Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

Will had been afraid when she finally left his room that she wouldn’t actually
make it to hers. He’d had visions of her curled up in a little red ball on the stairs.
My own view of Louisa Clark was a little less generous just at that moment.
‘Will, mate, I think maybe next time you should worry a little more about
yourself, yeah?’
‘I’m all right, Nathan. I’m fine. Feeling better already.’
I felt his eyes on me as I checked his pulse.
‘Really. It wasn’t her fault.’
His blood pressure was down. His colour was returning to normal in front of
me. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding.
We chatted a bit, passing the time while everything settled down, discussing
the previous day’s events. He didn’t seem a bit bothered about his ex. He didn’t
say much, but for all he was obviously exhausted, he looked okay.
I let go of his wrist. ‘Nice tattoo, by the way.’
He gave me a wry look.
‘Make sure you don’t graduate to an “End by”, yeah?’
Despite the sweats and the pain and the infection, he looked for once like
there was something else on his mind other than the thing that consumed him. I
couldn’t help thinking that if Mrs Traynor had known this, she might not have
kicked off as hard as she did.
We didn’t tell her anything of the lunchtime events – Will made me promise not
to – but when Lou came back later that afternoon she was pretty quiet. She
looked pale, with her hair washed and pulled back like she was trying to look
sensible. I kind of guessed how she felt; sometimes when you get hammered till
the small hours you feel pretty good in the morning, but really it’s just because
you’re still a bit drunk. That old hangover is just toying with you, working out
when to bite. I figured it must have bitten her around lunchtime.
But it became clear after a while that it wasn’t just the hangover troubling her.
Will kept on and on at her about why she was being so quiet, and then she
said, ‘Yes, well, I’ve discovered it’s not the most sensible thing to stay out all
night when you’ve just moved in with your boyfriend.’
She was smiling as she said it, but it was a forced smile, and Will and I both
knew that there must have been some serious words.