At the clinic, Quin, Kallie and I piled into the empty waiting room. Kate and Devin decided to wait outside and be young.

‘So this is embarrassing,’ Kallie murmured to me. ‘Not the sort of thing that a thirty-eight-year-old woman should be dealing with.’

‘No, no, no.’ I rushed to reassure her. ‘Accidents happen.’ So she’s only thirty-eight? That’s a little younger than I’d have preferred.

‘It tore,’ she murmured, leaning in to me. ‘The condom.’

‘It happens!’ I said gaily. ‘Life is messy.’ Don’t make me think about Luke and condoms.

She turned her attention to Quin. ‘So?’ She was upbeat. ‘What line of work are you in, mister?’

‘I’d rather talk about you.’ He sounded jovial. ‘What line of work are you in?’

Quin was being a teeny-weeny bit of a dick, but no one except me would have known.

‘Singer-songwriter,’ she said.

What? Oh my God, that’s so cool.

‘Yeah?’ Quin enquired. ‘Would I have heard of you?’

‘Kallie Lampart? No.’ She laughed. ‘Didn’t think so.’

‘What kind of stuff do you do?’

‘Cheating men, heartbreak.’ She elbowed me. ‘You know the kind of stuff. I’ve a real job too, that pays the bills. I’m a CPA. Like Luke.’

She’d said his name, she’d just thrown it out there. Although my breath caught at the back of my throat, the world didn’t end.

‘It’s how we met,’ she said. ‘He hired me for a project.’

‘And you still work together?’ My voice sounded impressively normal.

She shook her head. ‘I freelance around my music. Besides, not a good idea for your boyfriend to be your boss.’

‘Kallie Lampart?’ A man called. ‘Hi, I’m Dr Benson.’

Off she went and she was back in no time, eyes lowered, a prescription in her hand. ‘I’ll just do the paperwork and then we can scoot.’

Scoot. Okay. I got back to my phone. But after too much time had passed, she was still at the desk. There seemed to be an atmosphere.

I got up. ‘Everything okay?’

‘Rachel, yeah.’ She was flustered. ‘They don’t take my insurance here.’

‘Because we’re a different country.’ The receptionist’s tone was dry.

‘And my credit card isn’t good. So can I Venmo you guys?’

‘Venmo?’ Once again the receptionist was bone-dry. ‘No.’

‘I have no other way to pay. I guess I didn’t think I’d have to.’

‘I’ve got it.’ Quin stepped in.

‘Oh my gosh, you lifesaver!’

He wasn’t really, he’d just got bored.

‘So now I need to find a drugstore,’ Kallie said.

‘One just over there.’ Quin nodded his head across the street.

‘Then can I take you guys for coffee to thank you?’

Quin shot a look in my direction and whatever he saw made him say, ‘That’s sweet of you, Kallie, but we have plans.’