Perhaps she should have gone to the gym today. An hour on the cross-trainer or the Stairmaster was always good for taking out pent-up frustration. But then, it would be Sod’s Law, if the minute she went out of the door, Jude phoned or perhaps called round unexpectedly. She’d never forgive herself if she missed him. Besides, she had a crashing hangover and an hour lying on the sofa watching rubbish on the television might be a better idea.

It was always a difficult balance because what she really wanted to do was slip out of her jeans and shirt and slip on her oldest T-shirt and tracky bottoms, but she never did that just in case Jude popped in. It would never do for him to find her here looking scruffy – not when she had the immaculately groomed Georgia to compete with. The only person she could think of who was better turned out than her lover’s wife was Chelsea.

It was horrible being jealous of her own sister, Lauren thought, but she was – even though Chelsea wasn’t boastful or did anything to rub their noses in her perfect life. It was just a fact that couldn’t be avoided. Chelsea had it all; whereas she and Annie did not. It wasn’t that she didn’t love Chelsea – of course she did! Not as much as Annie did, though. Her twin always managed to see the good in everyone.

Lauren and Annie had always been close. They were twins – wasn’t it natural that they’d stick together? ‘Two peas in a pod,’ everyone said with a chuckle. And there’d always been a distance between the two of them and Chelsea, even as kids. It hadn’t improved as they’d got older. The situation had got worse, if anything, as they were all so busy with their lives and she and Annie had so little in common with Chelsea. Plus the latter was hardly ever in the country these days. She hated to ring her sister and have either Chelsea’s nanny or housekeeper answer the phone. Unreasonable. But it made her bristle nevertheless. The truth was that Lauren found it very difficult to be around Chelsea as she only reminded her of everything that she was missing out on. Annie’s relationship wasn’t perfect and that, in some selfish way, was a comfort to Lauren. Her twin tried very hard to pretend that there wasn’t a division between the sisters, but they all knew in their hearts that there was.

Annie was right though. Out of the three of them, Chelsea was the only one who’d got her life in control. And Lauren knew that she couldn’t carry on indefinitely letting herself be buffeted about by her emotions, waiting on a man who belonged to someone else – if not in his heart, then legally.