Darcy smiles as she picks the clumps of mascara off her lashes. She really needs to stop using this brand.

Mel laughs, causing Darcy to wonder if it’s at her hideously tacky maroon dress or Drew’s haircut and high-waisted pants. She hastily applies some lip gloss before rushing back out to find out.

‘I love this one.’ Mel points at a photo that Darcy had forgotten was up on the shelf. It was from a toga night during their final year of uni. Ed and Sienna are in the photo too. ‘That’s Ed,’ Darcy points out.

‘Cute,’ Mel replies, satisfied.

Darcy smiles at Ed’s familiar grin in the photo. He and Drew are dressed in amusingly small gladiator togas. She remembers the material had barely been long enough to go around them. The girls had laughed so hard as they all got ready with a few predrinks. Darcy and Sienna had gone as pussycats, though she can’t remember why. Probably something to do with being sex kittens—everything seemed connected to sex at uni, a contrast to the life she’s leading now. She feels a slight twinge thinking back to her friendship with Sienna. She’d thought about messaging her after the awkward meeting at the farmers’ market but it didn’t feel right. Darcy and Ed were friends before he started going out with Sienna and that’s where her loyalties lay despite the four years of friendship she and Sienna shared. She wonders whether she should take the photo down now that Ed and Sienna aren’t together anymore.

Mel gasps. ‘What are all these?’

Darcy looks up to see what Mel has moved on to. ‘Oh, just some wedding magazines Ed dropped off for me. A client passed them on.’ She’s still thinking about the photo. ‘Hey, maybe we should do a toga party on one of the group dates next season.’ Knowing Alice, no promotion will come, and she’ll still be doing the same job.

‘Yeah, good idea,’ Mel murmurs, but she’s clearly mesmerised as she flicks through the pages of one of the magazines. Her whole face is bright, her eyes dancing. ‘Oh, I love that dress … wow, that cake is amazing … aww, look at the little flower girls.’

Darcy realises this was probably the response Ed had been waiting for when he’d given her the magazines in the first place. She still hasn’t flicked through them since that first night. She glances at her watch. ‘We should probably go.’

‘Okay.’ But Mel looks like she could happily curl up on the lounge and flick through the magazines for the rest of the night.

Darcy’s left with the unsettling feeling that her single friend is more interested in the wedding magazines than she is.