The Best Thing I Never Had (9 page)

March 2007

Leigha got to the café a little early and dithered as to whether or not to queue up and buy a latte; Adam had invited her there for a coffee, surely that meant the drinks would be on him – but then it wouldn’t do to be presumptuous.

Leigha remained standing next to the table she had claimed and took her time unwrapping herself from her winter layers, hoping that when Adam made his appearance it would appear as if she had just that second arrived herself. After all, she had learnt the hard way that when it came to Adam Chadwick, it certainly didn’t pay to look too keen.

She fully expected Adam to be late, but he arrived a few minutes past the hour, pushing both of the glass swing doors open as he did, smiling his wide and easy smile as he caught sight of Leigha waiting. Her stomach fluttered; the only guy she’d ever known to make her this nervy.

‘Hey, Ley,’ Adam greeted her with a light touch of his hand to her elbow as he reached the table. ‘Do you want something to drink?’

‘Thank you – latte, please?’

Leigha finished hanging her coat over the back of the chair and sat gracefully, watching Adam flirt casually with the barista before finally heading back over to the table, exaggeratedly careful as he carried two ceramic mugs brim-full with milky coffee. Mugs, not takeaway cups, Leigha couldn’t help but notice. She decided not to pussyfoot around.

‘So what’s this about?’ she asked, before Adam had even pulled his chair out from the table to sit. He blinked.

‘Nothing? I just thought – you know – we’re both on campus Wednesday afternoons – and we’ve said for ages that we should grab coffee…’ Adam trailed off; Leigha looked at him sceptically.

‘But that was, you know, after New Year…’ Leigha too let her sentence hang unfinished.

‘We’re mates though, yeah?’ Adam asked, pausing with sugar sachet in hand, and Leigha couldn’t be sure if he was stating it as the reason for the impromptu coffee date or in apology for things not working out between them.

‘Yeah, of course,’ she answered, because there really wasn’t any other way to respond.

‘Good,’ Adam said with satisfaction, shaking the sugar enthusiastically before ripping the paper of the sachet and tipping the granules into his latte. ‘So, how’s it going? Feel like I haven’t been round to hang out for ages.’

‘That’s because you haven’t,’ Leigha pointed out. ‘That film on Thursday night was really good, really funny, you missed out – holed upstairs with Harry and fifty thousand books.’ She rolled her eyes and took a sip of her latte.

‘Yeah, well, the department are really getting our cases lately,’ Adam said carefully, eyes on his drink as he stirred it slowly. ‘Heavy stuff. And Harriet’s even worse. She seems to think she can torture a First Class result out of me.’

‘Yeah?’ Leigha said, arching an eyebrow. ‘Don’t I know it. She can be a real ball-breaking bitch. She was like this with Seth – with her ex – all during our A Levels. Poor guy was almost in tears when he got Cs, terrified of disappointing her after she spent so much time studying with him. He almost didn’t get accepted here. Got through on clearing. He had to—-’ Leigha caught herself, suddenly self-conscious; why was she sitting there rabbiting on about her friend’s ex-boyfriend? She hated to talk about Seth. She pictured him the last time she saw him, sitting naked on the edge of the bed, his fair head in his hands, his spine an arched ridge. She took another sip of her drink. ‘Anyway,’ she dismissed the subject, but Adam was leaning forward expectantly.

‘No, go on? He had to what?’

‘Oh, he had to do a different degree to the one he wanted to do, cos there were no clearing spaces on it. Stupid. But he wanted to be wherever Harriet was. They do say love makes you crazy, don’t they?’

‘I guess,’ Adam echoed, frowning, drawing a zigzag lightly in the foam of his latte with his fingertip. ‘Why did they break up anyway?’ Leigha paused to consider her response.

‘Just grew apart, I guess. He took her on holiday and she came back and told us she’d broken up with him, didn’t love him and it wasn’t fair on him. To be honest, it wasn’t. She should have broken up with him ages before if she felt like that.’ Leigha curtailed herself, feeling that old familiar snake of anger rising up. She sipped at her drink; Adam mirrored the action and looked across the rim of his mug at her shrewdly.

‘I think,’ he said, setting the mug down gently, ‘that you guys were all so close she probably didn’t want to rock the boat – you know? – maintain the status quo and all that.’ Leigha didn’t answer straight away. ‘You and Sukie haven’t really had anything long-term have you?’ Adam continued. Leigha frowned in response, unsure what he was getting at. ‘Well, I think it must be quite daunting. You girls are like this.’ Adam crossed his index and middle fingers together to indicate closeness. ‘You date one of you, you date all of you.’ He laughed suddenly.

