Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

Will said something to Dad and I stared at Patrick, willing him to stop. On his
left, Granddad was picking at his plate with greedy delight, letting out what we
called his ‘food noises’ – little grunts and murmurs of pleasure.
‘Delicious salmon,’ Will said, to my mother. ‘Really lovely flavour.
‘Well, it’s not something we would have every day,’ she said, smiling. ‘But we
did want to make today special.’
Stop staring, I told Patrick silently.
Finally, he caught my eye and looked away. He looked furious.
I fed Will another piece, and then some bread when I saw him glance at it. I
had, I realized in that moment, become so attuned to Will’s needs that I barely
needed to look at him to work out what he wanted. Patrick, opposite, ate with his
head down, cutting the smoked salmon into small pieces and spearing them with
his fork. He left his bread.
‘So, Patrick,’ Will said, perhaps sensing my discomfort. ‘Louisa tells me
you’re a personal trainer. What does that involve?’
I so wished he hadn’t asked. Patrick launched into his sales spiel, all about
personal motivation and how a fit body made for a healthy mind. Then he
segued into his training schedule for the Xtreme Viking – the temperatures of the
North Sea, the body fat ratios needed for marathon running, his best times in
each discipline. I normally tuned out at this point, but all I could think of now,
with Will beside me, was how inappropriate it was. Why couldn’t he have just
said something vague and left it at that?
‘In fact, when Lou said you were coming, I thought I’d take a look at my
books and see if there was any physio I could recommend.’
I choked on my champagne. ‘It’s quite specialist, Patrick. I’m not sure you’d
really be the person.’
‘I can do specialist. I do sports injuries. I have medical training.’
‘This is not a sprained ankle, Pat. Really.’
‘There’s a man I worked with a couple of years ago had a client who was
paraplegic. He’s almost fully recovered now, he says. Does triathlons and
everything.’
‘Fancy,’ said my mother.
‘He pointed me to this new research in Canada that says muscles can be
trained to remember former activity. If you get them working enough, every day,