It was also odd, given the day she’d had, but there you go. Life was funny like that sometimes.

Her phone was sitting on the table in front of her. She woke it up and glanced at the time. Would he still be up? Should she even try? Her thumb hovered above the phone for a few seconds. She was going to press it anyway, so she didn’t know what she was waiting for. He was always there when she needed him.

When the call connected, she didn’t bother with pleasantries. ‘You know you said “don’t react” when it came to my mother-in-law?’

Brody answered her question with a wary, ‘Yes?’

‘I had an epic fail.’

‘Oh.’

Yes, oh.

Along with Oh, my God! What did you do? and What were you thinking? These were the questions she’d asked herself a hundred times over since she’d left The Cinnamon Café earlier that day. But Brody remained silent, giving her time and space, as always, letting her reveal things at her own pace.

She started at the beginning, filling him in on the whole awkward afternoon, how she’d been doing so well, keeping her cool and saying nothing, and then she got to the subject of Spencer’s portrait. ‘And as I was staring at the photo, it suddenly struck me – like a baseball bat to the side of the head – what she’d done. She’d erased me, Brody! She’d wished me away.’

For months now, she had been trying to pin a label to that feeling she always got when she was with Gayle, that niggly little sensation that had always bothered her, the feeling that Gayle wanted to keep her close yet push her away at the same time, and suddenly all the pieces fell into the right place and she knew what she was dealing with.

‘She’s jealous. She resents me because Spencer can’t be all hers. Because he was mine too, and she just can’t stand it.’

‘So, you reacted.’

Anna hid her face in her hands, feeling heat flush through her body just at the memory. ‘Yes,’ she said, and the word was muffled through her fingers. ‘I definitely reacted.’

Again, Brody didn’t push. He just waited until she was ready to say more. She let her hands drop and carried on talking. ‘She lit my fuse and I went off. I spilled coffee all over myself and over her glossy eight by ten “tidied up” photo – she’ll never forgive me for that alone! – and then I stood up and told her that what she’d done wasn’t okay, that it really wasn’t okay.’ Anna chewed on the side of her bottom lip for a moment. ‘Okay, maybe “told” is downplaying it a little. I think I might have shouted it.’

‘Really? In the middle of a restaurant?’

‘Don’t you dare laugh at me! This isn’t funny!’

‘No,’ he replied, but she could still hear it in his voice. He was only just holding back a chuckle, she suspected.