Page 59

‘How much did we drink?’ she asked as she sat herself up.

‘Quite a lot.’

‘How are you feeling?’

‘Awful,’ Lorna said, though Bex found that hard to believe. She was upright to start with. And she seemed to be speaking without sending spasms of pain shooting through her skull. That was better than Bex on both levels.

‘Oh God,’ Bex said when she saw the way light was rolling in beneath the curtains. ‘I wanted to get going early.’

‘There’s no way you’re going anywhere now. Come on, let’s go to the café. We’ll get lunch. You’re probably still three times over the limit to drive.’

‘Lunch? What time is it?’

‘Nearly noon.’

Bex let out a groan. She was now almost a day behind her plan to get out. But Lorna was right. There was no chance she could drive in this state. At the very least she needed a cold shower and several strong shots of caffeine. Although just the thought of the word ‘shot’ caused nausea to billow through her.

‘I’m not sure I’m going to be able to eat anything,’ she said.

‘Sure you will. Come on. We’ll start with some dry toast and work up from there.’

Realising there was no world in which Lorna took no for an answer, and thinking that perhaps agreeing to go with her was the one way to stop her from talking so loudly, Bex dragged herself up onto her feet.

‘Fine,’ she said. ‘But after breakfast, I’m leaving.’

She should have realised a café wouldn’t be a great place for someone whose head felt like there was a herd of rhinos tap-dancing behind their temples, and so, as they walked in, Bex headed to the table in the corner and dropped her head down between her elbows, trying to ignore the smell of coffee that pervaded her senses.

Normally she wouldn’t have any issues with coffee when she was hungover. Often, it was the one thing that genuinely helped. Only now the scent reminded her of the coffee gift Duncan had given her. Thoughts of Duncan inevitably brought an uncomfortable squirm in her stomach that made her nausea even worse. But Lorna insisted she eat something.

‘Well, that was an unexpectedly heavy night,’ Lorna said when she came back from ordering their food. ‘It’s a good job I’m not working. There’d be no chance of anyone getting the right orders today.’

‘Is it worrying that my memories are so fuzzy from last night?’ Bex asked, clutching her head. ‘I can remember singing though. Lots of singing. Were we singing?’

‘We?’ Lorna put full emphasis on the word. ‘No, there was noweabout it. You were singing, Bex. Apparently, you like karaoke.’

‘Oh God. Was it bad?’

‘Well, you can see the video for yourself if you want…’ Lorna moved to pick up her phone, but Bex’s hand shot out in front of her.

‘No, no, don’t!’ Bex said, pushing Lorna’s phone away. ‘I don’t want to see. I don’t want to know.’

‘Don’t worry, you didn’t do anything stupid,’ Lorna assured her. ‘Well, not that stupid anyway. The singing was probably the worst of it.’

Probably. That was the word in the sentence that Bex didn’t like.

‘I didn’t, you know, ring Duncan or anything, did I?’

‘No.’ Lorna shook her head, laughing. ‘You had no intention of ringing him at all. In fact, you yelled at anyone if they even mentioned his name. It was, in your words’ – she lifted her hands to do air quotes – ‘“a Duncan-Free Zone”.’

Bex let out a long sigh. She knew all too well that drunk phone calls were never a sensible idea, but part of her still craved to hear from him. To demand more of an apology than the scant note he had written her.

Rather than just the plain toast Bex had asked for, Lorna had ordered them both full Scottish breakfasts and just the sight of it was enough to turn Bex’s stomach. Still, she took her time, cutting off tiny mouthfuls and chewing excessively slowly. Though after forty minutes, when the beans were stone cold, the eggs congealed and the tattie scones soggy, she could manage no more.

‘I guess I should get going,’ she said. ‘I need to start the drive, get as far as I can.’

‘And I’m guessing nothing I can say will persuade you otherwise?’ Lorna said, her eyes pleading.

Bex shook her head. ‘No, sorry.’