Cate brings some mince pies and wine, and takes Tom up the hill to the university, where Dea and Zoe and a small group of others are clustered round the Senate building, candles in their hands. They talk in low voices and pass packages of food in via the security guards. Afterwards they walk back down the hill to Dea and Zoe’s for food.

“I downloaded the application form,” Cate tells Dea, as she helps her tidy up after the meal.

“Really?” says Dea. “Glad to hear it. Are you going to fill it in?”

“Yeah,” says Cate. “I suppose I am.”

At nine o’clock she straps Tom into the car seat and drives him home. She knows Sam is due to finish work at eleven. She goes over to her computer, prints out the form, and begins to fill it in. The time goes quickly, but half past eleven comes and she is tired, and Sam is not home so she turns on the television and wraps herself in a blanket with a cup of tea.

She is dozing when her phone rings, and she jumps awake to see Hannah’s name on the screen.

“Han?” She snatches the phone to her ear. “Hey! Happy New Year!”

It is a while before she can make out any words, because at first there is only weeping, weeping that sounds as though it has been happening for a long time already—thick, clotted, exhausted sobs. “Hannah?” she says softly, waiting for her friend to find her voice.

“Lissa,” says Hannah eventually.

“What about her?”

“Lissa and Nathan.”

“What?”

“Together.”

“No,” says Cate, sitting up on the sofa, wide awake now. “No, Han, that’s impossible.”

“Don’t tell me what’s possible,” hisses Hannah. “I know it’s true.”

On the television the singers are singing together, “Auld Lang Syne.” There are Scottish pipers in bearskins and serious faces. She mutes the sound. The room is dark, only the light of the screen. She is silent. A strange taste fills her mouth. “Hannah,” she says. “Is there anything I can do? Do you want to come here? Can I come to you? Are you in the flat? I can drive—I’ll put Tom in the back and leave now.”

“No. No.”

“Is there anyone nearby that can come and be with you?”

She almost says Lissa—Lissa who lives moments away—and stops herself in time.

“No,” says Hannah. “Are you there? Will you stay there? I might—I might call again.”

“Of course, Han. I’m here.”

When the call is finished, Cate stares, stunned, at the television screen where people are holding hands and dancing. She is aware of several conflicting and equally powerful emotions—of shock and disbelief, and a strange sense of inevitability, the last of which makes no sense at all.