Caitlin nodded, took two menus from the bar and then followed me to a table.

It was a bit weird, her not saying much for once, so I said, ‘It’s nice, isn’t it?’

‘Yeah, it is,’ she answered slowly, looking up from the menu to take in the view, before looking back down at the menu again. ‘And I’ve heard they have really good food here.’

I couldn’t see many gluten-free, vegetarian or vegan options on the menu, so I thought that at any second she might race me home for one of her lentil soups.

When the waiter came, Caitlin asked, ‘Do you want to order first?’

‘I’m still deciding,’ I said.

‘Can I please have a chicken schnitzel with mushroom sauce and a pint of Coke?’ she ordered. It was so unlike her that I did a double take.

I told the waiter, ‘I’ll have the same, with Diane sauce please.’

Again, I didn’t feel comfortable with Caitlin being so quiet. I wondered if she was working up to telling me some bad news, like her and Dad were breaking up, which wouldn’t really be bad news. Then I remembered the sounds from their bedroom from the night before and thought, nah, that’s not going to happen. I started stressing that she might have wanted to tell me some bad news about Mum. Maybe Mum was in trouble over the car incident, or Dad had demanded full custody or something? Maybe that’s why I hadn’t heard from her in a while?

My mind was in overdrive and if there was bad news, I wanted to get it out of the way.

‘Are you okay?’ Caitlin asked, looking at my leg jiggling up and down.

‘Yeah, I’m right. How was work?’ I said, thinking that getting her talking might be the best way to get the news out of her.

‘I actually had a difficult day. It’s hard enough seeing how little some of the kids and their parents have, and now I’m starting to realise that some families are going backwards. Sometimes we just don’t know how lucky we’ve got it, Phoebe.’

‘What’s wrong with them?’

‘Oh, it’s not really for you to worry about,’ she said, sighing. ‘But I’ve been thinking about what more I can do to help out.’

‘Like what?’

‘Well, as you know, I love yoga,’ Caitlin said, her face lighting up as she spoke. ‘I seriously don’t understand why everyone doesn’t do it, and I’d like to run classes for the parents after the kids are dropped to school. So, I’m going to start an instructor’s course in the next couple of days.’

Is that the news? I thought.

‘If I do the course I’ll have to do a lot of practise at home, lots and lots of practise.’

‘Right,’ I said. ‘I thought you might’ve been going to tell me bad news.’

‘Why is that?’

‘The swimming, schnitzel and Coke.’

‘No, not at all! You shouldn’t assume the worst, Phoebe. I don’t want to make life hard for you. I want to help make life good, and today it’s hot and we haven’t really explored our new home yet.’