‘I don’t know what you’re on about,’ Leigha said coldly. ‘You’re making me and Su sound like mad old spinsters living vicariously through Harriet’s relationship.’

‘Am I?’ Adam said. ‘Well sorry, that’s not what I was getting at.’ He smiled maddeningly at her, looking like he’d just discovered a secret.

Adam had gone straight from the café to the Armstrong, where had had remained until last orders, comfortably ensconced with a few course-mates and copious amounts of lager bought by the pitcher on the Wednesday night ‘Happy Hour’ rate. He thought the walk home would sober him up but it still took him three attempts to get his door key into the lock when he arrived.

‘Mate?’ Johnny was sitting in his pyjamas on the couch, television remote in hand from where he’d just pressed the mute button. Adam went to drop his bookbag before realising that he didn’t have it.

‘Fuck it,’ he groaned.

‘You pissed?’ Johnny asked with amusement.

‘Well clearly, as I seem to have lost my books somewhere between campus and here,’ Adam answered with a scowl. ‘I just hope I left them in the pub and not in the gutter.’

‘I tried to call you earlier,’ Johnny said, watching as Adam hopped awkwardly on one foot as he removed one shoe.

‘Yeah, my phone ran out of battery,’ Adam replied gruffly. Not strictly true. Somewhere around his fifth pint he’d started to lose the fight against the urge to text Harriet. He’d had to rope in a bewildered mate take his mobile and keep it away from him for the rest of the night. Something else that hadn’t made it home with him; fuck it!

‘Oh, I am having serious pub regret,’ Adam moaned, leaning on the table and shaking his second trainer off of his foot. ‘I am going to bed.’

‘Adam—’ Johnny started as Adam stumbled wearily from the room.

‘Bed!’ Adam snapped, mounting the stairs.

‘Okay then, goodnight!’ Johnny said, a hint of a smirk in his voice.

Adam saw the strip of light underneath his door but hadn’t really registered it before he pushed onwards into the room. Harriet looked up at him from where she sat against the pillows of his bed, knees drawn up to her chin, open book at her feet. Adam stopped in his tracks.

‘Oh yeah!’ Johnny called from downstairs with glee. ‘Harriet’s been waiting for you.’

‘Yeah, CHEERS MATE,’ Adam yelled back with heavy sarcasm, before pushing his door closed. ‘I’m so sorry—’ he began.

‘I’m sorry, I did try to call you—’ Harriet said at the same time. ‘Wait, why are you sorry?’ Adam sat down heavily at the foot of the bed.

‘For getting all in your face and pissing you off the other day. It’s none of my business, really,’ he answered. Harriet’s face softened.

‘Of course it’s your business. Who else’s business would it be?’ she said quietly, reaching over to touch Adam’s knee. ‘It’s just my stupid hang ups.’

‘You really got whined at when you broke up with your ex, didn’t you?’ Adam asked suddenly. Harriet pulled her arm back, thrown by the apparently random change in subject. ‘I had coffee with Leigha this afternoon,’ Adam began by way of explanation. Harriet’s face darkened.

‘Yes, I know,’ she said, coolly. ‘She mentioned.’

‘Oh, I see!’ Adam laughed. ‘Jealous, much?’

‘No,’ Harriet blushed. ‘But I don’t understand why you had to have a little coffee date with her!’

‘I wanted to see how you were and what you were doing without having to ask you,’ Adam said, simply. ‘You haven’t spoken to me in a week.’

‘You haven’t spoken to me either,’ Harriet countered immediately.

‘Plus, I sort of wanted to pick your best friend’s mind on why you’re being like this, what this whole thing is really about. As it happened I didn’t need to do much picking. She practically wrote me a book entitled ‘Harriet Shaw’s Deepest Darkest Secrets.’ Adam laughed at Harriet’s horrified expression. ‘Not really. But she banged on about your ex and how you broke up with him and ruined his life. You must have been made to feel like the biggest bitch in the world at the time.’

Harriet picked at her fingernail. ‘Yeah well, we were all really close friends, had been for years,’ she said, trying to sound as unbothered as possible.

‘And you’re worried the same thing will happen with us?’ Adam guessed. ‘What, that we won’t work out and it will mess up everyone’s friendships? That the other girls will get too involved? What?’ Harriet squirmed uncomfortably.

