‘Never Go Back by Lee Child.’ Book club had opened me up to a load of new stuff. And I was not reading as much romance since the whole beef with Farah who was still not speaking to me.

‘Figures,’ said Maggie. ‘Just aim for my torso, then. Come on.’

There was no reasoning with her sometimes. Secretly I did want to have a go in a proper fight but not with Maggie. I slowly did a pretend jab at her middle and I’m not sure what happened next but in a heartbeat I faceplanted the grass. ‘Oof.’

‘You all right?’ she asked offering a hand to help me up.

‘Er. Yeah. Fine.’ I got up and brushed myself down.

‘Again?’

‘Okay.’ This time I decided I’d go in a bit harder. She could clearly handle herself. I took a swing at her and my arm was up my back and I was eating grass faster than I could say sheep breath. She was super quick.

‘How the he… heck did you do that?’

‘Right. Watch, listen and learn. Do it again in slow motion and I’ll walk you through your options.’

I did as I was told but with added comedy slow motion speaking. ‘Dooon’t huuuuuurt meeeee, Maaaaaggieeeee.’

She ignored me. ‘Grab the wrist firmly, here…’ She took hold of my wrist with a surprisingly firm grip. ‘Twist your body around and force their wrist up and their shoulder down.’ I’m eating grass again but in slow motion.

‘Ow. Okay. Got it.’ I’m not sure I have.

‘Try it on me.’

‘No way. I don’t want to hurt you.’

She gave a smile that said she doubted I could. ‘Then let’s do a slow motion version. I come to punch you and you…’

I grasped her wrist and turned my body like she’d shown me and Maggie whipped her hand away and was gone. ‘What the?’

‘You gave me too much space and not a tight enough hold on the wrist. Try again.’

She was a hard taskmaster but before long I had her eating grass. Even if it had taken three attempts and lots of coaching.

‘Hey! You!’ came a shout from the driveway. Savage was jogging towards us. He looked like he was in slow motion. ‘Stop!’ he yelled, waving a fist.

‘It’s all right,’ said Maggie, getting to her feet. I released her and held my hands up in surrender. ‘I’m training him. It’s fine.’

Savage finally reached us, wheezing heavily. ‘I thought…’ he paused for breath and waved for emphasis ‘…you were…’ he put his hands on his knees while he took deep breaths ‘…being attacked.’

It was a good job she wasn’t because this guy would have been useless. ‘She’s teaching me martial arts,’ I said.