Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

I twisted his straw round so that he could reach it more easily and waited
while he took a drink. The faint cold had turned the tips of his ears pink.
He grimaced. ‘Jesus, for a girl who made tea for a living you make a terrible
cup.’
‘You’re just used to lesbian tea,’ I said. ‘All that lapsang souchong herbal
stuff.’
‘Lesbian tea!’ He almost choked. ‘Well, it’s better than this stair varnish.
Christ. You could stand a spoon up in that.’
‘So even my tea is wrong.’ I sat down on the bench in front of him. ‘So how is
it okay for you to offer an opinion on every single thing I say or do, and yet
nobody else gets to say anything at all?’
‘Go on, then, Louisa Clark. Give me your opinions.’
‘On you?’
He gave a theatrical sigh. ‘Do I have a choice?’
‘You could cut your hair. It makes you look like some kind of vagrant.’
‘Now you sound like my mother.’
‘Well, you do look bloody awful. You could shave, at least. Isn’t all that facial
hair starting to get itchy?’
He gave me a sideways look.
‘It is, isn’t it? I knew it. Okay – this afternoon I am going to take it all off.’
‘Oh no.’
‘Yes. You asked me for my opinion. This is my answer. You don’t have to do
anything.’
‘What if I say no?’
‘I might do it anyway. If it gets any longer I’ll be picking bits of food out of it.
And, frankly, if that happens I’ll have to sue you for undue distress in the
workplace.’
He smiled then, as if I had amused him. It might sound a bit sad, but Will’s
smiles were so rare that prompting one made me feel a bit light-headed with
pride.
‘Here, Clark,’ he said. ‘Do me a favour?’
‘What?’
‘Scratch my ear for me, will you? It’s driving me nuts.’
‘If I do you’ll let me cut your hair? Just a bit of a trim?’