Maddy sits in the chair as directed, but she can hardly concentrate as the nurse talks her through the protocol. She winces as the needle pierces her skin, but her mind is whirring. The woman who stole her husband is in this very same building and, as much as Maddy wants to confront her, she knows this is absolutely the wrong place to do it. Everyone their age is coming for a vaccine. She doesn’t want a horrible soap opera-esque scene in public, even though she’s imagined so many.

‘That’s it. All done—’

Before the nurse has even finished the pleasantries, Maddy is straight out of her chair and heading for the exit.

‘You’ve got to wait for ten minutes,’ the nurse calls after her.

‘I’ll wait outside.’

‘But—’

She hurries as fast as she can, without running to the exit sign, but it’s too late. Helen has been waiting. Shit.

‘Maddy,’ she calls. ‘Maddy. Wait.’

‘I have nothing to say to you.’ Maddy pushes through the double doors, but Helen catches the door before it shuts.

‘Please,’ Helen implores as Maddy hurries away from her to the car park. But Helen is following and Maddy rips off her mask and furiously faces her. Can’t she take a hint? She doesn’t want to have this conversation. Not here.

‘Trent is really upset that you won’t talk to him,’ Helen says.

Maddy is speechless for a moment. She’s got the gall … the nerve … to speak to her about how her husband is feeling!

Helen’s wearing an NHS T-shirt, under which she’s got a push-up bra. Well, at least that’s if she hasn’t had a boob job. Maybe she has had a boob job, Maddy thinks, suddenly comparing herself. Helen’s hair is enviably glossy, her skin wrinkle-free and her nails are adorned with fresh acrylics. She’s attractive. Desirable.

With a sickening moment of self-awareness, Maddy realises that she has always felt as if she’s had the upper hand among her peers. She’s always felt the prettiest, the coolest, but right now she feels usurped. And a fool too, for letting this woman into her life.

But they’d been good friends once, Maddy remembers. Helen had been ambitious, smart and funny and, even though Maddy was older than her, they’d clicked immediately. It had been Maddy who’d invited her into the fold and Helen had played this honour perfectly, not stepping on anyone’s toes, respecting the unspoken hierarchy until she’d become one of ‘the girls’. A memory surfaces of how they’d been pissed one summer in the back garden of Lisa’s house and how Helen had declared how much she admired Maddy, how impressed she was by everything she did. Maddy had been flattered, but she’d batted down the praise, telling Helen she’d been the impressive one. It had been a girl love-in. How long ago those days seem now.

‘Look, I’m sorry,’ Helen says. ‘I didn’t mean it to happen. I never meant to split up your marriage.’ Maddy sees that Helen’s not wearing a wedding ring.