Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

It’s not that I was some kind of sex maniac – we’d been together a long time,
after all. It’s just that some perverse bit of me had begun to question my own
attractiveness.
Patrick had never minded the fact that I dressed ‘inventively’, as he put it. But
what if he hadn’t been entirely truthful? Patrick’s job, his whole social life now
revolved around the control of flesh – taming it, reducing it, honing it. What if,
faced with those tight little tracksuited bottoms, my own suddenly seemed
wanting? What if my curves, which I had always thought of as pleasantly
voluptuous, now seemed doughy to his exacting eyes?
These were the thoughts that were still humming messily around my head as
Mrs Traynor came in and pretty much ordered Will and me to go outside. ‘I’ve
asked the cleaners to come and do a special spring clean, so I thought perhaps
you could enjoy the nice weather while they’re all in there.’
Will’s eyes met mine with the faintest lift of his eyebrows. ‘It’s not really a
request, is it, Mother?’
‘I just think it would be good if you took some air,’ she said. ‘The ramp is in
place. Perhaps, Louisa, you might take some tea out there with you?’
It wasn’t an entirely unreasonable suggestion. The garden was beautiful. It
was as if with the slight lifting of temperatures everything had suddenly decided
to look a little bit greener. Daffodils had emerged as if from nowhere, their
yellowing bulbs hinting at the flowers to come. Buds burst from brown branches,
perennials forcing their way tentatively through the dark, claggy soil. I opened
the doors and we went outside, Will keeping his chair on the York stone path. He
gestured towards a cast-iron bench with a cushion on it, and I sat there for some
time, our faces lifted to the weak sunshine, listening to the sparrows squabbling
in the hedgerow.
‘What’s up with you?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You’re quiet.’
‘You said you wanted me to be quiet.’
‘Not this quiet. It alarms me.’
‘I’m all right,’ I said. And then, ‘It’s just boyfriend stuff, if you really want to
know.’
‘Ah,’ he said. ‘Running Man.’