Page 24 of Lily, Unwritten

My fingers trembled as I made the drinks. It wasn’t a total disaster, it could be Hughes rather than Adamson representing, and I wouldn’t see them anyway, I was just admin and support. Luke wouldn’t even see my name on any documents, most likely. I wasn’t important enough to be named. I would need to speak to the secretary on their side fairly often… Why did this have to happen now?

I sighed as I looked up to the ceiling. Zack would flip. Between this and the egg donation issue, he would not be a happy fiancé. In some ways, the last six months had been incredible for us, but it concerned me how he acted at times, like I had to do what he said. It wasn’t often though, mostly he was an absolute sweetheart, the biggest softie, and I guess it wasn’t that weird to not want me to have an unnecessary medical procedure.

I carried the drinks through in a daze, wondering the whole time - should I even tell Zack? I couldn’t get out of this case now. To tell him would stress him out for no reason. No reason at all. Except… If he found out later, he’d think I hid it on purpose.

Why was nothing ever straightforward?!

And now I was thinking about Luke… I wasn’t meant to think about him. So pretty, though.

The afternoon dragged in a steady flow of admin tasks. Just as I was about to leave the office and head home, Anna shouted to me.

“Lily, can you be in half an hour early tomorrow?” There was a distinct lack of please in that sentence.

“Of course.” I forced a sweet smile as I spoke, my jaw too rigid. She was going to make this whole case difficult, that much was obvious.

Cassie enveloped me in a loving hug as soon as I opened the door that evening.

“I haven’t seen you in forever!” she exclaimed.

“Or, alternatively, a couple of weeks?” I said, raising an eyebrow with a laugh.

“I’m starved,” she said. “Shall I just say hi to Zack, and we’ll go straight out?”

“Oh, he’s on the phone, new job and all that,” I shrugged as I grabbed my bag and keys. He truly was on the phone, I hadn’t lied, I just didn’t want any awkwardness.

Half an hour later, we were sat in the window of a gorgeous little Neapolitan place as we split a pizza with the thinnest, crispiest base. I had a beautiful, Italian white wine; Cassie had to make do with lime and soda before her drive home.

I felt like I couldn’t quite keep up with my own breaths, they were so fast with nerves. Cassie and I caught up on news about jobs and houses and kids and everything under the sun like we normally did. But I needed to tell her about Zack’s reaction, and I also wondered if I should I tell her about this case?

“So, you know I said I’d speak to Zack about the egg donation idea?”

Cassie nodded, her eyes lit up in anticipation.

“He’s really not a fan…”

She reached across the table and took hold of my hand. “It’s OK, I get it. I don’t want to cause issues between you two.”

“It’s not OK though, Cassie. He’s doing that thing again where he acts like he owns me. I want to help you, and he should support that,” I sighed and knocked back a glug of wine.

“What reasons did he have?” Her voice had a tiny shake to it as she asked the question.

“That he wants us to try for a baby soon and is worried about the procedure and any potential impact it could have. He also thinks knowing it was half my child would cause problems with our friendship.” I pointed between Cassie and myself. “I said I wouldn’t be thinking of the baby as half my child, but he had his mind made up.”

“I’ll look into the anonymous donors again. There’ll be other clinics I can approach, try and figure what I’m getting. It’s an egg, at the end of the day, I’m not going to have the family round for tea. Thank you for even considering it.”

“Look into it, Cass, but as far as I’m concerned, this isn’t over. He can’t just tell me what I can and can’t do.”

“It sounds like he’s thinking of your future.”

“Pretty sure he’s thinking of his future…” I said with a sigh.

“Lily, the last thing I want is to cause a rift between you two when you’re back on track.”

“It’s him causing a rift, not you. Anyway, how are things back at home? Much changed in town?”

She chewed on her lip as she looked at me. “Such as? There’s a new corner shop. Couple more coffee shops. You after some specific information here?”

“No… Just wondered.”

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