‘Bloody call him,’ Aaliyah said.
‘Fine.’ Lily rolled her eyes.
‘Now?’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because you’re listening for a start.’
‘Yep, fair enough,’ Aaliyah said. ‘But promise me you’ll call him when I’m out of earshot.’
‘Okay.’
They hugged and set off in their opposite directions.
There wasn’t any point calling Matt. She actually wasn’t going to.
When she was about a hundred metres down the road a message flashed up on her screen from Aaliyah.BLOODY CALL HIM.
Yep.
No.
And then the phone rang again.
Matt.
Fine. You couldn’t just ignore people.
‘Hi,’ she said.
‘Hi. Are you okay?’
‘Yes, thank you. Are you?’
‘Yep. Could we talk? I could meet you now? For a walk?’
‘Now?’ Lily checked her watch. ‘It’s ten to ten.’
‘I love a London summer evening walk.’
‘I’m in Acton.’ Even though it was silly, Lily kind of did want to go for a walk with him. But Acton was a long way from Muswell Hill.
‘Well, luckily I’m not that far away. I’ll meet you?’
‘Okay.’ And despite the fact that sheknewthat there was no point because they had no future, she was smiling. Maybe he’d been in West London in the hope that she’d agree to meet him.
By the time they met outside Ealing Common Tube station, Lily wasn’t smiling any more. This was pointless. If they kept seeing each other on the occasions they were both in London and not working, they’d both just be even more miserable when they inevitably split up.
Matt kissed her on the cheek, which gave her way more goosebumps than it should, literally from head to toe, even though the evening was warm, and immediately said, ‘How’s your dad doing?’
When she’d finished telling him, wandering across Ealing Common together, walking close together, but not touching, she said, ‘And I’m scared that he won’t recover fully and my mum will end up behaving towards him the way she behaved towards me when I was a child and we – but especially they, because I don’t see them that much – will be really miserable.’
Matt nodded, slowly. ‘I totally see that. I wonder if you could try talking to her. And explain to her how you feel? Have you ever tried that?’
‘I… No. I haven’t. I couldn’t.’
