They ate their salads.

‘Now, chérie,’ said Adele, dropping her folded napkin on to her empty plate, ‘please say that you are coming to my little party.’

Adele’s pre-Christmas soirée was one of the fixtures of Victoria’s social calendar. ‘I’m not sure if I’m welcome.’ Victoria dabbed her lips. ‘Me being so coarse and all.’

‘Don’t be silly.’

‘You might think I’m going to steal the silver. Grab, grab, grab, that’s me, isn’t it?’

‘I am sure you will behave chez moi, won’t you? And there are some nice people coming this year.’

‘That usually means that you’ve lined up some man that you think I ought to transfer my affections to.’

Adele waggled a hand. ‘It pays to have options.’

‘I’m not like that, Adele,’ said Victoria. ‘I’m a one-man woman.’ She had a sudden flash memory of herself, on all fours in the middle of her king-size bed, a cock at each end.

‘You put all your eggs in one basket.’

‘If you’re going to start talking in proverbs again, I shall ask for the bill.’

‘As you wish.’ Adele attracted the waiter’s attention, flicked a credit card from her purse. ‘No, darling, this is on me. The way you’re carrying on, you will soon be glad of a free meal.’

They kissed, without meaning it.

‘See you at the party,’ said Adele, heading for the stairs. ‘Or not, as the case may be.’

Christine was not missing Joel at all, neither at the gym, nor in bed, not even inside her. He’d gone back to Australia, cursing the English winter, teasing her with the fact that it was summer down under, that he would return with a tanline, which he’d be glad to show her the minute she picked him up at Heathrow in January.

Which she had no intention of doing.

Joel had become a drain on her energies. After those first few months in which she’d felt reborn, reactivated, like a new woman and every other cliché, she tired rapidly of his endless egotism, his casual assumption that she would pay for everything and be grateful for what she got in return. He was behaving like a gigolo. A very handsome, sexy gigolo, who still made her feel fantastic when she could shut off her mind, stop listening to his endless shifting plans for the future and concentrate on the sensation of being with him – but that was getting harder and harder. When he left, she was glad.