Gabi looked crestfallen. ‘But… But it looked as if you were getting on really well.’

‘We were.’

‘You were talking for ages.’

Anna nodded again. She felt a stab of guilt in her stomach. She really hadn’t been fair to Jeremy, chatting to him for so long. And then the knife of guilt, only a flesh wound at that point, plunged itself deeper, twisted and turned. She hadn’t been fair to Spencer, either. ‘What were you thinking, Gabi?’

Gabi feigned ignorance for only a split-second before she crumbled. She looked beseechingly at Anna and shook her head. ‘I don’t know… I was just thinking that he’s a nice guy and that… And that…’

Anna’s jaw tightened. ‘If you say I need to move on, I’m going to dump this glass of champagne right over your head.’

Gabi’s expression grew earnest. ‘But you do need—’

That was it. Anna had had enough. She didn’t make good on her threat, but she did fling the glass over the railing of the deck and onto the lawn, where it rolled down the slope and landed under a bush. Vanessa would kill her if she ever found out.

‘I don’t need to move on!’ she yelled. ‘It’s only been two years!’

Gabi opened her mouth, and Anna knew she was going to – quite correctly – point out that it had been closer to three, but she took in Anna’s warning expression and shut it again.

‘What am I supposed to do? Just snap my fingers and say, “Oh, well! The love of my life, the man I adored with every fibre of my being, is gone, so I’d better just pick a replacement?” As if he was last year’s fashion trend?’

‘Okay, no… I…’

Anna could see the hurt in her friend’s eyes, but it didn’t slow her down one bit. Too bad, Gabi. You’re the one who pushed and pushed, the one who prodded this tiger out of its numb sleep, and now you’re going to hear it roar!

‘When you’ve had a relationship that’s lasted more than eighteen months, maybe then you can start telling me how to live my life!’

Gabi flinched. Anna knew she’d hit below the belt, that she was going to feel horrible about this when she calmed down, but she had to make Gabi stop. She had to make her see.

There had to be an end to the Italian lessons, to the jewellery making and the salsa dancing. To the Jeremys. Because Anna knew there would be more of them paraded out for her to meet if she didn’t stand up for herself now. She had to make Gabi understand that she wasn’t going to magically get over Spencer if she learned to conjugate the verb essere or perform a perfect ‘side basic’. She wasn’t going to get over him ever.

‘So don’t tell me to move on. Because you don’t get it. You don’t understand! Not until you’ve lived through it!’

And, before Gabi could offer any words in her defence, Anna turned and strode across the deck, heading for the gate at the side of the house. Thankfully, it wasn’t locked. She couldn’t have faced pushing her way back through all those people inside.