Page 39 of For the Love of Lily

“I want to meet. We shouldn’t have left things like we did,” I admitted.

“We can figure out where and when next week. I guess you need to speak to Zack?”

“Yep. That’ll be interesting. I’m relieved you’re back safe.”

He smiled and those freckles looked even more adorable. “Speak soon, Lily, missed you.” Then he was gone, and I was holding the phone in my trembling hand.

The thought of speaking to Zack about this filled me with dread. He had a jealous streak at the best of times, but where Luke was concerned, it was on another level. As we cosied up on the couch together on Friday evening, it seemed as good a time as any.

“Zack…” I said, as I stroked my fingers up and down his arm.

“Mmhmm?” He was busy flicking through hundreds of boxsets, trying to find one to settle on for the night.

“Luke rang me.”

All telly browsing stopped as Zack looked at me. “Where is he?”

“London,” I answered. “He’ll be back home soon. I said I’d go and see him.”

“Why would you say that?” He inched away from me, a subtle movement yet it spoke volumes.

“Because he’s my friend, and I haven’t seen him in almost a year,” I shrugged. “You wouldn’t ask that if I was going to see Cassie, or you were going to see Maddy.”

“The difference being they aren’t trying to get into your knickers.” Deep frown lines appeared on his forehead.

“You don’t trust me at all, do you?”

“I trust you. I don’t trust him. You’re not going, that’s it.” He continued to bash the remote control as if that was it, his word was final.

“Excuse me? Since when do I not get a say in my own decisions?”

“When it involves him, you’re completely blind. For fuck’s sake, I know what he did was amazing, do we have to hear about it forever? I would’ve done it, anyone would’ve done it.”

“Wow…” I couldn’t believe what I’d heard. “Of all the shitty things you could’ve said…”

He shrugged, like a petulant child. The conversation was over for him.

“You know you can’t stop me? Can I just check we haven’t gone back to the fifties here and you are expecting me to be all Stepford Wives?”

“Do you ever think about how it makes me feel?” Zack snapped.

“Of course I do. Do you ever think that if it was him I wanted to be with, I would be? I wouldn’t have uprooted my life to be here with you, would I?” I yelled back. “You can’t keep doing this jealous thing.”

Zack’s breaths were fast as he clenched and stretched his fingers. “How about we see him together? With Cassie and Guy, in a group. I don’t want you on your own with him.”

“I’ll speak to Cassie.” I stared at the blank television, preferable to looking at him.

“I’m going out. Can we take a rain check on this?” He pointed to the beers and popcorn on the table, all ready for a snuggly night in.

“Sure,” I sighed. “If that’s what you want. Don’t rush back on my account.”

Ten minutes later, without so much as a kiss on the cheek, Zack drove away. As Friday nights went, not my greatest.

“Stranger!” Cassie teased as she answered my call the next day. “Thought you’d run off on me now you’re a big career girl.”

“No, it’s been chaos lately,” I responded, making polite chit chat and listening to her tales of the kids, whilst wondering how to broach this. “Cassie, I need to ask you something.”

“OK… I figured. You’ve found out, haven’t you?” her voice rose in pitch.

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