It had meant a lot to her to set up this meditation room and its peaceful atmosphere always calmed her down.

Gradually, her body relaxed and she let her mind float, not thinking, not worrying, just being. When she came out of the meditation, she felt in tune with herself again, ready to write for another hour or two, strong enough to ignore outside annoyances.

Chapter Two

Andi Carr sat on the bus, fuming about the reprimand she’d just received from her boss and worrying about his warning to shape up or ship out. He’d even asked her whether she was using drugs. As if it was any business of his what she did in her spare time.

If she had anywhere else to go, she’d hand in her notice straight away and not wait to be pushed, but her mother refused to let her live in the new house, even though it was plenty big enough for six people, let alone two. Her mother didn’t seem to care that she was unhappy. She had tons of money these days, but never thought to toss a few thousand in the direction of her children. Mean, her mother was.

If Andi’s father had still been alive – tears came into her eyes at the mere thought of him – he would have helped her out and looked after her till she found a halfway decent job where they didn’t think they owned you body and soul. Just because she’d been late for work a few times! She’d stayed on at the end of the day to make up for it, hadn’t she, dealing with customer complaints and doing any other odd jobs her boss loaded onto her? Work as a general dogsbody wasn’t the be-all and end-all of life.

She wasn’t sure what was. There didn’t seem much point to it, really, which was why she’d not gone on to university. Her father had done everything right and had still died just after fifty. He hadn’t benefited from his wife’s success at all. As for Andi’s brother, William was a stick-in-the-mud and his wife was even worse, a real control-freak.

Enjoying each day was the best you could do with your life, Andi reckoned, which meant making the most of your leisure time, and she certainly knew how to party.

She got off the bus at her usual stop then remembered it was her turn to cook tea. Cursing under her breath, she turned round and walked along to the local supermarket. She didn’t dare get ready-cooked food again, or even a takeaway pizza. Her flatmates were both into Healthy Eating in a big way. She was sick of hearing those two words, spoken reverently as if they always had capital letters. She bought the bits and pieces she needed, saving the receipt for the housekeeping jar.

Why had she lumbered herself with such picky people to share with? Because she hadn’t wanted any more flatmates who skipped out without paying their rent and electricity bills, that’s why. She’d thought the original two guys fun at first, but came home one day to find they’d upped sticks and gone, taking some of her possessions with them. Her mother had had to help out that time, because otherwise the rental agent would have thrown her out of this flat. But her mother had pulled a sour face over it and made Andi feel like a real loser.