Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

‘Including Patrick.’
And there it was, out there. The truth that I could barely admit to myself.
I felt my cheeks flood with colour. ‘Yes,’ I said into the duvet. ‘Sometimes,
yes.’
‘Fuck,’ she said, after a minute. ‘And I thought I liked to make my life
complicated.’
She lay down beside me on the bed, and we stared up at the ceiling.
Downstairs we could hear Granddad whistling tunelessly, accompanied by the
whine and clunk of Thomas driving some remote-control vehicle backwards and
forwards into a piece of skirting. For some unexplained reason my eyes filled
with tears. After a minute, I felt my sister’s arm snake around me.
‘You fucking madwoman,’ she said, and we both began to laugh.
‘Don’t worry,’ I said, wiping at my face. ‘I’m not going to do anything stupid.’
‘Good. Because the more I think about this, the more I think it’s about the
intensity of the situation. It’s not real, it’s about the drama.’
‘What?’
‘Well, this is actual life or death, after all, and you’re locked into this man’s
life every day, locked into his weird secret. That’s got to create a kind of false
intimacy. Either that or you’re getting some weird Florence Nightingale
complex.’
‘Believe me, that is definitely not it.’
We lay there, staring at the ceiling.
‘But it is a bit mad, thinking about loving someone who can’t … you know,
love you back. Maybe this is just a panic reaction to the fact that you and Patrick
have finally moved in together.’
‘I know. You’re right.’
‘And you two have been together a long time. You’re bound to get crushes on
other people.’
‘Especially while Patrick is obsessed with being Marathon Man.’
‘And you might go off Will again. I mean, I remember when you thought he
was an arse.’
‘I still do sometimes.’
My sister reached for a tissue and dabbed at my eyes. Then she thumbed at
something on my cheek.