Chasing Daisy

glance awkwardly after the others. ‘Are you sure you can’t come with us?’ I ask quickly.
    ‘No.’ He shakes his head. ‘I don’t think I’ll be out late, though. What about you?’
    ‘Um, I don’t know.’ I see Holly looking back at me through the enormous lobby windows as the lads pile into the waiting cars. I feel horribly on edge.
    ‘I could text you when I get back? See where you are?’ Will suggests.
    The weight lifts off my shoulders. ‘That’s a good idea,’ I say, breathing a sigh of relief. ‘I’d better go.’
    ‘Okay.’ And then he ever-so-lightly traces his thumb down my bare arm, making the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I look around nervously to make sure no one saw and then hurry outside to join the others.
    The wait for that text is torturous.
    ‘Why don’t you just go back to the hotel?’ Holly snaps eventually. She’s not very impressed with me. She knows my mind is on other things.
    ‘Maybe I should.’
    ‘Go on, then.’ She waves me away as I slide out of the booth we’re sitting in.
    ‘Sorry,’ I apologise, but she doesn’t answer.
    I’ve been checking my phone constantly for the last two hours, but haven’t heard anything from Will. There’s every chance he’s changed his mind and doesn’t want to see me after all, but I’m trying not to think about that. I just want to see him, to find out where his head is at. There’s so much we need to talk about.
    I get back to my hotel room and pace the floor, then lie down on the bed and turn on the television. I can’t be bothered to change out of my dress. I flick through the channels until I come across The Beach . Leonardo DiCaprio with his top off, that should take my mind off things, right? But no, it doesn’t.
    When I hear a key turn in the lock after forty-five minutes, I sit up, startled. But it’s just Holly arriving back.
    ‘You’re early?’ I say.
    ‘Yeah.’ She doesn’t look that happy. ‘He hasn’t texted you, then?’ she asks wryly.
    ‘No, not yet.’ What if he’s not going to?
    She comes in and kicks off her shoes. Suddenly there’s a knock at the door. She turns back to answer it.
    ‘Oh, hello!’ She sounds surprised.
    ‘Is Daisy there?’ I hear Will ask, and I sit upright in bed.
    He’s here!
    ‘I was wondering if she knows where my team shirts are.’
    ‘Sure you were,’ Holly says wryly, stepping aside to let him pass.
    I stand up and give her an annoyed little look for making Will feel uncomfortable. ‘Do you want me to come and have a look for them?’ I ask.
    ‘Sure, if that’s okay.’
    ‘She knows,’ I say to Will once we’re in the lift.
    ‘She knows?’ he looks at me in horror. ‘You told her?’
    ‘Yeah,’ I say nonchalantly. ‘She won’t tell anyone.’
    ‘You told her about me, yet you won’t even tell her who you used to work for?’
    I shift on my feet. I actually feel quite guilty that Luis knows about Johnny when Will doesn’t.
    He doesn’t say anything else, though, and soon we arrive at his room.
    ‘Have you really lost your team shirts or was that just an excuse?’ I ask.
    ‘The latter,’ he says bluntly, unlocking the door.
    ‘I thought you were going to text me?’
    ‘I forgot to charge my phone.’
    His suite is messier than it was yesterday evening. Clothes are trailed across the bed and sofa.
    ‘Couldn’t you decide what to wear tonight?’ I ask him as I survey the scene.
    ‘Er, no, I just couldn’t find my shirt.’
    ‘You shaved, then.’ I glance at his face.
    ‘Thought I’d better.’
    Shame. I twirl my hair around my fingers and stand there, waiting for him to say something.
    ‘Sit down, sit down,’ he says eventually, bundling up the clothes from the sofa and chucking them through onto his bed. ‘Actually, I’m just going to put on something a little less poncey.’ He goes into the bedroom and returns a short while later wearing jeans and a black T-shirt. He sits down at the other end of the sofa.
    ‘Here we are again,’ I say.
    He raises his eyebrows and smiles. ‘Fancy a burger?’
    I laugh. ‘No thanks.’
    He leans back against the armrest and puts his feet up on the sofa so they’re nearly touching my bum. I’m sitting with my legs crossed. I glance across at him.
    ‘Comfy, there?’
    ‘Yeah, not bad.’
    I take my shoes off and do the same so I’m facing him, my knees in between his. We’re not touching, but are not far off.
    ‘How was the do tonight?’ I feel more comfortable