She cleaned her little flat, changed the bed and did her ironing, trying not to think about Isaac almost-living with Hayley, helping her with intimate things like washing … Finding herself actually envying a woman who had just lost a breast, which was seriously messed up, she forced herself to wrap the Christmas presents she’d bought from the Christmas market in Schützenberg as a penance: Swiss chocolate, delicate glass, gingerbread, wooden figures and beautiful scarves. She’d give her gifts to her family at the early Christmas dinner Patsie was arranging.

Refusing to let her mood sink any lower, she put on her coat, hat and boots and set off for the Angel Community Café. There she found Carola looking harassed. Jodi, who also worked there, grinned cheerily at Lily and said, ‘Carola, why don’t you take your break with a big cream cake? You can tell Lily all about it.’

‘All about what?’ Lily ordered a cream horn and a cup of peppermint tea as if a healthy drink would balance out an unhealthy snack.

Carola rolled her eyes, grabbed the biggest coffee éclair from the display and an enormous cappuccino with sprinkles before ushering Lily to a corner table at the back of the room. Several other tables were occupied, people looking up from their coffee and panini and saying hello as Lily and Carola wove through the eclectic collection of chairs. Lily liked the Angel, its floor tiles of cream, brown and the same blue-green as the paint on the tables and chairs; the black-and-white photos hanging on the walls.

Also, the cakes were awesome.

Flopping into a chair, Carola clutched her forehead, shoving her hair up at the front. ‘Duncan has asked to move back in!’ she hissed dramatically.

‘Wow.’ Lily took a moment to process that because she knew it had taken Carola ages to heal after Duncan’s defection. She nibbled her cream horn, enjoying the sweet flaky pastry.

‘I took him to task.’ Carola took a bite of coffee éclair and licked cream from above her lip. ‘I told him he had no chance, that I was settled in a new relationship. But Emily’s been in floods of tears, pleading with me not to let him be homeless. I don’t know how long it’s practical for him to sofa surf at his brother’s. His brother’s daughter and boyfriend live there too and they’re expecting a baby.’ She bit the éclair savagely, as if eating it as fast as she could would somehow put the situation aright. ‘My guess is Sherri’s holding their joint savings to ransom so he’ll sign away any claim on her house, which isn’t unreasonable as she owned it before moving him in, but it’s rather taking the law into her own hands.’