And once Rosie was drunk, her guard lowered and she made herself vulnerable. She had no pause button when it came to alcohol and drugs. Doug had seemed like an okay guy, but one day Rosie was going to go home with the wrong person. That scared Hannah half to death and she tried again to persuade Rosie to stay with her.

‘You can slob at mine. Have a bath or a nap. Make yourself feel human again. Then when I’ve finished, we can order takeout and have a catch up.’

Rosie mulled the idea over, a slight frown on her pretty face, and Hannah thought she was going to say no. ‘I guess that would be nice. You’ll need to lend me some slob-out clothes.’

‘Of course.’

As Hannah turned the car around and headed back towards the coast, her phone started ringing.

Rosie rolled her eyes as Josh’s name flashed up on the dashboard. ‘What does he want?’

Damn it. Hannah had promised to call him back. ‘He was worried about you.’

‘You told him? Seriously, Hannah. What you do, and definitely what I do, it’s none of his business.’

‘You’re too harsh on him. He’s a good guy. And he cares.’

‘Guess you’d better answer it then,’ Rosie huffed.

‘I’ll call him back,’ Hannah said, as the phone cut to voicemail. If she took the call now, it would have to be on loudspeaker and she didn’t want Rosie and Josh to start sniping at each other.

Rosie was a little subdued the rest of the drive home, giving mostly monosyllabic answers, and Hannah suspected she was still stewing over the call to Josh, though she looked pale, so maybe her hangover had really kicked in.

After they arrived back at Hannah’s building, she marched ahead, going straight for the lift.

‘It’s not working,’ Hannah informed her.

That was met with a sigh. ‘Again? I don’t know why you insist on keeping this place. You know it’s probably worth a fortune because of the location. You could move back to Norwich and buy something newer and at least twice the size. You’d probably have money left over too.’

Yes, okay, she could, and it was something she had briefly considered, but the location was important. Hannah loved living in Wells and she would never be able to afford anywhere else here, even if she got top whack for her flat. ‘I like it here,’ she said simply, following Rosie up the stairs.

‘I’m sure you’d like it somewhere else too if you’d stop being so stubborn.’

‘This place has its charms.’