‘How about I drive you?’ Rob suggests. ‘I’m heading out anyway, so it makes sense.’

‘That’s kind, but you don’t have to do that,’ Sienna replies. ‘And wouldn’t it make you late for work?’ She’s noticed over the last couple of weeks that Rob’s usually prompt timekeeping has slackened. It’s as though he no longer cares: all the passion he had for his job, for anything, has vanished. He’s still good company, though, at least. He just needs time.

‘It’ll be fine,’ Rob assures her. ‘Come on, Jax, let’s get going.’

It’s an hour later when she gets the call from Abby. At first, seeing her name appear on her phone, she wants to ignore it. It’s curiosity that compels her to accept the call, and as soon as Abby begins speaking, she knows she’s done the right thing.

‘I’m ready to tell you everything,’ she says. ‘All of it this time. If you’re willing to listen.’

They arrange to meet in the park, the one she and Greg walked to the evening after the dinner party. She’d known then that something was wrong, but her imagination hadn’t come anywhere close to how things panned out.

Abby walks towards her, a floaty white summer dress billowing around her legs as she moves. She looks different: somehow more feminine, more comfortable with herself. This should come as no surprise – her life has changed in the last few weeks. Sienna tries to work out how she feels about Abby as she gets closer – it’s a zone somewhere between love and hate, not quite one or the other. She misses the friendship they had but realises she didn’t know Abby at all. But above all else, it is fear she’s feeling.

‘Thanks for meeting me,’ Abby says, sitting beside her on the bench.

Sienna shuts out the sound of her voice and focuses on the other noises. Children squealing. Birds. The hum of traffic. She wants to only hear these sounds. There is no place for Abby’s voice in her world, even though she agreed to be here.

‘You look well,’ Sienna says. Now that Abby is right next to her, she can see she’s had a haircut too – it’s softer now, falling in feathers around her face. ‘This must be what love does for you.’

‘So you’ve been talking to Rob? I thought that would be the case.’

‘There’s nothing going on between us, Abby.’

‘I didn’t say that. I just know you were quite close before.’

‘Before you left him?’

Abby looks uncomfortable. ‘Yes. Look, this is really hard for me to say. I need to be honest with you, though.’

Sienna holds her breath, wonders if she’ll ever be able to exhale.