Page 58 of For the Love of Lily

“Nice shoes.”

I didn’t give him the courtesy of a reply.

“I figured you’d come back to the house while I was away, but nothing had moved when I got home.” His voice still had anger in it.

“Why would I go back when you were so glad to see me go?” I snapped.

“I wasn’t glad. I was angry.”

“You didn’t try to stop me, you didn’t ask where I was, you wouldn’t answer your phone. What the hell was I supposed to think?” I tried to keep my voice down, conscious that we were at work. “What’s this breath, this break, meant to be?”

He shrugged. “Have you been with him?”

I pulled my phone out of my bag, ready for this. “Yes, I have. Not at first, but when I saw this - I figured I should embrace the break in the same way you were.” I slid it across the desk towards him.

He sighed as he looked at it. “I told Anna to take it down. She did it on purpose.”

“I know, she’s always a bitch to me. Maybe this time it worked in my favour, hey?”

“I slept with Anna a couple of years ago. She wanted it to be more, I didn’t. She’s been a pain ever since. I’m sorry you got caught up in that.” He ran his hand through his hair.

“You’re sorry I saw it then, not sorry it happened? And Anna? Seriously?”

“Don’t start twisting my words. This is all crap. Crap that’s covering up the real issue, which still is and always will be – Luke.”

I looked down at the table, knowing he was right but not willing to admit it.

“Why have you come to work dressed all sexy like that? Honestly?” His face softened. I bit my lip as I answered.

“To piss you off. To try to look hotter than that girl,” I answered. “Various reasons.”

“We never had a proper big fight before, did we? This whole situation is crazy, Lily.” He placed his hand over mine. I stayed still as a statue, not sure what to think. “You infuriate me, but I love you. You’re still my perfect girl, no matter what I said. I’ve done stupid things that we need to talk about, and I suspect that you have too. I want you to come home. I want us to work this out.”

“As long as I agree to never see Luke again?” I asked, looking up at those gorgeous brown eyes. Despite my fury, I still loved him.

Zack nodded at me. “We can draw a line under this. I can forgive anything that’s happened, and I hope you can forgive me too. But if we do this, we do it properly. You’d have to leave him in the past, it’s the only way.”

I took a long breath as Zack rubbed his thumb over my hand. “Lily, I want us to buy a house and get married, have love and family around us all the time. I want lots of kids, you know that, and I don’t want to have them with anyone in the world but you. I want to grow old together and love you every single day. I want us. I just need you to want it too.”

I was unable to stop the tears dropping from my eyes.

“You’re not saying anything, and it’s making me nervous. If you want to talk, I’ll answer the phone. I need to know soon, though, what you want. Is it me or is it him?”

Zack placed a paper-light kiss to my lips and left the room, the photo of him and the blonde still open on my phone. My stomach hurt; the words he’d just spoken flew endlessly around inside my head.

I didn’t care if he’d screwed half of Iceland last weekend, we could put it behind us, we could fix this. But Luke… could I live without Luke? It didn’t seem possible.

Rush hour trains – those I could live without. I stood in the cramped carriage on the way back to Luke’s. I felt so sorry for myself, and my feet were killing me.

Luke handed me a glass of Sauvignon Blanc as I walked through the door. “I love you coming home to me, especially in sexy shoes.”

I kissed him and smiled. “That train is vile though.”

We sat down together, and Luke pulled my legs up onto his knee, rubbing my sore feet. He was an angel. “How was work then?” he asked.

I knew what he was really asking. “We spoke briefly at lunchtime. I need to call him, he wants to explain more.”

“Did he apologise?”

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