He met Sage out the front of the restaurant and hesitated as he wondered whether to kiss her hello. She was looking gorgeous in a printed knee-length dress with her blonde hair hanging in a long loose plait down her back. Last night he’d ended up taking her back to his place for a damn fine evening of sex, before she’d slipped out in the early hours of the morning without saying goodbye.

He’d wondered if she would even show up tonight, but he had no way of calling to confirm. They hadn’t swapped phone numbers at any point. If she hadn’t been here, he supposed he would have had to confess to Charlotte and Steph that there was no girlfriend. But here she was, waiting for him as planned.

Eventually he settled for an awkward kiss on her cheek. ‘Thanks again for doing this,’ he said.

‘It’s no big deal,’ she said. ‘It’s a free dinner with a good-looking guy. But then this is it, right? You’re not going to expect me to keep playing pretend-girlfriend with your family or the rest of your friends, are you?’

‘Absolutely not. It’s a one-off so I can save face. But, uh . . . there is one thing I probably should have mentioned about tonight.’

‘Ah. Here we go.’

‘The reason for dinner . . . it’s because my ex and her new girlfriend want me to donate my sperm to them. Might make for some uncomfortable dinner conversation.’

Sage burst out laughing. ‘Is that all? I thought you were going to say you were all swingers or tell me your ex is still in love with you or something like that.’

He couldn’t stop the look from crossing his face.

‘Ah. Is she still in love with you?’

‘No, not in the slightest.’

Sage nodded. ‘I get it now. You’re still in love with her, aren’t you?’

Darren winced. ‘Sorry,’ he said.

‘No need to be,’ Sage said brightly. ‘I should have realised that was the obvious thing. Why else would it be so important for you to show you’ve moved on?’

‘Okay, cool. You know you’re, like, really fucking awesome, right?’

‘Yep. Come on. Let’s put on a show.’ She grabbed his hand and started to pull him towards the entrance, then stopped. ‘Wait, am I on board with the sperm-donating thing or am I going to need a bit of convincing?’

He laughed. ‘You can play it however you like.’

‘Got it.’

He clocked two things when he walked inside and approached the table where Charlotte and Steph were already sitting. First, Steph was clearly surprised to see him with an actual woman by his side, and second, Charlotte wasn’t. Something definitely flickered across her face. Could it be she was the tiniest bit jealous? Or was he projecting his own feelings onto her?