‘Excellent. And how about Eddie Tessler? Has he been in touch?'
Mini adrenalin rush. Lily casually shook her head. ‘Eddie? No.'
‘What, you haven't heard from him at all?' Dan sounded surprised.
She gave him a wide-eyed look. ‘Why would I? He stayed with Patsy for a few days, now he's gone back to London. End of story.'
‘Yes, but you spent a lot of time with him. Patsy told me all about it. She said the two of you got on well together.' He raised an eyebrow. ‘Like, really well.'
Perspiration was prickling at the back of Lily's neck. Patsy was right, they had got on well. In particular, there'd been that moment when she'd thought he might be about to kiss her – oh God, that had been such a thrilling moment – until they'd been interrupted by the sound of a key in the front door and Dan's unexpected late-night appearance.
Yes, thanks for that, Dan, thanks a lot.
‘Look, we got on fine, but that's all it was.' Lily was effortlessly dismissive.
‘But didn't you wish there could have been more?'
‘No!'
‘Don't sound so outraged.' Dan held up his hands. ‘He's a good-looking guy. Girls love him. You must have fancied him.'
‘I didn't, I swear.' If she said so herself, Lily was doing a fantastic job of playing it cool. For once in her life she wasn't blushing scarlet, looking guilty or sounding like the world's most unconvincing fibber.
‘Not even a tiny bit?'
Her confidence grew. ‘Not even a smidgeon. I mean, nice enough guy, but not my type.'
‘Well I'm impressed,' said Dan. ‘I honestly thought you'd get one of your crushes on him, and fantasise about him falling under your spell.'
‘Wait, what are you even talking about? For a start, I wouldn't fantasise about him,' said Lily. ‘And second, what do you mean, one of my crushes? When did I last have a crush on someone?'
‘That film you couldn't stop watching. The Proposal. Ryan Reynolds,' Dan reminded her. ‘You had a massive crush on him.'
‘Oh come on, it wasn't a real-life crush! He's a film star!'
‘So's Eddie Tessler.'
‘Fine,' said Lily. ‘All the more reason not to have a crush on him.'
‘Not even a secret one?'
‘Not even a secret one. Why are you keeping on about it?'
‘Oh, sorry, I didn't realise I was.' Dan shrugged and gave her one of his glittery apologetic smiles. ‘I'll stop now.' Minuscule pause. ‘I just wondered why you'd googled him twenty-seven times in the last four days, that's all.'
Too late, Lily remembered that when you found yourself on the receiving end of one of those smiles, it meant the one-upmanship wasn't about to go in your favour.
Bugger.
Actually no, never mind bugger. Fuck.
Aloud she said coolly, ‘You mean you've been snooping? Scrolling through my phone and my private messages? That's a bit low, isn't it? Even for you.'
Now she could feel the heat emanating from her face, and her palms were so slick with perspiration that if she tried to pick up her drink, it would probably slip right through her fingers and crash back on to the table.
Which would amuse Dan no end, the bastard.
‘I wasn't snooping. I'd never snoop. And I wouldn't dream of reading your private messages,' he protested. ‘That would be reprehensible.'
‘Plus you don't know my email password.'
‘I wouldn't want to know it.' He looked wounded at the very thought. ‘All I did was click on Safari so I could order a new charger, and there were all the pages already open. You really shouldn't leave them open like that, you know. It drains the battery.'
Lily wished she could drain his battery. She said, ‘I didn't have twenty-seven pages open.'
‘I know, there were about five. But then I checked your search history to see if there was maybe some kind of fault with your phone. That was when the list came up and I saw how many times you'd typed in his name.' Dan shrugged his good shoulder. ‘I mean, twenty-seven. That's quite a number of times to check up on someone you're not remotely interested in.'
He wasn't even bothering to keep a straight face. Lily said, ‘God, you're smug.'
