“Sit down,” she said, handing me a box of tissues. I sat. “Wipe your face.” I did. She could have told me to do pretty much anything and I would have followed her instructions to the letter. I was not in a state to make my own decisions.

She brought over a plate of chocolate digestives. The plate was overkill. I could have happily tipped my head back and let them pour into my mouth from the packet. I took one and ate it in two bites. While I chewed and snuffled and got myself together, Cat made us tea. When there was a giant mug in my hand—really, she’d busted out the big ones—she sat opposite me.

“Before you tell me what happened, let me say one thing,” she said earnestly. I nodded and swallowed my biscuit. “James is hands-down the hottest frigging man I’ve ever seen in real life.”

That did the trick. She got me laughing.

“Seriously, Sarah. What the actual F? I mean, you’re a catch, you know I think that, but … I’m … well, I’m in awe. Go, you.” She raised her mug in a toast and I clinked mine against hers, grinning through my tears. “Okay, now, what the hell happened? Are you engaged? Are you moving here? What?”

“Enough with the proposal stuff, already,” I wailed.

“Fine. But something happened. Look at you.” She made a face that encompassed the giant mess that was me. It was not flattering.

I sighed. “He says he’s falling in love with me.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“And do you feel the same way?”

“I don’t know.”

“So, is that a solid maybe?” I chewed on my lip. “Stop chewing your lip. You’ll gnaw right through it.” I stopped and lifted a nail to my mouth and started nibbling. “And stop that too. It’s nasty. Here.” She pushed the plate of biscuits towards me.

“Getting fat on biscuits is better?” I took a biscuit.

“What did you say to him? Did you say anything?”

“I said that I have feelings for him.”

“Huh, well that’s good, right?” It must have been a rhetorical question, because she didn’t wait for me to answer. “So, what does all this mean, logistically?”

“Logistically?”

She got impatient with me. “Is there any possibility that you might be moving to London?”

“I’m not moving to London, Cat.”

“Well, you can’t blame me for hoping.” She gave me an encouraging smile. “So, how did you leave things?”

“We both think there’s something there and that we need to see what it is, and he said we’ll work it out.” I stared at the surface of my tea, not really seeing it.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“So, no firm plans?” I shook my head. “Are you all right with that?”

I lifted my eyes. “Yes, I guess so. I mean, I’m sad. It’s hard to say goodbye when you don’t know when you’re going to see someone again.” I realised that the same would be true when I said goodbye to Cat, but I pushed the thought aside. One crisis at a time.