‘No you won’t.’ Maya pulled her down in the jeep, holding her head on the bench seat and folding her own body down on top of her. ‘You bloody won’t, not here. You’re not giving them the satisfaction of seeing you upset, especially not outside Flannelly’s pub – you’d have Nick Flannelly out taking photographs before you knew it,’ she whispered vehemently. Outside, somewhere beyond the jeep, above their two folded bodies, Liv could hear Eddie and Maya pass by. They were talking, oblivious to everything else around them. She imagined Anya laughing at some joke that Liv never would have found funny.

‘Oh, God,’ Liv said when Maya finally released her. ‘What am I going to do now?’

‘You’re going to sit there, while I drive us back home and then, we’ll have two very strong drinks before we set about putting the world to rights. Tomorrow, when you have a banging hangover, you can think about confronting him, okay?’ Maya put her arms around Liv and pulled her close, hugging her so tightly it felt as if she’d never let her go. ‘They are welcome to each other, Liv. I know you don’t see that now, but really, you could do so much better than that awful Eddie Quirke.’

*

She was distracted; that was all. It had been a long shift. She tried the door key once more. No, it hadn’t finally broken, had it? Damn it, not now, this door lock had been dodgy for as long as she could remember. Why oh why did it have to go now, when all she wanted to do was curl up on the couch for half an hour?

She looked at the lock more closely. It was much shinier than usual, and she realised, someone had changed it. She was locked out of her own flat. What on earth was she going to do now? Surely Eddie hadn’t come back here and changed the locks while she was at work – he wouldn’t do something like that, would he? He needed somewhere to live and he certainly couldn’t move in with Anya or Pete. Eddie hadn’t paid rent in Dublin in years; it was going to come as a huge shock to him. Prices had gone through the roof over the last couple of years and that was if he was lucky enough to find a place available that wasn’t fit to be condemned. Would he even have enough money for a deposit? Although, then Liv thought about Barbara Quirke. No doubt, his mother would give him the cash for starting out. She’d probably complain and whine about it, but ultimately, it’d be another chance to fawn over him before he returned to work in the New Year.