‘She made out that if other girls thought I was awful then I must be doing something wrong. She didn’t push for me to go back to drama camp and about halfway through that summer I came up with this plan to be the girl everyone said I should be. I know it sounds unreasonable but it had been such a horrible and lonely year when I was myself that I thought being somebody else wasn’t a bad little plot. Now I think about it, I realize I’d basically been pretending to be that person right up until the wedding.’

‘Annie, that’s horrible.’

‘Yeah. The thing is, I don’t think I ever did stop to think about it. Staying in a dead-end relationship, sticking with a job I’m not crazy about—’

‘I’ve been thinking about this,’ he interrupted. ‘You’re a theoretical physicist. You’re basically a genius …’

‘But it’s not my passion.’

‘My work isn’t my passion,’ he countered. ‘It’s just the way I make money to enjoy my life. I think making your job your personality is a very modern-day thing. I don’t understand it. I know I said to leave if you don’t enjoy it, but what I missed out is that it’s okay not to love what you do.’

‘That’s fair,’ I said. ‘But I’ve been thinking about it too, and I need it. I can’t spend thirty-five or forty or sometimes even fifty hours a week doing something I’m not really into. That’s a third of my life, and the other third is spent sleeping.’

‘Better make that last third count, then,’ he said, cheekily.

Friendly or flirty? Friendly … or flirty?

I dropped my eyes to the lower half of his face, to his lips.

‘I can see so clearly that you’re ready to move on with your life. But then just when I think it’s clear you trash-talk yourself, or talk about Alexander and I think, oh no. She’s not ready. She doesn’t want to move on.’

‘I am ready,’ I said, quietly. ‘I just need to find my courage.’

His voice was quiet, too – almost inaudible. ‘And have you found it …’

It wasn’t a question, what he said. With his voice low and his chin inches from mine and the weight between us, it was almost definitely an invitation.

I swallowed.

Something is happening, I thought, clearly. Something is definitely happening.

I could almost hear the cogs of his brain whirring. He inhaled decisively, and right before he could execute the inevitable, our tour guide’s canoe hit up against the shore and she said: ‘Righto, guys, if I can invite you to hop back into the boats. If we leave it any later it’ll be dark, and the mozzies that come out then are so big you’ll have to play little spoon.’