Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

I turned towards the bed. ‘So,’ I said, my bag over my shoulder, ‘I’m guessing
the room service isn’t up to much?’
Will’s eyes locked on to mine and despite everything, despite all my fears, the
fact that I had thrown up twice, that I felt like I hadn’t slept for a year, I was
suddenly glad I had come. Not glad, relieved. Like I had excised some painful,
nagging part of myself, and given it over.
And then he smiled. It was lovely, his smile – a slow thing, full of recognition.
Weirdly, I found myself smiling back. ‘Nice room,’ I said, and immediately
realized the idiocy of the remark. I saw Georgina Traynor close her eyes, and I
blushed.
Will turned towards his mother. ‘I want to talk to Lou. Is that okay?’
She tried to smile. I saw a million things in the way she looked at me then –
relief, gratitude, a faint resentment at being shut out of these few minutes,
perhaps even a distant hope that my appearance meant something, that this fate
might yet be twisted from its tracks.
‘Of course.’
She moved past me into the corridor, and as I stood back from the doorway to
let her pass, she reached out a hand and touched my upper arm, just lightly. Our
eyes met, and hers softened, so that briefly she looked like someone else entirely,
and then she turned away from me.
‘Come, Georgina,’ she said, when her daughter made no attempt to move.
Georgina stood slowly and walked out silently, her very back broadcasting her
reluctance.
And then it was just us.
Will was half propped up in the bed, able to see out of the window to his left,
where the water feature in the little garden merrily trickled a thin stream of clear
water below the decking. On the wall was a badly framed print picture of
dahlias. I remember thinking that was a really crummy print to have to look at in
your last hours.
‘So … ’
‘You’re not going to –’
‘I’m not going to try and change your mind.’
‘If you’re here, you accept it’s my choice. This is the first thing I’ve been in
control of since the accident.’