Page 88 of Be More Octopus

The penny dropped. 'Lucy! She took my phone from me to write down your shopping list. She told me you'd suggested Sasha's. I thought how thoughtful of you because I missed going there last night.'

So it hadn't been his idea, which was a shame. It had still been a good evening, though.

Jack laughed.

'You must've thought your luck was in with all these women calling you darling,' Em said.

'What do you mean by that?'

'Well, Daisy and fake me.'

'You've been reading my messages.' Jack wasn't laughing now.

'You just showed them to me.'

'I didn't show you the message from Daisy. I wondered how you knew about her.'

Don't panic. 'Lucy was looking at Mark's Instagram pictures. We worked it out from there.'

'And how did you work out that she called me darling from a photo on Instagram? You read Daisy's message while I was in the shower!' He was angry now.

The woman opposite, with a sleeping child lying across her lap, scowled at him. 'Would you mind keeping your voices down? We don't all want to listen to your domestic, thank you.'

'I would've thought you'd have learnt your lesson about reading other people's personal correspondence.' His voice was a stage whisper now.

'That's a low blow,' Em hissed back at him.

'I'm disappointed in you. I thought you were better than that.'

'Don't be so bloody pompous. I couldn't help seeing it. You left your unlocked phone right under my nose.'

'Yeah, right.'

'All sorted.' Lucy almost bounced back into the waiting area with Mark in tow. 'No need to look so glum. No damage done. '

'Isn't there? Let's go.' Jack stormed out into the car park.

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

'You look perky. Matchmaking suits you.'

Lucy was already bustling around making breakfast when Em got up the following morning.

'You sussed my little ruse then? I thought it was going well until they'd finished sorting me out in A&E. Why were you and Jack so quiet on the way home last night? The atmosphere was awful. Mark noticed it too.'

Em had gone straight to bed when they got back last night, pleading a headache to get out of their usual post-date post-mortem. She was surprised Lucy hadn't heard her crying in the night. The stress of the stuck fishbone must have worn her out.

'You're very pally with Mark all of a sudden?'

'He's good fun. We have a lot in common. And I'm officially single again. I sent Lars the 'you're dumped' text last night. Life's too short to waste time. But you've avoided the question. What's up between you and Jack?'

Em explained.

'I shouldn't have put darling in the message. Sorry!' Lucy was mortified.

'It's not your fault. I shouldn't have mentioned Daisy. I don't know how we recover from this. He was furious.'

'Probably touched a raw nerve. I can imagine Isabella did her fair share of snooping. I'm sure he will have calmed down by now.'