‘How about all of the above? And – of course,’ – she shot him a sideways look – ‘it’s complicated by the fact that you kissed Leigha…’ With an irritated groan Adam grabbed for her and pulled her onto his lap, kissing her roughly.

‘Shut UP about that already,’ he growled, meshing his fingers into her hair. ‘Don’t you think I don’t regret it enough in hindsight without you bringing it up all the time?’ He kissed her again, more softly this time.

‘I just don’t want to mess everything up,’ Harriet murmured unhappily against Adam’s lips.

‘Story of your life,’ Adam answered, lowering Harriet’s head back to the pillows and leaning over her. ‘You can’t make everyone happy all of the time, you know that, right?

‘I’m sorry,’ Harriet repeated.

‘Don’t be. Now, how long do I get to keep you?’

It was rationally impossible, of course, but Leigha could swear that her birthday somehow
always
fell on a Monday. This caused great logistical problems; having her birthday party before the actual day felt a little heinous, but worse still was celebrating too long after the fact. Then there was the usual dilemma – house party, or the Union? The perennial choices. She tapped her finger against her computer mouse, impatient with herself, the Facebook event page unstarted and empty on the screen in front of her. This was her 21
^st
, after all, she moaned at Sukie; she wanted a night to remember.

Sukie looked up from where she was lying on Leigha’s bed, making illegible marks with a pencil against lines in a script.

‘Oh, so, have you forgotten all about mine then?’ she asked with a tinge of annoyance. ‘I went to the Union, Nicky had a house party – they’re both perfectly good choices for a 21
^st
birthday.’

‘But I want something a little more interesting,’ Leigha whined, spinning her desk chair to face Sukie on the bed. ‘Let’s go out in London.’ Sukie made a derisive noise.

‘Yeah, like anyone can afford that, Ley. Dinner, clubbing and – what – a hotel too? Unless you want to get the last train and what’s the point in that?’ Leigha coloured.

‘Well, maybe we could make a properly long night of it and then, I don’t know, just hang around in Waterloo until the earliest train home? Which will be, what, five in the morning? That’s not
so
bad.’

‘More like seven,’ Sukie answered, twirling her pencil around her knuckles.

‘Fine, forget it.’ Leigha fell into silence, turning back to her computer monitor and glowering at it.

‘I like the idea of dinner, though,’ Sukie said. ‘Let’s go to Mauritzo’s on the high street.’

‘Adam doesn’t like Italian food,’ Leigha replied, absentmindedly. Sukie made an impatient noise.

‘Why can’t we go all girls? Like we used to? Without Miles even, definitely without Adam and Johnny. They’re total… limpets.’ She waved her hand dismissively. ‘I feel like we haven’t done a single thing without one or both of them since we met them.’ Leigha laughed.

‘We probably haven’t!’ she said.

‘Johnny’s like some lapdog,’ Sukie continued, rant-mode engaged. ‘And Adam’s such a cocky git. Pissing about with you and Harry—’

‘What’s he done to Harriet?’ Leigha interrupted immediately. Sukie stalled, her expression awkward.

‘Well, you know,’ she said finally, ‘she’s doing all his work with him and probably
for
him. She needs to be concentrating on her own work from now on. You know she’ll jump out the window if she doesn’t get a First.’ Sukie laughed more heartily than her joke strictly deserved.

‘Well, I guess we could go for dinner, just us girls, on the actual Monday,’ Leigha said slowly. ‘That would be nice. We could do the Union on the Friday before then, what’s on?’ She answered her own question by consulting the A3 student wall planner blu-taced above her desk. ‘Eurgh, R&B night.’

‘House party it is then,’ Sukie smirked. ‘If that’s going to be special enough for you, Your Highness.’ Leigha ignored her friend’s sarcasm.

‘I need to come up with a cool theme,’ she said, more to herself. ‘Let’s talk themes!’ Sukie groaned.

‘I need to have read and made notes on this whole thing before 10 o’clock tomorrow morning!’

‘Fine,’ Leigha said. ‘What time is it? When’s Harriet home?’

‘Harriet should have been home an hour ago,’ Sukie said. ‘Probably at the library.’ She twirled her pencil around her fingers again.

‘Boo her,’ Leigha frowned, stretching her leg out and reaching with her toes to pull her bedroom door further ajar. ‘Nicky! Miles!’ she called out. ‘I need a good party theme!’

