‘Jem, don’t you want to help me?’ Simi said, taking Jemima’s hand.

‘Of course I do. I just think there’s better fixes than pestering random men.’

‘Such as?’ Simi asked.

‘Well, I’m not the expert,’ Jemima floundered.

‘Exactly. In fact, you could do with a little help yourself,’ said Meagan as she gave their waiter the nod to fetch another bottle.

This was no longer just a regular night out and for that, they needed more wine.

‘I’m fine as I am, thank you,’ said Jemima crossing her arms.

‘Shit. There’s Miles!’ hissed Meagan, pointing to the other side of the bar.

‘What, where?!’ said Jemima, eyes wide as she dived under their table, ‘Did he see me? Is he looking?’

‘Meagan. That was mean,’ said Simi. ‘He’s not here, Jem.’

Jemima slowly emerged, straightening her sweater and glaring at Meagan. ‘Not funny.’

‘I wasn’t trying to be funny. I was proving a point. You both need to change it up,’ she said taking a triumphant gulp of wine.

Jemima made one more nervous sweep of the bar before sitting back down and taking a large mouthful of wine too.

‘She’s right, Jem,’ ventured Simi. ‘It’s been two years and you haven’t had a single date.’

‘I’ve been busy,’ said Jemima.

‘Ptttthh,’ Meagan said rolling her eyes.

‘Let’s be honest. We could all learn something from this,’ said Simi looking at Meagan.

Meagan looked around the bar ignoring Simi’s gaze. The game or challenge or whatever, was about fixing Simi’s love life not hers. Everything in Meagan’s world was just as she wanted it.

‘Simi’s right, Meag. Meagan?’ Jemima said firmly.

‘You’ve been seeing Todd for four years but you’re not even boyfriend and girlfriend,’ added Simi.

‘For the gazillionth time, I’m not seeing Todd. We have sex. Regularly. That’s it.’

The waiter discreetly switched out their wine bottles, showing no signs of acknowledging the conversation. Jemima gave him a polite smile.

‘You’ve been exclusive for a whole year,’ Jemima argued.

‘I’ve been busy!’ Meagan deflected.

‘Ptttthh,’ said Jemima sitting back with a self-satisfied smirk.

‘Whatever.’

Okay, so she hadn’t slept with anyone other than Todd in the last twelve months. She’d been too busy to find a replacement. And anyway, why would she? Who eats burgers when they’ve got the keys to a steak house? But that wasn’t ‘seeing each other’, that was screwing. Maybe Todd was getting a bit hazy on that detail. Was that why he’d been more clingy of late? He thinks they are a thing? If so, Meagan needed to shut that down, and dating other guys was a sure-fire way to do it.

‘Okay, I’m in,’ Meagan said, slapping the table. ‘How’s it going to work?’

‘Wait, what?’ blurted Jemima.

Meagan shrugged as Simi rummaged in her bag for her crumpled-up audition script. On it were a scrawled network of notes.

‘What?’ Simi said, looking up at Meagan and Jemima’s confused expressions. ‘I made some notes while I was waiting for you.’

Meagan wrapped her hand around her drink and sat back. What kind of sweet hell was this?