Mostly, when women like Peggy and Greta and Heidi and Dell fought, they fought about who came first, who had a greater claim to the one life they were sharing. This was a fight that happened when the one life got crowded, when there weren’t enough clothes or money or space. It was a ridiculous fight – neither of them had been here first. Being first was a thing that made no sense in relation to any of them. This was not what Heidi and Dell were fighting about, and whenever Ian’s name came up it was like he was just an object – like a tennis racket, or a cricket bat. It sounded like, if anything, Heidi was angry that Dell kept going away but Dell had never left.

‘You could leave for good.’ That was Heidi.

‘That would defeat the purpose.’ Dell, they were sure it was Dell, but it made no sense.

‘You think you’re helping but you’re not.’

‘Not helping?’ Dell said. ‘Or not helping you the way you want help and in the exact timeline you think help should come?’

‘You’re playing it all wrong,’ Heidi said. Now Peggy and Greta could keep up with the back and forward.

‘Ian was a mistake,’ Dell said.

‘So fucking easy for you to say,’ Heidi said.

‘We both agreed it looked like the right way to go.’

‘Well, it wasn’t.’

‘Well, we both know that now,’ Dell said.

‘Fuck,’ Heidi again.

‘I think if we had just . . .’

‘Fuck,’ Heidi said. ‘I just can’t with you anymore.’

‘You’re fucking pathological.’

‘I’m pathological?’

Neither of them said anything for a moment, then Dell said, ‘You’re the one that keeps fucking with their heads. They’re not fucking ready.’

Peggy and Greta looked at each other. Were they talking about them? But then one of them shouted, ‘You.’

‘But I do.’

‘You.’

‘That’s rich.’ And they were off again. Dell saying words like ‘important’ and Heidi laughing and groaning. Then the two of them fell into making incoherent noises at each other.

‘You’re like fucking cancer,’ one of them finally said.

‘We both are, fucktard,’ shouted the other one.

‘You’re like metastatic brain cancer.’

‘I wish I was that far away.’ Then the walking around again. One of them punched the wall.

Peggy sneezed and everything went quiet outside their bedroom and then it started again, but this time it sounded like a normal fight. Like the sneeze had reminded them that Greta and Peggy were there and could hear them.

‘I’m going to bed,’ Heidi said.

‘My bed,’ Dell said.