She enjoys impressing in the kitchen and he knows that. ‘No, trust me, I did.’ With Drew away, she hasn’t been making proper meals. Sometimes she bothers with a salad or a stir-fry, but more often than she’d like to admit she just has toast. She wipes her hands on a tea towel and peeks inside the bag, which is full of wedding magazines. ‘Where did you get these?’

‘A client,’ he says as he settles on the barstool. ‘I told her a good friend of mine had just gotten engaged when she was picking up an extra DVD copy. She came back the following day with all these.’

Darcy peers back into the bag again. There are easily over two hundred dollars’ worth of magazines. ‘Wow.’

‘She said a few of the corners have been dog-eared but she hasn’t gone at them with scissors or anything.’

‘Should I buy her a thank-you?’ The woman was clearly very generous.

Ed shakes his head. ‘I didn’t charge her for the extra DVD.’

Darcy tilts her head, smiling her thanks to Ed, but he shakes it away and indicates to the chopping board. ‘What can I do to help?’

‘Nothing.’ She slides the garlic bread into the oven. ‘It’ll be ready in about fifteen.’

‘Wine?’ He holds up the bottle he’d brought with him.

She points to her half-full wine glass. ‘I couldn’t wait until you got here.’ She gets a glass from the cupboard and passes it to him.

‘Bad day?’

‘Just another day working for Alice.’ Resentment hangs from each word.

He gives her a sympathetic look. ‘Anything new or just the usual stuff?’

‘Just the usual, but I’m starting to feel like I’m going to be stuck there forever, doing the same job. I honestly don’t think she has plans to promote me.’

‘I’m sure she knows how valuable you are, Darce.’

Darcy isn’t so sure about that.

‘You could always leave, try something else?’

‘Yeah, that’s what Drew said.’ But Darcy knows that when Ed says ‘try something else’ he means another TV job in Sydney, while Drew means ‘take a break and come live in Gloucester’.

‘You’d be snapped up. You’ve got some great experience behind you.’

Darcy knows she could find a new job but isn’t sure she can leave The One. Despite Alice, she loves working on the show.

They move to the lounge. Ed brings a couple of magazines and hands her one.

Darcy sits with the magazine in her lap, staring down at the model wearing a slinky white dress, looking over her shoulder with her back to camera, one arm bent, her hand positioned near her face showing off a large diamond ring, with the other hand down by her side holding a bouquet of white roses.

‘Is that the kind of thing you like?’