Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

‘It’s not going to happen,’ said Will.
I had refused to listen to him. I couldn’t bear the idea that this was how our
day was going to end.
‘I think we’re going to need some help,’ Nathan said. ‘I can’t even get the
chair back on to the path. It’s stuck.’
Will let out an audible sigh. He looked about as fed up as I had ever seen him.
‘I could lift you into the front seat, Will, if I tilt it back a little. And then
Louisa and I could see if we could get the chair in afterwards.’
Will’s voice emerged through gritted teeth. ‘I am not ending today with a
fireman’s lift.’
‘Sorry, mate,’ Nathan said. ‘But Lou and I are not going to manage this alone.
Here, Lou, you’re prettier than I am. Go and collar a few extra pairs of arms, will
you?’
Will closed his eyes, set his jaw and I ran towards the stands.
I would not have believed so many people could turn down a cry for help when
it involved a wheelchair stuck in mud, especially as the cry did come from a girl
in a miniskirt and flashing her most endearing smile. I am not usually good with
strangers, but desperation made me fearless. I walked from group to group of
racegoers in the grandstand, asking if they could just spare me a few minutes’
help. They looked at me and my clothes as if I were plotting some kind of trap.
‘It’s for a man in a wheelchair,’ I said. ‘He’s a bit stuck.’
‘We’re just waiting on the next race,’ they said. Or, ‘Sorry.’ Or, ‘It’ll have to
wait till after the two thirty. We have a monkey on this one.’
I even thought about collaring a jockey or two. But as I got close to the
enclosure, I saw that they were even smaller than I was.
By the time I got to the parade ring I was incandescent with suppressed rage. I
suspect I was snarling at people then, not smiling. And there, finally, joy of joys,
were the lads in striped polo shirts. The back of their shirts referred to ‘Marky’s
Last Stand’ and they clutched cans of Pilsner and Tennent’s Extra. Their accents
suggested they were from somewhere in the north-east, and I was pretty sure that
they had not had any significant break from alcohol for the last twenty-four
hours. They cheered as I approached, and I fought the urge to give them the
finger again.