She zipped up her hoodie, tightened the laces on her winter boots and clomped her way through the terminal building, dragging her large suitcase and dodging passengers as she followed the signs for car rental. Thanks to the party her flatmate had thrown the night before, she was tired (she’d worn earplugs and noise cancelling headphones and still the entire building had vibrated), and the last thing she needed was to navigate pre-Christmas traffic for seven hours or longer, but it seemed as if she didn’t have a choice. If necessary, she’d pull over and take a nap.

She almost laughed.

She was twenty-eight years old and, if she was to believe the article she’d read on her phone the week before, in the prime of her life. If she hadn’t been told, she wouldn’t have known. She didn’t feel as if she was in the prime of anything.

She’d started a new job eight months earlier and so far it wasn’t going well. She was good at what she did and had no problems with the job itself, but in this new place being good at your job wasn’t enough. You had to socialise. It wasn’t about the work, it was about schmoozing with the right people. She hated playing those complicated political games and she wasn’t good at it, mostly because she wasn’t interested. Taking the job had been a mistake, she could see that now. One of many she’d made lately.

These days even home was stressful, because she was no longer living with her sister and she’d underestimated how hard that would be. She’d always known she’d miss her, at least at first, but not this much.

She paused just long enough to buy herself a strong coffee, hoping it might give her flagging energy a boost. Juggling suitcase, scarf and coffee, she walked past a giant Christmas tree glowing with lights and no doubt designed to put people in a festive mood. Twinkling stars cascaded from the roof of the terminal building. Most people were too desperate about the travel situation to take any comfort from twinkling stars. What they wanted was transport. No one was where they wanted to be.

It felt like a metaphor for her life.

It crossed her mind briefly that if Rosie and Declan hadn’t yet left she could grab a ride with them, but she dismissed the thought instantly. She wasn’t a good passenger at the best of times, and being trapped in the car with those two lovebirds would finish her off. Christmas would be bad enough. She didn’t need a preview.

As the woman had predicted the queue for car rental was long and crackling with impatience and tension.

The man and the woman in front of her were locked in an argument.