He wants to keep that as something only we do, one poster wrote. A small price – I can live with that!

Rules or no rules, I didn’t believe it was my place to insert myself into Sarah’s intimacy with another person, as long as she used protection and told me all about it afterwards. Why should someone miss out on a fingerbang – or even a buggering – because of an absent partner’s veto? Was I doing polyamory wrong?

I sank the foot on the freeway slipway. The traffic heading east was banked up, a scree of headlights, while we had a clear run back to the city. I’d timed things well, received no praise.

‘You excited about tonight?’ I said.

‘Yeah, for sure.’

Josh and Mel’s housewarming. It was no big deal, other than the fact Josh had been depressed as fuck. We were still neighbours. They’d moved less than a kilometre from their old place in Brunswick, but it was a nicer space, a lighter space, better for him.

‘It’s good he’s doing well,’ Sarah said. ‘That must make you happy.’

My eyes started filling again, I blinked, blinked, blank …

We needed a more reliable babysitter, someone in the city.

‘What about Zac?’ she said. ‘He seems to genuinely want to help out.’

He’d watched the kids for an hour on Monday to let Sarah go shopping. She’d told me they were happy when she returned. Her too – she’d enjoyed Zac being there, hanging out. He said it was the most fun he’d had in years.

And they’d gone to the ballet together, him and Sarah, of course they had.

When I’d got home from work, I’d asked the kids how it was, being looked after by a mysterious man-boy they barely knew, studied their body language, gleaned nothing untoward.

My phone pinged in the console.

‘That’s probably him now,’ I said. ‘Can you have a look?’

She held the phone. ‘Oh no, hun. It’s Josh. Sorry. Party cancelled. Mel has the flu.’

‘Fucking hell.’

I accelerated through the lights on Alexandra Parade, nearly T-boned a passing Merc, relax, fuck …

‘Bummer,’ Sarah said.

Josh was sick. My friend was sick. Maybe Mel had the flu. Maybe. But the real problem was the ongoing issue of Josh not feeling good. And a party would have made him feel better, even fleetingly. But he wasn’t feeling good enough to feel better, even fleetingly. It was –

‘It’d still be nice to see Zac.’