Leo had texted me: Sorry about tonight – wish I was fucking your brains out as usual rather than being stuck here in my office!

God, he wasn’t the only one. Even his texts turned me on. You’ll just have to fuck me twice as hard next time, I replied.

Just then, Elodie leaned over the side of the bath and with a delighted giggle, tipped a huge bucket full of water over my phone. ‘Shit!’ I yelled in panic, causing her to sit back down suddenly and look at me in shock. ‘Fuck, fuck, fuck!’ I shouted, before I heard Ben’s footsteps pounding on the stairs.

‘What’s happened?’ he gasped, running into the bathroom with a stricken expression, which immediately relaxed with relief when he saw Elodie sitting up safely in the bath.

‘She tipped water over my bloody phone!’ I snapped, wiping it furiously with a towel.

Ben sighed and took the phone out of my hand. ‘Christ, is that all? I thought she’d been electrocuted or something. It’ll be fine, I’ll sort it.’

I exhaled with relief. One thing Ben was good at was technology. He could usually fix most things. That was another reason for not leaving him.

‘It’s OK,’ I told Elodie, who was watching me with a worried frown. ‘Sorry Mummy shouted – but you mustn’t throw water. It’s naughty and you might have broken my phone.’

Elodie gave me a tentative smile. ‘Sorry, Mummy.’

I nodded and lifted her up and into her bathrobe. ‘Right, let’s get you dry and into beddy-bies, shall we?’

By the time I got downstairs, Ben was putting dinner on the table. It did look good and I was suddenly ravenous, not having eaten all day. I sat down and picked up my fork, before remembering my phone. ‘Oh! Did you manage to fix my phone?’ I looked up at him expectantly.

Ben was staring at me in an odd way, as if he was making up his mind about something. ‘I did actually …’

I speared a forkful of chicken and nodded as I ate it. ‘Great. Thanks.’

Still Ben kept watching me. He didn’t touch his food.

‘Aren’t you going to eat?’ I motioned to his plate. It was delicious, I had to admit. Ben was a pretty good cook. Certainly a lot better than me. I could never be bothered with anything more than an omelette or a piece of toast.

Ben took a deep breath. ‘I sorted your phone …’

‘I know you sorted my phone … you told me already. Why are you being so weird, Ben?’

Ben turned and picked up my phone from the worktop, then he tapped something in and looked at it for second before handing it over to me.

Shit. The messages from Leo. They would still have been on the screen. I put down my fork and took the phone as slowly as possible, trying to buy some time.

‘I read them,’ Ben said quietly.

I rolled my eyes and shrugged. ‘So? They were just banter.’