‘I'm not. I just happen to think honesty's the best policy. You liked him and you thought maybe he liked you. You hoped he'd be in touch, but it hasn't happened. There's no need to be embarrassed about that.'
‘I'm not embarrassed.'
‘You're still bright red, though,' Dan pointed out. ‘Hey, it's fine, a bit of harmless cyber-stalking never hurt anyone.'
‘I haven't been cyber-stalking! I looked him up on Google, that's all!'
‘Twenty-seven times,' Dan murmured.
Lily took a deep breath; the temptation to throw a drink at him had never been greater. The really annoying thing was that she hadn't even realised she'd done it that often. She stared deliberately past Dan and stayed silent.
‘Did he seduce you? Is that why?'
‘Oh for crying out loud, no.'
‘But you wish he had.'
‘Will you stop trying to wind me up? I could always break your other foot.' She didn't completely mean it, but almost. Since childhood Dan had delighted in teasing her, making fun of her weaknesses, catching her out. And she'd done the same to him in return. But this time felt different, possibly because he was bang on the money: she had wanted more to happen and, gullibly, had thought Eddie might have been in touch. Even a brief text, a friendly couple of lines would have been enough.
Except it hadn't happened, and yes, secretly she was a bit miffed.
Plus, there was nothing more annoying than being disappointed by one man and caught out by another who you knew was never going to let you forget it.
Just to make herself feel better, Lily dipped her fingers in her drink and flicked droplets of iced spritzer at Dan. Not too much; that would be a waste.
‘Cruel.' Dan bent down to greet Barbara, who had waddled over to say hello. ‘See that, Barb? Now she's trying to drown me.'
Barbara wagged her tail.
‘I hate you,' said Lily.
‘Only some of the time.'
‘Don't flatter yourself.'
‘Ah, but you are secretly glad I'm back.'
‘Why would I be glad? Look at you.' Lily indicated his strapped-up arm and plastered foot. ‘It's not as if you're going to be any use to anyone.'
‘Don't be so dismissive. I could be capable of more than you think,' Dan said playfully. ‘You don't know what I can or can't do until you let me try.'
Chapter 21
At 11.30 the next morning, Lily was standing in a crowded auction room in Bristol. As she waited to bid on life-sized resin sculptures of a pair of Friesian cows, her phone – switched to silent – began to buzz in her pocket, signalling an incoming call.
‘Now we come to Lot 88,' said the auctioneer. ‘And if you're thinking of starting up your own farm but you're too lazy to do the milking, we've got some cattle here that could be right up your street. Or should I say farmyard, hahahaHA!'
The auctioneer fancied himself as a comedian and liked to brighten proceedings with his own brand of humour. He beamed around the room. ‘Who'll start the bidding then, at three hundred pounds?'
Lily had no intention of answering her phone, obviously. Until she saw the name flashing up on the screen and let out an involuntary squeak of surprise.
Eddie.
Eddie Tessler.
OhmyGodohmyGod.
‘Come on, you lot, don't you go milking the situation.' The auctioneer chuckled at his own wit.
‘Three hundred!' a voice called out at the back.
Eddie was phoning her right here, right now. Paralysed with indecision, Lily felt her mobile buzz for the third time. Bidding at auction always prompted an adrenalin rush, and now her heart had gone into double overdrive thanks to this two-pronged assault. If it were anyone else calling she'd leave it, but this wasn't anyone else, it was Eddie. What if she returned the call later and he didn't answer it? What if this was her one and only chance to speak to him again?
‘Come on, ladies and gentlemen, don't be moo-dy, who'll give me three fifty?'
What if he took offence and blocked her number? He was a film star; people in his position didn't take kindly to being ignored.
‘Three fifty,' called out a voice to Lily's left.
‘Three seventy,' said another.
‘That's more like it,' the auctioneer announced. ‘Now we're moo-ving! Who'll give me-'
‘Four hundred,' shrieked Lily, a bit more high-pitched than she'd intended. In her hand, the phone buzzed for the fifth time.