‘Okay, then.’ Raf sat down at the extreme opposite end of the bench from her.
And then they sat in complete silence.
It wasn’t companionable.
A couple of minutes in, Georgie thought about apologising again. She should do so but he should also apologise to her.
The silence continued.
A couple of minutes later, Georgie had come to the conclusion that sitting here with Raf was actually worse than encountering her mother would be. Her mother didn’t notice much about her so she could probably just escape straight upstairs to bed, and she didn’t want to be with someone who’d done such a horrible thing in response to the horrible thing that she herself had done. They’d both behaved badly and clearlythings – such as they had been – were over between them, and she’d rather not have to be around him any more.
She should apologise one final time, though, because she really hadn’t behaved well.
‘I’m really sorry about this morning. I shouldn’t have gone through your papers. Because the secret was so huge, I couldn’t think straight and I was worried you wouldn’t give it to me or would look at it or something.’
‘Yeah, kind of pissed off that you would think I would do that.’
‘Sorry, what? You gave it to Poppy! And, okay, I’d clearly made you really angry first, but I don’t think there’s any justification for what you did. So if I’m honest, I think I was right to assume you might look at it.’
‘I did not give it to Poppy.’
‘What?’
‘I think she saw it herself. She went into Noah’s kitchen to get paracetamol and it was on the side where I’d got it out to give it to you.’
‘Oh. Oh my goodness.’ What a terrible conclusion she’d leapt to. ‘Raf, I’m so, so sorry for accusing you of that.’
‘Yeah. Kind of just more of the same really. You thought I might look at it. And then you thought that I might, in anger, show it to Poppy. Which would have been truly dreadful behaviour.’
‘Yes. I’m so, so sorry. The secret was so huge that it was clouding my judgement on everything.’
‘You know, I actually thought we had something. You’re the first woman I… since Anna… the first one I’ve wondered whether…’ His voice croaked a little and he stopped speaking. ‘And apparently you were only spending time with me in order to get the secret back,andyou had no respect for my integrity.’
‘No,’ Georgie said. ‘I mean, yes, initially that’s why I was spending time with you, but then I grew to like you. So much. I loved skating with you.’
‘And you grew to trust me so much that you confided in me that you needed the secret back? Oh, wait, no, you tried to steal it from me instead. And then accused me of giving it to Poppy.’
Thank goodness the moon seemed to have been obscured by clouds so Raf wouldn’t see the tears travelling down Georgie’s cheeks.
‘I am so, so sorry,’ she whispered. She’d become friends with him on false pretences and then she’d misjudged himsospectacularly.
‘Let me walk you to your mother’s now.’
‘Thank you.’
They walked a good metre apart and Raf said, ‘Goodbye, then,’ the second she had the door about an inch open, and immediately began to stride off back across the green.
Way to go, Georgie.
With her total lack of judgement she’d managed to do terrible damage to her relationship with her lifelong best friend and – worse – she’d apparently damaged Poppy and Declan’s relationship, and she had also ruined whatever fledgling relationship she’d had with Raf.
Idiotdidn’t begin to describe her.
The next morning, after very little sleep, she went to call on Poppy. Poppy didn’t answer the door.
Georgie called on her at nine, ten and eleven. There was no answer each time. She was sure that Poppy was home, but she apparently she didn’t want to speak to Georgie.
Understandable and, oh God, Georgie might be making things worse; Poppy might feel that she was harassing her now.
