The only slightly difficult bit about hanging out with these four, Lou thought, was that they were all so happily coupled up. For someone still in the aftermath of a break-up, it was sometimes hard to face these displays of love. These displays of what Lou could have had if, perhaps, she’d fought harder for her relationship.

But she and Angie needed to have been fighting together to win that particular fight. All the while Lou was trying her best to bridge the gap that had formed between her and Angie, she never got the impression Angie was in the trenches with her, battling for their survival. Whereas now that Lou had been gone from Brisbane for six months, Angie seemed to be regretting her unwillingness to fight when it mattered most. But it was too late. Angie was part of her past now. Lou had to look to the future.

“Do you have a plan?” Martha asked Lou. “To conceive and all of that. I presume you won’t be going about it the all-natural way.”

“Hardly.” Lou shook her head. “Ideally, I would find a new partner first so that I won’t be a single mother, even though that doesn’t solve the seed problem, of course.” She chuckled. “Then I figured we’d go to a sperm bank. That’s about as much of a plan as I have at this point.” Although the need to have children was very concrete to Lou, she felt like she couldn’t fine-tune the details until she had first fully gotten over Angie and, perhaps, explored the possibility of a new relationship.

“That’s a long road to go down,” Martha said, “but it’ll be worth every step of the way. Having children is just… how to say this… what makes you simultaneously the strongest and the most vulnerable. Definitely life-changing. Nothing will ever be the same again. And it will be hard, but it will also be worth every single second.”

“I second that. My children are teenagers, so there are a lot of hard times in our house right now,” Micky said.

“Sounds to me like we need to find Lou a girlfriend,” Robin said. “Or do you have your sights set on anyone in particular already?”

“God no. I’ve basically just been licking my wounds after Angie.” She sank her teeth into her bottom lip. “I recently installed Tinder, but I haven’t had many reasons to swipe right. Besides, it’s such a superficial way to meet someone, solely based on looks, while looks are really not that important to me. Not to say that they are of no value at all, but other things are more important. Things you can’t see on your phone screen in a matter of seconds.”

“There must be a few single lesbians in your yoga classes,” Martha said. “Or has the boss forbidden you to woo your students?”