March 2007

‘You would not believe how long this hair took,’ Leigha was telling one of her course-mates, gesturing at each side of her head, when Johnny and Adam arrived at Dell Road.

‘You look amazing,’ the girl – dressed as a ladybird – gushed, clasping Leigha’s arm. And she did, she really did. Johnny had to pause for a moment to take her in, tantalising in a gloriously figure-hugging white maxi dress, plastic gun belt and holster low-slung on her hips.

‘Happy Birthday, Ley.’ Adam had moved forward whilst Johnny had lingered in the hall, kissing Leigha on the temple and putting a brightly coloured envelope in her hand. ‘It’s just a voucher, yeah?’

‘Oh, thanks Adam, you really didn’t need to,’ Leigha answered with a smile, opening the card.

‘Shame to see you didn’t go with the gold bikini outfit!’ Adam joked, an incorrigible flirt as ever. Leigha laughed and opened her mouth to respond, before catching sight of Johnny. Her face hardened momentarily with exasperation.

‘Oh, Johnny…’ she said finally. Johnny gave a weak grin.

‘Great minds…?’ he tried. Leigha looked at him helplessly. His insides cringed. He knew she knew he’d done this on purpose. She’d mentioned going on a shopping trip to a toy store specifically for the belt; she and the other girls had publicly discussed the best way to put her hair up in the buns. Johnny had then spent 45 minutes lost and walking circles in Debenhams until he found a white terrycloth bathrobe that he thought would suit.

Leigha recovered quickly, slipping her arm around Johnny’s.

‘You look wonderful, young Skywalker,’ she said. ‘Let’s get a photo of the Skywalker twins. Nicky!’ A leggy, blonde Lara Croft whirled around, camera in hand as usual.

‘And what in the hell are you?’ Adam asked, instantly diverted as Sukie walked past him wearing a prom dress and trainers, hair scraped back to the top of her head and hoop earrings so huge they brushed against her shoulders.

‘Lily Allen, duh.’ Sukie handed him a plastic shot glass with neon green liquid inside. She looked him up and down, taking in his half-arsed costume of jeans and a red checked shirt. ‘Lumberjack?’

‘Got it in one,’ Adam nodded, pulling the small plastic toy axe from his back pocket and making chopping motions in the air. Sukie rolled her eyes.

‘Did he do that on purpose?’ she asked, nodding towards Johnny, as Adam tossed back his shot.

‘What do you think?’ he laughed. ‘It’s not like Leigha has talked about
anything else
other than her Princess Leia costume for the last week.’ Sukie looked over to where Leigha and Johnny were posing for an assortment of photos, Nicky snapping away merrily. They were back to back, in James Bond style poses, Leigha holding up the plastic toy gun that had come with her belt, Johnny steepling his index fingers together in an approximation of one.

‘He is ridiculous,’ she declared; Adam bristled at once.

‘There’s no need to be such a giant bitch,’ he told her archly. ‘He’s not bloody hurting anyone.’ Sukie stared him down.

‘No, you’re right,’ she said, lightly, already moving past him. ‘That’s your forte.’

Harriet was in the garden with Lucy, who was smoking, both staying close to whatever warmth the open back door was affording them. Lucy twisted her head with each exhale, blowing a pale plume of smoke away from her companion and into the darkness of the garden beyond.

Adam looked at his girlfriend appreciatively; she was wearing what looked suspiciously like an Anne Summers French Maid outfit, but under a knee length polyester cape, candy red. Harriet’s dark eyes looked out at him mischievously from underneath the red hood. He felt his arm twitch with the automatic impulse to reach out and stroke her cheek with the pad of his thumb, like he did when they were alone.

‘Nice to see you, Little Red Riding Hood,’ he smiled, by way of greeting, before turning to Lucy who was twisting her high heeled shoe on her discarded cigarette butt. She was wearing a white blouse and black pencil skirt. ‘And you’re – what – a Sexy Secretary? That doesn’t begin with L.’ Lucy swatted at him playfully.

‘I’m a librarian, clearly!’ she retorted, resettling her fake, thick-framed glasses on the bridge of her nose.

‘Clearly,’ Adam echoed.

‘I’m a freezing librarian,’ Lucy revised, rubbing her hands on her bare arms. ‘Does anyone want a drink?’

‘Yeah, I’ll have a beer if there’s one cold enough,’ Adam said.

