Darcy nods, noticing that Mel has one green eye and one blue. ‘Yeah, I liked her too.’ But Alice doesn’t care for the nice ones. She’ll only want to know that they have plenty of girls who will create drama. ‘But we need to make sure we have enough girls who will drive the ratings up.’

Darcy’s mobile starts ringing. She leans across the desk to see who’s calling and grabs it when she sees it’s her friend Ed. ‘Let’s try to find another wild one, a kooky one, a fish out of water and a wifey,’ she tells Mel.

Mel nods and heads back to her own desk with the pile of photographs.

‘Hey, Ed,’ Darcy says into the phone, her eyes moving to her computer screen and the two new work emails sitting in her inbox.

‘How’s the new season going? Got your puppets all lined up and ready to perform?’ Ed’s heard more details about the female contestants over the last three years than a guy should ever have to listen to.

‘Ed! Finding potential soul mates is serious business,’ she reminds him. ‘But no, not yet. Hopefully by day’s end.’

‘If it makes you feel any better I’m trying to edit together a rainy wedding with a couple that barely looked at each other all day.’

Darcy chuckles. Ed films weddings for a living and always has amusing stories to tell.

‘How’d you go asking about the promotion?’

‘Yeah, not going to happen. She said we can re-evaluate at the end of the season.’ Darcy makes a noise to indicate she doesn’t believe that’s going to happen.

‘Don’t be like that,’ Ed tells her. ‘You’ll just have to prove to her that you deserve it.’

‘I know.’ Darcy feels like she deserves it, but will Alice ever see how much she busts her arse?

‘You and Drew want to come over for dinner? I told Sienna I’d grab some groceries. Thought I’d buy one of those store lasagnes. Keen?’

‘Can’t.’ She tilts her head towards her shoulder, wedging the phone in place so she can type a reply to the first email. ‘Drew’s heading back to Gloucester after school today.’

‘Already?’

‘Already,’ she confirms, trying to ignore the irritation that her boyfriend rushed through his commitments with his current school so that he can get back to their hometown.

‘You okay?’

Darcy’s heart stings at his question but she refuses to let herself think about it properly. Alice does not tolerate personal issues or emotions at work. Darcy is well practised at switching any personal phone calls to sound like location enquiries for dates she’s organising if Alice happens to walk past her desk.

‘Why don’t you come tonight anyway?’