Elvis watched her smile at the camera and laughed out loud. That Linette was some bad dude.

Kate came home from work and made herself a coffee. In the month that Lizzy and her mother had been away, her routine had not changed at all. The empty house seemed to mock her and she put the radio on as she did every night to fill up the hollowness with sound. What she would not give to have Lizzy’s music blaring out now!

The phone rang and she picked it up. It was Amanda Dawkins.

‘Hello, love.’

‘I wondered if it was all right if me and Phil popped round tonight, Kate? We’ve got a great video and a bottle of wine.’

She smiled into the phone.

Amanda did this every so often, came around with her boyfriend as if she knew that Kate was lonely and needed a bit of company.

‘That would be lovely, Amanda, as long as you’re sure you haven’t got anything better to do?’

‘We’ll see you about half past eight.’

‘What’s the video?’

‘Beaches with Bette Midler.’

‘I bet Phil didn’t pick that one!’

‘You guessed exactly right! If he’d have chosen it, we would have watched Nightmare on Elm Street or Hallowe’en!’

‘See you later then.’

She had a sandwich and went upstairs for a bath.

Patrick Kelly glanced at the girl beside him. Leona had the biggest blue eyes he had ever seen in his life, and the biggest breasts. She faced him and smiled, displaying white teeth. ‘Would you like another glass of wine?’

‘Please.’

She had a little lisp that had sounded enchanting when he first met her. Now it was beginning to get on his nerves.

Leona was one of a series of women he had been dating since his break up with Kate. Patrick was hoping against hope that one of the bevy of lovelies would take his mind off her once and for all. He had hoped Leona would be the one to pull him out of himself.

He poured her a glass of white wine. It was cheap Liebfraumilch. There was no way he was going to give her expensive wine. She drank it down in two gulps. He watched her do it, leaving a thick red line on the rim of the glass.

‘How old are you, Leona?’

‘Twenty-one, why?’

‘I just wondered, that’s all.’

Kelly sipped his own wine and racked his brains for something to talk about.

Leona watched his troubled face. This was their third date and he hadn’t tried it on once. This was a novelty to Leona and she wasn’t sure if she was glad or not. He was a damn’ sight better looking than most of the men she dated.