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I open my eyes and find myself staring into a pair of beautiful blue eyes. It takes only a second for everything to rush back to me. She may as well be a siren, because I swear to God she has some sort of pull, no matter how much logic I have reminding me of the things she’s done to me in the past.

Before I can form coherent speech, she reaches out, tentatively, much like how somebody might approach a nervous dog who looks poised to attack. When I don’t automatically react badly, snarling and telling her to get the fuck off me, she lets her fingers connect against my cheek. It’s soft and gentle, but it’s like a flick of static electricity hitting me. She smiles slowly as I gawk at her, before I come to my senses and move my head slightly, away from her touch.

“Well, this is embarrassing,” I mutter.

“Are you afraid of needles?” Delilah asks. There’s a hint of amusement in her tone.

“No! Everything just went black,” I explain, reliving the heady rush I felt when I stood up from the chair.

“You took quite a fall there. Are you feeling okay?” the nurse who drew my blood asks, and I realise Delilah and I aren’t alone. I sit up on the floor and take a steadying breath.

“I’m fine.” I push myself up and try to ignore the pinpricks of darkness that threaten to engulf me again.

“Maybe you should lie down for a bit. I can get you a drink,” the nurse offers.

I want the ground to swallow me whole. I’ve never passed out before, and doing it after a blood draw and in the middle of a hospital is humiliating.

“He’ll be fine. I’m driving him home anyway,” Delilah states. It’s a lie, but I’m grateful because the nurse looks less concerned. Delilah offers me her hand, and I take it as I get up from the floor.

“Okay, well, we’ll send the bloodwork on, and somebody will be in touch,” the nurse says with a shrug.

I follow Delilah out of the room, away from the waiting room and into the corridors of the hospital. She stops walking.

“Are you okay? Not going to throw up on me? Pass out again?” she asks.

“No. I’m fine. I don’t know what happened back there. That’s never happened to me before.”

“Do you think you’ll be okay driving, or do I really need to drive you home?” she asks.

“I thought I was coming for dinner,” I tease.

She frowns at me. “You want to go to theirs for dinner?”

“Not if it’s going to be an inconvenience,” I reply. From the expression on her face, she wasn’t anticipating me saying yes.

“Let me message them to let them know,” she says, pulling her phone from her handbag.

As she swipes to unlock her screen, I see her lock screen is an image of her and Maddie. So is her wallpaper. They’re different pictures, but in both, they have big, beaming smiles.

I think back to when we reunited the last time, wondering if I ever saw her phone, if the images would have showed me the truth before Maddie barrelled into Delilah’s flat. Did she go out of her way to hide it from me then, or was I oblivious, blinded by the emotion of seeing her again, desperate to make my own confessions and beg for my own forgiveness?

She types away on her screen, oblivious to my thoughts.

“All okay?” I ask when she puts her phone away.

“Yeah, we can head over now. Are you okay to drive, follow me in your car? Or do you want to leave your car here and I’ll drive us, then bring you back?” She sounds suddenly nervous, and it makes me wonder if my joking about things being slipped into my dinner were accurate, until I remind myself that they’re playing nice because they potentially need me, and I’m playing nice because I don’t want their barriers if Maddie wants a relationship with me.

“I’m fine to drive,” I confirm.

I follow her through the hospital and out towards the multistorey car park. In what feels like serendipity, we’ve parked on the same level, the top one given the time of day we were due to arrive—the latest appointments in the oncology ward, but right after visiting hours to the other wards had started.

“I’ll wait for you,” Delilah says, heading in the direction of her car. I watch her get into a small car, the music blaring out from her stereo as soon as she starts the engine. I get into my own car and prepare to follow her to where we’re supposed to have dinner.

As I head out of the parking structure, I can’t help but wonder why I’ve decided to go for dinner. I know it’s not a logical choice, and I’m sure both Caleb and Felix hate me, no matter what Delilah says.

The drive to Felix’s doesn’t take long. I follow Delilah’s car out of the busy city centre streets, into a smaller village area. It isn’t dissimilar to where Verity’s house is located, but different to the area where Delilah lives.

She eventually pulls onto the driveway of a large house in the middle of a quiet-looking cul-de-sac. I park on the street and get out of my car, joining her as she gets out of hers.