Page 58 of One Hot Summer

“But you seem so close,” I said, thinking about how she liked to grab him, hug him, lean on him in a soaking wet T-shirt, leaving very little to the imagination.

“She’s like my little sister, of course we’re close. And I am so sorry you thought something else. I’m mortified. She would be too. She’d say, ‘That’s so gross’, and pretend to vomit.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at his impression.

“But today, you lied. You were with her, and said you were here. I saw you.”

I still felt like there were so many questions which needed to be answered.

“Chloe collared me as I was on my way out to collect the ring from a jewellery shop in town. I had ordered it a few weeks ago, my parents were already here so they helped to facilitate it. Chloe had plans to meet Steffan for lunch, but if her mum saw her going out alone she would have interrogated her. So, she asked if she could tag along to make it look like an innocent outing. She came with me to pick up the ring.”

I thought back to her Instagram post, Day out with Z, exciting things to come. x. Now it all made sense.

“You planned to propose all this time?” Reality was setting in. He had been planning this for weeks.

“Yes. I wanted to be traditional and get your parents’ permission, but with your dad not being here, and things with your mum being up and down, I called your brother and he and I had a good talk.”

Andrew. That’s why he was at my house that day.

“You asked Andrew for permission to marry me?” The tears were back, but they weren’t angry tears. They weren’t even sad tears.

“Yes.” Zack’s eyes were filling with tears too. “I called him asking if we could chat. You were still out, and he wasn’t too far away, so he came over. We had a really good chat and I promised at the wedding to slip some cocktail sausages into his tofu, so naturally he said he approved.”

I laughed, a much-needed one. My body relaxed as he laughed with me, holding my hands. He was crying too.

“So, Jenny,” he wiped his eyes, and whilst still on one knee, he reopened the small box, “I’m asking again. Will you marry me?”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Ipulled up outside Sarah’s house, ready to collect Bing and see how much compensation Sarah wanted for damages to her new home. I had her gift from Crete in a little bag, as well as a bottle of kitchen cleaner and some wine. As long as he hadn’t touched her sofa, we would probably be able to get away with it.

Sarah and I hadn’t spoken properly since my mini meltdown in Agios Nikolaos. I was very nervous to see her. She had texted me a few times, asking if I was all right, but I hadn’t replied. Not until this morning, when I asked what time I could pick Bing up.

“Hey.” She tried to smile as she opened the door, but she was clearly nervous too. As she stepped to one side, I went in and looked around. There was no clear damage that I could see. Bing hadn’t clawed at any of the newly painted walls, which was a huge relief. “Shall I put the kettle on?”

“I think you should.”

She already had the cups prepared, and the kettle had not long since been boiled, so didn’t take too long to be ready. We were both silent as the teaspoon clinked against the cups and Sarah stirred the milk. She carried the cups back into the living room and I followed her. We sat apart on the sofa.

“I’m ready to talk about… about you and Dan,” I finally said, breaking the silence.

She exhaled. I could tell she had a speech prepared. “I am so, so, so, so sorry. Dan and I weren’t even meant to happen. I’d arranged a date with a different guy, who didn’t show up. No message or anything, just completely ghosted me. It was the postman. I shouldn’t have bothered. Anyway, as I was leaving the bar, I saw Dan.” She broke off to look at me, but I said nothing. “I swear on my mother’s life it was not pre-arranged, just pure chance. We had a drink, we had a laugh. Apparently, he’d seen me on the dating app too, but wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to reach out, although he’d wanted to. We decided to have a kind of date, there and then…” She stopped and took a much-needed breath. “And Jenny, we really hit it off. We spoke on the phone. We texted. We went out again. I just…” Her hand covered her mouth, to stop her lip from quivering. “If I’d known.” Her voice went high. “If I’d known it would cause this between us, I never would have…”

I leapt towards my crying friend and pulled her close. I couldn’t stand seeing her like this. It wasn’t worth it. “Please don’t cry. It’s okay.” I hadn’t seen her crying like this since the bombshell news about Max The Wanker becoming a dad.

“No, it isn’t.” She pulled back. “I kept it from you. You and I don’t keep things from one another. It was really shitty of me. I don’t know why I kept it from you. It was stupid!” She wiped her eyes with her sleeves. “I was being so selfish.”

“Sarah, look, it was a big thing. I get it. I was hurt you couldn’t talk to me. But barely speaking to you for two weeks has hurt me even more than that. I need you. Clearly,” I said, thinking back to my almost Greek tragedy.

“I need you too, so I spoke to Dan and we might be calling it off.”

“What on earth for?”

“I told him my friendship with you was more important. We’ve been together since we were eighteen. We’ve seen it all with each other. And after Max The Wanker, you pulled me back from the brink. I owe you everything.”

That was it. We were both crying now. We hugged and soaked each other’s shoulders with tears that had been a long time coming. But I was not losing my friend over a guy, and she was not losing a perfect guy over me.

“Sarah, you’re not going to stop seeing him, do you hear me?” I pulled back and held on to her shoulders. Her blonde hair was stained dark from the tears. “Do you like him? I mean, really like him?”

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