Then, to her great relief, a cab pulled up. It had clearly seen better days, with flecked paint, rusty handles and the windows seemingly jammed open despite the winter chill. Evie’s eyes widened as she heard ‘Somebody to Love’ blaring from inside. She wasn’t going to ignore a sign from the universe and, besides, she was freezing. Lifting up her floor length gown, she slid into the back of the car and buckled her seatbelt. She felt the icy breeze from the open windows mixed with the stifling warmth pumping through the heater wash over her and let her body relax just a little.

‘How’s your night going?’ the driver asked, turning around.

Evie gasped. ‘Bloody hell, of course it’s you!’

There, sitting in the driver’s seat, with one hand tapping along to the radio, was Maximilian. As usual, his grey hair was piled on top of his head in a messy bun, but this time he wore bright plum lipstick, both on his lips and his teeth.

‘What the hell are you doing here?’ Evie choked.

‘A man’s gotta make a living, Evie,’ Maximilian said, as if it were obvious, before turning back towards the road. They sped down the high street, racing through green, orange and the occasional red lights.

Evie gripped onto her torn fabric seat and shouted over the booming Queen song, which seemed to be on repeat. ‘I’ve been looking for you everywhere!’

‘I’m sure you have,’ Maximilian said quietly, so Evie had to bend forward to hear him. ‘But you had to find your own way, my dear.’

Evie groaned. She was so not in the mood for his wishy-washy mumbo jumbo. ‘But what is my own way? I don’t know why I’m here. I don’t know what my purpose is. I think there’s been some kind of mistake. All I’ve done is made a mess of everything.’

‘You doubt yourself too much,’ Maximilian said, turning the wheel in a fast, jolting movement as he careened down London Bridge Road.

‘You haven’t caught me at my best, believe it or not. Everything has been a bit of a struggle lately.’

‘Good. Good. And did the struggle help you find your love?’ asked Maximilian.

‘No! Not at all. I found Hugo, but that’s gone to shit.’ She let the thought trail off.

‘Evie, Evie, Evie. He’s not your somebody. Everybody only has one body for a reason.’

‘Jesus! What does that even mean? I’m sick of your cryptic nonsense.’ Evie threw her hands in the air. ‘Just give me the goddamn answer!’

‘You’re close. Very close, my dear.’

‘Close to who? To Hugo? To Ben? To somebody else entirely?’

‘To the person you’ll be spending the rest of your life with.’

Evie groaned, dropping her head into her hands.