“I still can’t believe no one stopped me.” Nory was filled with fresh mortification every time she thought about it.

“Nobody knew you two were going to embark on a marathon fuck-fest. Anyway, I didn’t know he was married either. And by the time Pippa filled me in, the sounds of the headboard smacking against the wall suggested that Guy was already very much filling you in!”

Andrew spluttered a laugh, which made Matilda jump.

Nory buried her head in her hands. “You are so crude,” she mumbled.

Ameerah continued. “I could hardly knock on your door while you were mid-coitus to let you know, could I? I planned to take you to one side the next day and tell you, but Charles got in first. He always was the biggest gossip.”

Nory and Guy weren’t the only friends to pair off that weekend. Jenna and Charles had also reconnected with each other and now they were about to be married. It was strange to think that their happiness was born out of such a tragedy. Would they have found their way back to each other if it weren’t for Tristan’s death? It made Nory sad to think about it, and she knew Jenna struggled with it too. Jenna said she felt guilty sometimes that her life had been transformed because of Tristan’s death. Before that weekend, she’d been boomeranging hopelessly among men, trying to blot out their failings and make one of them stick. And then she’d seen Charles again and suddenly it all seemed to fall into place, as though she’d been trying to force her previous boyfriends to fit into a Charles-shaped hole.

Nory would be lying if she said she hadn’t entertained similar thoughts about Guy during their brief encounter; she had fantasized between orgasms that the Fates had thrown them back into each other’s paths for a reason. But of course, the Fates had had nothing to do with it, although Nory suspected Guy may have been channeling Priapus, the Greek god with the permanent erection.

“Oh, say you’ll come, Nory, please! I can ask Dev to bring along another man-Barbie to play with you.” Ameerah waggled her eyebrows and winked.

“No thank you. I am sworn off meaningless sex with mindless men.”

“Good! That leaves more for me. Now stop playing hard to get and tell Jenna you’ll come to the house party.”

“You know she won’t give up,” said Andrew. “And besides, you haven’t had a proper break this year, and really, why are you letting this hack Guy stop you from spending a week living in the lap of luxury with your oldest friends? Why are you making his life easier?”