‘I’m fine, thank you,’ Harriet said, indicating her half full glass of cocktail. Lucy disappeared back into the house. Immediately Adam reached out for Harriet and she shot him a look that froze him in his tracks. He let his hand fall and caught up her elbow instead, their contact concealed from any of the windows by his own body.

‘Trouble,’ he murmured, ‘you look amazing.’ Harriet smiled, but pulled the cape around herself a little self-consciously all the same.

‘Well, that’s good, because you
always
look amazing,’ she returned the compliment with a smile.

‘Harry,’ Sukie called, stepping out onto the paving of the garden. ‘Fuck, its cold out here!’ They were getting better at not starting guiltily whenever anyone came upon them together; Harriet slid away from Adam’s hold with a subtle shifting of her body, looking at Sukie expectantly. ‘I’ve got someone for you to meet,’ Sukie continued, gesturing back to where a tall blond boy wearing a novelty moustache and a green tee-shirt and cap was standing in the frame of the back door.

‘Dan, mate!’ Adam said immediately.

‘Alright!’ Dan said, clasping hands with Adam companionably. ‘What are you meant to be then?’

‘Lumberjack,’ Adam told him impatiently. ‘You?’

‘Issa me!’ Dan answered, in a high-pitched and terrible approximation of an Italian accent. ‘Luigi!’ Adam’s mouth twitched.

‘How very… retro,’ he said finally. ‘Cool.’ He looked round to where Harriet was watching the exchange in silence, Sukie in turn watching her.

‘Harry, this is Dan,’ Sukie said, which Adam felt was quite redundant by that point. ‘Remember I was telling you about him?’ Harriet smiled, gracious and friendly as ever.

‘Of course, hi Dan, good to meet you. Do you mind if we move inside? I’m frozen stiff.’

‘Of course!’ Dan flustered, trying to move away from the doorway in what he obviously considered a gentlemanly flourish, which succeeded in bumping Miles so violently that he dropped his can of beer, which went spinning and frothing across the kitchen floor. Sukie rushed for a tea-towel; Dan and Harriet disappeared inside to the lounge, Dan apologising profusely to a surly Miles.

A second later Lucy appeared at the back door, holding out a bottle of Carlsberg, obviously surprised to see Adam standing alone outside.

‘You coming in?’ she said, as he took the bottle from her hand with a muttered thanks.

‘Yeah,’ he said, following her impatiently as she turned back into the house.

Harriet was uncomfortable but was trying her best to hide it. She was being more or less successful, but Sukie had known her for half of their lives and could read her like a book. Her hand fluttered up to touch her neck far too often, a throwback to how she used to nervously curl her hair around her fingers years ago, back when it was long.

Dan was turned completely towards Harriet on the sofa, his knees at ninety degrees to hers, bottle of beer held casually as he listened intently. He laughed loudly at whatever she was saying; Harriet’s eyes flicked up and met Sukie’s briefly, before turning to someone behind her.

‘What makes you think those two are even suited?’

Sukie jumped; Adam had materialised beside her, frowning and picking compulsively at the label on his bottle.

‘I thought he was your mate!’ she said, accusingly.

‘He is,’ Adam said immediately.

‘Well then, you should agree that he’s a good guy.’

‘I’m not disputing that,’ Adam said tiredly. ‘It’s just so forced. Leave Harry alone, she can run her own love life.’

‘She’s been a nun for the last six months,’ Sukie declared. Adam’s eyes flashed as if he was going to argue the point, but instead just lifted his bottle to his lips. ‘Aside from when she kissed you, of course,’ Sukie said mildly. She expected a bit of a reaction, but Adam just looked at her thoughtfully. She wondered if Harriet had ever told him that they’d been seen.

‘See now, to me, that suggests that she certainly can decide her own love life,’ he said finally, pick-pick-picking agitatedly at the shredded edges of the beer label.

‘Suggests the opposite to me,’ Sukie scoffed. ‘Suggests she needs a fling.’

‘But you were so against the idea of me and her having a – what – fling?’

‘That’s because you’re mates. She made that mistake at school, with Seth. You don’t shit where you eat.’ Sukie laughed. ‘She needs fresh meat. She needs distraction from work and from how you’re always around, mooning over her.’

‘I don’t moon!’ Adam said immediately with a scowl. Sukie shot him a look.

‘You’re just as bad as Johnny with Leigha, the way you look across the room at her all the time.’ Adam remained silent; there was a furious set to his jaw. ‘Get over it,’ was Sukie’s cheerful advice, as she patted Adam sympathetically on the arm. ‘If she wanted to be with you, she would be.’

