Henry had spent the rest of the day turning his conversation with Lily over and over his head. The documents sent over by Ben had gone untouched. The calls on his phone had gone unanswered, and at some point, though he couldn’t say when, dusk had fallen over the estate.

He regretted it. The argument with Lily, the things he’d said to her. He’d seen the hurt, felt his own, and it was all too much. So when the doorbell rang and he pulled it open expecting to find her standing there it took him a moment to understand what he was seeing.

‘Don’t suppose you have a room for the night?’

‘Ben?’

Over Ben’s shoulder, he could see Amina standing behind Ben, a smile on her face that wobbled every time she shifted her weight back and forth between her feet, her stomach round and very pregnant.

‘Are you—’

‘I really need to pee,’ she exclaimed. ‘Really.’

Genuinely concerned that it might cause her to explode, he stepped back for the door and gestured for her to enter. ‘Second door on the left.’

‘Thank you,’ Amina replied at a startlingly high pitch as she rushed past him.

Ben raised his eyebrows. ‘The perks of being pregnant. So, room at the inn?’

There were two small bags on the floor by his feet, and a bottle of SangSom in his hands.

‘Where did you get that?’ Henry couldn’t help but ask.

‘I have my ways. Come on, keep me standing out here and I’ll need the toilet too.’

Henry couldn’t help but smile. He’d missed them both so much and just hadn’t realized it until this point.

‘Come on, I’ll give you the grand tour.’

‘Later. The drive up from Newquay was insane after the flights.’

‘Flights?’

Ben pierced him with a look. ‘Have you already been drinking?’

‘No,’ Henry defended. ‘Have you been drinking? How did you get here?’

‘Singapore, via Heathrow, to Newquay. Amina has one last meeting in Lyon tomorrow before she’s going on maternity leave.’

‘You came all this way for a night?’ Henry asked, thinking that his friend might have lost his mind completely.

‘No,’ Ben assured. ‘I came all this way for my best friend.’

Something inside Henry shifted and he grabbed his friend in a hug, no back-slapping, no awkward jokes. Just a proper old-school hug.

‘Am I interrupting?’ Mina asked from over Henry’s shoulders.

‘He was mine first, you know,’ Henry teased.

‘Finders keepers,’ she replied without missing a beat.

Henry let Ben go, not before his best friend levelled him with a look. ‘You OK?’

‘Not really,’ Henry admitted for the first time.

‘Didn’t think so.’

‘Yeah, OK, smarty pants. No need to rub it in.’