The front door slams shut and we hear voices in the hall. Two men appear in the kitchen, carrying rucksacks and grinning. One is broad and blond, the other wiry and bald. They look vaguely familiar, but I can’t place them.

‘Oh yeah? What’re the chances,’ the blond says. ‘Knew you ladies wouldn’t be able to keep away.’

I hear Carrie murmur a ‘fuck’ under her breath. Sarnai and Geriel are looking at us all expectantly.

‘Did you already meet?’ Geriel says. ‘The boys arrived after you last night, then went out for some food…’

‘Food and a few drinks, yep,’ says the bald one. He winks at me. ‘Morning,’ he says. ‘All set for the trip?’

‘These are the jokers who gave us that shady cocktail, V,’ Carrie says. ‘That pink stuff.’

I remember now. The night coming back in small, uneven pieces. I put them together like a mosaic. The Irish Bar. Them sliding into the booth next to us.

‘Shame we didn’t get a chance to talk to you properly last night,’ the blond one says, winking. Rory, I remember. His name is Rory. The bald one is Martin. He has the grace to look sheepish. I remember him being reluctant last night too. Either he didn’t fancy me, or he just wasn’t a presumptuous pig like his mate. I remember the pink cocktail, and a wave of nausea washes over me. We got rid of them, but we drank the stuff anyway.

I glance across at Carrie, but she won’t meet my eye. She’s remembering the kiss. Does she regret it? It might’ve been a diversion tactic on her part, but it was something else for me. We’d stumbled out of that bar, then ended up in a tacky British pub with a perilous open manhole outside and an old Mini parked next to the front door. Carrie had tried to climb in, and the barman had come out and shouted at us. Rory and Martin didn’t follow us there. Clearly too sensible to get wasted the night before a four-hour trip across the desert. Shi-t… Clearly they had this all planned. Did they want us to suffer, just so they could laugh? I wouldn’t have put it past them. Rory, at least, seems the type to take the piss like this.

Sarnai grins and claps her hands like an excited child. ‘Oh it’s great you already know each other. Come on, Erden has parked around the corner. Grab your stuff, and let’s get going.’

Geriel mutters something under her breath as we leave, but neither of us has the energy to get bothered about it.