The pair of them were standing outside June’s car. I wouldn’t have even known they were arguing had it not been for her hands: they were locked together in front of her stomach, and she pressed down each of her knuckles over and over, even after they’d stopped cracking. Her shoulders slumped forward, the small of her back resting against the car, like she’d been cornered. Heath was talking, but I was too far off to hear and he was turned away, so I couldn’t even read his lips.

And when I approached, there was a lightning-quick swapping of looks: me at June, June at Heath, Heath at me.

Heath spun to face me. ‘Ah. This is embarrassing,’ he said, scratching the back of his head.

I decided to play dumb. ‘What?’

‘Heath’s gonna ride home with us,’ June said without looking at me, then pushed herself up, manoeuvred past Heath and went to open the driver’s side door. ‘Come on.’

‘Sorry,’ Heath said, his eyes pained, overly apologetic. ‘I hope that’s all right.’

‘Yeah, that’s – that’s fine.’

We climbed inside wordlessly, Heath in the front and me in the back, then pulled out into the sluggish current of two-thirty traffic.

Something was awkward, and I wasn’t sure what.

Obviously, the fact that Heath was there at all was unnerving; this was mine and June’s time, unfettered by the baggage we left outside the confines of this sacred place. The fact I considered him ‘baggage’ at all was an issue, I knew, but still, I didn’t like him there, in my seat – though I was getting a normally inaccessible view of the back of June’s head.

‘Is everything OK?’ I offered to anyone who wished to answer.

Heath did. ‘Oh, everything’s fine. Greg drove me this morning but had to stay late today, so I needed to hitch a ride back. No biggie.’

‘Oh. No, that’s fine, I guess I meant …’

‘It’s all good, Whitaker,’ June said.

I wasn’t sure how much I should share. ‘So, Greg asked me about you guys today, actually.’

‘Yeah,’ Heath said, ‘he’ll do that.’

‘He said you guys have seemed off.’

Heath strained against his seatbelt to face me. ‘He did?’

‘Yeah, he was asking if I knew anything, or, uh, noticed anything weird. Which I hadn’t. Not really.’ Until now.

June repositioned herself in her seat. ‘Don’t worry about it.’

Heath spoke up, apparently fighting to get the words out; he looked pleadingly to June, and then to me. ‘Sydney, to tell you the truth, we’ve been going through a rough patch.’

June said nothing.