Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

‘All that said, the college idea is good. Because – let’s be blunt – whether it all
goes tits up with Will, or whether it doesn’t, you’re still going to need a proper
job. You’re not going to want to be a carer forever.’
‘It’s not going to go “tits up”, as you call it, with Will. He’s … he’s going to
be okay.’
‘Sure he is.’
Mum was calling Thomas. We could hear her, singing it beneath us in the
kitchen. ‘Thomas. Tomtomtomtom Thomas … ’
Treena sighed and rubbed at her eyes. ‘You going back to Patrick’s tonight?’
‘Yes.’
‘You want to grab a quick drink at the Spotted Dog and show me these plans,
then? I’ll see if Mum will put Thomas to bed for me. Come on, you can treat me,
seeing as you’re now loaded enough to go to college.’
It was a quarter to ten by the time I got back to Patrick’s.
My holiday plans, astonishingly, had met with Katrina’s complete approval.
She hadn’t even done her usual thing of adding, ‘Yes, but it would be even better
if you … ’ There had been a point where I wondered if she was doing it just to be
nice, because I was obviously going a bit nuts. But she kept saying things like,
‘Wow, I can’t believe you found this! You’ve got to take lots of pictures of him
bungee jumping.’ And, ‘Imagine his face when you tell him about the skydiving!
It’s going to be brilliant.’
Anyone watching us at the pub might have thought that we were two friends
who actually really quite liked each other.
Still mulling this over, I let myself in quietly. The flat was dark from outside
and I wondered if Patrick was having an early night as part of his intensive
training. I dropped my bag on the floor in the hall and pushed at the living-room
door, thinking as I did so that it was nice of him to have left a light on for me.
And then I saw him. He was sitting at a table laid with two places, a candle
flickering between them. As I closed the door behind me, he stood up. The
candle was burnt halfway down to the base.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said.
I stared at him.