He braces against a pad as I try again to kick it – and fail. ‘You don’t have to be sorry, Jemma,’ he says, and somethingin my stomach flips at the way this handsome man says my name. I’m starting to see what Clara’s been talking about. ‘I thought you were funny,’ he adds, half smiling. ‘And I liked how much you care. It… matters, it really does, and I like that you said how you felt. Even if it took all the alcohol in the room to get you there. I liked… all of it.’ He smiles slowly and my stomach goes again. I think I actually kind of—
Oh wait.
No, that’s not fancying, none of this is fancying feelings – it’s puke. I gag, my mouth filling with sick, and his face falls. We stare at each other, my chipmunk cheeks full of acidic liquid.
‘Are you…?’ he asks, and I nod slightly, trying so desperately to stop. It takes another half second but I manage to swallow it back down. I have never been more disgusting in my life.
‘Wow,’ he says, eyes wide as the instructor at last calls – after seventeen thousand hours – for a break. ‘Maybe you should go to the loo?’ Milo suggests nicely, understandably horrified, and I nod, too ashamed to say anything.
I turn to go, speed-walking through the throngs of people drinking from expensive-looking water bottles. The door is there, thank god, but before I can reach it, I come face to face with a familiar dickhead.
It’s the last person in the whole world I’d expect to see in this weird gym class in the middle of London; it’s fuckingMackfrom the library.
Chapter Twenty-NineCLARA
That whole thing wentamazingly.
I mean, aside from being super late, interrupting the class, Jemma disappearing halfway through to be sick and us now gettingever so slightlylost in this oversized sports centre… Aside from all that, it was great!
‘Don’t worry about a thing, Milo,’ I say smoothly. ‘I’m totally in control of this situation.’ I hope I don’t sound as panicked as I feel. Because we’ve been walking down actually quite dark corridors for a good ten minutes now, without seeing a single other soul, and I have no clue what to do.
Would Google maps work in here?
After the class finished, people started crowding around Milo, asking for pictures and autographs, so I whisked him off, like the professional publicist I am. I was taking my job seriously. I wassavinghim. But that meant leading him possibly the wrong way, deeper into this massive building that is apparently only half finished.
It feels disturbingly like the beginning of a horror film.
‘I think there’s a lift over that way?’ Harry shouts from the back of the group.
Salma replies quickly, ‘No way, the front of the building is definitely this way!’
‘Why the hell am I even following you lot?’ Mack growls from behind me. And honestly, I don’t have an answer to that. It’s so weird he’s even here!
‘Sorry, what was your name?’ Milo asks him politely and he’s rewarded with something like a snarl.
‘Mack,’ comes the short, sharp reply. ‘And you’re Milo Samuels, I know you.’
Hmmm, that’s interesting. Mack knows who Milo is? ‘Do you likeBook Boyfriendthen, Mack?’
‘You meanToo Good to Be Tr—’
‘There’s a sign!’ Jemma screams, finger pointed down a left corridor fork like she’s seen a ghost. Bless her, I’ve never seen a person looksopale, while simultaneously having such pink cheeks. The smell of booze and sick around her is trulypotent. Poor thing.
I’m so grateful she came.
‘It says the exit is that way,’ Jemma continues, her voice trembling. We cheer and bundle forward, almost running as we spot lifts.
Sure, they look like they might be service lifts that haven’t ever been used. They’re slightly rickety and wobbly, but we just need to get to the ground floor and find our way out of here.
We pile in, relief palpable in the air around us. It’s crowded with the six of us, and I eye the max capacity sign warily. It says four persons only.
It’ll be fine.
I reach across Milo, push the G button and the contraption rumbles into life, the doors shuffling closed.
‘Thank fuck,’ Harry murmurs from directly behind me as we start to move. ‘This has been like the last thirty minutes ofSaw V.’
I glance over my shoulder at him and he offers me some chewing gum, grinning sweetly. I pop a piece gratefully into my mouth, thinking what a good dude he is for coming. He didn’t have to and I can imagine it was the last thing he wanted to do on a random Thursday evening. He’s such a good friend.
