‘Fuck you,’ Donna said. ‘Both of you. That’s fucked up.’ And Donna didn’t speak to her for the rest of the day and the next day she only talked to her about work and then only over email. That was just the start. She upset everyone in the call centre. She was always in the wrong place at the wrong time and just the sight of her annoyed people, she could read it in their faces. Everything that had worked before didn’t work anymore, and it got worse each day.

She put off calling Heidi for almost a week. When she’d got home on the first day, the pizza stone was gone and there was a block of chocolate waiting on the bench with a handwritten note pulled from a diary that just said Thanks – Heidi. Heidi had called a few times, but they didn’t always reply straight away. It wouldn’t have seemed odd from Heidi’s end. Then finally, after a week, she called Heidi.

‘Oh, hi,’ Heidi said. She could hear her repositioning herself on a couch or a bed. Sitting up. ‘How are you two?’

‘Good,’ she said.

‘Cool.’ Heidi was looking at something now, she could hear her rustling paper around on a table.

‘Are you free for dinner tonight?’

‘Oh.’ Heidi was probably looking at her watch or at the time on the clock beside her bed. ‘Yeah. Seven?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Tom yum?’

‘Yeah. Cool. See you there.’

They hung up and she looked around the flat. Now she had to go. There wasn’t another way to do it. Unless – she looked at her phone – unless she called again and said they’d forgotten about something and couldn’t go.

The tom yum place was busy, but Heidi had a table for three. Heidi’s face changed a little when she saw her come in. It was only for a second, but it changed, like she was seeing the whole thing all at once. Like what had happened was written all over her body and the way she held herself. She walked over and sat down opposite Heidi.

‘Oh,’ said Heidi.

‘Yeah,’ she said.

‘Hm.’

They sat in silence for a minute.

‘What happened?’

She shrugged. Then she made an exploding action with one hand and mouthed, ‘Poof.’

‘You’re kidding?’ Heidi said.

She shook her head.

‘Oh.’ Heidi looked down now. ‘Peggy.’ For a moment her heart rose but then Heidi looked at her and said, ‘Peggy?’ and she shrugged again. They looked at their menus. ‘Fuck,’ Heidi said suddenly. ‘You’re neither of them, eh?’ Then, ‘Wait. Is it correcting itself?’ Heidi lowered her menu and looked at her. ‘Is everything going back to the way it was?’

They ordered tom yum but didn’t say much else. Then Heidi said, ‘Does it matter?’

She shrugged.

‘The name,’ Heidi said.

‘It seems to,’ she said.

‘Oh,’ Heidi said.

She looked around. ‘I’m going to the loo.’