Grant nodded and smiled. He was certain that wasn’t their first drink of the day.

‘Did you boys have fun?’ Mary asked.

‘Not as much as fun as you two have had, by the look of it,’ Grant said.

‘Oh, stop being such an old stiff,’ Mary said, taking a glug of her cocktail. ‘Come and have a drink.’

‘Why not?’ he said. He took a seat next to Julie and felt her eyes on him.

‘Mary tells me you’re a professor,’ she said.

Grant looked up at Mary who smiled before setting about making his drink.

‘I am,’ he said.

‘You must be damn clever then,’ Julie said.

‘That’s one way to describe it. And what do you do, Julie?’

‘Oh, you know, this and that.’

Grant really didn’t know, but he didn’t say. And he wasn’t that interested, even though it did intrigue him that, like her husband, she’d given such a vague answer about her profession, if she had one at all.

‘Seems like you two have had a good day,’ Grant said.

‘We have,’ Mary said, reaching over and passing him the cocktail.

Grant took a sip of the drink, which was pretty much pure gin with a smidgen of overly sweet mixer. His eyes watered. On top of the beer he’d already drunk, this was certainly going to make for an interesting evening.

‘Julie came over this morning,’ Mary explained. ‘She was bored at home on her own. She suggested we get some girly pampering.’

‘You men were treating yourselves so why shouldn’t we?’

That explained the make-up and hair, and the glittering and polished nails that Grant saw both of them had. Quite when the day of pampering had turned into a binge-drinking fest, Grant wasn’t sure, but both women were happily slurring their words, and he was pleased that Mary was relaxed and less tense than she had been recently. He’d long got used to her wild mood swings, from way up high to rock bottom, a long-standing problem of hers but one which was exacerbated by Ethan’s recent behaviour. Unfortunately, that meant that recently there had been far more lows than highs.

‘Sounds like that was a good idea,’ Grant said. ‘You both look great by the way. Bottoms up.’

He held his drink out and the three of them chinked glasses. Julie knocked back the rest of her glass then checked her jewel-encrusted designer watch. Whether the jewels were real or cheap knock-offs Grant didn’t know, but it was ostentatious bling regardless. Like husband, like wife.

‘Look at the time, Mary. I’d better get back to babs. He’ll be wanting a foot massage after all that walking about chasing balls.’

‘Yeah, Mary,’ Grant said. ‘How about that?’

‘Ha, think again,’ Mary said. ‘Haven’t you got any work to do today at all?’

‘No rest for the wicked.’