As I cycle down to the coffee shop she told me to meet in, down by the harbor, I wonder if it’s going to be all of them, or just her. If it’s all of them I don’t know how I’m going to say what I need to say. But if it’s just her, then that will be odd, because it’ll be like a date. When I get there, there’s no-one there at all. So I lock up my bike and go inside to wait.
She turns up ten minutes late. Just her, and she’s wearing a kind of pleated skirt thing with a white jumper. She looks – well I guess she looks rich, like the daughter of a family of rich industrialists who make all their money by destroying the environment. But then she does look really beautiful as well.
“Hey Billy, how are you?” She leans down to kiss me on both cheeks, since I don’t get up, and I can smell her perfume. It’s like I’m enveloped in it. She slips in the seat opposite me, and shakes her head.
“Urgh. Hard week. You?”
I stare at her. At her flawless skin, and her clear blue eyes, and her long hair, golden yellow, that falls onto her shoulders.
“Yeah. Me too.” I reply. She gives me a funny look at this, and then the waitress arrives.
“So why did you want to meet?” I ask, when we’ve ordered. Lily gives me a funny look.
“What do you mean?”
“What did you want to talk about?”
“What do you mean what did I want? I wanted to see you.”
I pause. “Why?”
She frowns, putting delicate creases into her forehead. “Are you OK Billy?” She seems to think for a moment and her expression changes. “Is this about James and me?”
I’m surprised by this, so I don’t get a chance to reply before she goes on. “Because that’s complicated…” She fades into silence, as the waitress comes back with our drinks. We both stay silent, even when she’s gone, and Lily tears the corner of a sachet of sugar and pours it slowly into her coffee.
“James and I are very fond of each other. And we’ve known each other for a very long time, but…”
“It’s not about James.” I burst out, cutting in.
She stops, still holding the sugar. Then sets it down. “Oh.” She frowns again. It’s distracting because she has a very pretty frown. Then she takes a deep breath, and I can’t help but be aware of how it makes her chest rise up and down.
“Well, what is it about?”
It’s my turn to hesitate. But with a feeling that this might be the stupidest idea I’ve had in a long time, I pull out a plastic document folder of stuff I printed out at home. I open it up and pull the contents out. I find a photograph of a Lornea Island sea-dragon, and then a map I got off the internet of where Fonchem wants to expand. I put them both down in front of her.
“Your company. Your Dad’s company. You didn’t tell me they were the ones trying to buy up half of Lornea Island.” I’m exaggerating there, quite a lot, but I’m angry.
She picks up the papers and looks at them, and then she looks at me.
“I don’t understand.”
I stab a finger at the map. “There. Fonchem. You’re trying to develop this land here, including the bay, and it’s going to destroy a unique habitat which is used by a species of seahorse that’s endemic to Lornea Island. It’s not found anywhere else.”
She looks again, and as I feed her more papers, she looks at those as well. My posters, an article I printed out, with a photo of her dad, smiling in a suit.
“Oh.” She says. And she bites her lip.
I take a sip of my drink, not able to look Lily in the eyes, while she forms all the papers into a pile and neatens them up.
“So you’ve found out what my family does?” There’s an anger in her eyes that I wasn’t expecting.
“Yes.”
“And you’re angry?”
I take a breath before I answer. “Yes.”
“And of course you yourself, don’t use any chemical products, in your life. You don’t travel by car, or use detergents, or own any electronics?”
“I do. But I don’t see why it’s necessary to destroy wildlife habitats to produce all that stuff.”
She looks away at this. I can see it was a powerful line.
“I’m sure they won’t be destroyed…” She looks back suddenly. “Look, I didn’t know anything about this until you just showed it to me. I wasn’t trying to hide anything from you.”
“But you knew I was into marine biology.” A weird thought occurs to me. “Did you know I was running a campaign to oppose Fonchem buying that land? Is that why you made friends with me. Were you spying?”
“No!” Lily stares at me for a long time, and then she bursts out laughing. “No Billy. I’m not spying on you.” She stops laughing. “I promise. And I seriously doubt your campaign has anyone worried in Dad’s office. It’s not the sort of place… It’s…”
Her face suddenly looks serious again, matching mine. “Look Billy, we get opposition every time we open a site, or change what’s made there, or expand a site, or do anything. It’s a chemical company, that’s just what happens.”
“And you’re OK with that?”
She looks away again. She seems more exasperated this time.
“Well actually no. I’m not.” Suddenly she
