At her flat, Imogen tried to call Adrian. It had been a couple of hours since she drove off and left him licking his wounds at the Corrigan house. He wasn’t answering his phone. She had gone back to work and filed her report alone. Telling the truth but putting Adrian in a more favourable light than maybe he deserved. She guessed he was probably sulking in a pub somewhere. Maybe she should just find him and apologise again, or maybe she just needed to give him some space.

In the meantime, she went home. She pulled her hair into a bun so tight it pinched at her temples, a punishment for letting her mouth run away with her, for falling into Adrian’s trap. He had been spoiling for a fight; it was his preferred method of escapism.

Grabbing a pair of rubber gloves, she filled a bucket with hot water and bleach before making her way into the bathroom. He wouldn’t still be angry about it in the morning, would he? They had fallen out before, of course, but never over something so personal; usually it was just disagreements at work, or what to eat for dinner. This felt more serious, somehow. Some things stick and no matter how many times you say sorry, you would be better off if you had never said them in the first place. Once they are out there, it’s impossible to put them back in their box, back in your mind where they should have stayed.

Her modest flat felt neglected. Since they had fully embraced the idea that they were a couple, she spent more time at Adrian’s house; it was bigger and he liked to be where his son could find him. Not that Tom knew about them yet.

As she scrubbed the tiles in the bathroom, she felt a rising panic that this was the end of them, that he would disappear and she would never see him again if he didn’t call her this evening. Abandonment had always been in the background of any relationship Imogen had ever had. Residual anxiety from growing up without a father.

She thought about her ex-boyfriend, Dean, and how he had left her. How if she called him, he would answer. He always answered. Their relationship had been doomed from the start. He was fresh out of prison and she was a police officer when they first got together. The reality of the relationship set in and they accepted that neither one of them could change, so they broke up. The only way to stay apart was not to contact each other or the pull would be too much.