L‌iv had the worst feeling. It hit her that evening as she sat watching TV with her parents. She hadn’t heard from Eddie since he’d stormed off the beach and left her there. What if Eddie had moved Anya into the flat anyway? Not that she didn’t like Anya – she seemed nice enough – but she knew that Anya, with her perfectly groomed hair and fashionable wardrobe, would take up a heck of a lot more space in her tiny flat than just one night in the spare room.

In her mind’s eye, Liv imagined Anya would arrive with a tonne of bags and boxes. She imagined her kitchen cluttered up with hair straighteners and nail dryers and God knows what else plugged in at every socket. Anya would fill up the tiny bathroom with products and long blonde hair would clog up the drains. She would be the sort of woman who would use four bath sheets at a time and then leave them all sopping wet on the floor.

Liv knew she was being unkind, but she remembered that when Anya had moved into Pete’s he’d had to employ a cleaning lady after the first week. There would be tan on the sheets and nail varnish on the couch and then there was the fact that Liv worked shifts at the hospital. She liked to come home to her little flat and potter about and sleep for eight hours before going back in to work that night. Having Anya there would mean extra noise, extra traffic through the place and ultimately, less time and space for Liv in a flat that Eddie had already managed to shrink around his own needs. No. No. No. She pulled out her phone and dialled Eddie’s number. No answer. She dialled again.

‘Everything all right?’ Her mum looked across at her.

‘Yes, I’m just…’ She shook her head. ‘I’m being stupid, that’s all.’ Her dad switched the volume down on the TV. ‘It’s Anya. I’m afraid that Eddie is going to empty her stuff out of Pete’s apartment and let her move into the flat.’

‘He wouldn’t do that, not without asking you first,’ her father said.

‘That’s the thing – we had a row about it today.’ Or as near to a row as it was possible to have with Eddie before he stomped off in a huff, Liv didn’t add. ‘And then, when I dropped off the shopping at Barbara’s she said that he’d gone to help Anya move her stuff.’