‘Sure, I can do four days next week, no problem.’

She stopped in her tracks and looked around, instantly blushed as she realised her mistake. There was no sign of Mr Hough. Why would he be here in London? she scolded herself. He was last spotted on a beach in Cornwall.

She walked on but the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She felt like she was being watched.

‘Alice!’ a voice called, and she turned. Mr Hough. ‘I was sitting on that bench over there,’ he said. ‘You walked right past me.’

She felt her heart rocket, colour flooding her skin. She took in his grey beanie and thick padded navy jacket, his broad, firm chest still discernible beneath the layers of T-shirt, hoodie and scarf. With his glacier-blue eyes and defined cheekbones, he looked like he’d stepped out of a luxury casualwear brochure. A fox-red Labrador stood by his feet. Just when you thought he couldn’t get sexier. A dog!

They stood taking each other in. Alice noticed sunlight flittering over his face as above them the wind moved clouds across the sky, conkers fell and split, dodged by frantic squirrels in pursuit of something unseen, and gulps of swallows soared noisily overhead. She was aware of the world moving around her, moving on, but all she could see was him.

‘How have you been?’ he asked as she blurted out, ‘Where did you go?’

16

Six Months After Paris

Nina

It had been three months since Nina had seen Ted and determined to tell Alice and she still hadn’t worked up the courage. She was so confused: why had Alice and Jules cut her off like that? She understood that Alice would have a lot on her plate, going through a separation, but wouldn’t she have needed her friends more than ever? And where did Jules fit in? She had been checking Jules’s social media more frequently; once a day was now two or three times a day. Still no news of a baby. Was she in a blissful bubble, her pregnancy dreams having finally materialised and made it past the twelve-week milestone? She had never made it that far previously. Or was she in a pit of despair, her final chance at IVF dashed? Were she and Alice angry with her? For leaving that way? She should have messaged them, she knew, but she had so much on her mind and… she threw down her tea towel in frustration and began making herself an oat milk flat white at the barista machine.

‘Can you make two of those?’ called a voice, and she turned to see Ted standing at the counter sheepishly.

‘With oat milk?’ she asked, raising an eyebrow, a hand on her hips.

‘You can’t milk an oat,’ he replied, deadpan.

She smiled in spite of herself. She hadn’t seen Ted since the encounter in his office. She’d emailed her team afterwards and requested Ted be removed from the account and replaced with his partner, David, instead. In a sign that the power dynamic had shifted since she’d acquired an investor, it was done immediately and without comment. She’d half expected an irate email from Ted, but she hadn’t heard from him at all.