‘That’s Judith,’ he replied.

‘She looks nice,’ I said in a bright, tight voice.

‘She is nice,’ Patrick said, matter-of-factly. ‘We met in Beijing. She teaches English out there.’

I took a sip of my Future Cola. It was already flat.

‘She still in Beijing, is she?’

‘She is,’ he confirmed, amused with my response. ‘And yes, we were seeing each other for a while but no, we’re not seeing each other now. I’m sure you haven’t been living like a nun for the last three years, have you?’

‘Nun-like,’ I replied. ‘Nun-adjacent.’

‘Nun-adjacent, I like that,’ he laughed lightly, sliding his legs underneath the covers. ‘When you get to the photos of the pretty brunette in Mongolia, her name is Shana and we went on three dates before she binned me off for an American footballer called Brad.’

‘You’re making that up,’ I muttered, clicking through the photos faster and faster. He stroked my hair, nuzzling into the back of my neck.

‘Does it matter?’ he asked as he slid his hand down my back until he reached the hooks of my bra. ‘She’s not here, eating my tough man milk sweets, is she?’

Quietly, I closed the laptop and placed the tray and the map down on the floor beside the bed before turning to face him.

‘I really did miss you,’ Patrick whispered when we were nose to nose, the oxygen burning out of the air in between us.

‘I really did miss you too,’ I whispered back, closing my eyes as I lay back against the bed.

One minute we were just talking, the next, we were together. There was no precise moment or second on the clock you could point to, we weren’t and then we were. His hands were hot on my skin as they followed familiar paths around my body, touching me in ways I’d only dreamed about for so long. The light seemed to fade, the bed got bigger and the room got smaller and everything became hazy at the edges as my body took over and my mind let go.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

‘You’re in a lot of trouble, young lady,’ Lucy said, grinning at me over her massively pregnant belly.

‘You’re the one with your legs in stirrups,’ I pointed out, shovelling a packet of salt and vinegar Discos into my mouth in between yawns. They tasted like heaven. The sky was bluer, the birds sang more clearly, my morning cup of tea was like the nectar of the gods. I was even having a good hair day. At long, long, long, long, long, long last, all was right with the world.

Lucy pulled at the hem of her gown, attempting to cover things it was far too late to attempt to cover. ‘It’s back on, is it?’ she asked. ‘You’re a smitten kitten, all over again?’