She rubbed her forehead. The whole subject was starting to give her a headache.

Anna’s phone buzzed at that moment, and since Gabi had caught sight of herself in one of the mirrors again and was momentarily distracted by her own loveliness, Anna pulled it out of her pocket. She smiled and tapped on the photograph that had arrived in her messages inbox to enlarge it. It was a picture of Lewis, dripping wet and caked in what looked like peaty, black mud.

Every time she got a message from Brody now, it lifted her. What if she could find a way to help other people find their own ‘Brody’? She’d been chewing the idea over in her head for the last couple of weeks, ever since she’d had that conversation with her mother, but she hadn’t contacted Spencer’s former partners, Rhys and Vijay, yet, wanting to have something more concrete than a one-line idea. How would you get people to sign up? How could you protect their privacy and identities? What happened if someone tried to use the app to take advantage of people when they were at their most vulnerable? These were all things she needed to think about, and that wasn’t even including whether the technology would fall into place.

‘Come on,’ Gabi said, interrupting Anna’s thoughts by grabbing her hand and pulling her to her feet. ‘Stop mooning over texts from Jeremy and help me out of this thing. You’re right – I’m getting ahead of myself. I should probably be looking for something sexy to wear to dinner. I blame my mother. Now I’ve turned thirty, she’s lamenting my status as solterona – a spinster, I suppose, is the closest translation. All of my sisters are married, so I’m the only one left to focus on.’ She gave Anna a meaningful look. ‘Let’s just say sometimes I’m glad she’s five thousand miles away… Shall we try the boutique across the street next? I saw a blue dress in the window that would look fabulous on you!’

Anna unlaced the bodice of Gabi’s dress, then watched her head back to the dressing room. As she waited for Gabi to reappear in her normal clothes, she wondered why she hadn’t corrected her about the sender of the text. She still hadn’t told Gabi about Brody. She’d been meaning to, but she’d gradually come to the realization that she didn’t want to. It kept that connection private. Intimate.

When they entered the shop across the road, Gabi headed straight to a rail, picked up a cocktail dress, and handed it to Anna, saying, ‘This is the one!’ before picking out a shorter dress in canary yellow for herself.

Before she could argue, Gabi tugged her arm and led her in the direction of the fitting rooms. When they both emerged from their respective cubicles, she smiled at Gabi. ‘That looks amazing on you!’

‘And so does yours! Look…’ Gabi turned Anna around to gaze in the full-length mirror.