Jules:

She dropped the prosciutto she was artfully draping and snatched up her phone, crossly rubbing it over her apron to remove the resulting smear across the screen, ignoring the jerk of Luna’s head to check she was okay. Without hesitating, she opened the group. There was a link and a single word: ‘Sorry.’ She clicked on the link and her phone opened her podcast app. ‘Rolling in the Deep’ stopped abruptly and was replaced by a jaunty soundtrack.

‘Do you mind?’ she asked Luna, indicating the speakers, as Luna shook her head in a no, she didn’t and a woman introduced the podcast: a recovery podcast. Nina knew immediately – she’d been right! Jules was an alcoholic! – but she gasped as the woman’s introduction revealed the truth. Jules was a recovering compulsive gambler. What?

She checked her watch. She only had an hour before she had to leave for her flight. But she couldn’t wait. She continued to style cornichons and edible flowers, Luna focusing on her hands, no doubt her dark blue nail polish and Eiffel Tower tattoo forming a better background than her frowning face as Jules’s voice filled the room. Each admission drew a fresh gasp from Nina: Jules had broken up with Paul! She’d lost her job! She listened to her former friend detailing their weekend in Paris but adding colour to the story: how she’d stayed up all night gambling (that’s why she fell asleep on the boat!), how she’d ignored Paul and he’d eventually turned up and told her he was leaving her (my God, that was the man she was speaking to!), how she’d fractured her most important friendships and feared they could never be recovered.

At this, Nina paused the recording and she stood in the bright room, daylight streaming through the windows, with her hand to her chest to steady herself. Jules! she thought, Jules! Her heart ached that she hadn’t been there for her friend. How had they let things get this far? she thought, crossly. What were they all playing at, not speaking? It was ridiculous.

She resumed the recording, resolving to message Jules back the minute it finished, but there was more: She’d stolen money from Alice. Shit. That project Alice had done that she’d been so anxious about. She’d never been paid. Jules had amended the account details on Alice’s invoice to her own. Wow. That was… grubby. Underhand. That was… She’s an addict, Nina. Come on. Have some compassion. Haven’t you done some grubby things yourself? But she wondered how Alice would feel, hearing what Jules had done. She knew how much it had knocked her confidence, not being paid.

She picked up her phone to call Alice and stopped, her finger hovering over the call button. She hadn’t heard from her since she’d sent her email. She’d promised her she’d leave her alone if she didn’t hear back. The podcast didn’t change things and Jules was in recovery, wasn’t she? She should leave things where they were. But as she stared at her phone, it began to ring.