‘Do you mind?’ She waggled the phone in the air, figuring it the polite thing to do before answering. It was such a long time since she’d been out in a social situation that she wasn’t even really sure what the protocol was these days.

‘Sure,’ Ellis nodded, ‘go right ahead.’

‘Hello,’ Grace said tentatively, racking her brain as to why Phil would be calling her in the middle of the day.

‘Listen, Grace,’ he said to open the conversation. ‘I’ve been thinking … about our chat the other night.’

‘Oh, I see,’ she said softly, bracing herself for what was to come but wishing she hadn’t answered now as nobody wanted to be dumped in public. Maybe he’d had a rethink and seen that what she had said made some sense. She’d be sad, of course, as he had been kind to her in the beginning, but recently … well, it was inevitable that he’d go the same way that Matthew had. Having a demanding mother like Cora would certainly put a damper on any relationship. She knew that, and Phil had said Cora was ruining his life …

‘Yeah. About the spa break. And I really need to know if you’re properly up for it because I know a bloke who can get me a deal. His missus has bailed out on him so he wants to shift the booking asap.’

‘Oh, I see. Did he say when the booking was for?’ she said, mentally crossing her fingers that it was sufficiently far away to give her enough time to see if it was even possible to sort out care for Cora. That’s if she’d even consider letting Grace have a weekend away for her birthday.

‘Err, don’t know off the top of my head. A few weeks’ time I think. But what does it matter?’

‘Um …’ she stalled.

‘We don’t want to miss out and end up having to pay full whack. If we go halves it’ll be a right bargain.’