Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

I couldn’t really blame the guy. I wouldn’t have wanted my missus staying out
all night with some bloke, even if he was a quad. And he hadn’t seen the way
Will looked at her.
We didn’t do much that afternoon. Louisa emptied Will’s backpack, revealing
every free hotel shampoo, conditioner, miniature sewing kit and shower cap she
could lay her hands on. (‘Don’t laugh,’ she said. ‘At those prices, Will paid for a
bloody shampoo factory.’) We watched some Japanese animated film which Will
said was perfect hangover viewing, and I stuck around – partly because I wanted
to keep an eye on his blood pressure and partly, to be honest, because I was
being a bit mischievous. I wanted to see his reaction when I announced I was
going to keep them both company.
‘Really?’ he said. ‘You like Miyazaki?’
He caught himself immediately, saying that of course I would love it … it was
a great film … blah, blah, blah. But there it was. I was glad for him, on one
level. He had thought about one thing for too long, that man.
So we watched the film. Pulled down the blinds, took the phone off the hook,
and watched this weird cartoon about a girl who ends up in a parallel universe,
with all these weird creatures, half of whom you couldn’t tell if they were good
or bad. Lou sat right up close to Will, handing him his drink or, at one point,
wiping his eye when he got something in it. It was quite sweet, really, although a
little bit of me wondered what on earth this was going to lead to.
And then, as Louisa pulled up the blinds and made us all some tea, they
looked at each other like two people wondering whether to let you in on a secret,
and they told me about going away. Ten days. Not sure where yet, but it would
probably be long haul and it would be good. Would I come and help?
Does a bear shit in the woods?
I had to take my hat off to the girl. If you had told me four months ago that
we’d get Will off on a long-haul holiday – hell, that we would get him out of this
house – I would have told you that you were a few sandwiches short of a picnic.
Mind you, I’d have a quiet word with her about Will’s medical care before we
went. We couldn’t afford a near miss like that again if we were stuck in the
middle of nowhere.
They even told Mrs T as she popped by, just as Louisa was leaving. Will said
it, like it was no more remarkable than him going for a walk around the castle.