Chapter 50
Tilly had not had a bad end to the night.
Now, the flat was quiet, fog was at the window, and the only sound was a slap of water against boards.
Otto had finally left, saying that he had to get home for Stanley, and Tilly had floated to the bathroom in a daze, gone downstairs to make a cup of tea and had sat drinking it in bed in a complete and utter dream-like state.
Things in her life had been a lot worse.
Reaching for her phone on the bedside table, she had two bars of signal, opened WhatsApp to The Properlies and checked the time. Pia would be up, she never went to bed before the early hours, and Jasmine might be between things or in her New York hotel room.
Tilly: Anyone awake?
Pia: Ahhhhhh! I’m calling!
Jasmine: Me too xxxx.
Tilly's phone lit up, and she answered with the screen propped against her knees under the duvet.
'Well?' Pia's face loomed close to her camera.
Jasmine's window popped up, a hotel lamp glowing behind her and a face mask half peeled off one cheek. 'Right, hold on, I'm here.'
'Jas, you look like you're mid-exorcism,' Pia said.
'It's collagen, thank you very much. Some of us have a matinee tomorrow.' Jasmine settled against her pillows. 'Go on, Tils. From the top.'
Tilly grinned and pulled the duvet up. 'So, it was really good. Dinner was lovely.'
‘What we want to know is what happened next.'
'He only just left. He came in for coffee but, well, the coffee never got made, put it that way.'
'I need specifics. Paint the scene.' Pia demanded.
'I’m not telling you the specifics. Let’s just say we went straight upstairs.'
'Oh my days!' Jasmine sighed.
‘So, he’s left?' Pia asked.
'He had to get home for the dog. He’s already texted.' Tilly held the phone away and beamed at them both. 'It said, "Stanley says goodnight."'
There was a silence for a few seconds. Jasmine raised her eyebrows. 'You sound dreamy.'
'I know,' Tilly said happily. 'I'm done for. I did tell you.'
'Four years of waiting around for that piano-playing wally, and you had to travel to the other side of the world and back and get stuck in mud twice to fancy someone. Honestly, only you.'
'Twice? It was once in the mud. The other time was the gorse bush.'
'Oh, forgive me, that’s right. I forgot about the gorse bush. Much more dignified.'
'Our Tils. Snogging oyster farmers in sheds. Whatever next?'
'A wedding on the mudflats,' Jasmine said. 'Wellies mandatory. I'm doing the makeup.'
'Nobody is getting married here.' Tilly giggled. 'It was one dinner.'
'One dinner and a look on your face I have never seen.'
'We could have a Properlies wedding in the midst.'
Tilly shook her head. 'Girls, you know that’s never going to happen again. Once bitten, twice shy.'
'Point taken. However, I have never seen you with a look like this on your face.'
Tilly sighed dreamily. The Properlies had clocked the look on her face in an instant just as she’d known they would. What they couldn’t see was what was happening inside her heart.