Callie finally looked up at her. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and as Mimi observed her more closely, she noticed dark shadows under her eyes. Maybe she wasn’t sleeping very well at the moment. Could it be the twins disturbing her through the night?

‘Do something like what?’ Callie asked.

An opening! Mimi hastened to come up with an answer that might appeal. ‘The movies? Escape the heat?’

Callie made a face and returned her attention to her phone.

‘Okay, we could just go out for coffee.’

‘Don’t really feel like it.’

Mimi racked her brain. ‘Oh! We could go to one of those chocolate cafes.’

Callie shook her head. ‘Yuck.’

‘Yuck! Who says yuck to chocolate?’

‘I do,’ Callie said, shooting a look of irritation at her.

Tara appeared in the doorway. ‘What about chocolate?’ she asked.

‘Nothing,’ said Mimi. ‘I was just trying to think of something fun for the three of us to do together.’

‘I have an idea. Let’s make a TikTok,’ said Tara, her eyes bright.

‘You have got to be kidding me,’ said Callie. ‘There is no way I’m making a TikTok with my mum and my little sister.’ ‘Come on, please!’ Tara begged.

‘Wait, what’s a tick tock again?’ Mimi asked, pronouncing it carefully. ‘Is that like Snapchat?’

‘Jesus, Mum, could you be more basic?’ Callie threw her phone down and started scratching savagely at the inside of her left wrist. ‘Can you two, like, get out of my room, please?’

Mimi hesitated. She wanted to push back. She wanted to walk over to Callie, sit down on the bed, take her hands into her own and get her to make eye contact. She wanted to wrap her arms around her and say, ‘What’s happened? Where have you gone? What did I do wrong?’

But she sensed that she’d already been frozen out and if she kept pushing, she’d only make it worse. She took Tara’s hand and they backed out of the room and closed the door.

‘Will you make a TikTok with me?’ Tara asked.

Mimi shrugged. ‘Sure,’ she said.

*

Andrea

‘Feel like heading to the bedroom?’

Tony spun around in his chair, away from his computer to face Andrea. He cocked his head to the side and stroked his neatly shaped beard. Several seconds passed.

‘I was kind of hoping for a more enthusiastic response than that,’ she said. She’d been sitting on the couch, reading a book while Tony worked, but the book wasn’t really holding her attention and her mind had begun to drift. A lazy afternoon of sex had slowly become rather appealing and she’d wondered if this could be her chance to get things back on track. But perhaps not, judging by Tony’s lack of response.

Tony laughed. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to hesitate. It’s only because I’ve been making some good progress.’