‘You sound very sure of yourself.’ Liv looked at her sister’s reflection in the dressing table behind her.

‘I’m certain of it; the tickets are all sold out. When I picked up your pair, I was lucky to get them.’

‘My tickets?’ Liv had completely forgotten and then she smiled; it was a blessing in a way that only an Irish blessing could arrive. ‘Sorry, no can do. I’m going back to Dublin. Francine could do with the extra pair of hands and really, I want to get back to sort things out.’

‘You can’t miss out, Liv, you just can’t.’

‘’Fraid so. Anyway, I wouldn’t have gone, Maya, I’m just not ready to face the whole village yet. You know how people talk. I don’t think I could take the pity, apart from anything else.’

‘Okay, okay, I can’t make you and you’re probably right – it’s enough to get over it on your own time. You have nothing to prove here,’ Maya said with a shrug. She’d never felt the need to explain herself to anyone. ‘But, you know, there’s someone you need to put things right with too.’ She got up and pulled the quilt and pillows off the bed, refitted the under sheet and stretched it out as if it was ironed on, before plumping the pillows and throwing the quilt back on the bed again. ‘There,’ she said with satisfaction.

‘Thanks, sis.’ Liv threw her arms around her sister. She couldn’t begin to say how lovely it was to have someone do something small just for her, because they loved her. She really had been deprived of even the tiniest acts of thoughtfulness living with Eddie these last few years.

‘Don’t thank me yet…’

‘Okay, what is it you want me to do?’

‘You’re going to have to ring Pete and say something about overreacting when he was only looking out for you.’

‘Oh, Pete will be all right. He knows what I’m like.’

‘Will he? He hasn’t texted you since yesterday. Come on, Liv, you know that’s not like him.’

‘Yes, well, he’ll come round.’ Although, in hindsight, Liv knew it was a terrible slap in the face that she had chosen to believe the better of someone like Eddie who’d treated her badly at every turn over Pete – who had never been anything but a solid friend to her. And if she was honest, she missed hearing from him. ‘Oh God, what have I done?’

‘Nothing that can’t be undone, I’m sure.’ Maya handed her the phone. ‘Go on, eat that frog.’

‘Ugh, what a horrible thought,’ Liv said, swiping her phone to her call list. He was the last person to ring her, but she knew she needed a moment before she hit dial. ‘What will I say?’