I sat between Molly and Cora on the sofa. ‘I don’t know. Shock? I’m confused about … everything. He doesn’t want to break up. Like, he must have said that ten times over. But he also thinks it would be good for us, to have this space and this time and … I don’t know.’

‘So, you’re both free to sleep with other people?’ Cora asked, and I nodded. ‘With no comeback, at all, at a later date?’

‘Providing there aren’t pregnancies or STDs involved, I assume?’ Betty chimed in.

‘Pregnancy is an STD to some of us.’ Cora shuddered and Molly backhanded her thigh for the comment. ‘Whatever, yeah, what Betty said.’

‘We didn’t talk about that stuff explicitly. I don’t think he has a hit list or anything like that,’ I replied, and Betty snorted from her perch. We all pretended not to hear. ‘I think he just wants us to be able to explore ourselves and other people, but also not lose sight of what’s important. Which is each other, and the wedding, and everything that comes after the wedding.’

‘So, it isn’t a permanent thing?’ Faith asked.

I shook my head. ‘Three months.’

‘Three months?’ Cora’s eyes widened. She made an effort to sound less surprised on her second repetition. ‘Three months. Okay, well, that’s not … I mean, three months isn’t that long, really. How much can possibly happen in three months?’ Betty cleared her throat as though she might answer, and Cora held up a finger to pause her. ‘It was rhetorical.’

Betty sparked up another cigarette. ‘Edi, aren’t you livid?’

No, I thought. Only a bit sad. I shrugged. ‘I’m just … confused.’ And I was. Rowan had been so remorseful after Skye – not that I could say as much to the girls – that it had never crossed my mind something like this would cross his. I thought we were fine – better than fine!

Molly put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me to her for a hug. ‘Chinese?’

I laughed. ‘Please.’ I hadn’t eaten properly since the conversation with Rowan. It wasn’t a strike, only the consequence of my brain being so full of other thoughts. I’d been pacing back and forth on what to do, how to handle things, and the minutes had slipped into hours that meant self-care had become an afterthought. I’d only remembered food when I was lying in bed already, or when I was halfway to work and out of my way from getting breakfast anywhere. As Molly pulled up the menu on her iPhone, I realised just how hungry I was.