She felt a mixture of relief, sadness and, strangely, contentment in the fact that she hadn’t heard from Hugo. Relief that he hadn’t yet acknowledged her financial blow to his account; a little sad that the part of her life where she felt that Hugo would complete her (which, let’s be honest, was the good part of ten years) was over, and contentment because she knew that she would eventually be okay.

While Hugo was off the radar she had, however, heard from Chloe, who had called her the morning after she discovered the hefty sum in her bank account. Evie told her it was the least she deserved, and asked her not to mention it to Hugo. She had also sent Chloe the short story Steven had found on Hugo’s laptop, and told her she would fully support her if she decided to go public.

‘Ben’s worried about you too, you know. Could you just call him? He’s driving me mad with all his pestering.’

Evie had missed numerous calls from Ben, letting them all go to voicemail. They were probably about their first podcast for the year, but she couldn’t speak to him yet. It was too embarrassing, not to mention disappointing. Plus, if she opened the floodgate of emotions inside her, she feared that she would never be able to close it again. Perhaps a little distance would help them get back to being best friends. The podcast could wait.

Rubbing her temples and looking up at Josie, Evie said, ‘I should probably brave the world again. I thought it would be nice to go shopping for a couple of new pieces to go with my new persona. Mum offered to go get my clothes from Hugo’s for me, but I’m legitimately concerned that she may murder him in the process.’

After her cathartic few days in bed, Evie hoped to skip over the denial, anger and bargaining stages of grief and go straight to Rebranding. As heartbroken as she was, the new university term and her internship were starting in a few days, and she couldn’t risk squandering the opportunity to finally work with Florence. It meant too much to her. And nothing screamed ‘I’m taking this internship seriously, please hire me permanently’ like a new checked blazer.

Josie nodded approvingly. ‘Well, you know where to find me if you need to chat or want to conduct a voodoo ceremony or something.’

Evie smiled, feeling just a little less stranded.

Anna poked her head through Evie’s slightly open door. ‘How’re you two single ladies going in there?’

‘Good, Mum,’ Evie replied weakly.

‘How’d you know I’m single?’ Josie asked.

‘Well, are you?’ said Anna, walking into Evie’s room and sitting down at the foot of the bed. Evie suddenly remembered why she had been hesitant to move back in.

‘Yeah. I am,’ Josie replied, shrugging.