Zara sighed and placed the last notepad from her desk into the box where she’d packed all of her things. ‘I know. I can’t believe Will’s gone. Can’t believe I’m leaving the city and I’m happy to do it!’

Michael came in through the door, his face hidden by a large bunch of flowers. ‘I don’t usually give flowers to deserters,’ he said. ‘But somehow, you’re different!’

A delighted smile spread over Zara’s face as Lachy and Claudia came in behind him. ‘What’s this?’ she asked.

‘Just a little something. We’re all going to miss you, Zara,’ Lachy said, pulling her into another hug. ‘We know you’re not going for good, and you’ll still be working with us, but it’s certainly going to be strange not to have you in the office every day.’ He released her and handed her a small parcel wrapped in silver paper.

‘Flowers and a present? Guys, you’ve gone overboard!’ She unwrapped it to find a slim silver and gold pen with her name engraved on it, along with all of her work colleagues’.

‘So you don’t forget us,’ Claudia said.

‘As if I could!’ Zara hugged each one of them, then stood back. ‘Well, I guess I’d better go, if I’m going to get there by dark.’

‘Don’t forget you’ve got a deadline still. Wednesday by 11 am. If your story’s not here by then, I won’t run it,’ Lachy said in a mock-stern tone.

‘I know! It’ll be in your inbox before then.’ She gave each of them another hug, then drew a deep breath. ‘Guess this is it.’

Zara looked around one last time, picked up her box and walked out to the waiting car.

EPILOGUE

Epilogue

Kim pulled a pan of roast beef from the oven and pierced a fork into the potatoes to see if they were cooked.

‘That smells amazing,’ Jack said as he sat down at the kitchen table with a beer.

‘Feed the man meat,’ Kim said with a chuckle.

‘I gotta say, that vegan food I had undercover was really nice. I expected it to be horrible! And it was filling too. Not at all what I expected.’

‘You gonna turn vegetarian?’ Dave asked as he cut up the broccoli and put it in a container to go in the microwave.

‘Not a chance; I’m just saying it was decent food.’

There was a knock at the door.

‘You expecting someone?’ Dave asked Kim with a frown.

‘Can you answer the door, please, Jack?’ Kim said, ignoring Dave.

Dave fixed his wife with a look. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked sternly after Jack had left the room.

‘Zara, of course!’ she whispered. ‘Lynda and I have been talking.’

Dave rolled his eyes. His wife, the queen of matchmaking. He listened to Jack’s surprised voice as he opened the front door.