Left alone with Kate, Grace’s desperate energy vanished. They fell silent, the corridor speaker slipping into a Beatles cover.

Kate ran her tongue along her teeth and exhaled. “Look, I want us to have a good night, okay? I do. I don’t want you to be stewing over this all through the play. But I also don’t want to hear you speaking about other women the way you did today. You’re better than that and we both know it. You call other women words like ‘unfuckable,’ like ‘frigid,’ it just makes it okay for boys—men—to do the same thing.” She paused, turning to meet Grace’s eye. “The things you say in this world have an impact, Grace.”

“I know.” Grace dropped her watery gaze to her feet. “I’ve learned my lesson. Forever. I swear to God.”

What she had overheard in that roadside bathroom was not a reflection of who Grace was—Kate knew that. She also knew that Grace would remember the faux pas for the rest for her life. “You’re forgiven,” Kate said softly. “It’s done. Forgotten. Okay?”

Grace nodded solemnly.

Kate reached out and pressed the down arrow. “Don’t cry, Grace, your mascara will run.”

The theatre was bustling when they stepped inside with just ten minutes to spare until showtime. With her hand at Tilly’s elbow, the soft ends of Tilly’s freed hair teasing Kate’s wrist at the cuff of her blazer, she followed closely as Molly led their small group up the marble staircase to the dress circle.

They were stuck behind the crowd at the top of the stairs when fingers clawed down Kate’s back. She swivelled against the bannister.

“Hello stranger.”

Shock gripped her. “Elodie…”

Looking up at Kate from the step below, Elodie’s large brown eyes danced warmly. “Don’t I get a hug?”

Kate pulled her close. “Hello,” she breathed into Elodie’s thick dark hair. She inhaled deeply. The scent of Elodie’s hair was still the same. On the step below, Elodie’s small frame seemed even tinier. Grinning, Kate pulled back. Elodie beamed, and not for the first time, Kate was incredibly glad that their breakup had been clean, mutual, kind. Not long after, Kate had moved to Lords.

Elodie bit her lip. “I was thinking about you yesterday.”

“You were?”

Nodding, she shifted the straps of her handbag over her shoulder, pulled her long hair from where it was caught between the leather. “You’re going to kill me, but I accidentally broke the nozzle on the coffeemaker.”

Kate grinned. “Not my coffeemaker.”

“I told you that you should have just taken it with you. I’m not equipped to handle fragile objects or small children.”

The reference to children set a pang in Kate’s chest. Forcing a smile, she looked around. “Are you here by yourself?”

Elodie shook her head. “No, Anna’s just checking her laptop bag in at the cloakroom—she came straight from work.”

Just like Kate and Beccy, Elodie and Anna had always been close. It was one of the things that had been great about dating Elodie—she’d always understood that a sisterly bond wasn’t anything threatening.