Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

‘I just … don’t want you to think I made this happen. I don’t want to feel like
I made this happen.’
He sighed, and rolled on to his back. ‘Why do women always have to go over
and over a situation until it becomes a problem? I love you, you love me, we’ve
been together nearly seven years and there was no room at your parents’ house
any more. It’s actually pretty simple.’
But it didn’t feel simple.
It felt like I was living a life I hadn’t had a chance to anticipate.
That Friday it rained all day – warm, heavy sheets of it, like we were in the
tropics, making the guttering gurgle and bowing the stems of the flowering
shrubs as if in supplication. Will stared out of the windows like a dog denied a
walk. Nathan came and went, a plastic bag lifted above his head. Will watched a
documentary about penguins, and afterwards, while he logged on to his
computer, I busied myself, so that we didn’t have to talk to each other. I felt our
discomfort with each other keenly, and being in the same room as him all the
time made it that much worse.
I had finally begun to understand the consolations of cleaning. I mopped,
cleaned windows and changed duvets. I was a constant whirl of activity. No dust
mote escaped my eye, no tea ring my forensic attentions. I was dislodging the
limescale on the bathroom taps using kitchen roll soaked in vinegar (my
mother’s tip) when I heard Will’s chair behind me.
‘What are you doing?’
I was bent low over the bath. I didn’t turn round. ‘I’m descaling your taps.’
I could feel him watching me.
‘Say that again,’ he said, after a beat.
‘What?’
‘Say that again.’
I straightened up. ‘Why, are you having problems with your hearing? I’m
descaling your taps.’
‘No, I just want you to listen to what you’re saying. There is no reason to
descale my taps, Clark. My mother won’t notice it, I won’t care, and it’s making
the bathroom stink like a fish and chip shop. Besides, I’d like to go out.’
I wiped a lock of hair from my face. It was true. There was a definite waft of
large haddock in the atmosphere.