having just moved to Edinburgh.
Well, that was fine. Work.
Lily finally got a message from her mum late afternoon to say that the operation seemed to have been a success and her dad had been moved to recovery and Lily would be able to visit him tomorrow. It seemed that there might be some other complications, but hopefully nothing short-term life-threatening.
Lily immediately tried to call her, and she wasn’t answering her phone either.
Did no one ever answer phones nowadays?
Well. Obviously it was a relief that her dad had come through the operation but the rest of it didn’t sound that good.
Oh, listen to that – her own phone was ringing.
‘Hi, Lily.’ Her friend Jessica from work sounded like she was panting. ‘Phoning you while I run. Just checking you’re still good for the cinema this evening? Could we meet a bit earlier?’
‘I…’ With the whole delayed-in-Greece thing plus Matt and the lack of sleep, Lily hadn’t been totally on top of the date. Now she thought about it, yes, she and Jessica had definitely agreed to go out this evening, with another couple of friends from work. Shereallywasn’t up for it. But on the other hand, moping in her flat by herself wasn’t going to do a lot of good; working had definitely helped her state of mind this afternoon. Plus she never liked to let people down. ‘Yep, great.’
Matt left a voice message while she was in the cinema. ‘Hey. I’m missing you. I’m in Edinburgh, just about to go out for dinner but I’ll call you later if you’re still up. I have news.’
‘I’m so sorry but I’m going to wimp out and go straight home,’ she told her friends after the film finished. ‘I’ll come for a drink next time, I promise. I’m still catching up from Greece. We had a lot of late nights.’ She hadn’t told them about Matt but anyone could have a lot of late nights on holiday, especially when they’d been to a wedding.
She hadn’t told them about her dad, either. It would have felt a bit weird telling them when she hadn’t even told Matt.
Wow. She and Matt had only been back together, if that’s what they were, for literally a few days, although alothad happened in that time. Was she turning into Meg, putting her partner ahead of her friends? No. She’d very happily introduce Matt to all her friends.
‘You look miles away,’ Jessica said. ‘Thinking about your holiday?’
‘Yep. It was a good one.’ Lily hugged the others and said, ‘Have one for me. I’ll see you at work and next time I’ll be massively up for drinks, I promise.’
She tried Matt again as she arrived home andfinallya phone was picked up.
‘Hey, Lily, guess what, you will notbelievewho just called me. Well, you will, but I’m still quite surprised.’
‘Ooh, who?’ Lily said automatically. Weird how however low or worried you felt inside, you went straight into saying-the-right-thing mode when someone else spoke first.
‘Carole. Not a surprise, except she called me from Bristol.’
‘Bristol?’
‘Basically, from what I can piece together, she shoved us out the door, spent the rest of the day packing up the house and then set off first thing yesterday morning, narrowly missed Norm on Naxos, called all his friends and family to track him down and landed in Bristol early evening.’
‘Wow. So have they had a big reunion?’ Lily was good at this. This was what she’d always done. Surface chat about one, non-emotive, thing, while thinking about another thing. She could totally be interested and surprised about Carole and Norm while going silentlyscreamingly mad with worryabout her father at the same time. And pissed off with her mother, actually. But a lot more worried than pissed off.
‘Lily?’
‘Sorry, didn’t hear you. Bad line.’
‘Basically, Norm’s having none of it. He told her to go and stay in a hotel.’
‘No way. Oh my goodness. Poor Carole.’
‘She’s pretty sure that he’s just playing hard to get.’
‘Wow. I hope she’s right.’
