No, probably not, but Darcy isn’t going to let that stop her from arguing the point. ‘If we have something small we could.’

‘I’ve done a rough guest list with Mum and we’re up to about a hundred and sixty.’

Darcy almost screams. How could he do a guest list without her? How could he do a guest list with his mother? And how on earth could he think that she would want that many people at their wedding? ‘One hundred and sixty?!’ She collapses onto her bed, lying back against the pillows. Since Drew’s been gone, she’s started sleeping in the middle of the bed, sprawling her body out like a starfish.

‘Family, school friends, uni mates, work people, footy guys, some of the girls you used to work with. It all adds up.’

‘No.’ Her voice is tiny, her heart racing.

‘I’ll email it through. Have a look over it, but I don’t think there’s anyone we can really cull.’

Darcy can’t say anything; no words want to come out. There’s a knock at her door and she’s actually relieved. She flings it open to find Mel standing there and gestures for her to come in.

‘Darce, you still there?’

‘Yep but I’ve got to go,’ she says hurriedly. ‘Mel’s here.’

Drew doesn’t say anything. He’s annoyed with her.

‘I’ll talk to you tomorrow.’

‘Yep.’

Something is wrong with her. Her fiancé wants to set the date and start organising the wedding and she can do nothing but oppose him. She tries to push the feelings away as she smiles at Mel. She only has one shoe on, hasn’t put any makeup on yet and will have to finish packing in the morning. ‘Sorry, I’m running late.’

‘No rush,’ Mel says, then asks, ‘Do I look all right? I changed about five times.’

She’s wearing a cute little black dress. ‘You look great,’ Darcy assures her.

Mel looks a little nervous as she smooths over her dress, clearly hoping to impress Ed, who she hasn’t even met yet.

‘Make yourself at home,’ Darcy calls as she hobbles back to her bedroom to find her other shoe. It’s the first time they’ve hung out together outside of work. The lines between colleague and friend have started to blur.

Darcy pulls on her other shoe and heads into the small bathroom, glancing to the living area only steps away where Mel is looking at photo frames on a bookshelf.

‘So this is Drew?’

‘Yeah,’ Darcy says as she quickly whisks some mascara over her eyes. ‘That’s Drew.’ She’s probably looking at the photo taken of them at their year twelve formal. They both look like babies in it. Hard to believe it was over eight years ago.

‘You guys are cute together.’