Me Before You: A Novel

his hands shoved deep in his pockets, as if perhaps to stop the urge to shake Will’s own. That was my more generous conclusion.
    ‘Good to meet you, Patrick,’ Will said. ‘And thank you for the … advice.’
    ‘Oh, just trying to help my girlfriend get the best out of her job,’ he said. ‘That’s all.’ There was a definite emphasis on the word
my
.
    ‘Well, you’re a lucky man,’ Will said, as Nathan began to steer him out. ‘She certainly gives a good bed bath.’ He said it so quickly that the door was closed before Patrick even realized what he had said.
    ‘You never told me you were giving him bed baths.’
    We had gone back to Patrick’s house, a new-build flat on the edge of town. It had been marketed as ‘loft living’,even though it overlooked the retail park, and was no more than three floors high.
    ‘What does that mean – you wash his dick?’
    ‘I don’t wash his dick.’ I picked up the cleanser that was one of the few things I was allowed to keep at Patrick’s place, and began to clean off my make-up with sweeping strokes.
    ‘He just said you did.’
    ‘He’s teasing you. And after you going on and on about how he
used
to be an action man, I don’t blame him.’
    ‘So what is it you do for him? You’ve obviously not been giving me the full story.’
    ‘I do wash him, sometimes, but only down to his underwear.’
    Patrick’s stare spoke volumes. Finally, he looked away from me, pulled off his socks and hurled them into the laundry basket. ‘Your job isn’t meant to be about this. No medical stuff, it said. No intimate stuff. It wasn’t part of your job description.’ A sudden thought occurred to him. ‘You could sue. Constructive dismissal, I think it is, when they change the terms of your job?’
    ‘Don’t be ridiculous. And I do it because Nathan can’t always be there, and it’s horrible for Will to have some complete stranger from an agency handling him. And besides, I’m used to it now. It really doesn’t bother me.’
    How could I explain to him – how a body can become so familiar to you? I could change Will’s tubes with a deft professionalism, sponge bathe his naked top half without a break in our conversation. I didn’t even balk at Will’s scars now. For a while, all I had been able to see was a potential suicide. Now he was just Will – maddening,mercurial, clever, funny Will – who patronized me and liked to play Professor Higgins to my Eliza Doolittle. His body was just part of the whole package, a thing to be dealt with, at intervals, before we got back to the talking. It had become, I supposed, the least interesting part of him.
    ‘I just can’t believe … after all we went through … how long it took you to let me come anywhere near you … and here’s some stranger who you’re quite happy to get up close and personal with –’
    ‘Can we not talk about this tonight, Patrick? It’s my birthday.’
    ‘I wasn’t the one who started it, with talk of bed baths and whatnot.’
    ‘Is it because he’s good looking?’ I demanded. ‘Is that it? Would it all be so much easier for you if he looked like – you know – a
proper
vegetable?’
    ‘So you
do
think he’s good looking.’
    I pulled my dress over my head, and began peeling my tights carefully from my legs, the dregs of my good mood finally evaporating. ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this. I can’t believe you’re jealous of him.’
    ‘I’m not jealous of him.’ His tone was dismissive. ‘How could I be jealous of a cripple?’
    Patrick made love to me that night. Perhaps ‘made love’ is stretching it a bit. We had sex, a marathon session in which he seemed determined to show off his athleticism, his strength and vigour. It lasted for hours. If he could have swung me from a chandelier I think he would have done so. It was nice to feel so wanted, to find myself the focus of Patrick’s attention after months of semi-detachment. But a little part of me stayed aloof duringthe whole thing. I suspected it wasn’t for me, after all. I had worked that out pretty quickly. This little show was for Will’s benefit.
    ‘How was that, eh?’ He wrapped himself around me afterwards, our skin sticking slightly with perspiration, and kissed my forehead.
    ‘Great,’ I said.
    ‘I love you, babe.’
    And, satisfied, he rolled off, threw an arm back over his head, and was asleep within minutes.
    When sleep still didn’t come, I got out of bed and went downstairs