Adam made an incredulous noise, peeling a white curl of label clean from the glass with his thumbnail.

Nothing made Harriet more nervous than seeing Sukie and Adam deep in conversation. The two of them had a strange love–hate relationship and spent a good deal of time moaning about how the other one was impossible. Sukie patted Adam’s upper arm in a seemingly consoling manner; Adam
did not
look consoled.

Dan finally seemed to notice that she wasn’t making eye-contact with him as she talked. He followed her line of sight past where Sukie and Adam were standing and into the kitchen area beyond them.

‘You wanting a drink?’ he asked, helpfully. Harriet looked down at her glass and – sure enough – she’d somehow drained the rest of her cocktail during their five minutes of conversation. She smiled weakly.

‘That would be great, thanks. Vodka and anything.’

Clearly eager to please, Dan was up and off like a shot, manoeuvring through the other party guests to try and get close to the kitchen side. Almost as quickly, Sukie came forward, perching on the arm of the sofa. Adam had disappeared into the cover of the standing groups of people.

‘So,’ Sukie pressed, squeezing Harriet’s hand. ‘What do you think?’

Nicky knew Lucy’s housemate from her French classes. She also knew that she was a TEFL applicant and – sure enough – after the obligatory mutual complimenting of each other’s costume, Lucy turned the conversation in that direction.

‘Katie’s applied for Bordeaux,’ Lucy said, ‘she thinks it will be a ‘realer’ experience than Paris, you know? Course, no offense if you’re going to Paris.’

‘I’m not going to Paris,’ Nicky admitted with a rueful smile.

‘Oh, where are you going?’

‘Bath, actually!’ Nicky tried to laugh self-depreciatingly, but it came out sounding embarrassingly brittle.

‘Bath? Wow!’ Lucy said brightly, obviously mentally groping for something to say. ‘Why Bath?’ she asked finally.

‘Miles is doing his PhD there,’ Nicky shrugged.

‘Oh, I see! So you two are, like, making it official then? Mortgage? Marriage!?’

Nicky laughed. It’s what the other girls had said; it’s what her own mother was expecting. And – truth be told – that actually made her feel happier about everything. When people told her that she and Miles were sure to get married, her heart started to punch inside her chest, but not out of panic, something more like impatience.

She loved him, she was realising, really loved him – grown up, real life love. She loved someone so much she found herself willing to disrupt her life plan to be with him, and he loved her too, so much so that he wanted her to live with him, that all their friends thought he was going to ask her to marry him. How could anyone be unhappy when they had that?

And so Nicky sipped her drink, and smiled, and told everyone she spoke to that night how excited she was.

About halfway through the evening there was the accustomed rush for shoes and coats as the gathering moved outside to the garden to sing Leigha a Happy Birthday.

A satisfactorily merry Leigha had clung to Johnny as she teetered on the uneven grass in her gold stiletto heels. She’d noticed that his shins were goose-pimpled under his leg hair where his legs were nonsensically bare under the dressing gown he was wearing.

Then suddenly, embarrassingly, there was another Luke Skywalker at the party, one complete with a glow-in-the-dark lightsaber and – perhaps more vitally – trousers. Johnny had watched sullenly as Leigha cheered her friend Matthew and proceeded to pose for the repertoire of photos with him, before eventually Johnny had vanished from her side entirely.

So, for the first time since she’d met him, Leigha had to go looking for Johnny.

She found him in the front garden, sitting in a neat row on the more substantial part of the boundary wall with Adam and two girls she knew from seminars. The girl sitting next to Johnny was laughing – loudly and brashly – and as Leigha neared she saw her cuff his shoulder flirtatiously.

Adam saw her first, breaking into his easy smile. ‘Hey, Birthday Girl,’ he said in greeting, Johnny looking up at her with the usual mixture of anxiety and yearning on his face.

‘Are you guys going to come in, we might play some games…’ Leigha said, suddenly feeling incredibly awkward being the only one standing.

‘Muggy in there, too many people,’ Johnny declined, politely. The other three made noises of agreement. Leigha suddenly got the sensation she hated above all others: that third-wheel feeling. She smiled tightly.

‘Okay, well, see you later,’ she said, in her most carefree voice, before pirouetting on one golden heel and marching back into the house.

Harriet was aware that she was lolling rather unattractively against the couch cushions, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to care. Ditto that she’d probably drunk a bit too much for sense.