‘Will we have pizza too, or shall I order us something else?’ Stephen asked.

‘I’m not sure I feel like pizza,’ she said.

‘Sashimi?’ he suggested.

‘Perfect.’

As Stephen wandered off to order their dinner, Heather leaned back in her chair and admired her things in Stephen’s house. Her elbow had healed now. Apart from a slight yellowish tinge, you wouldn’t even know that the bruise had been there, and Heather’s suspicion that Stephen had been responsible had faded along with it. It had been a trick of the mind, she realised. Seeing women getting roughed up by men was part of Heather’s DNA; of course she’d carry that expectation into her life with Stephen. But she had found a new way of living now. Her old way of thinking was just another thing she’d need to unlearn.

‘Sashimi is on its way,’ Stephen announced. ‘Shall I open some sparkling water?’

Again, she entertained the idea of suggesting a bottle of bubbly. It hovered on the tip of her tongue. Stephen watched her intently for a moment, as if he knew what she was thinking. It scared her sometimes, when he did that. More old thinking, she suspected.

‘You know what?’ he said finally. ‘It’s a special occasion. Why don’t I open a bottle of champagne?’

Suddenly Heather wasn’t scared anymore. Just the opposite. ‘What a good idea,’ she said.

20

RACHEL

As she drove to visit her mum, Rachel was thinking about Darcy. This was nothing new; she’d lain awake half the night thinking about him and she’d probably spend most of the day thinking about him. Yesterday had been a long day. Darcy had clearly been surprised by the fact that she’d destroyed the wedding cake, but he wasn’t noticeably disgusted. In fact, after he’d seen the state of the cake, his mind had seemed completely focused on damage control.

‘I have an idea,’ he said.

Rachel stared at him. ‘Aren’t you going to ask me what I did?’

‘I can see what you did.’

She must have made a face at this, because Darcy held up his hands. ‘Hey, I’m not judging. I have three sisters, I know the deal. When you have your period you can’t be held responsible for what you do. Once, my older sister Suzanne legit bowled me over when I stood in between her and a tub of Ben & Jerry’s. See this scar on my eyebrow? That’s from when Lucy was on the rampage and I was eating some Oreos –’

‘Okay, okay.’ Rachel was happy enough to let him assume it was period-eating for now. She sure as hell didn’t have a better explanation – at least, not one she wanted to reveal to Darcy. ‘So . . . you have an idea?’

She tried to keep the hope out of her voice. She didn’t have high expectations for his plan, but currently it was all she had. And who knew? Maybe Darcy, as well as being preposterously good-looking, was the MacGyver of getting out of work-related troubles.