9
‘In case you didn’t know,’ I said to Jay later, ‘we have dinner plans.’
He didn’t say anything. He looked too pole-axed to form words.
‘Is… that bad?’ I said, and my heart did a little sinking thing. It hadn’t occurred to me that Jay might dislike the idea. Or — what if he already had dinner plans with someone else?
‘No,’ he said, but too cautiously to make me feel much better. ‘I thought you’d — you aren’t doing something with Alban?’
‘He did ask me,’ I said. ‘But seeing as I’d already made plans with you, I didn’t feel that I could accept.’
Jay digested that. ‘I am honoured to serve as your excuse,’ he said, not looking at all honoured.
My heart sank a little bit more. ‘We— we could reframe that,’ I tried. ‘How about my preference?’
‘Am I?’
I thought, guiltily, of how much I’d
