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‘I bought you new ones!’ She laughs at me as I follow her outside. ‘I am not letting this go, you know,’ I say. ‘I’m going to bug you all until someone tells me what’s going on.’ I sit, then lean forward and help myself to a generous wedge of gooey camembert.
‘Letting what go?’ asks Josh.
He and Lins share a loaded look and now I am positive. ‘What? What is the big secret that everyone seems to know but me?’ I ask through a mouthful of cheese.
‘There’s a big secret?’ asks Nick, playing dumb. He’s the worst liar of the lot and now I feel like they’re all ganging up on me.
‘Just tell her,’ says Lindsey.
Josh sets his near-empty beer bottle on the table and sits beside me, taking my hands in his. Oh, god, is he dying or something? My stomach lurches and I instantly regret the cheese. ‘Tell me,’ I say quietly.
He laughs softly. ‘Hey, it’s nothing bad.’
‘Really?’
‘No, I … it’s just that I wanted everything to be perfect but it’s still a little in flux, and I was hoping to have more of it figured out before I told you. I wanted to surprise you.’
‘There’s a surprise?’
‘Yes.’
‘But I hate surprises.’
He grins. ‘You hate bad surprises.’
‘So, it’s a good one?’
‘Yes. It’s for your birthday.’
‘Oh.’
‘I’m taking you to Tuscany. Actually, we’re all going to Tuscany.’
‘All of us?’ I look at Lins and Nick and they’re grinning at me. ‘You guys too?’
‘Yep! Surprise!’ says Nick. Lins grins.
I look back at Josh. ‘So, my surprise is that we’re all going to Italy for my birthday?’
‘Yes.’
‘I love Italy. I love Tuscany!’
‘I know,’ says Josh, humouring me.
‘Oh, my god, that’s … that’s … I love it so much!’ I throw my arms around his neck and I’m laughing and crying at the same time?so much crying today.
I sit back and wipe the happy tears from my cheeks. ‘And you all knew?you all knew!’
‘Yep,’ says Lins.
I sigh contentedly. Josh is not sick and there’s no big conspiracy. He’s just the best boyfriend in the world. Then the penny drops. ‘Oh, so Cat and Jean-Luc … they know too, right.’
‘Yeah. They’re gonna come.’
I frown. ‘So, this morning … do you think …?’ I ask him.
‘Yeah, I do … That seemed to be what they were getting at.’
