Rachel couldn’t help it; she snorted.

‘Good one, right?’ he said, grinning.

‘Do you have a special interest in baking jokes,’ Rachel asked, ‘or do you simply have a perfect joke for every specialty industry?’

‘I brushed up on my cake jokes recently,’ he said. ‘Like any good employee.’

‘For the customers?’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘But I wasted them all on the boss.’

Rachel laughed. She felt her shoulders loosen a little.

‘Can I get you a couple of margaritas?’ the waiter asked, appearing at the end of the bar. He wore a sombrero and a stuck-on handlebar moustache and he had a broad Australian accent.

‘Sure,’ Rachel said. ‘And we’d also like to order food.’

She looked at Darcy, perhaps daring him to object. But he was nodding.

‘Good call,’ he said. ‘Let’s get that out of the way so we can relax.’

And with that, Rachel found that she did relax. She ordered nachos with the lot, followed by fajitas, guacamole and shredded beef empanadas. Then, on a whim, she added a few more mains, a few more sides. As the waiter prepared to leave, she grabbed his forearm. ‘Sorry. Can we add the Mexican corn?’

They didn’t need the corn. The table would be groaning under what she’d already ordered. But there was something about ordering food, being surrounded by it, that calmed her.

After the waiter left, she waited for the inevitable commentary from Darcy. Wow, that was a big order, or, I like a girl with a big appetite. But Darcy didn’t say either of those things. Instead, he lifted his hand in one half of a high five. ‘Good call on the corn,’ he said.

You’re too good to be true, Rachel thought. But she must have said it out loud because Darcy replied, ‘I know.’

She burst out laughing. ‘Seriously! What is wrong with you?’

‘Well,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘I do have five kids.’

‘Really?’

‘No! But I am married.’

‘You are?’

He laughed. ‘Of course not!’

Rachel rolled her eyes.

‘Okay, listen – I live in a granny flat at the back of my mum’s place.’

Rachel watched him, waiting for the punchline.

‘That one is true,’ he admitted.

‘Oh,’ Rachel said. ‘Well . . . there’s no shame in that.’

‘Come on. There’s a little shame.’ He grinned. ‘The thing is, it’s been a funny couple of years. I’ve been unemployed, as you know, but I used to run a cafe in the city called Everything’s Better Toasted.’

‘Good name,’ Rachel said.

He looked pleased. ‘It is, isn’t it? I came up with it. We had a terrific spot, right near Flinders Street Station and we did a great trade. Two years after the first cafe, I opened a second one a few streets away. I had plans for two more stores but then . . . COVID happened. The city emptied out overnight, and so did my clientele. We made it through the first lockdown, just. But when Melbourne had to lock down again and again, the businesses went under. I lost everything.’