Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

I slid out from the porch and was down the path before Dad could ask where I
was going. Mrs Traynor stood to the side of the crowd, gazing at the chaos like
Marie Antoinette viewing a load of rioting peasants.
‘Domestic dispute,’ I said.
She looked away, as if almost embarrassed to have been caught looking. ‘I
see.’
‘It’s a fairly constructive one by their standards. They’ve been going to
marriage guidance.’
Her elegant wool suit, pearls and expensive hair were enough to mark her out
in our street, among the sweatpants and cheap fabrics in bright, chain-store
colours. She appeared rigid, worse than the morning she had come home to find
me sleeping in Will’s room. I registered in some distant part of my mind that I
was not going to miss Camilla Traynor.
‘I was wondering if you and I could have a little talk.’ She had to lift her voice
to be heard over the cheering.
Mrs Grisham was now throwing out Richard’s fine wines. Every exploding
bottle was greeted with squeals of delight and another heartfelt outburst of
pleading from Mr Grisham. A river of red wine ran through the feet of the crowd
and into the gutter.
I glanced over at the crowd and then behind me at the house. I could not
imagine bringing Mrs Traynor into our front room, with its litter of toy trains,
Granddad snoring mutely in front of the television, Mum spraying air-freshener
around to hide the smell of Dad’s socks, and Thomas popping by to murmur
bugger at the new guest.
‘Um … it’s not a great time.’
‘Perhaps we could talk in my car? Look, just five minutes, Louisa. Surely you
owe us that.’
A couple of my neighbours glanced in my direction as I climbed into the car. I
was lucky that the Grishams were the hot news of the evening, or I might have
been the topic of conversation. In our street, if you climbed into an expensive car
it meant you had either pulled a footballer or were being arrested by plainclothes
police.
The doors closed with an expensive, muted clunk and suddenly there was
silence. The car smelt of leather, and there was nothing in it apart from me and