Lily looked at her friend’s eyes, at the unfamiliar shine of threatened tears. It wasn’t the first time she’d felt something was different about Emily since her arrival. The moment in the car when she’d looked wistful, the slight sadness at the edges of her smile. ‘Are you OK?’ she said.
‘Oh, yes. I just keep tearing up at the moment. Chris reckons it’s peri-menopause, but I’m obviously far too young for that in reality.’
‘Far too young.’ Lily reached out and squeezed Emily’s shoulder. ‘You know, if it’s not… I mean if it’s anything else… if something’s wrong. You know you can…’
‘I know.’ Emily nodded.
There was a silence, but clearly Emily wasn’t about to fill it.
‘Sorry about the lack of furniture by the way,’ Lily said.
‘It’s cool. I like the minimalist look.’
‘Pah! Yes. But it would be nice to sit down occasionally.’
In the end, they spent the next thirty minutes dragging two of the extraordinarily heavy garden chairs in from the newly mowed garden. ‘Let’s leave the table,’ Lily puffed when they were heaving one of them up the single step into the kitchen. ‘I’d rather have to eat on my lap than go to hospital with a hernia.’
‘That sounds like a plan,’ Emily said. ‘But should we drag in a third just in case your boyfriend comes around?’
‘Frédérique?’
‘No,’ Emily said, but raised a quizzical eyebrow at the conclusion Lily had jumped to, ‘although let’s talk more about him later. I was talking about the ridiculously dishy Claude.’
‘Dishy?’
‘I’m trying to expand my vocabulary.’
‘Fair enough. Well, first of all, Claude might be dishy, but he’s really not my type.’
‘Lily, that man is everyone’s type.’
‘Well, he’s easy on the eye, I’ll admit. But seriously not the type of man I usually go for.’
‘Yes, you prefer them slightly more rotund with more of a receding hairline, right?’
‘Ouch!’ Lily said, giving her friend a nudge. ‘That’s a bit mean.’
‘Sorry.’
‘Plus, as far as I’m concerned, I’m not single. Ben and I have been together for over twenty years. You don’t just walk away from a commitment like that.’
‘Um, you kind of have, sweetheart,’ Emily said, plonking the chair down and sliding into it. ‘Fuck, these are uncomfortable.’
‘No, I haven’t,’ Lily said, feeling her throat constrict slightly. She sat down in her own uncomfortable and slightly damp chair. It was heaven to take the weight off her feet, even if it was torture to sit on the hard, metal surface. ‘I know you think I’m mad, but I still think Ben will come round. I just need to show him I’m serious. And maybe show him how great life in France can be…’
Emily’s eyebrow raised once again.
‘What?’ Lily asked.
‘Nothing.’
‘You’re doing the eyebrow thing.’
‘Oh, bloody hell. I need to train myself to keep them still like a normal person. Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve. Mine’s on my bloody forehead.’
‘Yep. And you’ve obviously got something to say…’ Lily said. She tried not to let her impatience show – not wanting to fight with her friend – but it wasn’t easy.
‘OK,’ Emily said, sitting forward, her forearms on her thighs, hands clasped together, like an interrogative interviewer. ‘I just feel there has to be a point when you decide you’ve given that man enough chances. You’ve got to give him an ultimatum.’
‘But…’
‘I know. You love him. And he loves you. But are you a hundred per cent sure that he knows how much you still want him to join you?’
‘Of course he does – he must do!’
‘But, sweetheart… have you actually laid it on the line – said it openly?’ Emily said kindly.
‘Well, not exactly…’
‘Oh, Lily.’
‘I know. I suppose I’m just clinging on to the hope that he’ll kind of wake up,’ she said, feeling her face get hot. ‘That he’ll come and we’ll be together because he wants to – not because I begged him to.’
‘There’s no shame in begging, you know,’ Emily said, eyebrow arched. ‘It can work wonders…’