He’s right. Every season of The One has had her working twelve-hour days, but she still wants to see him each night before crashing into bed. ‘Drew,’ she begins, searching for the right words.

‘I know it’ll be hard,’ he says, stepping in close, ‘but we’ll make it work.’ He kisses her on the forehead, signalling the conversation is over.

Darcy takes another gulp of her champagne. It’s the only thing stopping her from starting a fight with Drew. She keeps going over the discussion they had. They’re a couple. They’re supposed to discuss things and figure them out together. The more she thinks about it, the angrier she becomes. How could he just dump this on her in her parents’ bathroom? He knew she wouldn’t make a scene. If they’d been at their place in Sydney she would have yelled and stormed off and probably even slammed the door.

She sees her mum approaching, laying the last of the salads on the table, now just waiting on her dad to finish barbecuing the meat. By the look on her mum’s face she knows Drew’s shared his news.

Darcy braces herself as her mum sits down beside her. ‘I just heard about Drew’s new job.’ Her mum’s voice is steady, fishing for Darcy’s reaction.

Darcy meets her eye, and in that moment, her mum knows exactly how she’s feeling.

‘Oh, darling, I’m sorry.’ She places her hand on Darcy’s, giving it a light squeeze. Darcy can smell her mum’s lavender hand cream. ‘It mightn’t be as bad as you think.’

Darcy notices her own fingers gripping tightly onto the bottom of the champagne glass and forces herself to loosen them. She wants to tell her mum that things haven’t been great with Drew recently, that the last thing they need is more time apart, but she’s not about to get into that kind of conversation with the rest of her family only metres away.

‘Drew seems really excited about it.’ Her mum looks at her with hopeful eyes, reminding Darcy that Drew’s happiness is important. Maybe she should be more understanding.

‘Yeah, he does,’ Darcy murmurs as she watches him talking animatedly to her brother and his wife. She hasn’t seen him smile like that in months. She should be relieved but seeing him happy only highlights how unhappy he’s been … living with her in Sydney.

It terrifies her to the pit of her stomach.

Bonnie is leaning over her desk with invoices sprawled out in front of her when the door to her studio pushes open. She looks up and her heart skips a beat at seeing him, but it’s quickly followed by an ache, knowing that her longing to be with him won’t be fulfilled. ‘Ollie, you shouldn’t be here.’