‘Did Louise enjoy herself?’ Fiona said as she finished what she was doing and stood, hitching her bag on her shoulder.

Sara frowned, wondering for a moment who Louise was.

‘Have I got her name wrong?’ Fiona gave a little laugh. ‘I’m so bad at names. Anyway, did you have a good weekend?’

Sara moved towards the spare desk, where she had been sorting out some files for archiving, not wanting to catch Fiona’s eye. ‘Lovely, thanks. And my girls had a wonderful time with Chelsea. All that shopping, they think they’ve been to heaven.’ She flushed, embarrassed that she hadn’t rung Fiona the previous evening to thank her. ‘I should have been in touch. You must think I’m awful, it’s just…’

Fiona was standing next to her now. She put a hand on Sara’s shoulder and peered at her face, looking concerned. ‘You’re a little peaky. Is everything okay?’

Sara glanced at her friend and sank into her chair, all the strength seeping from her limbs, as if she was slowly dissolving. It took so much energy to keep up a pretence, and she wondered if she really needed to with Fiona.

‘No,’ she mumbled, with a weary sigh. ‘Everything isn’t okay.’

Fiona put her bag down and pulled up a chair. She rubbed Sara’s shoulder. ‘Come on, then. Tell me all about it,’ she said, gently. ‘Maybe I can help. And it always feels better to talk about problems, doesn’t it?’ She frowned then. ‘It’s not James, is it?’

Sara closed her eyes. I can’t tell her about that, can I? She cringed at the very idea. Fiona was a bit of a prude really and the thought of telling her about the hotel and the video was unthinkable – it would shock her to the core. Better to keep that to herself.

She glanced at Fiona. ‘Matt’s thrown me out.’

Fiona’s mouth dropped open. ‘Oh no! When? Last night?’

Sara nodded. ‘He’s got this idea I’m having an affair.’

‘With James?’ The distaste was evident in Fiona’s voice.

Sara shook her head, laced her fingers together. ‘No. He got this… He’s made all sorts of assumptions that are just plain wrong, and he wouldn’t let me tell him the truth.’ She blew out a long breath. ‘Honestly, Fiona, I’ve never seen him so worked up.’

‘Well, you’d probably get worked up if it was the other way round, wouldn’t you?’

Sara tensed. Fiona always did like to present both sides of an argument, which made it difficult to work out whose side she was on.