I hugged her, drew deep, watched the men talking to each other. The bigger one had a bench-pressed chest. I let go of Sarah feeling every bit the beta male, approached him, coaxed his shoulder gently towards me. ‘Hey, mate, hi. Yeah, so, this is my wife.’ I pointed back at her. ‘She’s staying here with you because she’s having a good time and thinks you’re nice.’ My hands up, palms out. ‘I mean, you look OK to me too, you look fine and stuff, but …’

He seemed to get the message. I bent in, put my ear to his mouth, smelt Sarah.

‘What?’

I leant in again. ‘I’m heading off now cos I’m feeling tired and wasted. You’ll look after Sarah, yeah?’

He nodded, pulled me to his wet mouth, pointed. ‘She’s very beautiful. Amazing ass.’

I turned to look – the music, boom – saw the smaller man wrapped up in Sarah, his tongue in her mouth, her tongue in his, his hand in her crotch, her hand rubbing his.

‘Yeah,’ I said, turning back. A strobe light, his dark eyes, the music, still building, then boom – the drop. ‘Anyway …’ I held my hand out to shake his, returned to Sarah, put my hand on her back – cooee – waited for her to disengage. ‘Got a second?’

‘Yeah, sure.’

The men retreated, conferred again. The one Sarah had been kissing had bad jeans and a boner.

‘Can I have your phone?’ I said.

‘I might need it for later.’

‘Just for a minute.’

She tottered to the wall, bent to get her bag – both men staring at her, one tapping the other’s arm, making a grabbing gesture – returned.

‘Can you pop in the code?’ I said.

‘What for?’

I smiled, waited, knew Sarah’s code, of course I did, but … His boner still bulging, the cheap denim barely restraining. His mate too, a semi sitting snug beneath his belt buckle. She typed in the code, handed me the phone.

Her screensaver, Oliver and Sophie smiling – Hi, kids, love you. I skipped through apps, mind scrambled, heart, music, opened Find My Friends. ‘I’m going to put this on, so I can see where you are with the GPS. Just in case.’

She frowned. ‘I’ll be fine, Chris. I put my trust in the universe. I had a dream this would happen.’

‘It’s probably better to be, you know …’

She kissed me with boner boy’s saliva. I turned, started walking, nearly all the way to the stairs, stopped, turned back, slunk past people, dodging, music, heart, boom, tapped Sarah on the shoulder again. ‘Sorry, just checking you have some condoms.’

* * *

Zac, Mel and Biddy were in the living room, chatting. I sat on the toilet – breathe, Chris. I’d left Sarah smashed out of her face with two gropey men. I’d even shaken one’s hand. Was that irrational? Transactional? On you go, son …