His eyes became surprised circles. “What’s brought this on?”

She hadn’t eaten anything since a brownie at lunchtime and her blood sugar was flatlining. She was aware of how childish she sounded, but couldn’t stop herself. “You have. All you think about is football, work and your sister. You make more effort arranging raisins in your muesli than you do with me.”

“Raisins?” Jake said.

“You don’t even know that Essie is dea—” Liv clamped her teeth together, horrified she’d almost let this slip out.

“Essie is what?”

Liv’s pulse jumped. She fought against revealing the truth. “Um, that Essie is dedicated to helping me realize my talents more.”

Jake switched off the TV and set the remote control down on the coffee table. He leaned back and regarded her. “I didn’t know I did that with the raisins.”

“You set them out in a circle before eating them, and it’s weird.” Why was she even bringing this up? It was the least of her worries. “And you never send me roses,” she added.

“Well, you ate chocolate cake in the bath and dropped crumbs. I thought there were insects on the plastic,” he said, then paused. “I have been keeping stuff about Paperpress from you. It’s because I didn’t want to worry you.”

Liv heard the weariness in his voice, and she felt it, too. Her body was as heavy as an anvil. She flopped her head back and stared at a mark on the ceiling, wondering what would work best to clean it off. She wriggled a shoulder to release the tension knotted there, and Jake reached out and gave it a rub.

“Can we watch the rest of the film, please?” he said. “I shouldn’t have answered the phone. All I want to do is sit next to you.”

She gave him nonchalant shrug.

“There’s a pizza in the fridge,” he said. “I’ll put the oven on.”

When Jake returned, he stretched out his arm and Liv hesitated before nudging under it again. It felt both heavy and secure at the same time.

“Margherita in fifteen minutes,” he said, dipping his head to catch her eye. “Sorry again about Katrina, and the raisins.”

They resumed watching the film and Liv hugged a cushion to her chest. Although they’d argued and made up, her body still felt as stiff as corrugated cardboard. At this moment in time, when she glanced at the gray bristles on his chin and ones that had sprung up in his ears, she didn’t know if she wanted to wake up with him for the rest of her life.

Words circled around in her head a few times before she released them out loud. “I think I’m going to go to Croatia with Essie,” she said. “She needs me.”

Jake didn’t answer. He stared ahead without blinking.