At that, Jim Quinn nodded towards the stairs and told Noah he would see him soon. Beer in hand.
Libby just sat, pale-faced and pyjama-clad, in her bed, wishing she had an invisibility cloak.
The only, very slight, consolation to Libby was that Noah looked almost as mortified by the whole situation as she was.
‘Your dad’s a lovely man,’ he said, shuffling awkwardly from foot to foot. ‘He said you were sick, but I didn’t realise you were as bad as this. I’d have stayed away. Maybe even painted a black cross on the door of the shop in case you left any traces of the plague there.’
‘Ha ha, very funny,’ Libby croaked, her throat aching at the effort of speaking, but she was surprised to find that he had at least put a smile on her face.
‘You’re looking well,’ Noah said, pulling a horrified face, and she laughed a little more.
‘Oh, don’t make me laugh, it hurts,’ she groaned.
‘Well, looking at the state of you is hurting my eyes, if you must know,’ he said with a wink, but his voice was so soft, she had no doubt he was teasing. ‘But I’m going to be honest – I didn’t have you down for a chintzy Laura Ashley kind of a girl? Where are the posters of hot young pop stars that you snogged when you were a teen? I was hoping to get a peek at an even geekier you than you are now.’
‘Afraid you missed your chance,’ she said. ‘The worst of my teenage misdemeanours were hidden away a long time ago – my parents were keen to get their guest suite. I haven’t always lived here, you know – I only came back when I started saving and planning to take on the shop.’
‘Well, you are a remarkable woman,’ he said with a smile. ‘But I really had been hoping to be able to tease you mercilessly about the awkward years, Bookshop Libby. Jo bet me you’d be a Westlife kind of a girl, but I thought maybe more Oasis.’
‘You owe Jo some money, I’m afraid,’ Libby said with a smile. ‘You should know that “cool” has never been a word used about me. Ever.’
‘I should’ve known,’ Noah said with a smile. ‘How’re you doing anyway? Is it fatal? Do I need to be organising a floral tribute? You’re still a new girl, so we will probably only manage the letter L in carnations and not ‘Bookshop Libby’ in roses or the like.’
‘Pee-the-beds will do me.’ Libby laughed.
‘Pee-the-beds?’
‘Dandelions. That’s what we called them growing up. There’s something in them – that has a diuretic property. Or so I was told.’
‘Every day’s a school day,’ Noah laughed, ‘but, seriously, are you okay?’
Libby shrugged. ‘I’ve been better. But I’ll most likely live. This isn’t my first fight with my tonsils. A few days and I’ll be on the mend. Tired, but on the mend.’
‘So, you’ll have to slow down then!’ Noah said, in a stern voice.
‘Hmmm,’ Libby replied, in as non-committal a voice as she could manage. ‘Anyway, you’re very good, helping at the shop. And humouring my dad like this. He’s delighted to be bringing a friend home for tea.’ She laughed.
‘He’s a sound man, Libby. I like hanging out with him.’
‘Just how much have you been helping him?’ Libby asked. ‘You’ve your own business to run.’
‘My business runs itself,’ he said, which was a lie. ‘Jo helped out, and one of the bar staff worked a double shift.’
‘Well, let me pay you for that,’ Libby said. ‘I don’t want you out of pocket on my account.’ She would be mortified if he thought she was taking advantage of his kindness. Some kind of payment would at least assuage her guilt a little.
‘Libby, would you ever stop? I told you. It’s no big shakes. It’s how we work on Ivy Lane. We help each other when we need to. That’s what keeps us all going.’
‘It is big shakes though, to help like that. It’s very kind of you.’
‘I actually enjoyed it. Good company and hard work. Besides, we can’t have you falling behind on your big dream,’ Noah said.
The way in which he spoke made her realise that he really got it. He totally understood how important this was to her. She felt herself well up, and immediately chided herself for being so pathetic that all she seemed to do when she was sick was cry.
‘Oh God, don’t be crying,’ Noah said, his voice soft. ‘I’m a man, I can’t cope with that kind of a thing.’ His expression was one of concern. She realised, again, just how handsome this man was. This man who seemed to understand her need to make a success of the bookshop more than her friends.
She felt something flip in her stomach that she was pretty sure was not an adverse reaction to her antibiotics. Oh no. He had to stop being so nice to her. She didn’t have time for complications. She didn’t want to feel things for him – and yet…
But she was sick. It was just that she was feeling unwell. She didn’t really have any kind of feelings for him other than a casual fondness.
Neither of them spoke.
Thankfully, a call from downstairs that dinner was ready broke the gaze between them.
‘You’d better go. They don’t like waiting for dinner,’ Libby said.
‘Are you going to eat too?’ Noah asked.
Libby shook her head before she lied and told him she wasn’t hungry and actually just needed to sleep. It was much too risky for her to spend more time with him.
‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Get some sleep, Libby. We need you back on the street soon.’ With that, he left.
Libby woke in the dark and the house was silent. Either Noah had left or he had been poisoned by one of her mother’s attempts at a fancy dinner and his corpse was lying downstairs waiting for rigor mortis to set in. Either way, Libby didn’t feel well enough to investigate.
She shivered even though she knew the room was too warm. Glancing at her phone, she saw that it had gone midnight – and that there were two messages blinking at her. One from Ant and one from Jess. Ant sent his ‘best’. It had the feel of a work email more than a message from a lover. Jess said she’d call round the next day. Libby noticed the messages had been sent just minutes apart. She wondered, for a second, while she had the energy to care, if they were together when they sent them, before dismissing that thought as ridiculous. Although there was no denying Jess seemed to have a better dynamic with Ant than she ever had.
She staggered to the bathroom, looked at the horror show she had become in the mirror and wondered how Noah hadn’t run screaming from her room, before she wandered back into bed, pulled the covers up around her and tried to drift back off to sleep to escape all the many confusing and conflicting thoughts that were dancing around her head.
When morning arrived, she decided that she felt better and pushed all thoughts of resting properly from her mind. Libby dragged herself from her bed again – and stood under the hot streams of water from the shower, trying to convince herself that she felt a little more human. However, she took a full twenty minutes to dry herself – during which time she sat on the toilet seat and wondered if she was swaying or the room was spinning or if it was a combination of both.