‘Gah!’ Penny said, holding it like a live bomb. ‘Um … um …’ She slid the button to answer. ‘Hi!’ she said, too enthusiastically.

‘I don’t know if I’m more offended that you’d refer to me as a psychopath, or that you don’t even use my proper name to do it.’

‘Ah. Yes. Well.’ She could hear his smile down the line.

‘I take it you don’t like talking on the phone, then,’ he said.

‘Not so much, no. Bit retro for me. I think Uncle David is the only person who actually calls me, you know.’

‘I just wanted to hear your voice.’

Penny grinned. ‘Well now I’ve accidentally sent you a voice note, you have done.’ He just wanted to hear her voice! Her heart leapt into her throat.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Pottering.’

‘Uh-huh,’ he said. She thought he was waiting for her to continue, but then she could faintly hear him say ‘good evening’ to somebody and then the hum of an engine, and she realized he was distracted by getting on the bus. She waited for him to say something else as he got settled, but he didn’t. He was waiting for her to speak. She took a breath. Penny had talked to Stuart only that afternoon about being unafraid to show Francesco who she really was. That meant being cute and flirtatious with him as well as letting him get a glimpse of some of the ‘realer’, less sexy stuff, too.

‘I get tired sometimes,’ she said, deciding now was the time to tell him, cards on the table and all that. ‘So I needed a quiet night.’

‘I see,’ he said.

‘I was pretty sick a couple of years back. It still gets me, sometimes.’

Finally Francesco said a full sentence. ‘You’ve alluded to that a couple of times actually. I didn’t want to pry, but I have to admit I’ve been curious. Was it serious?’

‘Stage two breast cancer at twenty-five. So now my body doesn’t like me to get carried away. I don’t think I’ve been getting as much rest as I need lately so, you know, I’m getting some down-time.’

‘Twenty-five,’ Francesco said, his shock evident. ‘That’s so young.’

‘Yeah. About as young as my mum was when she first got it, except hers came back and …’ Well. Francesco knew the rest.

‘I didn’t know you’d had it too,’ he marvelled. ‘That’s a really shitty hand to be dealt.’