‘About what?’
More silence.
‘I’ve tried to talk to you,’ I said. ‘It’s got me nowhere. What’s the point of talking when you won’t tell me the truth?’
I curled my fingers around the edge of the table, knuckles turning white. ‘And then today, you had the audacity to—’
I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sentence.
She didn’t fill the silence. She couldn’t do that one little thing for me.
‘Go to bed, Lily. I’ve got work to do.’
There was no answer.
I cracked after five minutes of silence and opened the door. She was gone.
Fine. That was fine.
I made myself another coffee, sat back down, and pressed play.
‘Love was choosing her,’ Romeo-Dylan said to Cece. ‘Always. Even when it was hard.’
There was a note on my pillow when I finally went back to my trailer in the early hours of the morning.Mwas scrawled on the front, in Lily’s distinctive spiky handwriting.
I paused. Set the note down on the table. Cracked open the bottle of whiskey Fucking Greg had sent me. Poured a splash into my last clean mug.
Sat down. Took a deep breath. Braced myself.
But then, when I finally opened the letter, all it said was,Put Naya and Heather together on the next group date. They hate each other. You’ll get drama. L. x
I crushed the letter into a tight ball and hurled it across the trailer. It bounced off the lid of the bin, ricocheted off the wall, and landed right back at my feet.
I sighed, knocked back the whiskey, picked the note up, and uncrumpled it. Carefully, I smoothed it out as best I could, then tucked it inside one of the romance novels I kept a stack of for inspiration.
A long-forgotten bookmark fell out.
It was a strip of photobooth photos from some network party several years ago. Me and Julia, smiling, laughing, kissing, touching noses. Classic happy couple nonsense, easy and intimate. The perfect visual representation of a romance, even though things had already started falling apart.
I put it back in the book, behind Lily’s note.
Then I lay on my bed and stared at the ceiling for four hours, until it was time to get up again.
I was in a storm-cloud mood as I presided over Amanda and Romeo-Dylan’s single date. ‘Murray, I can cover this,’ Suzette murmured, as the two of them took off in the Lamborghini we’d been loaned as product placement, headed on a short drive from the front door of the Villa down to the lake. ‘Go get some sleep. You’re barking orders like a dictator.’
‘Amanda’s my contestant. This date is my responsibility.’
‘You can share the load. You always have before. It’s okay.’
‘No,’ I said shortly.
Past Suzette’s shoulder, I could see Lily. She was looking directly at me, one eyebrow raised. She was wearing the Ursula dress again, dark purple skirts twisting around her ankles in the breeze.
‘Monitor the lipstick cameras,’ I said to Suzette. ‘Keep me apprised of the position of the Lambo and their ETA. I’m headed down to the bottom of the hill.’
I turned and walked away.
Do your job, Murray. Just do your fucking job.
