It Could Only be You

Episode 23: It's a Nice Night for an Evening

"What's Kitty said?"

"Not Kitty!" Lottie shrieks, snorting, as Hope slaps her hand to her mouth. "Gary!"

"Gary?"

"Gary," Daphs and Lottie say at once.

"You like Gary or, like, what's he said? What's happening?"

Lottie looks ashen faced. "So, I might have reason to believe that there is something there between Gary and myself. Daphs can vouch for that, I assume?"

Daphs nods, looking at Hope over the rim of her drink. Hope looks scandalised. "Why am I only hearing about this now?"

"I – cause – oh, because I've not been a very good friend to Hannah if I go and jump on Gary now, am I?"

"Hannah?" Hope says. "Babe, you knew Hannah for all of twenty minutes – no, don't give me that look – I get it, though, you were friends, and you want to be loyal, but surely if she was a good friend to you she wouldn't have an issue with you getting to know a boy that she knew for all of three days."

"It's not just that, but he's the reason she was dumped –"

Daphs sighed. "To be frank, Hannah was dumped because she didn't try with any of the other guys. I get it, it's loyalty or whatever, but, if Bobby had chosen me and Rocco had to pick between you and Hannah, would he not have chosen you? You, who had made time for him and attempted to get to know him? And who's to say if Hannah had tried with him, she might have been here chatting with us over you? That's how it goes in here, hun. You can feel guilty all you like, but all that's going to do is make you miserable. This is the summer of our lives, and you want to spend it worrying about someone who isn't even here?

"Gary is here, babes," Daphs continues in her strong words of reason. "Gary and I haven't spoken about you two outright, but we don't need to for me to know how much he fucking likes you. He's holding back because you are. He ain't happy with Marisol, and she ain't happy with him. I don't want to see him go because you were both too scared to be happy, babes. Live for you."

"Pfft, go Daphs," Hope beams, trailing off with a bubbling laugh. "Exactly what she said! Look, I don't know what's been going on behind the scenes here, and I thought you were going to say you and Rocco were thinking of coupling up – I always thought there was something to be explored there – but yeah, if you and Gary like each other – I'll admit, he isn't my favourite person – but if there's something there for you both, isn't it worth trying?"

Lottie nods, looking like her mind has been made up. "I won't lie, I was more focused on Rocco for a while, even after he chose Daphs at that last recoupling –" she rolls her eyes, "but I've been watching his behaviour in here and I'm not best pleased with it. I think I was right on the first day when I said I had dodged a bullet with him. To be frank, I don't think he's in here for the right reasons.

"But realising that didn't exactly leave me with many other options. Bobby is obviously going to pick Daphs, Rahim has Priya, Hope – you and Noah are invincible – so what? Gary?" She huffs a sigh. "I think I've been avoiding this so long that nothing else makes sense. Now that I've spoken about it, I don't even know why I brought Henrik up un the first place."

Hope and Daphs nod. "Have a chat with Gary, hun," Daphs says, "and be honest."

"Should I go now?"

"Yes, crack on!" Hope says. "What are you waiting for?"

Lottie cracks a smile and gets to her feet. "Thank you, girls, I really needed this."