I’d often told him that his perfect holiday location would be an enclave nestled between seven competing warlords, boasting Michelin-starred street food and a Zegna store operating from a crashed Boeing 747.

‘French Foreign Legion?’ I asked. ‘Don’t tell me. One of the “Local Attractions” would be the chance to undergo some light torture?’

‘Haha.’ He liked that. ‘It doesn’t mention it, but who knows. So Danny, this guy I met in Taos, said they mix it up a little. Take you out into the desert and leave you there.’

‘I’m not…loving this, Quin.’

‘We’d be in a luxury tent, obvs, but they mess with your sense of safety. No phones, no roads, no other people. Danny says we’ll experience real fear that we’ve been abandoned. The guys from the hotel are back at base camp, getting stoned out of their heads and won’t fetch us until they’re able.’

‘Quiiiiiiiin…’

‘So, on our third day, just when we’re freaking out about having no water left, that’s when I’ll ask you to marry me.’

I laughed. Quin’s grandiose proposal fantasies—touching lightly on the truth that we were both wary—was a running joke.

‘And the moment I accept, the Toyota flatbed truck from the hotel will appear over the top of the sand dune, where it’s been hiding all along. Great!’

My phone lit up—Luke, again! What the hell? These days he was ringing me more often than when we were married.

I snatched it up and answered with a snippy, ‘Yes?’

‘Rachel? Look, just say no, but I said I’d ask.’

‘What?’

‘Kallie says maybe we should get together, the four of us, you and your partner, me and her. Go for a pizza or something.’

No fucking way. Quin had predicted this—and I hadn’t believed him.

‘I…Look…I don’t know.’

Anxiously, I looked at Quin who was mouthing What?

Say yes.

My head was racing through all the permutations. But I didn’t have to do anything I didn’t want to do—and I didn’t want to do this. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘That’s fine. Cool. I said I’d ask. So I’ve…asked.’

‘You totally did.’ My tone was sarcastic-cheery. ‘Consider me asked. Okay, see ya!’

I was suddenly in a terrible mood but it took a while to narrow it down to offended. Yes, I was offended by the presumption implicit in his suggestion that I had forgiven him. Did he really think it would be that easy? Like, without any apology or explanation? Because—why? Because six years had passed and there was a statute of limitations on Shitty Things Done by Ex-Husbands?

It didn’t work like that.

‘What’s going on?’ Quin asked.

‘It was Luke. He wants us to go on a double date, just like you predicted.’

‘Damn, I’m good! So what do you—’