Pictures of Lily

bends down and gives me a peck on my lips.
    ‘How was your day?’
    ‘Good. I’m filthy though. Going to take a quick shower.’
    ‘What do you want for dinner tonight?’
    ‘What are you thinking?’
    ‘I was wondering about a pizza takeaway.’
    ‘You don’t want to go out?’
    ‘I’m knackered,’ I say.
    ‘Are you sure? I thought we should celebrate.’
    ‘Celebrate what?’
    He looks momentarily crestfallen, but I recover quickly.
    ‘Oh! Of course we should! What a great idea.’
    ‘Cool.’ He smiles. ‘Let’s get dressed up and have a think about where to go.’
    He leaves the room and my heart sinks. I barely even have the will to unpause So You Think You Can Dance , but I do it anyway. I really, really wanted a night in tonight. But I can’t pour water on his bonfire. I realise I’ve missed half of the judges’ verdicts, so I press the rewind button and try to concentrate.
    Richard pops his head around the door a few minutes later, saying, ‘Aren’t you getting changed?’
    ‘Hmm?’ I turn to see he’s emerged from the shower. His tall, slim body stands naked before me as he towel dries his short brown hair.
    ‘You’re still watching telly. Aren’t you getting changed?’
    ‘Oh, yeah.’ I press pause again and reluctantly prise myself off the sofa. He stares down at me with dark eyes as I approach the doorway he’s blocking. I look up at him expectantly. Is he going to move?
    Richard raises the hand that’s not holding the towel and gently strokes my cheek with his thumb. Then he bends down to kiss me. My lips part as our kiss deepens and I step towards him, feeling his growing hardness pressing into my stomach. He pulls away, desire in his eyes and suddenly we’re scrambling onto the sofa and he’s pushing up my skirt and I’m sliding out of my knickers and we’re locked in a heated embrace as I claw at his chest and he nibbles my neck.
    And then I think of you. And I’m crushed with an overwhelming desire to sob, sob so hard that I could choke on my tears.
    Richard bucks and grunts and collapses on me, taking my breath away as I’m crushed beneath his not inconsequential weight. It’s enough to distract me from my emotions. I wriggle underneath him.
    ‘Sorry,’ he says, propping himself up. I take a deep breath to fill up my lungs and he grins down at me. ‘Where do you want me to take you?’
    I look up at him with pleading eyes. ‘You don’t fancy just staying here?’
    ‘Seriously?’ He regards me with interest. ‘Don’t you want to crack open a bottle of bubbly?’
    ‘We could get some from the offie,’ I suggest, my voice full of hope.
    He bends down to kiss me tenderly. ‘And I guess I could see to you again later.’
    I kiss him back and then laugh and prod his shoulders. ‘Get off me, I need to breathe.’
    He chuckles and disengages himself.
    Later we’re lying, legs entangled on the sofa watching TV, when he says something that makes my blood run cold.
    ‘When do you want to tell our parents?’
    I hesitate, then force myself to speak. ‘When do you want to?’
    ‘I was wondering about going to see mine tomorrow?’
    ‘I wanted to see my mum tomorrow,’ I quickly say.
    ‘Oh, right.’ He sounds less than thrilled. ‘Didn’t you see her recently?’
    ‘I haven’t seen her for a month.’ I try not to sound cross.
    ‘Okay, so we can tell her tomorrow.’
    ‘Yes, we could do, but . . .’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Well, it’s just that I haven’t seen her since Jeremy did the dirty on her and I thought she might need some TLC.’
    Actually, I did originally want Richard to come with me, but not if he plans to break the news. I’ll postpone that as long as is humanly possible.
    ‘Oh, right. Okay. I might see what Adam’s up to.’ Adam is one of Richard’s many mates.
    ‘Or you could go and see your parents.’
    ‘What, and tell them?’
    ‘Not tell them necessarily.’
    ‘Good, because I’d want you there for that.’
    ‘Sure, sure. No, I mean, maybe just go and see them, catch up – you know.’ And then there won’t be as much pressure for me to visit them anytime soon.
    ‘Or we could see them tomorrow night?’
    ‘Yes, I guess we could.’ Dammit!
    ‘Are you going to tell your mum tomorrow?’
    ‘I might see how it goes. I don’t want to rub our happiness in her face.’
    He gives me a look, but I ignore it. I’m sure he can see right through me.
    ‘The other thing we need to do is find you an engagement ring,’ he