My head snapped round, and I caught sight of the waitress. She was my age, I thought, maybe a little older. Her hair was a deep brown, tied up in a stylishly messy bun that was balanced in a gravity-defying way on her head. She had a cup and saucer in one hand and a plate in the other.

‘I’m so sorry.’ I pulled my notebook back to make space. ‘Researching something.’

She laughed as she set down the items. ‘So I see. Will that be everything?’

‘Yes, thank you, that looks great.’ I tried to avoid eye contact but the only other place to look was down at the list, and I wasn’t keen on seeing that either. ‘Thanks again.’

‘You’re welcome.’ She dropped a slip of paper onto the table. ‘That’s your ticket, so just take that up when you’re ready to pay.’ She made to walk off but then turned back to me. ‘At a museum.’

‘I’m sorry?’ I looked up in time to catch her nod to the paper in front of me.

‘Places to meet people. At a museum.’

Chapter 13

‘I mean, that’s definitely flirting, right? Did she flirt?’

Everyone’s eyes shifted to Faith, who was too busy scrolling through the dating app, Plenty of Fish, to notice. She looked up when the silence stretched out longer than it took for her to type a message. ‘What?’

‘You’re the resident homosexual,’ Lily said, looking at Faith between applying dabs of foundation. ‘This is when you translate.’

‘Fucking hell, we don’t have a code.’

‘But was that flirting?’ I pushed.

‘Yes.’ She went back to typing. ‘I’d certainly take it as flirting.’

‘That’s the first time someone has flirted with me in years.’

‘Edi—’ Betty cosied up to me ‘—that’s bollocks.’

‘What Betty means to say is that it isn’t the first time someone’s flirted with you,’ Cora said, taking a softer approach. She and Molly had become the bumper friends since I’d decided on this break; the ones at the sides of the aisles, keeping me on some kind of track. ‘It’s only the first time you’ve noticed someone flirting with you. Different things.’

Faith reached over to squeeze my knee. ‘I actually flirt with you all the time, you just don’t spot it. Now put some make-up on – you’re coming out.’