Page 18 of For the Love of Lily

“You OK, Lily? You look pale,” Luke asked with concern as I tried to focus on his eyes.

“Perhaps went a bit eager with the booze.” I bit my lip.

“You are daft,” he said. “You know you have to drink slow, always been a lightweight.” He pinched my cheek with his gentle touch.

“I need air, sorry.”

At this point, Zack stood up. His chair scraped across the floor, the sharp noise making me close my eyes. “I’ll come with you,” Zack said tersely as he moved round to me and helped me up, his arm around me as we walked outside.

I leaned against the outside of the building, dizzier still as the fresh air hit me. “I’m so sorry,” I mumbled. “Shouldn’t have been mixing drinks.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry.” The sentiment didn’t quite reach his voice. “Do you think you’re going to be sick?”

I shook my head. “I’ll get water in a minute. I’ll be fine.”

“So, what’s the tale about the tent?” Zack asked, his voice serious and low.

“Huh?”

“Luke said he had an embarrassing story about you two in a tent?”

“Oh, it was last summer, at a festival. I got so drunk I passed out across both of our sleeping bags and was blocking the zip to get in. He had to sleep outside because he couldn’t wake me up. It was like a mud bath out there. He said he was never sharing with me again and that I snored all night, which is obviously a lie.” I giggled and poked his chest, the cold air making me feel more drunk. “Didn’t snore when you stayed over, did I?”

Zack seemed to relax and smiled. “Nope, no snoring. Maybe a bit of dribble.”

“I do not dribble!”

Zack wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close. “Maybe you should invite me to stay over again, so I can double check.”

I stood on my tiptoes and whispered to him, “You can stay over whenever you like. I think I owe you the image of my lips around something, don’t I?” I thought I was acting flirtatious and sultry as I nipped his earlobe, pulling his face towards mine for a kiss. It just came across as drunk and clumsy, when I stumbled to the side and Zack had to put his arm out to steady me.

“Yeah, I think you might be a little too drunk for that,” he sighed.

“Nope, I’m good to go!” I grinned.

“Lily, two drunk people together is one thing. A sober guy and a drunk girl is not my scene. I’m not going to take advantage of you being wasted.”

“Aww.” I put my head back against the wall and closed my eyes for a moment. As I looked up, Luke’s eyes were on us, he looked away swiftly.

“I think we should head off now, you look like you need to lie down,” Zack said.

“OK,” I agreed. “I’ll go pay the bill.”

“You stay here in the fresh air. I’ll go. I don’t mind.” Zack headed inside without waiting for an answer. He seemed annoyed, but it could’ve been the drink clouding my mind, I couldn’t tell. My head hurt too much to think about it in any depth.

Zack wrapped his arm around me as we headed home, not before I noticed Luke watching us once more. I waved with a sad smile.

My eye opened cautiously. Why was it hard to swallow? My mouth felt like the desert, and my head was full of banging drums. A quick glance under the duvet told me I was still fully clothed. Zack was in the bed too. I needed to get to the bathroom before he woke up.

I sat on the toilet with my head in my hands. Why hadn’t I been more sensible? Teeth cleaned, face washed, I climbed back into my bed and wrapped Zack in a huge cuddle. He had that delicious, sexy stubble look going on again.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I ruined the whole night.”

Zack blinked his eyes open. “It’s fine, don’t worry. Not the night I imagined, but I still get to wake up here,” he kissed my forehead. “I didn’t know what to do about your clothes. I didn’t want you to think I took advantage of you or anything, so I left them on.”

“I know you wouldn’t, even though I seem to recall I was encouraging you to.” I closed my eyes and enjoyed the movement of his warm chest rising up and down. “I feel like death.”

“I was going to get the last train,” he explained. “But I was worried about you. You don’t mind that I stayed over?”

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