Bonnie yawns as she makes her way to the door. She had reassured Carla she’d be fine. Fine probably wasn’t the right word. She’d had a cry, but she wasn’t devastated, just empty and disappointed. She always knew it was a competition and that he could be falling in love with the other girls, she just hadn’t expected him to be in love with a girl who wasn’t ‘in the running’. The way he’d looked when he talked about Penny reminded her how she wanted to feel about someone and how she wanted someone to feel about her.

She pulls open the door.

‘Ollie?’

His hands are shoved in his pockets, his face drawn as though he hasn’t slept in days.

‘I didn’t know if you’d be staying here.’ But he looks relieved that she is.

Bonnie is supposed to be staying in a crappy motel about twenty minutes out of town like she had for the past couple of nights but today she told Darcy she was going home. She needed to sleep in her own bed. She’d assumed she’d be left alone, that no one except Carla would know where she was. She hasn’t even called Paige yet. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asks Oliver.

‘I don’t know. I knew you were back in town and I just had to see you.’

Her heart does a flip. She wants to smile but doesn’t allow herself the luxury. ‘Does Sophie know you’re here?’

There’s a small shake of the head.

‘Ollie, don’t do this,’ she urges. There’s a sound on the street, which unsettles her. ‘I think you should go.’

‘Please, Bon, I need to talk to you.’

She knows she should say no. Her head feels like mush. She knows hearing whatever it is that he has to say will only complicate things, but looking into his eyes, she finds herself crumbling. ‘Five minutes, okay?’ She steps back, letting him inside. He smiles gratefully and squeezes her hand for just a second as he walks by. She forces herself to ignore the tingles left in her fingertips.

She sits opposite him in the lounge room, not trusting herself to be any closer.

‘I saw you today, down at the beach.’

He had been there. He’d been watching her.

‘Pretty full on crowd.’

Bonnie nods. ‘Yeah, it looked like half the town were trying to have a stickybeak.’

He doesn’t say anything for a moment and Bonnie wonders if he’s forgotten where he is.

‘So, this guy,’ he manages. ‘You really like him?’