“Alex had a crush on me for years,” she said, speaking slowly like I needed it explained in small words. “I used to catch him looking at me sometimes, and he’d blush – it was cute. And now that he’s older...well, I think there could definitely be something there.” She peeled herself away from the door. Long and lithe, like a jungle cat. “You know, I would never try to make trouble in his relationship if I thought he was happy. But this? Right here, now, with you? Nuh-uh.” She shook her close-cropped head. “You are not making him happy, Willow. You’re playing mind games with him – you and that other half-angel. God, just flap off out of here together, why don’t you, and leave Alex alone? It’s not like he hasn’t got enough on his mind.”

My mind was reeling, caught in a storm. “I am not playing mind games,” I said in a low voice that somehow didn’t shake. “I’m in love with Alex, not Seb. Is that really so hard to understand?”

Kara snorted and turned away. “Yeah, seems to be,” she said coldly. “’Cause I don’t think you’ve got a handle on it.”

Alex was gone when I got up the next morning.

I’d been planning to get him on his own so that we could talk about all this again, calmly this time. But I could tell he wasn’t there the second I went downstairs; there was an empty feel to the house, even though it was full of people. I made a mug of foul-tasting instant coffee and drank it slowly in the kitchen, trying to take in the fact that he’d actually gone somewhere without telling me. It seemed even more final than his parting shot the day before – enjoy your friendship with Seb.

Trish came in, her hair damp from her morning shower; she stiffened when she saw me. “Um – where’s Alex?” I asked. Heat crept over me, that I even had to ask the question.

“He went to check out the cathedral again.” She moved past me to the loaf of bread that sat on the counter. Putting a couple of slices in the toaster, she gave me a tense, sideways look. “So...have you two broken up, or what?”

“No,” I said shortly, and walked out of the kitchen.

I wanted to find Seb, but was so aware of what everyone would think now, if they saw us together. Correction: what they’d been thinking all along, from the sound of it. Finally I went into the TV room. Everyone else was there already, apart from Seb. Then, with a sinking heart, I saw that everyone else wasn’t there – Kara was missing. Of course; she’d gone to the cathedral with Alex. My muscles tightened at the thought of the two of them alone together; what she must be saying to him.