"So, you are not," she said, "hitting it with Mr. Darcy."
"I am going to ask you to leave my house."
“Your house?” Lydia made a mocking face. “Technically, it’s Mia’s house… and Mr. Darcy’s. I think I’ll be fine.”
"Lydia."
"I am just clarifying." She reached for another crisp. "So, if you are not hitting it with Mr. Darcy and everything is fine and not interesting, what is going on with your actual love life? Because the last person you mentioned was that journalist from the Times and that was twenty-one months ago."
"I have been busy."
"Before the busy," Lydia said. "Before Charlotte and James. You were already not dating anyone, Lizzie. You have not properly dated anyone in years."
Elizabeth looked at her hands.
"I have a life."
"You have grief, a teenager and a man in your kitchen at two in the morning. That is a situation." She softened slightly. "I am not trying to be harsh. I am trying to be useful. Which is why I want to tell you aboutEmber."
Elizabeth looked up. "What is Ember?"
"A dating app. But not like a normal one." Lydia held up a hand. "I know what you are going to say. But listen. It is exclusive. Properly exclusive. You cannot just download it. You have to be referred or apply directly and they vet everyone properly. And when you register, they send you a physical letter in the post with your access code in it."
"A letter," Elizabeth said.
"A letter. In an envelope. Like a civilised person. It is very old school about the whole thing. My friend Harriet met someone on it and they have been together fourteen months."
"I am not joining a dating app."
"You are not joining a dating app, you are joiningEmber, which is different. I will help you fill the application form."
"You will not."
"Jane, back me up."
Jane considered this carefully. "I think Lizzie should do whatever feels right for her —"
"Jane is married," Lydia said, pointing at her with a crisp. "Jane is married and is steadily and regularly —"
"Lydia." Elizabeth protested.
"I am making a point. Jane has Charles. Jane is sorted. She should not be in the business of blocking the rest of us from finding what she has found. I am twenty-five, I am activelytrying, and Lizzie is thirty-four and living with her ex and pretending it is fine." She turned to Elizabeth. "Give me twenty minutes of your time. If you hate it we delete it and never speak of it again."
Elizabeth looked at Jane.
Jane looked back and said nothing, which was its own kind of answer.
"Twenty minutes," Elizabeth said.
Lydia was already reaching for her phone.
Elizabeth thought about it for a moment. What harm could possibly come from it? Perhaps going out would be good for her too. After all, she needed something—some way to step outside her grief, even briefly.
She shrugged.
“Full name,” Lydia said.
“You already know—”
