Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

five years,’ I said.
‘You’re probably right.’
I was warming to my theme now. ‘And she will be a little bit cross with him
all the time without really knowing why and bitch about him at really awful
dinner parties to the embarrassment of their friends, and he won’t want to leave
because he’ll be scared of all the alimony.’
Will turned to look at me.
‘And they will have sex once every six weeks and he will adore his children
while doing bugger all to actually help look after them. And she will have
perfect hair but get this kind of pinched face –’ I narrowed my mouth ‘– through
never saying what she actually means, and start an insane Pilates habit or maybe
buy a dog or a horse and develop a crush on her riding instructor. And he will
take up jogging when he hits forty, and maybe buy a Harley-Davidson, which
she will despise, and every day he will go to work and look at all the young men
in his office and listen in bars to who they pulled at the weekend or where they
went on a jolly and feel like somehow – and he will never be quite sure how – he
got suckered.’
I turned.
Will was staring at me.
‘Sorry,’ I said, after a moment. ‘I don’t really know where that came from.’
‘I’m starting to feel just the tiniest bit sorry for Running Man.’
‘Oh, it’s not him,’ I said. ‘It’s working at a cafe for years. You see and hear
everything. Patterns, in people’s behaviour. You’d be amazed at what goes on.’
‘Is that why you’ve never got married?’
I blinked. ‘I suppose so.’
I didn’t want to say I had never actually been asked.
It may sound as though we didn’t do much. But, in truth, the days with Will were
subtly different – depending on his mood and, more importantly, how much pain
he was in. Some days I would arrive and I could see from the set of his jaw that
he didn’t want to talk to me – or to anyone – and, noting this, I would busy
myself around the annexe, trying to anticipate his needs so that I didn’t have to
bother him by asking.