Get it together, Baxter,she told herself.You’re acting like a silly lovestruck ingénue and he is just being nice. You’ve been attention-starved for too long. Time to grow up and stop acting like a teenager.
She picked up Gran’s tablets and turned off the lamps and locked the doors.
Act Two
18
For a week Lily had dreamed of trying to kiss Nick, but every time they got close Jessica was there. It was becoming uncomfortable at rehearsals, as she was sure she was red every time she spoke to him, and Jessica wasn’t letting up with her overtly friendly manner with Nick and her snide asides to Lily.
In the morning one week after their dinner, she went to the bathroom, washed her face and applied some skincare and cleaned her teeth and then grabbed her script and went downstairs to set up breakfast.
When Gran was downstairs, they were sitting in silence as they ate, Lily learning her lines and Gran reading the newspaper, when her phone sounded a text.
Feel like running lines?she read from Nick.I’m behind.
Lily smiled as she typed back.
‘Who is that?’ asked Gran, peering over her glasses frames at Lily.
‘Nosy Nora,’ said Lily with a laugh.
‘I have to be. I don’t get texts. All my friends died before they could even work out how to open a phone, let alone send a message.’
Lily made a sad face. ‘That must be hard, seeing your friends pass before you.’
Gran nodded. ‘It’s lonely,’ she admitted.
Lily reread the message. ‘It’s Nick. He want to run lines for the show,’ she said.
Gran pretended to bat her eyelashes.
Lily ignored her and typed back:Sure, you working today? I’m home with Gran all day.
I’m off today, so I’ll come by mid-morning.
Come for lunch,she typed back.
Done, see you at 12.30.
She put down her phone.
‘He’s coming for lunch and then to run lines,’ she said. ‘We can run them in the garden.’
Gran smiled. ‘I used to love learning a script. Now I can’t remember my own birthday some days, which is just as well because then I don’t have to think about how old I am.’ She cackled to herself and Lily laughed.
‘If you didn’t know how old you are, like take away the old bones and aches, how old do you feel in your heart?’ she asked Violet.
The old woman paused, thinking for a moment.
‘Probably thirty-four. I was happy, pregnant, living here. Martin was alive; it was all so lovely and perfect.’
Lily smiled. ‘That’s gorgeous.’
‘What about you?’ asked Violet.
Lily sighed and closed her eyes. ‘I think, to be honest.’ She opened them. ‘I feel about twelve in my heart, when I was here with you and everything was so simple and easy.’
Violet reached for Lily’s hand. ‘You know it can still be simple and easy.’
