‘Set what up?’ Maisie sounds innocent.
‘Seb,’ she says. ‘Coming to the screening.’
‘I didn’t,’ Maisie protests. ‘It just slipped out.’
‘Well, it was a mess,’ Clara says. ‘He didn’t know about Nora.’
‘We didn’t know whether to tell him,’ Maisie says. ‘We couldn’t decide—’
‘He didn’t know?!’ It’s Cee who says this, staring back over one well-muscled shoulder. She’s stopped working out, has allowed the ropes to hang slack.
‘No one told him,’ Clara says.
‘Fucking hell,’ Cee says. ‘The internet exists.’
‘This is Seb we’re talking about.’
‘Seb we’restilltalking about.’ Maisie gives Clara a pointed look. ‘After all these years.’
‘Augie didn’t tell him in Italy?’ says Cee, still holding the dormant ropes.
‘Wait,’ Clara says. ‘Augie saw him in Italy?’
Cee’s face tightens. ‘Let’s focus on the exercise.’
Once they’re finished, the PT leads the three women over to the mat and guides them through a series of stretches, helping Cee go deeper on each one until she bats his hands away. While Maisie and Clara half arse the same stretches on the mats next to them, they keep talking.
‘Ren’s meeting us for coffee after this,’ Clara says.
‘Ren’s back?’ says Maisie. ‘I love Ren.’ A serene smile. ‘How is Ren?’
‘Totally different,’ Clara says. ‘And the same as she always was.’
‘I assume you’re paying penance to her, too?’
The PT gets this reference. Clara has apologised half a dozen times in the hour they’ve been here for missing Maisie’s wedding, and for everything else before that. She grimaces now, but it turns to a smile when Maisie takes her hand.
‘Turns out building bridges takes longer than burning them,’ Clara says. ‘Who knew?’
One last stretch. The PT stands back this time, lets the ladies do their thing. Cee gives it her all. Clara and Maisie don’t.
‘It was weird,’ Clara says, back on topic. ‘He was so good with Nora.’ She’s sitting cross-legged on the mat, picking at her short, chipped fingernails. ‘And Nora was different with him.’
‘He always loved kids,’ Maisie says, absent-mindedly. She catches herself. ‘Sorry.’
Clara flushes. Cee avoids coming out of her stretch. Even the PT picks up on the awkwardness.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Clara says, waving it away. ‘This is why I didn’t want to see him. I don’t want to dig this all back up.’ She sighs. ‘I’m in a good place.’
Maisie looks at Cee. Cee looks at Maisie.
Clara notices. ‘A pretty good place,’ she says. ‘Anyway, he’s moving away. So that’s that. Our paths won’t cross again.’
Maisie makes a face.
Clara narrows her eyes. ‘What now?’
his girlfriend
