It feels good to be home and with a new set of keys in my possession. Barb dropped them both into the optician’s this morning. I’m confident she came straight to me with them. The bus she caught into town would’ve got her there at eleven twenty and she handed them to me at eleven thirty, so she wouldn’t have had time to get her own cut. I feel a twinge of guilt even thinking she would.

I manage to do a quick search through the house before the doorbell rings. It’s Davina – she must’ve seen me arrive home.

‘Afternoon, Davina,’ I say as I let her in. I think she’s dressed up, made an effort for our coffee date. She’s wearing smart black jeans and a pretty cream-coloured cashmere jumper and her hair is neatly brushed. She’s even exchanged her usual slippers for black pump shoes. My muscles judder, and my skin prickles slightly as she walks past me and carries on into the lounge. I’ve spent so long trying to keep her out; allowing her in now goes against everything. It’s as though my body is rejecting her.

This is the right thing to do. This is the kind, neighbourly thing to do.

She’s standing in front of the bookshelf when I go into the lounge. Her eyes trail from one photo to the next. It’s like she’s scanning them. I imagine a computer screen in her head, text bringing up all the details of each person she’s seeing. A bit like in The Terminator. I push this image away.

‘Tea or coffee?’

‘Oh, I don’t have coffee after midday!’ she says, in such a way as to make me feel I should already know this about her.

‘Tea it is, then.’ I’m regretting my invitation and she’s only been here two minutes.

Davina follows me into the kitchen – she’s at my heel like a puppy. I wish she’d stayed in the lounge and sat down.

‘It looks so different to when Barbara had the house,’ she remarks as her gaze flits from one corner to the other.

I’m taken aback by her statement. ‘Oh? I didn’t realise you and Barb were ever friends,’ I say.

‘Oh, we weren’t. It was when I first moved to Apple Grove. She only ever invited me the once.’

I can’t imagine why.

‘A strange one, isn’t she?’ Davina says.