‘I’ll get the next drinks,’ Mel says, touching Ed on the arm as she moves from the bar table the three of them are sitting around. She stares at him for a loaded moment, a playful smile dancing on her face.

Darcy almost laughs but instead manages, ‘Thanks, Mel.’ Mel had been outright flirty with Ed from the moment he met up with them.

‘Are you trying to set me up?’ Ed eyes Darcy suspiciously once Mel moves to the bar.

‘No, of course not. She didn’t have any plans tonight and was keen to do something. You don’t mind I asked her along, do you?’

‘I wish you’d told me it was “bring a work mate” night. I could have brought Zoe.’

Darcy scowls. She knows he’s teasing, but she bites anyway. ‘Arsehole,’ she mutters.

Ed throws his head back and laughs, satisfied she took the bait like she always does.

‘Mel’s really nice. I think you’d like her,’ Darcy says, watching Mel up at the bar as she starts talking to a group of young guys. ‘She looks hot in that dress, don’t you think?’

Ed frowns. ‘She’s not my type, Darce. You should know that.’

‘What’s your type?’ Before Sienna he hooked up with a few girls at uni, but it was nothing serious and certainly nothing to signify a particular type.

‘I don’t actually know.’ Ed muses. ‘But she’s definitely not my type.’

‘What’s wrong with her?’

Ed shakes his head. ‘She’s got that look in her eye.’

Darcy has no idea what he’s talking about.

‘You know, the desperate for marriage and babies look.’

‘That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?’

Ed shrugs.

Mel saunters back to the table with two drinks and places them on the table. ‘I used to go to school with some of those guys. I’m going to go hang with them for a bit.’

‘Sure,’ Darcy says. ‘You’ll come back later, right?’

Mel looks to Ed. ‘Yeah, of course.’

Darcy notices Ed makes quite an effort to stay stony-faced. He clearly doesn’t want to give Mel the wrong idea.

‘Where’s Mel?’ Darcy asks suddenly an hour or two later as she tips the wine bottle in an attempt to fill her glass, but it’s empty. How many bottles have they drunk? Darcy had welcomed the distraction of alcohol to numb the pain of her earlier phone conversation with Drew.

Ed seems amused by this. ‘She left ages ago with one of those blokes she was hanging out with.’

‘Oh.’ She tries to remember this, but all traces of memory seem currently unavailable. ‘Was that safe?’

‘You took a photo of him and also of his licence, so you could hunt him down if for some reason Mel disappears,’ Ed informs her.

Darcy feels quite satisfied with her drunk self. ‘I’m a good friend.’